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As the hypercontagious delta variant continues to surge across the country, Bay Area residents are bracing for a protracted pandemic – and once again adapting to the ever-changing list of COVID rules.
The latest twist came on Wednesday, when California recommended that everyone wear masks again in indoor public spaces.
In the Bay Area, where universal masking recommendations are in effect for all counties except Solano, for nearly two weeks, many people interviewed by The Chronicle on Wednesday expressed near unanimous support for themselves. hide again to protect others, especially young children. , who are not yet eligible to be vaccinated. But for some, acceptance is mixed with disappointment and defeat.
At Starbucks in the West Portal neighborhood of San Francisco, coffee drinker Daniel Escudero from San Francisco said he was “okay with doing my part to end this thing” by hiding once more. But he was also frustrated.
“If people refuse to get vaccinated, it will be difficult to end the pandemic,” he said. “I’m not really mad at these people. I just find them stupid. I understand that everyone has freedom and all that, but I really don’t understand that.
Escudero was speaking before California’s announcement, but a day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made similar recommendations. Californians are more comprehensive, covering everyone in the state, while federal advice only applied to areas where the virus is spreading rapidly – which is most, but not all, of California .
In San Francisco, the mayor of London Breed said on Wednesday the city was considering imposing masks on everyone indoors, regardless of vaccination status. She offered few details and said more information would be released later this week or early next week.
New evidence that even fully vaccinated people can transmit the delta variant more easily than previously believed has prompted health officials to act.
“I’m happy to wear this and I’m happy to stay alive,” said Maksim Grats, who, along with his wife, Tatyana Grats, wore black cloth masks at West Portal Starbucks, even when other patrons were seated. inside face naked. .
The couple said they were trying to persuade a handyman who works for them to get the shot, with no success so far.
“Wearing a mask and getting shot is not a Big Brother thing,” Tatyana Grats said. “It just makes sense.”
Like the Grats and many others in the Bay Area, Oakland’s Hernan Morales hasn’t stopped hiding. Morales, who works as a cook, said that in his restaurant, he and his colleagues wore masks all the time. The CDC’s advice seemed like the right thing to do, he said in Spanish.
“It’s a little uncomfortable, especially during exercise,” he said as he wore his mask while training by Lake Merritt with his 8-year-old son. But it’s worth keeping the community healthy, he said, because “we have to take care of each other”.
Njeri Karanja is ready to follow security protocols, but says she is very tired of it all. Hernan Morales trains at Lake Merritt in Oakland: “We have to take care of each other. Claire Ramsey has a son who is too young to be vaccinated, so she is even more careful than she would have been.
Santiago Mejia / The ChronicleSan Francisco’s Cynthia Kear said she had reverted to indoor masking before, before any rules called for it.
“I stopped wearing it, for a short time, but the delta variant is so much stronger, and who knows what the next variant will look like,” she said.
She said she was trying to figure out the handful of vaccine deniers she knew.
“I don’t understand,” she said. “If everyone had been vaccinated, we wouldn’t be here.
To some, a return to universal masking was like a step backwards.
“It’s sad,” Oakland’s Krista Gaeta said as she and her colleague Claire Ramsey sat at Lake Merritt for an outdoor business meeting. “It’s like we’re going backwards after making such progress.”
Both are in favor of the new masking guidelines and have continued to wear masks indoors in public spaces despite being already vaccinated. Still, they felt a little defeated by the news.
Ramsey has a 10-year-old who can’t get the vaccine yet, so she’ll be even more careful now and won’t go back to eating indoors in restaurants for a while. The two said they believed more masks and more vaccinations were the way out of the pandemic.
Claire Ramsey has a son who is too young to be vaccinated, so she is even more cautious than she would have been.
Santiago Mejia / The Chronicle“I wish more people had confidence in the vaccine,” Gaeta said.
Oakland’s Christine Molina and Njeri Karanja also continued to wear masks indoors, such as at the grocery store and nail salon. Both have been vaccinated. While they were quite willing to follow the new guidelines to err on the side of caution, the news was always disappointing.
“For me it’s always a disappointment,” Molina said.
“I am ready to end” the pandemic, Karanja said.
Catherine Ho, Steve Rubenstein and Danielle Echeverria are the editors of the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Twitter: @Cat_Ho, @SteveRubeSF, @DanielleEchev
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