"lingering in the air..." So many people have bought into the media's scare-mongering, it would be funny were it not so sad. As a retired ER RN & paramedic who worked through the AIDS & H1N1 time periods, we professionals did NOT take even half the precautions that the public afraid of COVID do. Common sense ruled the day. COVID is only "deadly" for a fraction of a percentage of the general population unless you have underlying health problems. Then wear a mask and social distance when around other people. I am in my late 60's and have been exposed to known tested persons with active COVID (as in sleeping next to my infected wife), never wore a mask, and never developed any symptoms (she only complained of an occasional cough & mild diarrhea).

News outlets thrive on stories of death & violence. "If it bleeds, it leads" is the age old axiom. One would think that the Black Death that occurred in the 1300's was upon us! The stress, anxiety, lonleiness & loss of income caused by the fear of COVID is far more damaging than the virus itself.

We need to enjoy the time we have left on this earth, so lets use some common sense and stop living in fear!

Excellent post. If I could rep you 1000 times, I would.

Unfortunately, people are tuning into programs like CNN and falling for the hysteria. It's sad.

Actually, in South Korea, New Zealand, Australia, and Japan it was NOT "DRACONIAN". There are many factors related to the differences in the society of the US and these more SUCCESSFUL countries at handling a Plague. The MAIN one is their citizens have a positive and confident attitude of a WILLINGNESS to COOPERATE with their government's CV effort. Whereas, the US of A has citizens with a STUBBORNNESS, inflexible, and uncooperative attitude to our government's CV effort. Citizens of those 4 non-US countries have great TRUST in their governments and what their governments tell them. They TRUST their leadership and their government mechanisms and laws. In New Zealand, they love their Prime Minister. The US, when it comes to a National emergency like this CV Plague, could be rightfully be called the DIS-United States. WE have a jumble of states competing for money, power, and favors from the Central government. US citizens were NOT told the truth about CV, early on, when it was 1st recognized as a MAJOR health problem( in Feb.). It became a Political football instead of an emergency to be turned over to the Epidemiologists for their judgment, and direction. Then they should have been given the POWER to solve the problem - the Political football was dropped, fumbled.

The US became a case study for Medical Scientists about what NOT to do!

The CDC just reversed itself and said that schools should NOT be shutting down. Schools should be open and children should be in class.

Great post! Well written and informative, such clarity. Nice to know that there are so many thoughtful and clever people in TV Land. Impressive!

I agree with all the content in this post - very well written and informative! Myself, I have taken and enjoyed, probably more psychology and sociology courses that the average. It builds a good base of thought to take into other classes.

I agree with some parts of this post but not others. I cannot tell you how I personally respect all of the nurses and first responders I know and those who have cared for my family and me over time. However, sometimes they get it wrong.

Covid-19 was first explained to be very contagious, then slowly as the world learned more about it, we found a number of qualifiers for it's contagion. I am sure you have read them too from valid sources.

I have avoided indoor activity.

I think that within 12 weeks, most of the people who live in The Villages will be offered a Vaccine that is 90% effective, and that has been tested by over 70,000 people. Governor DiSantis says that no one will be required to take it.

I have been following this closely, as I am sure you have too, and I am being very picky with the sources of my news. We all know that one doctor is NOT as good as another and one Research Facility is not as ethical as another.

I have great hope that very soon the worst will be behind us and I will be able to hug people and paint with my friends at Laurel Manor without a second thought.

I took a lot of psychology and child development classes when I was in college. I am glad that the CDC has FINALLY reversed their stance on school closures.

I believe that the experts are finding that all of this social distancing and self isolation is doing FAR more harm than good. First do no harm...

I no longer have children to protect. If mine were little, I would hesitate, because one was born with Cardiological and Pulmonary factors that would put her at high risk, like the elderly. Children are not affected as seriously, from what I've read but...One would bring it to the other who would be affected seriously.

The vaccine will slow this damned virus very soon.

I am so happy with THAT news.

Right now, we can celebrate that all reading these argumentative posts are STILL ALIVE.

I shelter now so that when I am again together with those I treasure, no one will be missing.

I am hoping and praying that the vaccine will be released soon. The isolation is having seriously adverse consequences in the elderly, too. I know from your posts that you are still getting out to the stores and whatnot. Some elderly people have not left their homes since this whole thing began which is not healthy. Their cognitive and physical declines are substantial and extremely worrisome. People need fresh air, sunshine and to be around other people.

This vaccine can not come soon enough in my own inexpert opinion.

