back to article Apple ends corporate COVID mask mandate

Apple's corporate mask mandate has essentially ended, as the company said in an internal memo that masks will no longer be required in most locations.  Apple's COVID response team wrote in an email to employees saying they should stay abreast of specific site requirements from Apple and local authorities, but otherwise won't …

  1. ecofeco Silver badge

    The panemic is over?

    When did the pandemic end? Are those 450 Americans still dying every day from covid along with the never ending mutation of the virus just my imagination?

    I have no doubt some well informed PhD epidemiologists and doctors will chime in and let me know I'm just imagining things.

    Oh wait... no they won't. Just the Dunning Krugers will.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The panemic is over?

      "Are those 450 Americans still dying every day from covid along with the never ending mutation of the virus just my imagination?"

      450 deaths per day of people dying with COVID not from COVID. The distinction matters and anyone suggesting otherwise is being disingenuous.

      1. DS999 Silver badge

        Re: The panemic is over?

        That's a stupid argument. Then there are no deaths from heart disease just WITH heart disease, no deaths from a car crash just deaths from shock and loss of blood pressure etc.

        Almost all of these people are people who would not have died when they did if not contract covid. The older ones might have died from something else a year or two later, sure, but you deniers ignore all the younger people who are still dying from it just in fewer numbers than they did before there was a vaccine (and before the stupid antivax anti mask people already caught it once or twice...I have an unvaxxed friend who has caught it FOUR times)

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: The panemic is over?

          Millions of susceptible people (old or with compromised immune systems) die from the common cold and flu each year. We've now pretty much reached that point with COVID - it's just another endemic disease.

          1. Martin-73 Silver badge
            Unhappy

            Re: The panemic is over?

            I'll be sure to tell the victims that, on your behalf

            1. Steve Button Silver badge

              Re: The panemic is over?

              SPOILER ALERT

              I'm guessing you must be the boy from Sixth Sense, all grown up now, but still seeing dead people ... all the time?

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: The panemic is over?

          That's a stupid argument. Then there are no deaths from heart disease just WITH heart disease, no deaths from a car crash just deaths from shock and loss of blood pressure etc.

          Au contraire! In the UK, for example, a COVID death is defined as someone dying within 28 days of a positive test. Also, anyone admitted to hospital is routinely given a COVID test. This means that someone admitted after a serious car crash who incidentally happened to test positive for COVID and subsequently succumbed to their injuries, would appear in the statistics as a COVID death.

          A far more accurate assessment of the impact of COVID can be obtained by counting the number of people who have died with COVID listed on their death certificate.

          1. DS999 Silver badge

            Re: The panemic is over?

            Perhaps, except some states in the US have restricted doctors' abilities to list covid on death certificates (requiring them to list any other conditions present during death and not counting it as a covid death when there are other causes listed) to try to artificially reduce the number of covid deaths reported for political purposes.

            You can't fully trust the numbers in EITHER direction.

            1. Steve Button Silver badge

              Re: The panemic is over?

              And likewise doctors in the UK were heavily pressured to add Covid to the death certificate (back in 2020) again for political reasons. A few families pushed back on that because they knew the person had tested negative, and also died of something unrelated. Many didn't. Just as you say, you can't trust the numbers in EITHER direction.

              1. anonymous boring coward Silver badge

                Re: The panemic is over?

                "And likewise doctors in the UK were heavily pressured to add Covid to the death certificate (back in 2020) again for political reasons."

                News to me. Sounds like you like frequenting conspiracy sites?

          2. NeilPost Silver badge

            Re: The panemic is over?

            Meanwhile variants continue to swirl in the community.

            BA.5 is worse than BA.4 or BA.3.

            All variants the are better than original COVID and Delta.

            Covid and Flu season in Australia. Winter not going well, though deaths are down thankfully.

            Fingers crossed for winter on the. Northern Hemisphere. Flu shot booked, COVID winter booster available soon.

            Stay safe.

        3. Steve Button Silver badge

          Re: The panemic is over?

          Anecdotally I have heard about many cases of vaxxed people catching it FOUR times also.

          This actually might make sense biologically speaking, because of the well known and widely accepted concept of Original Antigenic Sin (OAS) or Fixation, because the vaccine is against the original (pre Alpha) strain, and therefore your body doesn't cope as well creating new antibodies against new strains, compared to someone with no prior exposure (if there are any of those left?). Also, if you were lucky enough to have dodged Alpha, Delta, etc. and only caught Omicron you'll probably deal with that better.

