Ask HN: What's the Best Way for a Layperson to Be Informed about Covid-19?
As a layperson, your best bet is to listen to the experts who aren&#x27;t politically motivated or just plain batshit crazy (there are always some, regardless of topic; you can often suss them out by their black-and-white ideology and us-vs-them style speech).<p>As for the day-to-day:<p>- Masks don&#x27;t protect you from others. They protect others from you. So if nobody around you is wearing a mask, your mask will make no difference. If everyone is wearing one, your mask DOES make a difference. This becomes a &quot;when in Rome&quot; kind of thing when you&#x27;re traveling (i.e. do what others do, and don&#x27;t be a dick about it).<p>- Get vaccinated and boosted. This is proven, and you&#x27;ll feel pretty dumb sitting in an ICU unit when a simple injection could have prevented it. Even with the latest Omicron variant, you can still get extremely sick and possibly even die (90% of ICU patients and almost all deaths are unvaccinated).<p>- Airline travel is one of the most common ways people get infected. Even switching to non-recycled air in the airplane is not enough, apparently. You takes your chances...<p>- Dining is generally safe as long as there&#x27;s a decent distance between tables. Although Omicron is a LOT more virulent, so who knows how safe it actually is now...<p>Bottom line: Vaccination protects you from the worst parts of an infection, and then it comes down to your risk profile.