That is a good question about contact tracing. I feel that MIGHT(?) work in The Villages, but only now and for a short time because The Villages is for some reason a lucky outlier for CV compared to the overall US. Which, yesterday recorded an all-time high of 193,000 cases of deadly CV. I feel that when most all parts of the US are one big "hot spot", that contact tracing is NOT possible. I feel that, unfortunately, the contract tracing method is like "closing the barn door after the horse has left the barn"! The overall US lost that capability around March or the 1st wave hitting us.

Here is something to watch out for in the near future.......For some reason unknown to me, Canada celebrates Thanksgiving several weeks earlier than we in the US do. If you pull up a graph of Canada's cases, you will find that 2 to 3 weeks after THEIR Thanksgiving they had a BIG spike in Cases! This gives a proof-positive visual example of why indoor gatherings of non-regular household people can be a LARGE spreader of CV cases in national aggregate. It also applies as a warning to TV landers to NOT go over to their neighbor's house for dinner or drinks. And to NOT go to bars with or without masks. Overall it proves that socialization indoors IS dangerous to yourself and your friends. Don't do it!

You can see this graph with your own eyes and it is logical (and has nothing WHATSOEVER to do with DRACONIAN countries). You either take this fact as a hint or you put it out of your mind and choose risk, pain, and possible DEATH. Another example to think about is, why do Wisconsin and their neighboring states have about 36% positive cases? My answer is - the popularity of indoor bars. There is little to do outside in Fall and Winter in Wisconsin, and the Dakotas. I hate to say this but churches are INDOOR gatherings of diverse, non-nuclear family type people. I wonder if any social scientist has studied the effect of high numbers of churches in various rural and urban settings?

That advice might(?) be good for a situation where risk is constant. Then people can better evaluate THEIR particular risk preference. But, we now have a situation that is RAPIDLY increasing in risks (namely 193,000 cases yesterday). The RISK is going up TOO rapidly for US citizens to wrap their heads around. And emotions and leadership misinformation have ADDED a large component to the uncertainty and confusion of the US public. It is a bad situation and it is getting worse!

He said that there was confusion, not lies. Give the man SOME credit for shedding much factual light on this bantered about topic often seen here on this forum.

You are correct up to a point. That point, in my opinion, would be around 5th grade. YOUNG CHILDREN for some unknown (?) reason may have the CV but be asymptomatic AND not SPREAD it. Now, remember, adults are quite different. They can get it easily (about 50% in the Dakotas) and they can spread it easily. And it is serious! The Dakotas and that area are filling up their hospitals and their staffs are exhausted and catching CV.

That is why teachers (ADULTS) are deadly afraid to be in schools (indoor air problems). Nurses in Philadelphia are on strike. This IS all serious and unprecedented! I can NOT dismiss these facts and blame these facts on CNN. That is just bizzaro!

Dr. Michael Olsterholm said the vaccine will LIKELY be available around June or July to regular people. You can Google that! He has been right all along about CV predictions. Take that to the Google and CV BANK!

It takes approximately 45 seconds for blood to flow through the heart and return. Upon my last Dr appointment sitting in the waiting room with so-called minor COPD, wearing a mask for 30 min my blood oxygen level is 99%.

Now I have to look up who is Dr. Michael Olsterholm. I haven't heard of him.

I am keeping my fingers crossed they will let our daughter Helene have the vaccine too when we get it. She is 55 and has Williams Syndrome.

When I read one of the VERY few posts such as yours, it is a breath of fresh air as the saying goes. I am not a health professional, but had enough university classes in some areas to really make me question what is happening to the minds of people in our community. People (and the cable TV) blasts 24.7 about staying with "science" and the "facts", and my mind is saying to ME: could the facts of science concerning how bacteria, viruses, microbes, etc. behave, act, and interact, since I was talking classes and tests in grad school in the 80's ? ? The same "lingering" in the air, almost laying in wait for a victim. I stopped reading this with my morning coffee for awhile, not because I disagreed with these folks, but seeing how desperately afraid so many of my friends and neighbors are really depressed me. So destructive to have so many so fearful for so many months. It would sure be in the interest of everyone's health, if our leaders, and even our friends and neighbors here would write the REAL (as opposed to made up "facts" that fit someone's personal opinion) facts. Have seen a relative of mine, 72, good general health, no chronic conditions, become nearly obsessive. Does absolutely nothing now, orders food on line, does not shop in stores, wears a mask when walking her dog, and uses Lysol wipes to wipe down every single can, box, package of food, and even wipes her mail. I know what people must be thinking but NO, this is a person who has been reliable, very practical, logical, and has never been a person who obsesses on health, visits doctors constantly, or had a cabinet that looks like a pharmacy. I know up close and personal that this is doing some very strange things to people. If only the media would encourage and uplift people, not my sugar coating it, but by giving some balance. Can't even watch TV without endless pictures of exhausted health care workers just breaking down and weeping and BEGGING people to do exactly what my relative has fallen into.... caution, common sense, of course, but what Y:bigbow::bigbow:OU wrote may help more people than you will ever know !

