FYI: The CDC just published a study that showed people who wear masks ALL THE TIME made up 70.6% of those people recently diagnosed with COVID 19 while those who NEVER wear masks made up 3.9%. This is from multiple samples direct from the CDC.

Research this yourself... go to cdc.gov.

Knowledge is a very powerful aide in decision making.

thank you stu for ALL of your wonderful posts, they are so informative

Well said Boomer

Really? We continue to pay for medical issues caused by bad choices.....smoking, HIV, obesity, alcoholism, abortions, the list goes on and we will continue to do so like it or not.

I'm all for protecting oneself against Covid, but it sounds like you think masks do that. What I've learned is they don't protect you, because Covid is too small to be blocked by masks. Masks are useful to protect others from receiving your big droplets which may be infected. But if the virus is in the air, or if you touch your mask with an infected hand, it can pass through your mask just like a bug through a chain link fence. Distancing (especially from anti-maskers!), hand washing, not socializing indoors, not touching your face (including masks which is so hard!) seems to be the best ways to protect oneself. Good health to us all. :pray:

Many of us snowbirds are coming from almost no Covid cases. It is us who are risking a lot for going to Florida this winter. Please don't plunk us all in your premeditated "carrying a present" box.

Six people out of 100 dead as a doornail. I easily know a hundred people and y'all do too. I like them all and love a bunch of them.

The attendant at the square is probably low on the food chain of employment, do you think they are around when tickets are distributed. With all the hoopla about squares opening, I don't think it's that import to most Villagers.
I have observed the webcams for all three squares and seems to have low attendance.

That's not what the CDC said. 6% of deaths attributed to COVID are from the virus only, not 6% of every hundred people! YIKES! That would be 20 million "dead as a doornail"
However, that 6% number has been since disputed.

If a person has a co-morbidity but was destined to live 25 more years then died after contracting the virus, that should be counted as a COVID death. If a person with stage 4 pancreatic ca was going to die in 6 hours, then I would not count it. And a 22 year old critically injured in a motorcycle accident who happens to test positive certainly is NOT a COVID death. Remember, statistics don't lie, PEOPLE lie with statistics.

I continue be amazed at how many folks seem to think everyone they encounter has the virus, when in fact, several days ago Dr. Mike Ryan, WHO Health Emergencies Program Director, said their best guess is that 10% of the world's population has been infected, or about 750 million people. WHO's data says that about 1 million people have died from it. Disregarding whether they died "from" it or "with" it, doing the basic math:

1,000,000 ÷ 750,000,000 = .0013
.0013 x 100 = 0.13% death rate of those infected

OR 99.87% of everyone who gets it survive.

Covid-19: World in ‘for a hell of a ride’ in coming months, Dr Mike Ryan says

There have been 7.7 million cases in the USA, well below the 10% figure above. The 2009 H1N1 flu infected over 60,000,000 people. Which one was more contagious? The average death rate for the seasonal flu is 0.1% vs. 0.13% to Covid-19. No one batted an eye back then thinking they might get the flu and so many ITT in a panic for this.

Also, 40% of the deaths in the USA are from nursing homes because the governors of 4 or 5 states thought it was smart to put covid patients into them.

I assume that you also wear gloves and eye protection. We might as well do it right.

That doesn't figure in The Villages. The death toll attributed to the virus in The Villages is low enough that a rough computation makes it less than a half of one percent.

I wonder what the overall death rate this year is compared to last year or the year before.

A similar thing can be said about FLU. People are always tossing about "But flu kills 60,000 a year" or whatever number. The actual number of deaths due only to FLU is under 5k a year. Most of them actually die of Pneumonia. Most of them also had co-morbidities.

I don't know of a single person who ever died of the FLU. I do know two people who died of Covid-19. One was in her 80s, the other was in his 90s. How much longer did either have? I don't know, but Covid certainly accelerated the process.

I think if you look at the charts that show how the infection burns through a geographic region then peters off to nearly nothing, you start to realize that everyone has to take a big ole bite of the poo sandwich. In other words, this thing seems to burn through the weakest among us and then...not so much. I'm all for taking precautions and one thing we aren't getting from any of the "SCIENCE" types is preparing your own terrain to be hostile to the virus.

Studies on Vitamin D have shown it drastically improved outcomes. Reduces death, reduces severity, complications, on and on. Further retrospective studies have shown that most of the worst outcomes came in patients who were deficient. You hear a recommendation on taking a supplement from anyone? No? Why not. The Science is there. Even Web MD ran an article on it. Low Vitamin D Levels Tied to Odds for Severe COVID

Spend some time researching it, there has been a lot of research done on it, all of it says the same thing. If your Vitamin D level falls below a certain level and you get CV19, you're going to have a bad go of it.

You can play with numbers as much as you like.
Argue obout with Covid or from Covid as much as you like.
Whichever way you think, it still come down to tens of thousand of deaths because of Covid.
Why the big argument about doing something to help reduce the risk?
Even if it is only a few % it must be worth it.
A bullet proof vest doesn't stop you getting your arms legs head or balls being blown off, but it gives some protection, and a mask is a lot easier to wear!

Wearing a mask won't end this virus... The only way to end the virus is to not let anyone in or out of the country. Shut all business including Walmart, Publix, Postal Service, Publix, etc. And lock all people in their homes, including police for 45 days.