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Comment by bingohbangoh | Hacker News Reader

How long do you think we'll be keeping up the mask wearing given that "more variants are inevitably coming?"

No idea, this is a deeply complex question that I'm not qualified to answer. I'm merely wondering out loud as a member of the public if we have our policy around this calibrated quite right.

It has to end at some point, and for me and most other people where I live in the US, it mostly has.

I thought the same last summer.

It's always "almost over" yet there's chatter of Lockdown 3.0 here in the tristate area.

I see in New York's case that there's been a big rise in cases but barely a blip in deaths, as opposed to both rising in step in Texas, I'm guessing largely due to vaccination rate. So I expect this winter will be a lot better.

No lockdowns are going to happen, but I expect to be masking up for at least another 6 months. Not a big deal, definitely better than it was last August, that’s for sure.

>It has to end at some point

In some countries at least it might become normalized the same way it has in say Japan or Singapore with a history of respiratory disease, the UK does not have the same aversion to public health measures as the US.

Perhaps not, but the UK has already made mask wearing non-mandatory.

only England. Scotland, Wales and NI still mandate masks.

Ah yes, good point.

Mask wearing was common in some Asian countries at certain times of the year even before this so it doesn't necessarily need to end at all. It all comes down to what level of hygeine you want to pursue.

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