So. Dr. Michael Olsterholm appears to be picked for the next person in charge of the Pandemic in U.S.

He isn't an M.D.??

Dr's Fauci and Birx were M.D.s. with CDC. He lives in Minnesota.

Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH | CIDRAP

He's a researcher. Not all researchers are MD's. Glad you edited out the part about him being in Wisconsin.



Michael Thomas Osterholm is an American epidemiologist, regents professor, and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.

The CDC has said that children K-12 should be back in school. And I am in solid agreement with that.

My own kids have been back in school, working, seeing friends, going to the beach, even taking trips out of state. It has been a high priority of my own to make sure that my own kids have not been isolated and limited during this very difficult year.

In Florida, parents have always had the option to choose distance learning or brick and mortar for their children. Some have opted to home school. Parents know what's best for their own kids. I think that is a solidly good policy.

And he is a PHD not an M.D.

As for why I often confuse the two states that are way up there North of Chicago. I have only been to Minnesota once. One has excellent cheese they talk about a lot and the other is considered to have a lot of "Nice" people.

I just expected the person in charge of the Pandemic to be an M.D. Now I will research that. Maybe I'm wrong. I know that having an M.D. after your name is not a universally accepted reason to extol a person. However I usually am very honoring of M.D.s. AND most researchers.

I listened to and respected both Dr's Fauci and Birx directions.

It won't matter a lot in a very short time. Thank God.

WE HAVE THE VACCINE!!!

I see him all the time on the TV channels that I usually watch. His predictions on CV have been as or more accurate than that University of Washington group that does math modeling to predict the future behavior and amount of CV. Over a month ago Olsterholm predicted 200,000 cases by Jan1. He now says about 450,000 by March. And so does the U. of Wa. He is extremely sincere and intelligent! He worries about Thanksgiving.

Me too. I worry about it too. It is my take that the cold weather is making the virus more contagious. We won't be having family or friends this year. Just the three of us.


Next year we will have company around our table....Whooooopppppppppppeeeeeeeee.

Honestly, yes. Why would they lie? What media news sources do is put a slant on the news but they don't out and out lie. They also neglect (on purpose) to report a news story if it doesn't fit their agenda. That's how I see it anyway.

I have not heard this but thank you for posting. I surely hope this information is true.

Dr Fauci and Dr Birx are currently with the WH team, unless they get fired like everyone else. They will certainly transition to Biden's team.

Apparently you didn't read the last word in the last sentence, "fabricated". That is an accusation that I was lying.

I rely on the "experts". Those folks who have those letters at the end of their names such as MD certainly know more than I do. I rely on their knowledge to guide me. Thanks to all those who have that education and expertise.

You really slept next to your infected wife? No mask when around her? Sorry, but I will not take any advice you have to offer. But that's just me. Hope you both will be fine.

I agree with most of what you said. I would like to add that our government has spent billions to develop a Covid vaccine(s). Our government will also spend more to distribute and offer this vaccine to all Americans for FREE. I thank the Trump administration for getting this done.

There will be a major sea change soon. We will have articulate messages and a lot of money spent and not much accomplished.

We can social distance and still be together. That is the easy part. Isolation does not have to be part of the equation.

Gracie,
I know you have been very careful with the Covid precautions and mostly sheltering in place. It will all be worth it. As you always say (stolen from someone else who I can not remember who)......"Patience grasshopper".

I can understand sheltering in place and not leaving one's home but why not get fresh air? There is no reason why anyone should not sit on their lanai or even a driveway with their family member.

Depression, isolation, fear.

Wearing a mask protects primarily others, but also provides some protection to the wearer.

Everyone in The Villages has a lanai, many have a nice front area to sit. Most of us who are trying to keep to themselves have a golf cart for a little spin and many enjoy working in the yard. We aren't locked inside.

Plus we have many social interactions with our friends on Facebook, sharing many craft projects and recipes and showing some home decorating projects. Many are Christmas gathering and there is a lot of surprises arriving in the mail from friends and family. People are doing all they can to think of others and to enjoy pictures of grandchildren and pets and family members all over this country. The true joy of the internet keeps us mentally healthy and happy.