How big of an issue is Covid-19 in 2021?

On another site I asked:

"What was the point of creating THREE different Covid-19 vaccines if
ONE is better than the other two? My doc told me the Pfizer one is the
best and safest one to use. Moderna is second and the Johnson and
Johnson one is the worst.

I was wondering WHY I saw a lot of people walking around in public
without face masks or some kind of face covering. I was told that in
upstate NY, at least where I live, people can walk around in public
without a mask or some kind of face covering IF they have been
vaccinated. I have seen a few public notices about this somewhere. IS
this safe?"

Then someone told me:

"Well according to https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-
news/coronavirus-numbers-new-cases-2020-n1157271 there's still
hundreds of thousands of infections per day all across the world, and
even though there's been a slight downturn recently it's still pretty
much worse than ever.

Don't forget that in places like India and Canada there's been massive
spikes in cases as of late that are far above the worldwide average.

So yes, the pandemic is still a pretty big issue.

Also nobody 'created' three vaccines just for shits and giggles, they
were all being developed at pretty much the same time and as far as I
know there's yet to be an absolute consensus on which one is actually
the best.

Also it depends on what vaccines your country can. If your country is
doing particularly bad economically then you'll probably invest in
cheaper vaccines that may have riskier side effects, like the Astro
vaccine.

I don't live in New York but I would assume more people are walking
around without masks because at this point we're kinda just getting
used to the pandemic and having to social distance and stuff. Plus in
some countries - like the UK where I'm currently stationed - cases
genuinely are going down quite a lot thanks to vaccines and other
initiatives, so there's good reason for people to be less on their guard
nowadays."

The pandemic is still a big issue, but is there still a crisis?

Someone else told me about a Covid-19 vaccination called BioNTech. I have never even heard of this one. When did BioNTech come out? Is it good?

What's the Astro vaccine? I never heard of that one either.

There’s no Astro vaccine.

There’s the Astra Zeneka, or Oxford vaccine. It’s the one I had.

Okay. I assume that's what someone else was referring to. How was it? How safe is it?

No vaccine is risk free. There have been cases of blood clotting in some recipients, but it’s a tiny fraction, a few hundred out of millions.

I had my second jab on Saturday. I had a slight sore arm and a few bouts of sneezing fits. On Wednesday I felt very tired, like you do after you've got over an illness but are still not 100%.

I feel fine now.

Yeah yeah ... blame the jab.

You have the jab in your non dominant arm, not the wanking one.

Glad to hear you got your 2nd jab and had no problems Izzy.

I got mine yesterday and like that no bother.

Is normality around the corner?? please please.

Maybe for you, but we’re stuck with Boris Johnson and Brexit.

I don’t think things will be normal for a very long time.

Nil points in Eurovision. That speaks volumes.

I didn't like to see that, it was just nasty, unsurprising but nasty.

What really annoys me is Israel being allowed to participate, same with the football.

If it was up to me we'd boycott anything that sectarian apartheid state was involved in.

Exactly.

To be honest I’ve never bothered with Eurovision, it’s not like our musicians aren’t successful.

The last one I saw was when I was on holiday in Crete. It was our first day and I was too knackered to leave the hotel area, that’s what was being watched. I think the heavy metal band Lordi won.

Our problem is that although countries like Israel, Russia and Belarus are guilty of all sorts of crimes they don’t have a Nigel Farage standing up in the European Parliament insulting everyone day in day out.

The Fishermen are realising they were sold a **** sandwich, next will be the farmers when they're undercut by cheap Aussie meat and then everything will kick off in Northern Ireland.

Cummings’, (another arsehole,) testimony has shown Johnson like Hitler wants chaos in government so he is the only one in charge. The major Brexit fuckups are all conveniently blamed on Covid and because our vaccination rate is better than mainland Europe Brexit gets the credit.

Only after Covid and a lot of broken promises for northern constituencies will the scales fall from the Brexiteers’ eyes.

By then Scotland will have left the UK and joined theEU and they'll be so much better off for it.

Covid19 is still a very big deal in other parts of the world. India is being hammered, South America is having severe outbreaks, etc. The US is ahead of the curve, but we're a small part of of the world.

At least I can go to a local CVS store and get a Pfizer vaccine.

When the rest of the world can do that also, covid 19 will cease to be a big issue, but until then, it's still having a large impact on our lives.

I was vaxxed recently. What about you if I may ask?

It so much depends on where you live - here in MA we have many that have been vaccinated so our numbers are way down. It almost seems there is no need to daily report them.

I got the vaccine a couple of months ago so I no longer wear a mask in places that don't require it. In terms of impact in 2021, I am still working from home as is my wife and son. Some local businesses are running reduced hours due to lack of workers, I'm trying to plan a vacation to Hawaii, but I will need testing before I go and I am paying over $200/day for rental cars if I can find one at all because of Covid impacts. It's still impacting us.

I find this odd - Boston just posted a graph chart showing a bar with the population in certain Boston (and surrounding areas) neighborhoods and then the a bar with the number of people with one vaccine and then a third bar with the number of people completely vaccinated in that particular Boston neighborhood.

The article around it states how the minority populations (African Americans and Hispanics) have not been as highly vaccinated even though they are hit harder with more cases and more serious cases of covid.

I look at the chart and one particular neighborhood associated with a very high minority population and considered lower income - the bar of first vaccination amount is even higher than their actual population! No other neighborhood comes close to this percentage (over 100%) to having their initial vaccination!

Weird huh?

Not a big issue.

It was for half the year. Then the CDC said it was okay to stop wearing masks outdoors. People stopped wearing masks outdoors. Then people tried it and nothing terrible happened.

Now in some restaurants and stores, they have stopped wearing them indoors. The model changed from "You must wear a mask to enter, if you're uncomfortable with this, we can deliver outside" to going into one restaurant, seeing nobody inside wearing one, and the only sign regarding COVID said, "It is not mandatory to wear a mask here. If you feel unsafe, we can deliver outside." From farmer's markets where I was the only one who stubbornly refused to wear a mask, to only one or two people still wearing them. Talk about a 180 degree shift. Now things may still have the panic button on in Portlandia, but they don't need to be. Get some perspective. There are plenty of people who died of suicide instead due to extreme isolation.
https://www.aier.org/article/more-covid-suicides-than-covid-deaths-in-kids/
Or of poverty due to jobs being closed up.
https://www.vaticannews.va/en/world/news/2021-06/un-coronavirus-labour-market-jobs-workers-poverty-ilo.html
To be honest, it was NEVER a big issue. I never saw one person so much as cough the entire year. Now my mom, dad, and I all are sick. My dad got tested, and whatever he has I have, as I have not been outside the house. No COVID. We probably have pneumonia, from (what else) not getting any fresh air for the better part of a year. This is what a real illness looks like: fever, cough, phlegm, fluid in lungs, slowed immune system, and fatigue. I saw zero of that sort of thing in the last year. Nothing. Nada.
It was all a big hysteria, like the Salem Witch Hunts. They all thought those were caused by some mold infection in the wheat creating hallucinations. Now, I can honestly say, "Nope. Dead sober people can behave this way."

Let's put it this way.

This year, they are okay to have the Tokyo Olympics.

Most people have shrugged this thing off like it never happened.