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Dear Commissioners,
Thank you for your ongoing efforts to reduce the negative impacts of the pandemic and help end it sooner rather than later.
At the center of effective management, is wearing a mask , given the aerosolic transmission of the virus.
Especially now that the new, far more contagious variant of the virus is widespread in Florida, and Alachua County is at high risk given all our major institutions like UF, Shands, VA etc. that have people coming from all over.
This is an extremely important time to continue the mask mandate and I urge you to keep it in place. We do not need to face another surge of any size when we are hopefully only a few more months away from containing and ending the pandemic.
As a former RN, who worked on at a major medical teaching hospital during the swine flu outbreak in 1976, and who has a public health focus,
I have been shocked and surprised by the lack of understanding of, and respect for, public health measures now in our country. We are far too complacent, and the prior administration failed to provide the leadership and consistent messaging for a national strategy that could have saved thousands of lives and shortened the ordeal we all have gone through this past year.
That wearing a mask has become a political issue rather than a health issue, has resulted in the US having one of the most prolonged and worst outcomes in the world.
This is a time to stand firm on the side of public health, of bringing this pandemic to an end, to minimizing further damage to our children, our small businesses and our whole social and economic fabric. Please continue the mask mandate, and know that a majority of our county residents concur. We have kept our numbers low here because of such high compliance, which translates to high support for the mask mandate, so this is no time to relax.
This virus grabs hold via respiratory transmission, so a mask is the first line of defense, and is very effective at both preventing transmission, or, reducing the viral load and reducing potential severity of infection.
You have support and you have science and public health on your side. We need to keep it up down this home stretch, so that it IS a home stretch, and not just another lull in extending the pandemic on and on.
That cases are drifting higher here, and the new data that appears to indicate that children and young people are far more vulnerable to the new variant now circulating, we must nip this in the bud. This is a critical juncture.
Thank you for your efforts.
In community
Nancy Deren
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