[Quixote]

Originally Posted by CFrance

.... Otherwise, who cares what the rumors are? Anyone who mentions that to you is rude and doesn't deserve a response. I grew up in Pittsburgh and am constantly being harangued with prejudiced, uninformed, out-of-date comments about the condition of my hometown. I just ignore them. Let them feel stupid when they find out differently, and that has happened quite a bit, as people who have necessarily had to visit have been gracious enough to let me know their new opinions.

You can't change someone's mind that was made up from ignorance, so ignore the statements.

Excellent! Very well put!!!

Originally Posted by JP

I find that people who are jealous of other people or where they live or what they have try to put them down anyway they can. Just roll with the innuendoes and in your own mind think to yourself how lucky we are to live in such a great place as the villages.

Isn't THIS the truth?!

Originally Posted by blueash

.... Sumter county is 64th in STI rates of the 67 counties in Florida. The correct information is readily available and requires that you open the excel link for "Rates by Year/County/Disease" at Florida STD Trends

Thus whatever "data" you claim to have seen would clearly show that Sumter County (there is NO data specific to the Villages as it is in 3 counties and has no independently reporting authority) has an extremely LOW reported incidence of STI's

This explanation, which is absolutely accurate, has been given time and time again, yet people get so obsessive about STDs that they ignore it. Why? Maybe there are those who wish to ignore it for their reasons....

Originally Posted by buzzy

Absolutely. The ignorant, jealous jerks at our condo were always pushing our buttons for leaving. Misery loves company. We were moving on with our lives, and they were stuck there.

True 'nuff!

Originally Posted by blueash

Sorry Bike, you are not correctly reading/interpreting the data.

You have given the numbers from column T which is the ranking by county of STD's per 100,000 population. Thus Miami/Dad is the 25th worst county for cases per 100,000. It is not that they have only 25 cases per 100,000 as in fact they have 496 cases/100K

Sumter county ranks 64th out of 67 (not 62nd) and its rate is 238/100K. For the worst... Gadsden with 1325/100K but only 721 total cases in a small county. The best at county at #67 is Lafayette with 192/100K

Column R gives the rate of STD's per 100K which is the best data for giving the incidence of disease, column S the rank by total cases where obviously the larger counties will have more total cases.

If there are some who would like help reading the excel chart I will reply, otherwise the take home message is the Sumter County is one of the lowest risk places in the state for STD's contrary to the OP's postings.

This STD rumor is just that, an oft repeated canard

I knew those initial figures were ridiculous and made absolutely no sense. They reminded me of what I would expect from the Orlando Slantinel. Thanks for setting the record straight and clarifying it!

Originally Posted by mikeod

I'm always leery of reports that give percentages without the raw numbers. When they claim STDs increased by 70%, they need to report the data. Was it 10 cases last year and now 17? Or was it 1000 cases and now 1700? Both show an increase of 70%, but are much different. And someone saying they have treated more here than Miami without data to back it up is doesn't mean much.

Cases of STDs MUST be reported, county by county. So when the number of cases in one year of one particular STD rose from 2 to 4 (this was several years ago), the naysayers cited that "STD rates in The Villages [even though, as pointed out, records are kept by county, not by TV...] have DOUBLED!!!" How stupid do they think we are?!

Then again, how stupid they must be! Just ignore the nonsense and have a good life!