No mask order
 

No Mask order. Sheriff Billy Woods In Marion County has issued a NO MASK order for all employees of the sheriff’s department and if you or I enter any of their offices you will be ordered to remove your mask. Please email or flood the sheriff with calls objecting to this. He is an elected official and should have our health and safety first before his own personal beliefs.

Marion County Sheriffs Employees Ordered NOT to Wear Masks
 

Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods sent an email Tuesday informing the approximately 900 people working in the department that "when you are on-duty/working as my employee and representing my Office – masks will not be worn,"

He went on to say...."effective immediately, any individual walking in to any one of our lobbies (which includes the main office and all district offices) that is wearing a mask will be asked to remove it."

By the way, Marion County, with a population of about 370,000, has had nearly 6,800 confirmed coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic, with 104 deaths. Marion reported a single-day record of 13 deaths on Tuesday.

Link to full article: Florida Sheriff Orders Deputies And Staff Not To Wear Face Masks : Coronavirus Live Updates : NPR

And then there's this, 43 sheriff's office employees — including several patrol officers — and more than 200 inmates at the Marion County Jail have tested positive for coronavirus.

What is wrong with this man?

Key word there is elected, and we can fix that!

Makes perfect sense for their safetey. Don't like it? Don't go there.

I read this too and thought "WHAT???"

totally bad timing too, right on the heels of 13 Marion County residents dying in one day

please explain further how it makes sense so that we understand your insight on this

Because there is a war on cops these days. You think the rioters and looters are wearing masks to protect them from covid? No, they are wearing them to hide their identity. People walking into a law enforcement building with a mask on present a threat.

Read about this earlier today and shocking.

Not a thing!!!

Explain how uniformed officers who work in that office, who the Sheriff knows personally and would recognize with or without a mask on, presents a safety threat by wearing a mask at work.

In fact - explain why Sheriff Billy-Bob-Jimbo isn't able to have masks ordered and customized with the employee's actual NAME embroidered on it, to further provide identification for employees wearing masks in the workplace.

It's sheriff Billy Woods.

He has prohibited his deputies from wearing masks while on duty. In addition he has prohibited employees who work in the sheriffs office from wearing masks.


Marion County deputies ordered not to wear masks - News - Ocala.com - Ocala, FL

And we wonder why the state of Florida is one of the leading states in the US with covid. Apparently this sheriff hasn't been watching the news for the past 6 months. Nice to know that this man cares about his employees and the public.

Sounds like the Sheriff is on an ego and power trip. Deputies/Sheriff wearing a mask is not about them but it’s all about the people they come in contact with on a daily basis. You can bet many of his Deputies don’t agree with this policy but are “forced” to go along with his dumb policy and attitude.

Really? An elected official having our best interests in mind?
 

How novel this would be. From 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. to the local Sheriff Andy and Barney. Einstein was right again. "Stupidity has no boundaries."

If we lived in Marion county would definitely vote against him. Might be time to move.

I must have missed the article talking about all the rioting, looting and attacks on sheriff's deputies in Ocala. I certainly understand protecting the health and well-being of the deputies who are under siege.

It's a good thing there are no other threats in the community that might be aided by our respected law enforcement professionals wearing a mask...

If this is the reason for the "NO MASK" order from the Sheriff, then the use of face shields should be allowed, in fact, should be required.

Masks
 

Officers can’t wear masks because they need to hide their identity.

I hope no one get covid as a result of this, but if they do I hope they take him to court for everything he has, except his lack of intelligence.

Hummmm?
 

I bet he’ll be the first one in line for the vaccine

Think I'll go with Billie-Bob-Jimbo.....


He has prohibited his deputies from wearing masks while on duty. In addition he has prohibited employees who work in the sheriffs office from wearing masks.


Marion County deputies ordered not to wear masks - News - Ocala.com - Ocala, FL[/QUOTE]

I do not believe this summary. I believe actual videos with infrared cameras which DEMONSTRATE how the use of masks minimizes projection of droplets and aerosols a persons nose and mouth when they speak or breath. The demonstrations are even more effective when a person sneezes or coughs.

My girlfriend spends winters in Ocala training her horse. Her parents live four hours south of Ocala. Both are now in the hospital with Covid-19, and they seem to be going downhill. One is 91, one 85. They don’t know how they were exposed, they say, but her mom has dementia and is quite able to walk around touching things and not wearing a mask. So I’m a bit sensitive about masks these days. I believe in wearing them when around people. Gloves, too.

I read the sheriff’s directive in the newspaper. Twice. I wish he had stated a rationale, such as “I don’t believe masks help,” or “The safety of my employees and the public doesn’t matter to me,” or “I’m afraid of alienating voters if I require masks.”

I found his directive confusing. “All essential personnel (and that’s everyone)” is required to wear masks if the CDC requires it and Human Resources says to comply. Put hasn’t the CDC strongly recommended masks?

