About the CDC's Thursday Announcement Concerning the Fully Vaccinated

Thursday the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention came out with a welcome announcement that it was safe for those who have been fully vaccinated for the COVID-19 virus to resume their old lives without masks or social distancing. That does not mean, though, that the restrictions I see around me will suddenly end.  After all, according to the data I'm getting only about 36% of the U.S. population is at yet fully vaccinated although about 47% have received at least one shot. At my workplace the mask rule is still in place as far as I can tell, although nothing is done to enforce it...or ever was, for that matter, even during the heights of the outbreak late last year before the vaccines were ready and so many people were coming down sick. Stores generally still require masks indoors and I still can't sit inside my Starbucks...fortunately I also enjoy sitting outside at the one in Magnolia Parke in northern Gainesville.  So where do we go from here with the restrictions? I have the adult population divided into the following categories:

--Fully vaccinated

--Partially vaccinated

--Not yet vaccinated (but want it)

--Refuse to be vaccinated (but wear masks)

--Refuse to be vaccinated (or ever wear masks)

--Had COVID already and recovered

--Died of COVID 

Unless the government forces people to be vaccinated against COVID...and that's not gonna happen...we'll always have a sizeable number of people among us who may keep wearing those masks or, more likely, never believed the pandemic was real or just didn't care about protecting the welfare of others by either masking up or getting vaccinated.  As for me, I have always tried to abide by the COVID guidelines by masking when requested or mandated and have been fully vaccinated now for more than a month.  I have a great deal of difficulty understanding the reasoning of people who are frightened of getting a vaccine with negligible risk and would rather chance getting a disease that has killed more than 580,000 Americans in only the last 14 months: this irrationality is beyond bizarre.  I'm curious to see about how Starbucks, Publix, Walmart, my local public library, my workplace, church, and other locations adjust to the new recommendations.  Since my governor has forbidden establishments from using vaccination proof as a criterion for business, it will be interesting to see how it all works out.  So many places judge their own success by how tightly they can pack people in, but I've never liked crowds, long before this pandemic ever made itself known.  I expect during the upcoming transition period to get a few dirty looks when I'm not wearing a mask in public from others who may have more difficulty shedding their own.  But these vaccines have been a game changer and it's getting near time to starting living that out: either you believe your vaccine works or you don't...