To the editor:

As we search for solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic in Florida, common sense tells me that as long as a significant segment of our local population refuse to wear a mask in public, all the daily tabulating of COVID-19 cases and deaths won’t help except to dramatize how serious the disease is at a certain moment. It’s obvious that a significant portion of our population is spreading the disease. The Asian countries, much of Europe, New York, and others have reduced their infection rate to a very low rate. Is their hospital system better than ours in Florida? No! Do they have a secret remedy? No! Their populations have embraced wearing a mask in public to reduce the spread of the disease. Our infection rate in Florida is likely to continue for an indefinite period because of our “freedom” not to mask up. I suspect that the anti mask group is spreading the disease to other anti maskers. It would help if the health system would tract to see if the new infections have anything in common. Intuition tells me that there would be a strong connection between new infections and not wearing a mask.

G. William Hoover, DDS

Cape Coral