Are we opening up too much, too fast? That's what experts are wondering as more and more people take off their masks and gather in groups.
Despite new coronavirus cases and hospitalizations rising again and new variants of the virus emerging, places like the Marina in San Francisco are seeing more and more groups of people gathering.
As we are fighting to get back to normal, experts say some people's fearlessness could set us back.
"I’m asking you to just hold on a little longer, to get vaccinated when you can so that all of those people we all love will still be here when this pandemic ends," said CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky.
Visiting San Francisco from Denver, Natalie Bus and Ryan Hoehn say they wear masks "when it's required."
"There’s two different sides of the spectrum and no in between – you either do want to wear a mask or don’t want to wear a mask," Bush said. "So it just depends on who you are as a person."
Experts say people's decision to remove their masks in recent weeks is a combination of COVID-19 fatigue and vaccine confidence. In some cases, especially among the young people, its also due to the belief that they could weather the virus.
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"People are like, 'I'm just going to go maskless and cross my fingers and hope this works out'," Clinical Psychologist Andrea Zorbas told NBC Bay Area.
Zorbas said that despite more than a dozen states showing an increase in cases and nearly all states reporting new variants, some have essentially forgotten how bad things were a short time ago.
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"Maybe if there were more images on TV of people being sick with the new variant, if people can really focus on an image...that’s the psychology of how our memory works," she said explaining what could make people remain cautious.
