Again, you miss the point. The OP was referring to changes in ALL of our normal lifestyles, NOT health care. He thinks restaurants will disappear, no one will work in an office, etc. You are certainly old enough to know that when we were growing up, we were taught common sense about hand washing, covering your mouth when you sneeze, etc. Those were perhaps changes from 1918, BUT, society continued.

Really? I'm not aware that the virus can be transmitted when not encased in either droplets or aerosols. How can the virus be expelled from someone's respiratory system without being encased in droplets? Do you have a link that says this is feasible?

Universal masking is what will protect us. When a person who is wearing a mask interacts with another person who is wearing a mask, these people protect each other.

Look at the actual numbers, they haven’t had more than 5 Covid deaths on any day over the last two months with most days fewer than 3...

I assume you never studied history. The depression?? It started over 11 years AFTER 1918 and there were many causes such as wrong moves by the Federal Reserve and the Congress which exacerbated what should have been, at best, a recession.Government decisions made after 1932 continued to prolong it. It took WW2 to finally end it.

Agreed those are the causes of the great depression which started 11 years after the end of the first world war.

The Presidents during this period were instrumental in making it worse than it should have been.

As I have in the past been called to the defense of the United States of America. I will honor, respect and defend your rights to choose. If your choice is to stay home to defend yourself, I will respect that. If anybody should come to your home and try and force you to go to a restaurant or to the squares, you just call me and I will come and defend your right to stay home. Freedom shall prevail.

This is the reason I will not support any restaurant which does not maintain social distancing with their tables and booths set ups. They won't miss hubby and me and our health comes first.

VERY well said. Thank you for the explanation to those that unfortunately have been subjected to far too much incorrect information.

Buckeye here too, but not blue. RED. I am a firm believer of the free market. I am a supporter of capitalism. I consider myself a supporter of traditional medicine, not a holistic girl. I worry about our economy. I agree that if people want to risk dining out, then that is their choice.

However, I am of the belief that the mere fact that a person is 70 or older makes them at higher risk. I doubt few of the age who predominantly live in The Villages, do not have elevated blood pressure or edgy chlorestorol, or perfect heart rhythms or do not have the natural, normal slope in health that comes with age. In other words, if you take any prescribed medication, or refuse to take any prescribed medication that means you have an elevated risk....even if it works.

Plus a lot of sane people are not terrified. They are choosing not to go to restaurants and feel bad and guilty that they are not supporting the economy. Free enterprise to me is a good thing. Living another ten years is however an important goal of mine.

The problem to me is someone comes to a restaurant, sits too close to someone who unknowing has the virus and it comes to a new person who in turns infects others.

Wonderful, so what happens to the virus when the droplets drys, does it immediately disappear? Look at the WHO, I hate to use them as a reference but they do admit the virus can exist outside of droplets, how much is questionable. Nowhere I have found how much exists outside of water droplets. But back to the You Tube videos that show how masks reduce the spread of moisture in a sneeze, yes it does slow or stop the spread of moisture, a very good thing, however how much virus is outside the moisture droplets? Please wear a mask if you must, I do not believe a mask is protecting the wearer of the mask when taking into account all the practical things the average person does a with mask. When you sneeze in a mask droplets go everywhere unless a proper 100% fit, who does that? They are fiddled with, reused over and over, all touched usually with un gloved hands maybe helping to spread the virus. So any good done by stopping some of the virus in droplets in a mask is un-done in how the average person handles a reused mask or a new mask without a proper fit and the constant fiddling with the mask and eventual disposal of a contaminated mask. We seem to agree a vaccine will be a big step to being normal again. Again I am not an anti masker.

Another misuse of a quoted statistic. But hey, if it works for you :)

Probably because most oldies in care were killed off first time around!

That is passive / aggressive on mask-wearing. This period of US leading the world in DEATH is NO time to lack conviction. Phase 3 increases social contact. Is that good or bad? It has been proven BAD by the experience of Spain and New Jersey. Masks have been proven GOOD by Japan, S.Korea, Australia, and New Zealand. The average person in the US and TV Land has been lied to and misguided by special interest groups, select Television, Russian hackers and bots, leaders with large microphones - in order to TRY to have life in the US APPEAR to be NORMAL in spite of The CV Plague. You KNOW deep down that NOTHING is now NORMAL.

The only prudent course of action is to FIGHT the pressure of things like Phase 3 - the forced attempt to create an ARTIFICIAL normal, which is designed for Wall St and not for Main ST in TV land. Mothers should not send their children to school. The average person should AVOID all indoor crowded groups and be very careful and wary of outdoor group gatherings. You would be helping yourself and your neighbor.

That is correct.