I'm not in the US, and I'm not black, but I never stopped wearing my mask, because the virus is not done with us yet. https://health-infobase.canada.ca/covid-19/current-situation.html#a1
It is possible that the statistics came to the majority of the African-American population a bit later than it was spread in the northern states, but given the upsurge of infections in that population the beginning of the most recent wave, I think it's wise of them take the most obvious precautions.

:up: :up:

I'm in a northern state. What country are you from? When did the virus first particularly impact there? A new mutation there?

I'm in a northern state. — TiredThinker

Good! Then you'll be informed of approaching danger before people who live in states where it's illegal to tell the truth.

What country are you from? — TiredThinker

Canada. Does that make a difference to the virus?

When did the virus first particularly impact there? — TiredThinker

Which variant? The first one hit ship- and airports, unsurprisingly. After that, I don't know. The latest wave looks superficially like New Brunswick in late August. I'm not familiar with their rate of prevention compliance.

A new mutation there? — TiredThinker

Not there; it was in the US a little earlier.

HV.1’s growth has been quick—it made up just 0.5% of cases in late July and has now nearly overtaken EG.5, the dominant subvariant in the U.S. since mid-August.1

Well country matters because some countries had much better control than others. Italy screwed the pouch and New Zealand I recall did pretty well.

Yes. Only, I thought you were talking about the United States, which handled it very badly at the political level (All my sympathies to the medical community) though some states did better than others.

Living in the US Southeast (Atlanta, Georgia) until spring 2022, I'd contracted Covid-19 twice in the winter and again in the fall of 2021 wearing masks, etc the whole time. Despite the onerous and opportunistic effects of "long covid", I managed to drag my dutifully masked self to the US Pacific Northwest (metro Portland, Oregon), relocating permanently in the spring of 2022, and by the fall had stopped wearing masks feeling fortified by my third vaccine booster (I was 59 then).

Four months ago I received my booster, still maskless, and then contracted the virus again two months later and suffered mild (and some new) symptoms during the holidays which seem to have finally(?) subsided. I'm Black and still maskless. I haven't encountered any Black men or women wearing masks in metro Portland in the last twenry months. AFAIK, none of my friends and family who are Black and living in NYC, Phoenix, Atlanta & Seattle wear masks either so I have no experiential basis on which to find the OP credible. If anything, I only see Asians and some Whites still wearing masks.

Except for health-care workers, of course and a few store-clerks here and there, I mostly just see old people wearing masks. Some of us have particular vulnerabilities. I've taken the standard precautions from the start, had all available boosters and never contracted the disease. I'm content with that state of affairs.

Just my local observation. I'm in Buffalo.

I finished my BS (it took me 6.5 years) at Syracuse U in the 1980s and had some good visits to Rochester & Buffalo during those years. Thought I knew what bad winters were like until I'd moved on to Minnesota for graduate school. :grimace:

They get more snow fall in Minnesota? We certainly get rapid temperature changes here.

Noooo. As they often say in the Twin Cities (from October to May back when I lived there): "Oh, it's too cold to snow." :smirk:

Ever been bitten by the Minnesota Snow Snake?

I don't recall that critter so I can't say I have been "bitten", unless by "snow snake" you mean frostbitten which I definitely have (e.g.) on both ice fishing trips I took up to Bemidji :groan: and International Falls. :cry:

https://twitter.com/BillMarchel/status/1611724672982474752
I have heard that the only antidote to its venom is a stiff chug of Aquavit.
My brother-in-law lived there some time ago.
What he didn't know, and nor did I until today, is that the local Natives had made a game of the phenomenon.

I had gf for over a year who was half-Ojibwe and I can't recall now (three decades later) her or her dad (or our friends from Red Lake) telling me about this "game". :cool:

Haven't heard of in Ontario, either, though we have Ojibwe acquaintances and plenty and plenty of snow. Guess either the game belongs to some other nation, or the weather phenomenon occurs elsewhere also, or it's not that popular. I know I'll never play it.

New Zealand I recall did pretty well.
5d — TiredThinker

In terms of lives lost? Yep. In terms of everything else whatsoever? Absolutely not.