Sheriff’s personnel are FORBIDDEN to wear masks for a call to someone who is sick at home and may have Covid-19 AFTER they have been identified. What? Maybe the sheriff simply doesn’t express himself clearly in writing. (Perhaps he means deputies are to stand at a distance without masks while identifying themselves, but then put on masks and gloves before approaching? Maybe this is meant to keep from scaring people. Just a guess.) If I recall correctly, they are also forbidden to wear masks while making arrests. What?

And the public isn’t allowed into the Sheriff’s Department if they ARE wearing masks. If they want to wear masks, they can come in without a mask, request a paper where they can write their phone number, then stand outside wearing their masks until a deputy comes out to see what they want. That’s the policy! What? Are they supposed to hold their breath while standing in line in the lobby? In the post office, every customer wears a mask or becomes a social pariah. But no one who actually has the virus would come into the Sheriff’s Office? Really?

It seems to me that the sheriff has been watching too many misinformed YouTube videos. Or perhaps he knows where his bread is buttered, so to speak, and he wants to keep that butter coming. With all this “good” publicity, maybe he’s hoping for a new job in Washington in some agency. But he won’t have my vote.

Let me mention that I support strong law enforcement and favor chain gangs for looters. I believe blue lives matter. So let’s keep them alive! The sheriff seems to not care about that.

No, he should put the safety of his officers first. Good for him. This mask insanity has gone far enough. Do you wear yours to bed at night?

Wow, glad to hear that the sheriff has some common sense and doesn’t want to have all his employees looking like paranoid idiots. He realizes that none of these makeshift masks can stop a virus. Good for him. I don’t live in that county but I think I’ll call there and congratulate him for having some common sense!

I read the article all the way through. It seems sober and balanced. Some of the points about masks making it harder to breathe may be overstated, as masks aren’t always worn for long. The point about wearing dirty or wet masks makes sense. More importantly, the article cites many scholarly medical articles from sound sources. I read half a dozen of those and learned from them.

Still, when people exhale, aerosolized microbes come out. That is thoroughly documented. They can be cultured and grown. Perhaps some studies have found that these can’t pass to others, but I don’t want to exhale microbes onto others, and I don’t want them to exhale them onto me. What else are we too do? One claim in the article is that in the operating room, it’s clothes that spread contamination into wounds, rather than breath, so gowns are necessary, but not masks. Okay. But what are the implications? Should we leave our masks at home and instead walk around wearing sterile gowns so we don’t shed viruses onto others from our microbe-laden clothing, even though our breath isn’t a problem? It’s problematic.

I plan to continue wearing a mask when I’m around people, changed quite frequently, and to wear a new pair of surgical gloves when I am in a store, and to not eat in restaurants if the employees are not wearing masks and gloves. I’d really rather not catch this.

People walking into a law enforcement building without a mask present a threat also to themselves and everyone else in the building!

Except when a maskless unknowing covid positive deputy stops you for a burned out tail light and spews virus at you.

Ridiculous. You can’t hide from a virus and you could never prove that anyone that works for him gave somebody the virus. Masks do not work. People are paranoid. Never thought I would see this in the United States of America. The media has turned many people into total idiots

Sheer lunacy! Vote his ass out. Sadly, by that time, how many innocent people will have become ill and possibly died from such a stupid order???? Also, my son is a police officer. He will be the first to say that criminals often spit in the face of officers. At least a mask or shield would protect the officer from such behavior.

No mask!----No Coffee and Donuts from Dunkin!

Maybe a lot of you didn't read his statement. He did this to promote CLEAR COMMUNICATION between his deputies and the public. I approve.

Exactly. The masks make it dangerous enough in public since you dont know who youre talking too and wont be able to identify someone who may attack or rob you. Read the article completely. It is meant as “no mask” inside the police dept for workers and guests. Dont go there then. Make a call. Deputies are still wearing masks inside the jail, hospitals and all other required places. The sheriffs office is their “home”. And they cn set up the rules the way they want and for their own reasons. How many of you actually walk into the sheriffs office anyway. Just another reason for everybody to b****. Get a hobby or part time job and occupy yourself.

Their name embroidered on it?? This isnt sleep away camp where we write our names in our underwear. Geeez

Well their death rate compared to population would be about a 99.8% survival rate. That’s exactly about the same as the flu. So for me glad to see the sheriff is using some common sense and not operating with total paranoia like a lot of people.

No I don’t agree but he did put a lot of exceptions to his no mask, like except when around the elderly, except when you have to engage someone up close, except when you feel the did, and so on. He has also mandated that they have to have a mask on their person at all times when on duty. So now it is up to the duties to control when they feel the need to mask up. Again don’t agree it has been proven over and over again constant close contact with individuals as how the virus spreads so when you’re in an office you were in close contact so I’m not quite sure how this is going to play for him.

Agreed. Nothing wrong with this man. He is simply responding appropriately to the thug world around him.

Waiting for the media to realize that part of The Villages is in Marion County...another round of national public ridicule about our community