Vanity means nothing when in a box in the ground.

That could be really useful information. Source please.

I think the reason may be that the mask mandates came a little too late. The proverbial horse was out of the barn.

I don't pay attention to any of the numbers or statistics. What I pay attention to is if the hospitals are over whelmed, if the health care providers are exhausted and the staff just can not keep up with the patient demands. I also pay attention to how many satellite hospital beds are being set up, especially for large cities. I pay attention to refrigerated trucks in use to store the dead bodies because morgues are at max.

Masks most certainly would be more effective if everyone wore their mask correctly. A mask worn below the nose is like not wearing a mask at all. Think about this......when you are tested with a long swab, it is your naso pharynx that is swabbed. That is the swab up the nose. So......why wear a mask with the nose exposed? Oh....to breath better? That is no excuse. Sorry.

Wearing a mask below the chin is absolutely useless but yet, I see people in public indoor spaces wearing their mask below their chin. Just silly. Take the damn thing off if that is how you wear it.

Actually, the predominant source of viral particles coming from a human, comes out of the mouth during normal breathing. The primary source of infection is through the nose. If a person sneezes, it comes out both. Standard breathing however, more virus is ejected via the mouth.

In other words, those people with the chin strap mask are somewhat protecting you, but are not protecting themselves at all.

What a mask does is reduce your inoculum (Your dose). You will still be exposed to virus, but to a smaller quantity at any one time. This allows your body to build a response before it is overwhelmed and you have a better chances of a good outcomes.

Distance is truly the only way to be sure you are not exposed. Anyone that is compromised must avoid exposure and only wear an N95 or better(full face respirator) in any setting with other people of unknown infection status.

Masks, at least those commonly available to normies, are something, but they aren't much. Suggesting that universal masking would halt the pandemic simply isn't the case. They do help improve the number of minor or asymptomatic cases though.

I think I saw that movie on the SyFy channel. Things are pretty peaceful around here and the hospital is not overwhelmed by the infected.
I have no problem with wearing a mask when appropriate, BUT I will not be mandated by law to wear one. Once you allow them that much power then they can force anything on you. It's not an exaggeration. Just look at other countries that have allowed the gov TOO much power. It ain't pretty.

Don't like it, then stay away! Like it, then party on!

A mask does not do much to protect you. It protects others from you. If there is not a mask mandate in the squares you are crazy to go there or an avid gambler, but this may be with your life.

I agree totally. But it's all about the money and real estate sales. Otherwise why would they risk an epidemic of covid here, which would make national news after all the times Villages was shown during the rallies and golf cart parades. Terrible chance to take and could take it's toll, along with our home values.

Possibly because most all the mandates were put into effect AFTER the states in question were taken over by the recent spikes not before ??

LOL, getting back to the ORIGINAL POST in this thread it turns out everything was not fully opened up in the squares. The squares are still under the same limits as they have been except no tickets are needed any longer. They are counting people and when it reaches the same max number as it was with tickets sold they close down entry. First come first served.

Only change was no ticketing which was useless anyway because they let people in after 6PM and sometimes at 5PM without tickets since day 3 when they realized the ticket idea was a fail.

Sorry, simply not true. Look it up.

Yeah, NY, NJ and CT have had a mask mandate in place since June/July. I also know that my company in NJ and most companies started requiring them in April. You can't go inside anywhere without one. As I said up thread. Masks do not prevent infection for the wearer. The Danish clinical study out yesterday supports this. Denmark trial measures effectiveness of adding a mask recommendation to other public health measures for preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection

The study was silent on whether it protects others and how masks affect disease severity. We know from animal studies that the initial dose(Inoculum) of a virus does change the LD50(Lethal dose in 50% of exposed). We know that masks do reduce inoculum. It stands to reason that you have a better chance of a better case when you are wearing a mask.

At this point, there have been enough studies done on Vitamin D to show that if you have a healthy serum level of D in your system, your odds improve DRASTICALLY! Your chance of not dying improve 89%!(see link below) I'd rather see a Vitamin D mandate than a mask mandate.

Vitamin D and survival in COVID-19 patients: A quasi-experimental study - ScienceDirect

--->The full-adjusted hazard ratio for mortality according to vitamin D3 supplementation was HR = 0.11[95 %CI:0.03;0.48], P = 0.003.<---

HR = Hazard Ratio, I.E. an 89% improvement. A 1.0 would mean zero risk reduction.

I am referring to the states that are being clobbered **NOW** with geometrically increasing cases and overloaded facilities with super high positivity who refused before not states who have "spiked" to a relatively small 3-5%. Like Iowa, N Dakota, Louisiana and a couple others. Of course then there are those states where the Gov actually PROHIBITS mask mandates or refuses to allow local counties to enforce them like the one and only Ronnie D.

People are now saying "See, in Iowa (or N Dakota etc) they have a mask mandate and it doesn't help." Well of course not because the doofus governess implemented it after the damage has been done. It's too late, you can't bring back dead people.

The CDC just reversed themselves and are now saying that schools should not be closed. That's right - children should be IN class AT their schools.

I'm glad to live in Florida where parents have the choice of keeping their kids at home or sending their kids to school.

So, I guess you're okay with people being near your mother without a mask.

No, my mom has been taking prudent precautions. We wear masks around her when we can't keep a proper social distance. We celebrated Mother's Day outside and will celebrate Thanksgiving around our large dining room table with the windows open.

I've also helped her by running errands or taking her to stores at less busy times.