          This theory does actually seem to fit with the statistics in the UK (at least until they stopped publishing those earlier this year), but it's just a theory. It also fits in with Israel and some Nordic countries, who are more open with their stats. Worth further investigation?

          1. Google
            Trollface

            Re: The panemic is over?

            Even if immune imprinting / OAS where the body is only trained on the original spike mutation was a thing we would be seeing massive waves in heavily vaccinated countries compared to counterparts with similar climates (Portugal & Spain vs North Africa, Israel vs Palestine, Taiwan vs ?, or even the old West vs East Germany) which we definitely are not and if we are we can explain away with confounding vars (age, diet, etc etc).

            Don't go comparing US states' vax rates now because they report and test at different rates.

            Ad infinitum.

            1. DS999 Silver badge

              No one's reported infection rates are useful

              Because most people are testing with the home kits now, and don't report those numbers. The test results are mostly for people who have to test regularly on their job (medical professionals, patients being admitted to the hospital, etc.) or who show up at a doctor with symptoms and get tested.

              And even then only people with symptoms will give themselves a home test. I could have covid right now and have no idea I even need to test, and spread to people I'm around without knowing. I suspect the infection rates we see are just the tip of the iceberg, but there's no way to know if the real numbers are 2x or 10x higher.

              Fortunately BA.5 is a lot less nasty than the original, alpha and delta, and almost everyone by now is either vaccinated or has been previously infected. There are likely precious few people unvaccinated people who have managed to avoid infection this long unless they rarely leave home. Some people still get very sick, but fortunately not enough do to overload the hospitals which is the primary thing we must avoid. Even if things get worse in the fall/winter it doesn't look likely to fill up hospitals unless a new variant takes over for BA.5 that packs a bigger wallop.

          2. anonymous boring coward Silver badge

            Re: The panemic is over?

            "Anecdotally I have heard about many cases of vaxxed people catching it FOUR times also.

            This actually might make sense biologically speaking...."

            Sure. Dumb-as-feck person.

        4. 43300 Silver badge

          Re: The panemic is over?

          "That's a stupid argument. Then there are no deaths from heart disease just WITH heart disease, no deaths from a car crash just deaths from shock and loss of blood pressure etc."

          What utter nonsense! Someone can die of something while also having some other incidental illness - e.g. someone in the final stages of terminal cancer, for example, was going to die whatever. If they also had Covid they might have died 'with' Covid, but not 'of' it: cancer was the cause of death.

          And that's before addressing the nonsense of people dying within 28 days of a Covid test and being counted as a 'Covid death' whatever. E.g. someone who was fully recovered from Covid (if they were even ill) and then died several weeks later in a car crash could be a 'Covid death'. This could and did happen in the UK due to the nonsensical counting system.

          1. anonymous boring coward Silver badge

            Re: The panemic is over?

            "addressing the nonsense of people dying within 28 days"

            You seem to have an issue reasoning about magnitude?

            The problem with people actually dying from Covid after 28 days is a far, far bigger problem than those few who had Covid, recovered, and then had accidental deaths within 28 days. The 28 day limit was there for a reason: To make the UK so-called government seem slightly less inept. Didn't work very well.

    2. Marty McFly Silver badge
      Mushroom

      Re: The panemic is over?

      Just remember... Covid didn't crash our economy and send us spiraling in to a recession the government wants to deny is happening.

      Our collective response to Covid caused all the problems we are seeing now.

      1. 43300 Silver badge

        Re: The panemic is over?

        Absolutely! That weasel phrase "because of the pandemic" used as an excuse / explanation for all manner of issues is particularly annoying. Waht they mean is "because of the hysterical response to the pandemic".

    3. ecofeco Silver badge

      Re: The panemic is over?

      Right on cue.

  2. Pascal Monett Silver badge
    Stop

    "until everyone else shows up"

    And why should they ?

    They've been working from home for two years and things have apparently gone swimmingly.

    In 2021, Apple made $365.817 billion. Why do the peons need to go back ?

    It's the Foxconn workers who can slave away. Cupertino can stay empty, it has zero impact.

    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

      Re: "until everyone else shows up"

      "Why do the peons need to go back ?"

