I explained to my doctor that I had been within six feet of a person with Covid. He explained that they did not even want to test me - did not consider it a Covid triggering event - unless I had remained within six feet of someone else for 15 minutes. There are the standards used by doctors.
It turns out that actual CDC guidance is not to spend a total of 15 minutes or more within six feet of people outside your household in any 24 hour period. Can you get Covid otherwise? Theoretically yes, but that is very rare. That is, you can also get struck by lightening or get in a car wreck - no situation is "zero danger". If you want to follow CDC guidelines, you need not be upset unless the contact is prolonged or unless you have been around multiple people for 15 minutes or more in a 24 hour period. It is OK to be more cautious than that but perhaps no need to get irritated with others who are close to you for a brief period if, for instance, passing you in line. As for standing behind you at "a concert" (music in the square)...well...I have to admit...if I went to the square I would assume I was with people who had agreed to ignore the 15 minutes rule, though hopefully all would be masked.
BTW, I am so happy to have a final answer on masks after actually reading Berenson's book saying masks don't work. Berenson does not understand statistics. He sites a large study in which 57 unmasked people and 46 masked people got Covid, then says that is not "statistically significant". That only means masks were not proven one way or the other. But with 11 additional people getting Covid with one difference being they did not wear masks, this means that , while numbers were not large enough, there is some liklihood that even cloth masks make at least a small difference in actual infections, and why shouldn't we do something - since it is no real trouble to wear a mask - that just might have saved 11 people in this study?
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