Which public?
I’d place a large significant monetary bet that (99% with 3rd booster) won’t happen anywhere.
The number of fully vaccinated people in Taiwan is now at 43.4%. I think nearly everyone would be fully vaccinated at least by the middle of next year. Judging by the number of people who want to travel abroad but can’t wait until Medigen is approved in other countries, they’d probably get their booster shots by then as well. If the CECC decides booster shot is needed, I’d say 99% of the people in Taiwan would get their booster shot by November of 2022.
99% of all people or 99% of people who got the shot?
Of all people. The only people I know not willing to take the vaccine are elderly people who feel like they won’t make it through the side effects.
By November of next year we’ll be on to our third booster shots and they’ll be doing fuck all for us if my information is correct. There is no end game to this. It’s boosters and then new vaccines and boosters and anti virals for three to four years.
Live in the now. 
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There’s no end game to the flu either. It’s new vaccines, boosters, and anti virals every year for the seasonal flu. However, once everyone built up enough immunity to SARS-COV2, like we all do with the flu, even if we don’t all receive new vaccines, chances for super fast spreading and serious conditions that requires ICU will be much lower, and hospitals are much less likely to be overwhelmed. Unlike how it was back in 2020, by now the medical personnel are all immunized and hospitals also have an adequate supply of PPEs. That’s when COVID will really become “just like the flu”. Before that happens, I’m gonna put on my mask for the sake of everyone, and especially my parents and family.
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You dont know any of that. This virus could get more dangerous. It’s not the flu, any comparisons to the flu don’t work. you’re probably right, it will eventually become less of a pandemic. But I’ve no idea why you’d want to wear a mask in a country which has actually eliminated the virus. Believe me, we’ll have plenty of warning when it gets back in and we’re already vaxxed to the max so have very little to fear.
If that’s the case, then that’s more reason to keep the masks on to reduce spread of the virus and keep the opportunity for new mutation low.
Aside from completely shutting down trade and travel, there is no way to keep the virus out just with quarantine measures alone, especially if as you said the virus could get even more virulent or deadly. If the CECC deemed it safe enough for everyone to take off their masks, that’s great. If they don’t, I’m fine with leaving the mask on.
Dunno man.
COVID is airborne, I am prime candidate to buy the farm if I get it, it is still out there making a mess and more importantly: people are stupid. I’ll wear the mask until this thing is gone. Maybe even further.
There is a lot of incoming visitors for the holidays. I am wearing my mask because of them. I barely trust my coworkers/neighbors to comply with measures. Incoming masses from places where they think 2000 cases a day are acceptable ain’t my kind of trustworthy folk.
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Your information is incorrect. The vaccines work; the boosters work.
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They won’t work indefinitely. The virus is mutating constantly. That’s what viruses do.
Yes but it’s not out there. Not in Taiwan. There’s no point wearing a mask against nothing.
I’m not sure why it’s so hard to understand this. You don’t mask up until the virus is in the community. And I know it might get in the community without us knowing it but your actual risk exposure even then would be incredibly low.
We can’t wear masks until the virus is dead and buried or rendered ineffective. That’d be six years of mask wearing. We should adjust our response according to the data. If the data says zero virus in the community we adjust accordingly. Level one ffs. No outdoor mask mandate.
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Remember the doctor who spilled up into the community?
They never found the source for the jiudian woman. Or the Australian musician.
And all these cases were before TSHTF.
So better err on the cautious side. Masks ain’t no biggie and help a lot.
Just 6 months more, OK?
But … why six months? Why not three months, or six years, or sixty years? Where you are getting that time frame? The virus isn’t here now. It will be here eventually - and probably forever, at varying intensity. I dunno, outdoor mask mandates at the moment are like mandating parkas in summer, because we all know winter is coming one day, even if it’s not here now.
Where I guess we’re going in the long run: masks will be like umbrellas. When we know there’s lots of virus around, more people mask up, and perhaps sometimes it’s mandated (oh, who am I kidding, of course they’ll be mandated here); when it’s not, masks come off. But the outdoor mask requirements in non-crowded situations are, and will continue to be, dumb.
Personally I suspect I’ll wear them forever on crowded MRT cars, but that’s one specific situation. I’ve really enjoyed being cold-free for almost two years now.
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It’s also great for chewing gum. (Are they still playing that “please do not chew gum or betel nut on the Taipei Metro” recording these days? It just occurs to me that I haven’t heard it in ages.)
Yeah, exactly. In six months, it’ll be another six months, then another six months…
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Sure they do.
Why does somebody wear gloves.
Or safety helmets.
Or condoms.
Or wash their hands.
Coronavirus is spread in the air person to person so you can figure it out. The difference between somebody sneezing a huge cloud of viral particles in a room for instance , when wearing a mask that cloud is suppressed.
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It doesn’t matter. There’s loads of handwaving about the potential mechanisms, but the hard reality is that masks haven’t stopped or slowed the pandemic, and nor have vaccines, for that matter, despite the fact that they “work” in the narrow sense. The reason for that apparent contradiction is rather obvious of you think about it, but most people aren’t thinking anymore.
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I heard that after the eighth booster shot the outdoor mask mandate will be relaxed for a couple of months, until the zeta seventeen variant, a.k.a. COVID-25, gets transmitted back to humans from white-tailed deer. So something to look forward to.
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This story from the Guardian explains some reasons why NOT ditching them is the right call:
Guy
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