      If they don't the shareholders might start asking awkward questions about that empty, expensive trophy HQ.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Re: Now will you all please return to our $5b headquarters?

    I'm sure I remember seeing a TV program about their tax bills and that they've got their head quarters down as only being worth about $100M which means they have to pay so much less in the way of tax.

    1. NeilPost Silver badge

      Re: Now will you all please return to our $5b headquarters?

      Is it worth what it cost, or what someone would pay for it???

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Now will you all please return to our $5b headquarters?

        The point they were making is that from a tax perspective it is worth what the company put on the tax return.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Can't they just tweak one of the employee phone apps...

    Can't they just tweak one of the corporate phone apps to listen-out for the sound of a coffee shop and the words "Large skinny soya decaf..." and respond with an announcement played out loud two minutes later, just as they've settled down at a table, saying: "Well, I see you can find the time to go out and visit a coffee shop, but you can't even pop into the office once in a while."

    1. The commentard formerly known as Mister_C Silver badge
      Trollface

      Re: Can't they just tweak one of the employee phone apps...

      Sounds like William Rees Mog and his "sorry to have missed you" notes. Being Apple, they have an app for that...

      1. Martin-73 Silver badge

        Re: Can't they just tweak one of the employee phone apps...

        Rees mogg is an evil piece of.,.... [i'd get moderated]. Nasty piece of work

        1. NeilPost Silver badge

          Re: Can't they just tweak one of the employee phone apps...

          He’s a cocksucker you mean ??

          1. Anonymous Coward Silver badge
            Happy

            Re: Can't they just tweak one of the employee phone apps...

            Cocksuckers at least bring enjoyment to some people.

            [speaking of which, where has the Paris icon gone???]

            1. Korev Silver badge
              Pint

              Re: Can't they just tweak one of the employee phone apps...

              There's a gap missing in the table, maybe we can have a competition to work out what to fill it with

      2. CountCadaver Silver badge

        Re: Can't they just tweak one of the employee phone apps...

        *Jacob

        William was his father and IIRC wrote for the Fail...

  5. Big_Boomer Silver badge

    Covid ignorance

    Covid-19 (SARS-Cov-2) is a Coronavirus. Coronaviruses have been around as long as hosts to spread them have been around. In fact, there is evidence to suggest that such viruses are responsible to a greater or lesser extent for the mutations that all living beings experience.

    Prior to the current pandemic most Coronavirus infections were diagnosed as Flu or the Common Cold infections right up to the point where the actual virus was identified when they were separated out into Influenza/Rhinovirus/Coronavirus. Previously dangerous/fatal versions of Coronaviruses include SARS-Cov and MERS-Cov but there are far more identified (and probably millions of unidentified) but mild versions out there that at worst give you a mild cold or "flu".

    What showed quite clearly during the pandemic was that LOTS of people could effectively work from home. Something that many employers had been actively resisting for years was shown to be entirely possible and in many cases led to increased productivity. Now that the pandemic phase is over, some of them want to pretend that the last 2 years didn't happen and for everything to go back as it was. Well, NEWS FLASH, the world moved on and changed, as it does every day and they are just going to have to deal with the new reality. I know plenty of people who have either renegotiated their employment contract with their employer, or else simply left for a company that was more sympathetic to people working from home.

    1. anonymous boring coward Silver badge

      Re: Covid ignorance

      Last paragraph was good.

      But Covid-19 is a very different Corona virus than the usual ones. So saying "it just another Corona virus" doesn't describe it. It's a bit like saying that the great white shark in Jaws is just another shark.

  6. anonymous boring coward Silver badge

    Is it so difficult?

    "We recognize that everyone's personal circumstances are different. Don't hesitate to continue wearing a face mask if you feel more comfortable doing so. Also, please respect every individual's decision to wear a mask or not,"

    Well, the masks are primarily there to protect others. This still hasn't sunk in?

    So if someone is especially vulnerable, then that person should be able to insist others meeting her/him should wear masks.

    The easiest way to implement this is that if you are meeting someone who wears a mask, you put yours on as normal curtesy.

    But that would just be too simple and logical, wouldn't it?

    (Of course, normal politeness seems a very strange concept to many people. Not only do they not put a mask on when they see others using masks. They instead try to invade other peoples' privacy and make them take theirs off. Especially in USA this seems to be a thing.)

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