Nobody had to order me to do those things, either.

We had to go to the hospital but not for a reason related to Covid. After my husband was "admitted" to be an in-patient we spent five hours in the ER waiting for a room to open up. When I talked to the ER nurse about the long and uncomfortable wait, she explained that the hospitals are overwhelmed and short-staffed. Many nurses have quit. The long hours and extra demand put on them is "just not worth it."

If some people's selfish behavior causes them to get COVID and thus put extra demand on the medical workers, then shame-on them and their bad behavior.

I think that all of the added Covid protocols and onerous paperwork have had something to do with why hospitals are becoming short staffed.

Protocols? Paper work? I doubt that is what is causing health care workers to quit their jobs. Think about it.

Obviously, you are not speaking of The Villages hospital. Plenty of rooms, but there is always a wait in the ER for a room. It's famous for long ER waits. Of course, like everything, there are always exceptions to the norm.
Most folks with the virus are sent home. Only the ones with breathing problems are kept. I see no reason for spreading panic. After all, the vaccine will start being distributed next month or the following month. Still, most folks get over it anyway.

Are you referring to states like Pennsylvania who have had long standing mask mandates? They are really spiking. But wait, that can’t be possible...

I just checked the webs cams Brownwood about 30 people line dancing Sumter landing very few. Spanish springs sunset blocking camera but then it's only 5:15

I was not referring to you. Other people , strangers like you that don't wear a mask and don't care about their fellow man only their "rights".

Right. My mom doesn't go to the crowded venues that my kids do (school, work, stadiums, fairs, etc). She doesn't go to the bars and entertainment venues that my husband and I do so she isn't really ever in a situation to be around non mask wearers and the like. She generally hangs around people who are very careful about mask wearing and who are careful about social distancing. She wouldn't go into a preschool classroom, for example, and read to a bunch of kids even though she LOVES children to pieces.

If there is someone in the grocery store not wearing a mask, she doesn't hang around them. We would never go around her if we were symptomatic. We've all stayed healthy.

Relax

Don't want to let anyone "have it", AND I MAY WELL BE WRONG....but since when were children deemed "High Risk" ???? Everything I have read, seen, and heard is the exact opposite ! Also, we'll argue this forever, but do you, or anyone, feel threatened sitting outside listening to music and having some measure of "normality" to your life ? I doubt (but again .... I would not know, just a "gut" feeling) those "vulnerable" residents you mention (which would be those in sheltered care residences, nursing homes, etc. all over the Villages) probably will not be the ones going to the squares anyway, they KNOW their risk and that is why the probably moved to a more secure living arrangement to begin with. I just don't believe it is dangerous to have some music and normality to life, but I am NOT an "denier", but some of the things assumed on here just make no scientific sense at all: "clouds" of concentrated virus that "hang" in the air waiting to infect people, as one person mentioned ! Air is 5 gasses (I believe that is still true ?), quite a magic trick to get those 5 to stay stationary and lay in wait for victims ? Someone on here has a tag line about trying to understand some people is like trying to SMELL a color or a number.... THAT is right on ! The "logic" some apply is truly baffling !
Again, not giving you an argument, but do you seriously think the dying from Covid is really going to go to such horrifying levels that there will be that there are going to be nothing of vacant homes on the market ? And, WHERE could those fleeing GO to be "safe ? This is like the middle ages I guess ? I am probably the one who is naive !

A big "amen" to that. I don't think people have any idea of the psychological damage we've done to an entire generation by doing this to children for nearly a year now.

Our VA govern told us to only have family Thanksgiving outside in small numbers??? All this while he heads to NC for his big family vacation.

Let's keep everyone in fear and then we can control them.

Well, this was predictable. Last week the town squares were opened up, and the on-line new source just reported a massive spike in Covid cases throughout the Villages. This is a really bad time to be opening everything back up! Stay tuned.

I don't think it's the timing that's the problem. I think it's the methodology that's the problem.

Anyone "at risk" should still wear a mask whenever they congregate in close proximity to each other outside, or any time they're in a building open to the public (except while they're eating of course).

There still should be social distancing, or at the absolute least - anyone who appears to be trying to social distance, should be given the courtesy of being allowed to do so. If someone keeps backing away from you, or skirting to the side when you're behind them in line, acknowledge that they want to keep their distance from you, and honor it.

It doesn't even need to be 6 feet. But I was in line today to return something and the woman behind me was less than 2 feet away and NOT wearing a mask. I kept trying to step a little to one side, and she came in right behind me again. I tried inching a step closer to the person in front of me, and she was right there behind me, inching just as close. There was no one behind her, so no reason she should've felt the need to crowd me.

It's as though people have forgotten to simply respect each others' space - something we used to do naturally, before COVID-19 existed.

Why didn't you just ask her to step back? I certainly would have. In fact, I have asked people to give me space as they encroach close to me. I always use the word "please". No harm in that.

Agree.........must speak up to the clueless.

I was just thinking how good it has been for children to be WITH their parents for eight months in a way that many of us grew up instead of being hauled around to games and programs and to be cared for as infants by people our parents wouldn't lend their car keys to.

It strongly appears that children are not as much at risk from Covid-19. We have read about teachers dying from it.

I am going to change the subject. There have been few posts about how happy folks are that two vaccines that are above 90% effective will be available to us older people and medical people soon.

I wonder why. AND....On the issue of psychological damage. I wonder what has happened that we are not talking about the light at the end of the tunnel?