Highmark Stadium now requiring vaccination for entry

[MAJBobby]

[JoPoy88]

1 hour ago, Rochesterfan said:

 

First - Negative test has nothing to do with immunity - so it is not an immunity test.

 

Having a negative test is a viable option at some places, but more and more places are not considering it viable. 
 

Having a fully vaccinated groups makes it easy to set and enforce the rules as the entire stadium is on equal footing.  They can then set masking rules and be consistent.
 

An unvaccinated person with a negative test - still would be required to mask-up when inside any parts of the stadium and that becomes unenforceable - you wouldn’t know the status - so how do you enforce the rules.

 

You act like they are excluding a specific group, but the truth is - they gave a mix vaccinated crowd a chance last week and found it impossible.  This change allows them based upon State vaccine rules to treat everyone the same and not have to guess is this person unvaccinated and a negative test and must be masked or a vaccinated person that can be unmasked.

 

It is really simple and it makes 100% sense and I applaud them for making this a simple and enforceable fix.

 

 

 

 

All the way this 100%. It’s not really that hard to comprehend (unless you’re purposefully trying to obfuscate the issue, @SCBills)

[jlgarsh]

30 minutes ago, TheyCallMeAndy said:

I tested positive yesterday, while I’m not 100% sold on the vax, I’m thankful I got it. I feel like this would be a different monster otherwise. So far everyone else in my family has tested negative.

 

So far (day 3) I just have mild symptoms, and I’m so incredibly thankful for that.

Feel better soon. Go Bills!

[SCBills]

2 minutes ago, Solomon Grundy said:

Is there any data stating how long natural immunity lasts?

Pretty sure it’s unclear.  
 

My brother and SIL both had it last March, and then got it again over Christmas. 
 

My SIL’s mother got it at Christmas as well. She and my SIL went for antibody tests 2 weeks ago.  My SIL’s mom has covid antibodies. My SIL does not. 

[Rochesterfan]

7 minutes ago, DasNootz said:

What’s the least intrusive option - require everyone to wear a mask and enforce it without exception OR require everyone to be vaccinated, mask are optional and no gameday enforcement is necessary?

 

Airlines have successfully gone with the second option, but I don’t know how feasible it is in a stadium setting especially when people can buy food and drink at will. 
 

 

 

@DasNootz - Haven’t airlines gone with the first option - due to federal mandate - all people on public transportation are required to wear a face mask without exceptions. That makes it pretty easy to enforce and gives them a strong backing.

 

There is very limited people on a flight and you can enforce and it has still lead to increase incidents and violence.  It does not work in a stadium with 70,000 and as you said people that can buy food and drink.

 

We saw at practices and the 1st game the mask requirement in the stadium concourse and inside areas was a 100% failure.  Therefore - they had to shift and follow the Raiders and go to 100% vaccination route - therefore making that the least intrusive option for fans.

 

 

[Southern_Bills]

6 minutes ago, SCBills said:

Pretty sure it’s unclear.  
 

My brother and SIL both had it last March, and then got it again over Christmas. 
 

My SIL’s mother got it at Christmas as well. She and my SIL went for antibody tests 2 weeks ago.  My SIL’s mom has covid antibodies. My SIL does not. 

 

I don't think it's absolute on the timeline but the general accepted "natural immunity" period is 90 days.

 

I'm sure each individual is different but they come up with that number somewhere, possibly a study and took the mean idk.

[jlgarsh]

1 hour ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

What you're saying above makes perfect sense and explains pretty clearly why the "negative test results" option wasn't used.  I was unaware of the current NYS policies on masking.  Masking has been "out of style" in MO for a while now, except probably among vaccinated people who feel as you describe.

 

So last Sunday they did the experiment on asking fans to mask, and the fans "voted with their faces". 

 

So clearly saying "welcome unvaccinated person with a negative test, please follow NYS guidelines and mask indoors" would be a non-starter.

 

Thanks for the very clear explanation.

Yeah, today I went to Wegmans to pick up some prescriptions, and I think about 85-90% of customers were masked, and so were all the employees. They had a station passing out masks and signs encouraging their use (based on CDC recommendations) and due to the large number of people going through the store. Seems like if cases keep going up, they may re-add mask mandates to vaccination for large crowds like at the stadium, but that’s just a guess. 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

19 minutes ago, Solomon Grundy said:

Is there any data stating how long natural immunity lasts?

