You can't contain what you don't even know you have. The virus was widespread before we even knew what we were looking at. What happened in March was hysteria. The hysteria has led to some bizarre health mandates like putting COVID-19 positive patients in with vulnerable elderly residents of LtCs, hospital procedures were put into place to prevent the spread to healthcare workers but those same procedures led to deadly delays in treatment. There was that loud cry for ventilators and when they were provided, suddenly they weren't needed anymore.

After months of doing our part to socially isolate and flatten the curve - businesses shut down, professional sports seasons ended, no concerts, bars, casinos, elective medical procedures cancelled or postponed indefinitely, schools and college campuses shut down, gyms, restaurants, salons shuttered, DMV closed....after months of this, we finally start to cautiously reopen only to have massive crowds of protesters, some wearing masks, some not wearing masks allowed to swarm the cities.....

So, now, after just seeing our 4th of July celebrations cancelled, we are being scolded for not doing enough to prevent the spread....it's just this perpetual blame game that just will not end.

The cure is worse than the disease.

Only if neither you, your family or those that are close to you don't get sick. When they do you and you see how bad it can be, you might think otherwise. We don't get to see how devastating it can be, only what the mild cases are or what we read. As with everything, nothing is a big deal until it impacts you.

Life comes with risks. If I spent my days obsessively worrying about things that could go wrong I would never allow my teenager to drive or swim in the ocean.

A month or so ago, I was driving home one day when a bolt of lightning came out of a gray cloud hovering up above and struck the ground (Boom!) right next to my car. It was wild and it was freaky. But I haven't stopped going outside because of it.

That is NOT a talking point. That is a fact known by anyone with normal grey matter.:pray:

Child drowning deaths have gone up significantly in the state of Florida ever since the virus restrictions were put into place. Most of the deaths are happening in swimming pools.

Last year in our Oldest Grandson's School children were coming down with terrible respiratory problems. It was Mold. The school was CLOSED until repairs could be made and the children recovered. They eventually all returned and it happened again. They were sent to a different school with a split shift. It worked out fine.

I re-vote for homeschooling until we have a better vaccination some time down the road. If everybody's life is so important nowadays why risk children and the adult who teach and the administrators?

The people who are calling the shots should set an example by simulating themselves as students for two weeks and let's see what happens to them? Let them be the test units.

Had a conversation with our daughter who lives with our gandchildren 6 and 9.

They go to an excellent charter school in DC.

She thought the education the kids got last spring was not as good as live classroom instruction.

Talking to several teaches and it turns out they are deathly afraid of returning to the classrooms.

Our youngest is going into 1st grade. How does teacher socially distance herself from the younger ones?

We shut down our economy with lock downs and our country is in worse shape now with this virus than we were when the lock downs were first mandated. I can not believe this has happened to the most powerful country in the world. What is wrong with this picture?

We have too many people who are denying this pandemic, including our government.

They won't be able to maintain strict social distancing in the schools, it's not going to happen. Those who feel that the risk is too great to return to the classroom should home school their kids or do distance learning from the safety of home.

If there is a demand for distance learning there will be distance learning teaching jobs.

Healthy kids are getting together now and seeing their friends and they aren't wearing masks when they do it.

Who is to blame? Certainly not the children. The blame lies with the parents. Those parents should be setting a good example to protect their children by wearing masks and making sure their children wear masks. Then the children will feel it is a good practice to wear masks when having close contact with their friends.

The reality is that healthy kids are very low risk of getting sick. People aren't being callous when they let their kids play with their friends and teens/20 somethings aren't mean for wanting to have a social life. You can't expect young people to stop dating and falling in love. It's a natural and normal stage of life for them.

From what I've seen they are being careful bringing their kids around high risk people. They love their grandparents and don't want to see them get sick.

Sweden never closed their schools, zero deaths of school children from 1-19 years old.

One persons opinion...

1. We knew of the possibilities of this virus in January, early February. We, the country did nothing at all. The response to questions was simply that it is nothing, yet we know now that experts were telling a different story.

2. There is zero coordination in information for the public. One person says this, another disputes it. Leaders say one thing today, and the complete opposite the next. We have never, and still do not have “that voice of reason” to calm the country. We are all left to our own devices.

3. Even with the recent spike, we are getting mixed messages. We are told the experts (long time experts) do not know what they are saying, and we are told to trust the politicians.

4. Now our most valuable asset, our children have become a center piece of yet another tug of war.

We are rudderless...it’s that simple

1. We knew of the possibilities of this virus in January, early February. We, the country did nothing at all. The response to questions was simply that it is nothing, yet we know now that experts were telling a different story.

January 21. Fauci: This is not a major threat for the people of the United States. And this is not something that the citizens of the United States right now should be worried about.

Feb 17 Fauci: There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to wear a mask, the risk is miniscule, people should be more worried about the annual flu.

March 9 Fauci: "If you are a healthy young person, there is no reason if you want to go on a cruise ship, go on a cruise ship...."

There is a higher risk of serious illness to the teachers, aides and support staff including cafeteria workers and custodians who are precious to a lot of people and those people can spread the illness to seniors who will see one out of ten die if they contract the illness.

In response to GulfCoast, who mentions her/his teenage children and wanting them to be able to swim and drive and take other risks. Younger families are not as dangerously at risk of death as people who live here in The Villages. Many children have been visiting their grandparents here and could be carriers. Still younger people are experiencing some manifestation of the virus that are very worrisome, such as excessive clotting, causing strokes in young adults and skin rashes and congestion that can become quite serious. Long lasting damage to the lungs is also something that happens to younger people. The experts have really not had the time to assess all of the different ways this new corona virus damages the human body.

Many of us who live here in The Villages have had friends be hospitalized in the ICU and have lost friends to the virus. It is real and it is dangerous to seniors.