- April 26, 2024
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Dear Editor:
Gov. Ron DeSantis is very conscientious, and I am sure he carefully examines all the COVID statistics and studies that are available to protect Florida residents. Many people are entering our country and state illegally, and Florida is not permitted to put any mandates on them.
Gov. DeSantis is not “anti-mask." He is frequently requesting all Floridians wear masks and get vaccinated, as he also demonstrates by his own behavior.
He has provided numerous free testing and vaccination sites.
Withstanding a great deal of political difficulty, he has also established many monoclonal treatment centers. This treatment is very successful in keeping people who contract the virus from having to be hospitalized. Now the supply of this medicine to the state of Florida is being cut back, and the governor is already working on direct purchasing.
Through all the obstacles placed against our state, our governor continues to fight for all of us. Some people have difficulty wearing masks for prolonged periods, or other reasons. Even if this type of mandate is found to be legal, there are other things to consider. Do the Florida taxpayers want bigger government and "mask marshals"? Which taxpayer pays the fine for people who can't afford food? etc., etc.
This is America. Those of us who are vaccinated and wear masks can do so anywhere. The government mandating people to wear masks everywhere is un-American.
Jean Sbertoli
Flagler Beach
Dear Editor:
The tireless and great efforts of Bob Snyder and Dr. Stephen Bickel of our county’s health department to ensure that science trumps pseudoscience in their fight against COVID-19 are now facing a setback. With the installation of a new Florida surgeon general, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, the governor has clearly gone out of this way to displace the good science Snyder and Bickel promote with a political ideologue with a questionable background.
Ladapo, who has no experience in public health, was affiliated with America’s Frontline Doctors, a very controversial fringe group that advocates the use of, and prescribes through their website, debunked and potentially dangerous COVID medical treatments, including the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, and spreads false and misleading anti-vaccine and anti-mask wearing information.
The group’s “medical” members include a doctor who actually claimed, “tormented spirits” are responsible for a variety of medical conditions and that space alien DNA is being used in medical treatments. Another anti-vaccine doctor and former head of the group was arrested and lost her job for her participation in the Jan. 6 attack on our Capitol.
For a long time, Mr. Snyder and Dr. Bickel have been fighting an uphill and unwavering battle to instill good quality science and a fact-based approach to mitigate the pandemic here in Flagler. They have had to face off with the likes of a pseudoscience connoisseur School Board member, and local politicians and consistently take on misguided mask-wearing and vaccine reluctance.
But now, given the surgeon general’s affiliation with America’s Frontline Doctors, we should have a real sense of foreboding that our health department has been saddled with a boss who could be operating with hyper-political anti-science intentions. Should we be worried that someday there will be an ivermectin “de-worming” offer at the new Regeneron treatment facility here in Palm Coast or maybe even a demon exorcism?
It’s pretty clear the new surgeon general is not a proponent of CDC guidelines and the scientific consensus around the pandemic, leaving our very capable good-intentioned health department in a possible untenable position: buck the boss and be true to the science or fall in line with a political ideologue with a questionable scientific mindset.
Robert Gordon
Palm Coast
Dear Editor:
I tire of those who advocate for mask requirements in schools and elsewhere because they "say" that studies show that masks are effective. I say, what studies are those?
In 2017 an NIH study stated that cloth masks offered no protection and N95 masks only offered the minimum amount of protection. In 2020, the CDC did a study in Georgia specifically with regards to schools. The results showed a difference of 21% which the experts at CDC deemed "statistically insignificant.” Because of a whole host of different variables between schools, the increase would have needed to be 40% or higher to be considered significant.
The only study that "showed" the effectiveness of masks was by the CDC in 2021 under strict controlled environment conditions. That study used the phantom aerosol method and showed the effectiveness of a properly worn three-layer approved type of cloth mask. Now the first person that can prove that any school is a strict environmentally controlled environment, then I will capitulate that masks may provide some level of protection. But we all know that our own results would be much less than 21%.
This much is absolutely true: Masks or not, vaccinated or not, previous COVID infection or not, if one is exposed to COVID-19 you may contract the virus. There truly is no protection that will make someone completely safe. Safety should always be third after knowledge and individual responsibility. There's even a mask for that.
Paul Anderson
Palm Coast
Editor’s Note: According to the Georgia study, "The 21% lower incidence in schools that required mask use among students was not statistically significant compared with schools where mask use was optional. This finding might be attributed to higher effectiveness of masks among adults, who are at higher risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection but might also result from differences in mask-wearing behavior among students in schools with optional requirements.”
According to the 2021 CDC report you cited, “Masks substantially reduce exhaled respiratory droplets and aerosols from infected wearers and reduce exposure of uninfected wearers to these particles.”
