Are you ok with vaccinated employees in stores not wearing a mask?

My opinion only: I don’t think we are at that point yet. With so many variants going around, the science isn’t there to understand if the vaccines we have now are effective against the new variants.

I agree with @chyna. The vaccine doesn’t prevent you getting it so it doesn’t make sense to go maskless.

I read we could wear masks up to 7 years as the virus and variants play out. Totally worth it if the kids get to be normal someday.

I feel like it wouldn’t be ok. Then the customers would start saying “I’m fully vaccinated so why do I have to wear a mask if she doesn’t have to wear a mask?” and it becomes a slippery slope. I think keep the rule consistent for now. IF, six months down the road, the majority of people are vaccinated, then change the rule for all. I don’t like wearing a mask in stores either, or at work, or anywhere, but I do, because it’s the rule and it’s for all of us so I just do it.

Isn’t this the same question that has been asked in different ways over the past year?

We’ve gone through all of the known science on the issue, as well as every other risk of deciding to unmask early. I really just don’t understand the motivation and desire to even try to find some kind of way to cheat reality by allowing people to show their whole stupid face.

Do people have any idea that we’re in the middle of a global pandemic?

My answer is not directed at anyone specific, just taking in everything said above.

Not the same question, because it’s about people who have to wear a mask 8 hours a day with a break for lunch, many of whom work full time. That’s very different than a customer wearing a mask for an hour while out shopping. It’s not very inconvenient or anyone for a customer, because it’s momentary.

Also, we aren’t going to start asking customers for their vaccine credentials nor are employers going to demand vaccinations in this scenario, but if an employee wants to voluntarily show they were vaccinated to get the benefit of being able to go maskless, that would be their choice.

I agree though that some customers would be annoyed and take it as an excuse to go maskless.

In my opinion it might be too soon now, but I think it will make sense in another month or so. I want the employees who have been working this whole time taking risks, wearing masks, to be able to get a break. The chance of them getting sick is extremely low if they are vaccinated, unless something changes with the new variants.

On a side note, I want everyone masked up November through March every year for flu season, and fir it to become more common in trains and planes even if we don’t have any sort of official epidemic or pandemic going on.

It doesn’t bother me it other people don’t wear masks. Most of the people that I see wearing masks are wearing them ineffective with huge side and nose gaps or using a bandana (which is laughable it’s so ineffective). I’ve been fully vaccinated and wear a mask only to go alone to get along. According to my doctor I can not get sick from the SARS-CoV-2 virus nor can I spread the virus.

it’s about people who have to wear a mask 8 hours a day with a break for lunch

I work 10 hour shifts with a mask. For a couple of months it was 60 hours/week. It wasn’t a hardship.

I am seeing it more and more here in Atlanta. Whether it’s good or not, that’s a different question.

I am not seeing unmasked employees in big stores (Kroger, Home Depot, target, etc.) – they seem to all have rules that are being followed.

Where I see it – a lot this past weekend – are at smaller places: a local Ace hardware, the UPS drop-off storefront – the sort of store that is an a shopette. Most restaurants here still have servers with masks.

Yes.
It skeeves me out a bit when restaurant workers don’t wear masks tho. But I don’t lose sleep over it.

@elbanditoroso Do you feel confident the unmasked employees are vaccinated? Where I live in the small stores I don’t think I would feel confident the employees are vaccinated unless there was some sort of clear policy or sign stating it as I walked in the store. Even then I might not trust it. If Publix had it as a policy I would trust it.

@JLeslie I doubt that most of them are. Maybe 25 % or so.

But other that walking out, what can I do about it? I’m vaccinated and my family is vaccinated, so I am feeling confident for myself.

@elbanditoroso I feel the same at this point. I am vaccinated (I am 8 days after my second shot) and the chances of the person helping me not being vaccinated and sick the moment I am in the store is low, so I just wouldn’t worry about it at this point, although I would try to distance if I could. I do prefer unvaccinated people still wear masks right now. I think cases need to go more down before we are all unmasked.

Even if the vaccine made me 99.9% immune, I don’t want to get sick with anything. If we get sick we have to go through the effort to make sure it is not covid or isolate ourselves anyway to not possibly harm someone else if we don’t have a confirmed negative test. I isolate usually anyway when I am sick for at least the first few days when we are most contagious, but with covid it seems to be contagious longer.

Nobody wants to get sick. But pre-COVID (like say 2 years ago), I would go into stores and people might have the sniffles or the flu, or whatever normal everyday viruses were out there, And I didn’t give it a second thought. That was part of life.

I sat on a plane in 2018 or so next to a guy who was coughing and sneezing the whole time. Nothing I could do.

I’m sort of at that point – I don’t see a lot of benefit to being MORE sensitive than I was pre-COVID.

@elbanditoroso I always gave it a thought, and I’m glad that now more people are, but it’s still not enough people.

#1..how would you know if they were vaccinated or not?

@Dutchess_III In some countries, a vaccination card is issued.

@JLeslie Until the pandemic is over, I don’t want to be in the vicinity of maskless humans, especially now, since, a.) I haven’t been vaccinated, and b.) since the concern is that those who have been vaccinated are letting their guard down and not adhering to the guidelines.

@Dutchess_III The employee shows the employer their card. If they forge a card they can be terminated. Didn’t you get a card when you got vaccinated?

@Pied_Pfeffer That I can understand. Now that I’m vaccinated I’m doing more, but I was doing almost nothing. I didn’t eat in a restaurant for a year, I only went into a store about once a month. Where I live cases are very low, if they were high I would still be much more conservative.

I realize it doesn’t take much for that virus to suddenly appear and grow in the community, but I’m hoping the herd here is protecting us from a big spike. Could be wishful thinking. I’m reading more about immunity waning and needing a third booster. I’m honestly shocked that might be necessary in just a year’s time. Also, Pfizer having really poor antibody production results in much older people is a concern where I live.

“The employee shows the employer their card. If they forge a card they can be terminated.” That has nothing to do with me, as a customer, knowing if they’re vaccinated or not.

@Dutchess_III I guess that has to do with trusting the employer that they are checking the employees and enforcing the rules.

I wear a mask. I don’t worry about what others do.