 

There's some.  I would summarize it as "at least 6-8 months, starts waning and some evidence it is reduced by about a year."  There are caveats and of course as with vaccine-induced immunity it's not 100% protection.

 

The same may be true of vaccine induced immunity.  Would it be OK if I put the papers up over in the Covid facts thread and gave a shout when it's there?

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

On 9/14/2021 at 3:38 PM, TheBrownBear said:

My 12 year old got vaxxed in June and he's already grown 2 inches and his grades have gone from C's to A's!

 

That was a joke, of course.  But, seriously, me, my wife and my son are vaccinated.  I recommend it to everyone.  I would have been dead by age 10 from cancer, if I had trusted my natural immunity to heal me, instead of the scientists at Roswell.

 

The best one I heard was that people who got vaccinated became magnetized. They weren't able to eat dinner anymore because their knife and fork would stick to their chest.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

14 minutes ago, jlgarsh said:

Yeah, today I went to Wegmans to pick up some prescriptions, and I think about 85-90% of customers were masked, and so were all the employees. They had a station passing out masks and signs encouraging their use (based on CDC recommendations) and due to the large number of people going through the store. Seems like if cases keep going up, they may re-add mask mandates to vaccination for large crowds like at the stadium, but that’s just a guess. 

 

What @Rochesterfan said really resonated with me because what we saw in May after the CDC said vaccinated people no longer have to wear masks, is that everyone took them off.  Busy stores would have like 3 people (probably all vaccinated) wearing masks.  The stores could do nothing, because they have no way to tell who is vaccinated or not.  If it's the "honor system" and honor fails, what can ya do? 

 

In places which reverted to "everyone mask indoors please" mask wearing went way up.

[Bob in STL]

3 hours ago, The Firebaugh Kid said:

Allow me to speak for the natural immunity crowd as well...we are the forgotten, judged, singled out, left out, science trusting group that for whatever reason went through hell, yet has zero to show for it other than being treated exactly like the unvaccinated. It's very strange, tbh. 

 

“We”?   Are you saying you know you have natural immunity?   How do you know this?  
 

[PolishDave]

1 hour ago, JaCrispy said:

There are reports, that even without the shot, the naturally immune have greater protection...the vaccinated are more likely to get reinfected, whereas the naturally immune are less likely to be reinfected...if that’s the case, we should have greater privilege than the vaccinated imo...

 

You're complaining to the wrong people.

 

Your point is valid.  So what you should do is contact your US congressman and senators' offices and state assembly and state senator's office and insist that they come up with an identification card for people who have natural immunity.   That is the solution you seek.   That is where you should focus your efforts.

 

Complaining to your fellow Bills fans that "it ain't fair" is going to accomplish nothing.

[SDS]

3 hours ago, The Firebaugh Kid said:

Allow me to speak for the natural immunity crowd as well...we are the forgotten, judged, singled out, left out, science trusting group that for whatever reason went through hell, yet has zero to show for it other than being treated exactly like the unvaccinated. It's very strange, tbh. 

 

You’re right here. The debate has been framed as vaccinated vs unvaccinated and not immune vs non-immune. We aren’t set up for it yet. To be fair though, the data is still coming in on this. I haven’t seen anything that says you shouldn’t get one dose and have a better response to boot. That will all be sorted out in time.

[ExiledInIllinois]

24 minutes ago, Solomon Grundy said:

Is there any data stating how long natural immunity lasts?

Here's a write-up about long-haulers:

 

https://www.healthing.ca/news/from-brain-fog-to-night-sweats-long-covid-has-over-200-symptoms-study-finds/wcm/4f96ecb8-b7bb-4650-8f4f-5a1522f79a0e

 

I don't think we will ever be immune.

 

Interesting... Because this type of disease, syndrome has had to be around a long time... Just not catchy?

 

No.  I swear I had something like this back in 1994. It started with pneumonia, that cleared with antibiotics but symptoms (high inflammation count, myalgia, breathing issues, night sweats, etc...) lingered for 18 months.   Tested me for everything under sun.  I was ready to see a Rheumatologist and said screw it... Burned itself out.  I chalked it up to an RA flare.  Backtrack 23 years earlier when I was 3 back in 1971... Was in hospital for three months. High fever, in traction for my joints... They thought I had meningitis... They ruled it as "Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis"... Back then they had me on aspirin therapy... Which is strange, because that's how they treat children w/Kawasaki (which was just being discovered at the time)... 

