[Craig Vernon]

Originally Posted by PennBF

Let's get real !! We are the largest community in the US with an average age of 67. We have approximately 132,000 residents and the largest concentration of veterans. Now can someone, anyone explain why we have no regular testing for the virus. The only one that
I know of is conducted by a private Medical faciliity. We have a bunch of elected officials visiting and bragging about our low percents of infected. Now how is that possible to know if you have not tested? No ones knows our numbers and it is an insult to us to pretend they do.

If I test you today and not tomorrow then I still don't know if you have the virus. The knowledge may be valuable from a scientific or analytics experiment but as an individual it means little.

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Originally Posted by birdiebill

If you get tested for the virus, and test positive, you can isolate for the 14 days or more assuming you develop symptoms.

If you test negative for the virus, that means you do not have it at the time of the test. How many days will you wait before you go and get tested again, "just in case you pick it up."

With symptoms, test makes sense; without symptoms test for virus makes less sense unless you are testing for antibodies, or you know you have recently been around a person who is/was tested positive.

Again a negative test for antibodies only means you are negative at the time of the test. Positive means you were exposed, but does not prove immunity--at least yet.

I had labs done for a regular follow-up and asked the lab tech at my doctor's office if she could also get me an antibody test. She said she could do it if the doctor ordered it, but he was not in that day.

Check the history for Typhoid Mary.

It is relevant to this discussion.

I am EXPOSED to this virus, I would imagine, every single day. I spend much of the day wondering if I will, at some point, get symptoms. Working retail in the front of the store means I'm exposed to people not wearing masks who refuse to social distance, going the wrong way down one-way aisle so their breath is within sneeze-distance to my eyes. It means I am helping people in those scooter-buggies who are coughing because they've been sick with "oh just a cold" for a week, who refuse to wear a mask. I'm exposed to co-workers who might call out sick tomorrow and have been hiding their sickness out of fear of losing their income.

I have no idea what sickness these people have, but the risk of it being COVID-19 is pretty significant.

Because I have no symptoms, I *could* be an asymptomatic carrier. For all anyone knows, any one, or two, or three or more employees of "essential jobs" that deal with the public, could be the next Typhoid Mary.

For that reason, it'd be nice to be able to test once a week. As I harp on in every post about these things - it's all about risk reduction. Not risk elimination.

[PennBF]

When I posted my "Lets get real" the point was simple. What PERCENTAGE of the Village residents TESTED positive for the Virus vs population? That would identify the REAL risks involved and the need for or not for tight controls. Those who found all sorts of excuses for that not being available but go to another area for their percentages is exactly what I was pointing out. I don't give a rats behind what the percentage is for Leesburg or State College, etc as they have a totally different profiles from the Villages.
To test any response you are about to give just provide what the percentage is for the risk of the virus in The Villages based on regular testing within the confines of the Villages by broad available testing facilities dedicated to The Villages. Let me save you time as that does not exist and has not existed. To pretend it does is a cruel joke to those who, based on bad input run out and celebrate a position that is statistically inaccurate.

[skip0358]

Think it's funny when the testing was being done at the Polo field there wasn't an over abundance of people that went. Then the comments waste of time people going that don't need it blah blah blah. That was a well organized drive thru one of the smoothest things I've ever seen run in TV. Yes I went and was tested was put into the research side no I did not have it but I had piece of mind as I had been to New Orleans on a Cruise for Fat Tuesday talk about crowds. If you want to get tested you can, yes you may have to drive a bit to get there but what else do we have to do. If nothing else you can say you did it.

[coffeebean]

Originally Posted by Number 10 GI

What is so hard to understand? If you get tested at 10:00AM and get infected at 2:00 PM your test is going to be negative. You'll be walking around all fat, dumb and happy that you tested negative, but that won't be true because you are infected. For testing to have any benefit is if you are tested daily.

The benefit of frequent testing is to find those people who are positive. Once a positive result is obtained, then that person should not go out in public at all, AKA self quarantine. This type of testing needs to be done on a very regular basis for mitigating this virus. It is impossible to achieve that degree of testing for the entire population.

The better and much easier way to mitigate this virus is for everyone to wear masks when social distancing is not guaranteed (grocery stores, pharmacies, retail stores, etc). Then, the asymptomatic or presymptomatic carriers of the virus will not spread the disease unknowingly.

I read an article which I posted in the medical forum of TOTV, that said if 80% of the world's population wore masks when social distancing is not guaranteed, this virus infection rate would plummet.

[VApeople]

Originally Posted by PennBF

When I posted my "Lets get real" the point was simple. What PERCENTAGE of the Village residents TESTED positive for the Virus vs population?

If that was the point of your original post, then why did you not ask that specific question?

Anyway, I doubt anyone understands your question, so I guess it doesn't matter if you ask it or not.

[PennBF]

Just got back from a regular visit to Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville. Their routine was first they take your temp, then they ask a series of relevant questions regarding the virus, then you must have a mask on anytime you are there and if you don't have one they will provide you with one. Then you receive a "sticker" with that day you are there and you can have one visitor only and they must go through the same procedures and you can't change your visitor. They only have one patient with the virus. That seems to be a good basis for minimizing the spread of the terrible virus. They also have regular testing. As you drive on to the property there are signs to turn into a specific road to get tested. Anyone can make that turn on the property. They will test you and you will get the results in about a day. The test includes a probe up your nose and it can be a little painful? Just as an aside, testing is not only to identify the people who may have the virus BUT to also identify how much the virus has spread and the degree of inclusion into a specific area. The negative responses for statistical purposes are to establish a methology to attack the spread in certain areas and is as important as the positive responses.