Coronavirus in Massachusetts (Boston: how much, Home Depot, school)

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by yesmaybe

You have to remember that there's plenty of unvaccinated that too have immunity. They just got it the natural way

This is particularly true of the younger (20-somethings) population that's reluctant to get the vaccine. Many have had COVID with mild or no symptoms and are unwilling to take an unapproved vaccine as (they believe) the risk of long term side effects would be worse than the virus itself. While I wouldn't place bets on the exact percentage of the population that has antibodies from having been COVID positive and also have not had the vaccine, I would guess it's statistically significant. Even those who think it's a hoax and/or that the vaccine is robots/5g are likelier to have engaged in risky behavior over the past 14+ months and contracted the virus.

[massnative71]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

The Massachusetts spreadsheet released last night has New Bedford at 40% for one jab. No data on fully immunized for some reason. Fall River 43%. Lawrence 42%. Springfield 39%. My town is a disappointing 49% with one jab but positive per 100,000 is finally down to 4.4. New Bedford a couple miles away is still at Sturgis-level 21.9 per 100,000. Even vaccinated, I don’t want to be indoors with random unmasked people.

Lawrence and New Beige are the last two communities in the state, to remain in the red zone.



https://turnto10.com/news/local/new-...-massachusetts

[AtkinsonDan]

I received an unsolicited email from a staffing firm I dealt with in the past. They listed 10 senior level or management positions in my field across eastern Mass. 9 of the 10 roles will be hybrid post-COVID. Only one is listed as 100% in the office. Just thought I would share.

[yesmaybe]

Hospitalizations are down to 281 now. First time under 300 in awhile.

[jayrandom]

Originally Posted by AtkinsonDan

I received an unsolicited email from a staffing firm I dealt with in the past. They listed 10 senior level or management positions in my field across eastern Mass. 9 of the 10 roles will be hybrid post-COVID. Only one is listed as 100% in the office. Just thought I would share.

My wife was able to find a full-time remote position (for a Texas-based company) that realized:

1) Lots of people are going to want to continue working remotely and are just as (if not more) effective doing so
2) If we recruit those people now before other companies wake up to that reality, we'll be able to get WAY better people than we can normally convince to move to one particular city in Texas.

She's now working on building out a team following roughly the same tactics. She's been able to find a whole bunch of great people, most of them in the Northeast.

I don't think full remote will be the future for everyone, but full/partial remote makes too much sense for too many jobs to just go away.

[mdovell]

Anyone that reads my posts knows how I feel about hybrid. Lately though I've seen traffic come back in a big way. I'm starting to think that traffic and $3 gas might have bigger impacts than Corona itself. I don't think we can go from wfh to 45 minute commutes each way (without traffic)

[mdovell]

Over the weekend I was in Newport Rhode Island I have to say that everything is open for the most part. Every bar scene to be packed every restaurant with packed and parking was extremely hard to find. One shop owner told me that she had plenty of business over covid because he sells Oddities and the volume of people from other states increased. I saw a tribute band which was okay at Best But the crowd was crazy plenty of people are dancing and drinking.

We left early and traffic was insane on the way back. It almost felt like Memorial day but it's not Memorial Day. It's almost like those days when it first starts snowing and people have to get used to snow again.

[BostonMike7]

Traffic was brutal for me last week and over the weekend. Friday i had to make a trip down to Providence around 4PM. It's been an easy cruise for the most part but this Friday's trip was right back at pre-pandemic levels.

My wife and I for the most part abandoned our home search due to the market craziness, but with the return of gridlock traffic, it was the nail in the coffin. My commute from potential locations was 30min last fall, and has creeped back up to 50-60min now. I feel bad for anyone who did buy further away banking on WFH who all the sudden finds themselves stuck in more traffic as more and more businesses go back.

[lrfox]

Originally Posted by BostonMike7

Traffic was brutal for me last week and over the weekend. Friday i had to make a trip down to Providence around 4PM. It's been an easy cruise for the most part but this Friday's trip was right back at pre-pandemic levels.

My wife and I for the most part abandoned our home search due to the market craziness, but with the return of gridlock traffic, it was the nail in the coffin. My commute from potential locations was 30min last fall, and has creeped back up to 50-60min now. I feel bad for anyone who did buy further away banking on WFH who all the sudden finds themselves stuck in more traffic as more and more businesses go back.

We went up to Vermont this past weekend and sat in the worst traffic (leaving Boston on 93 North at about 4pm on Friday) we've experienced since prior to the pandemic.

People are generally opting to drive over taking transit. Commuter rail ridership is still very low, and even rapid transit is well below pre-pandemic peak. So even though offices are still not even close to their pre-pandemic capacities, traffic is getting there pretty quickly. Hopefully between the hybrid schedules and people getting more comfortable using transit again, some of the pressure on the highways will be alleviated a bit.

We're breathing a little sigh of relief re: our condo purchase. We bought our place last summer when there was a ton of uncertainty about the future of the city and while single family homes were fetching astronomical prices and not sitting on the market long at all, condos in town (especially in places like Eastie) could be found below market value. We probably couldn't have afforded this place in January 2020, but we risked a sustained decline in value when buying last summer. That doesn't appear to be happening, and rents have rebounded (and then some) which we're sort of banking on if we want to move somewhere a bit larger in a few years. I'm very glad we didn't buy way outside of the city banking on remote work forever.

[msRB311]

I do wonder what is causing so much traffic with so many people still not back to the office. The ones that are back also don't seem to be 5 days a week. I guess the answer is that people are deciding not to take the train and driving instead. Makes me wonder where everyone is parking...there's just not much st parking in the city...are there that many lots?