 

I have had high blood pressure my whole life, even as a kid... It wasn't medicated until after my bought in 1994. 

 

My strange medical past actually encouraged me to get the shot.  What ever is out there or has been out there, you will fair better getting the jab!  That's how I rationalized it! 

 

 

[Lothar]

21 minutes ago, SDS said:

You’re right here. The debate has been framed as vaccinated vs unvaccinated and not immune vs non-immune. We aren’t set up for it yet. To be fair though, the data is still coming in on this. I haven’t seen anything that says you shouldn’t get one dose and have a better response to boot. That will all be sorted out in time.

To those of you on Twitter, a really good follow is John Burn Murdoch of the Financial Times. He does a great job analyzing the latest results coming out of both the UK and Israel. Some general conclusions:

The Pfizer vaccine appears more effective for longer than the AZ. England's choice of spreading the two shots by 8 weeks instead of 3 appears to be beneficial. Booster shots would primarily help those with co-morbidities the most but will be rolled out to everyone eventually.

https://amp.ft.com/content/cf83b3a1-fe06-4c9f-999c-7500090aee7c?__twitter_impression=true

[Hapless Bills Fan]

57 minutes ago, Ed_Formerly_of_Roch said:

The best one I heard was that people who got vaccinated became magnetized. They weren't able to eat dinner anymore because their knife and fork would stick to their chest.

 

Today I learned:

 

 My initial reaction was "Silver isn't magnetic, if you're eating high class.  Stainless steel isn't magnetic if you're eating ordinary Joe class.  So WTF are these people using to eat their goulash?"

 

Being an experimentalist, I took the strongest magnet I could grab quickly, carried it to the silverware drawer, and pulled out a fork.

I learned my stainless steel flatware is, indeed, magnetic.

 

Still doesn't stick to my chest, though.

 

 

[JoPoy88]

1 hour ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

Today I learned:

 

 My initial reaction was "Silver isn't magnetic, if you're eating high class.  Stainless steel isn't magnetic if you're eating ordinary Joe class.  So WTF are these people using to eat their goulash?"

 

Being an experimentalist, I took the strongest magnet I could grab quickly, carried it to the silverware drawer, and pulled out a fork.

I learned my stainless steel flatware is, indeed, magnetic.

 

Still doesn't stick to my chest, though.

 

 

honestly if they want to preserve good flow through the gates and ensure everyone’s vaccinated just hit up Bill Gates for some hand scanners that can just scan the chip they injected in our shoulders. Anyone without the ✅, kick em to the pit

[Buffalo716]

7 minutes ago, JoPoy88 said:

honestly if they want to preserve good flow through the gates and ensure everyone’s vaccinated just hit up Bill Gates for some hand scanners that can just scan the chip they injected in our shoulders. Anyone without the ✅, kick em to the pit

Ever since I got the vaccine with the microchip I've been able to telepathically talk to Bill and Elon

 

I'll send him a signal right now 😏

 

 

 

 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

2 minutes ago, JoPoy88 said:

honestly if they want to preserve good flow through the gates and ensure everyone’s vaccinated just hit up Bill Gates for some hand scanners that can just scan the chip they injected in our shoulders. Anyone without the ✅, kick em to the pit

 

True story:  My grandma was too young herself, but told me that her oldest sister went to theaters around the turn of the century (1904?  1905?) during smallpox outbreaks where you had to prove you were vaccinated to get in.  There were vaccination certificates, but they were too easy to forge. 

 

So the ushers demanded to see the scar (smallpox vaccination left a life-long roughly nickle-sized scar on the upper arm.  It's very distinctive.  I have one.).  No scar, no admittance.

 

I suppose some "civic-minded" maroons probably tried to forge the scar.

[transplantbillsfan]

This probably happened largely because of people's inability to wear masks in the stadium.

 

I have a question:

 

Why is it so darn hard for people to wear masks properly? I teach students all day and I don't have a problem wearing it over nose and mouth all day. Why is this such a ridiculous issue?

 

If the one you have is uncomfortable... buy a new one. 

 

We're in a Pandemic. No one loves it... but if you want some semblance of normalcy right now and the quickest way back to total normal, do 2 things without exception:

 

1) Wear your mask in public 

 

2) Get vaccinated 

Edited September 16, 2021 by transplantbillsfan