Covid has caused increased prices, decreased availability, reduced quality and speed of service, and generally has been used as an excuse for every downturn in business and negative thing that has happened in the last year and a half.
And spin doctors have worked the statistics and numbers...from both sides...to make them sound as if they are saying exactly what the entity paying the spin doctor wants you to believe they are saying.
Some percentage of the population just listens and nods and believes anything they hear; that "conditioned psychological resonse" mentioned earlier. But there is also the polar opposite of that group. These individuals are such free thinkers, so sharp and perceptive, that they just know that anything they hear is nonsense and therefore they will not believe it. They are conditioned to stamp their feet and shout "No!", often choosing a course of action simply because it is specifically what they are told not to do. And once they head down that road, they turn to the spin doctors who are selling their particular flavour of snake oil and then there's no stopping them.
In this thread we have seen studies quoted which state that masks are either ineffective, or actually counterproductive. Aside from the fact that these sources are vastly outnumbered by others who state the exact opposite...ignoring the universal belief among health care professionals that masks are effective, based upon results they have seen themselves...I have to simply ask: how can any sane person believe that a properly worn mask is worse than nothing? Finding a single study, or a small number of them, that state a "fact" that flies in the face of an overwhelming majority that state it is untrue...and even ignoring that rare superpower known as "common sense"...why would you believe that tiny minority and base your actions upon their outrageous ideas? Is this simply another case of "I'm just too smart to do anything other than swim against the current"?
The degree of tension in my workplace is constantly growing. The rift between the two beliefs regarding Covid is so wide that I can't see it ever closing; serious arguments are constant. A new development here is that fully vaccinated people, who have provided proof of this status, are awarded exemption from testing in the morning followed by a wait ...in isolation...of roughly 8 - 9 hours before they are allowed to board a plane to return to work. Since not one person flying has tested positive (the rare positives we have had arrived at the camp on their own, rather than flying on the company charter), exempt persons are now allowed to arrive at 1:00pm, get the test, and then immediately board the plane bound for camp. We are isolated together, away from the "general population" until test results become available later in the day, but we are in our rooms at camp, not sitting on a hard chair in a meeting room. Anti-vaxxers are furious! Why should they sit around for a full day while those lucky ones are whisked away immediately?
So, how about this, guys: Why don't you take the freaking shots, doing yourselves and others a favour, get on the plane with the rest of us and just shut up?
What?!?!? No way!!! You can't tell me what to do! I'm not taking those shots!
I'm way too smart for that!" 
