JUDGE: Thank you for wearing your masks Milam County

For months I have been writing asking every citizen of the county to do their part to fight this terrible virus. Last week I wrote insisting that we all do three simple things while in public: (1) keep at least six feet of distance; (2) wear a face covering; and (3) use good personal hygiene, including frequent hand washing.  I thank each and every one of you for complying with these requests.

Every person I saw on Saturday afternoon was wearing a face covering which was a first.  In the beginning, I would see just a few people with masks and people would look at me with disdain or at best curiosity when I was wearing a mask.  But now, we are all beginning to realize that wearing a mask is essential to prevent the spread of the virus.  Thank you all for your compliance.

As the pandemic goes on, we learn more and more everyday about the virus we are fighting. Just yesterday, a new study indicated that virus antibodies that are produced in the body of an infected person don’t last very long. Conventional wisdom dictates that an infected person would not have a second infection, due to the antibodies that the body produces.  Not so, according to the new study. Now it appears that the antibodies dissipate quickly leaving the person at risk for a second infection.

We now know that many, many people who have the virus are pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic. Often an infected person will have no symptoms for several days after infection and in many cases, an infected person never has symptoms. A study released just last week from Yale indicated that over 50 percent of the spread of the virus is done by those who are pre-symptomatic or asymptomatic. This is really scary because it means that there are a lot of infected people out there unknowingly spreading the virus.  

The one constant is that the virus is respiratory and is spread from human to human by vapor droplets expelled when breathing and speaking.  Another constant is that the virus typically travels only a few feet in the air before falling to the ground.  Most importantly, a face covering contains approximately 70 percent of the vapor droplets from the mouth and nose and thus it contains the spread of the virus.  

Finally, there is no cure of any kind for this terrible menace and the only thing we can do to protect ourselves and others is to prevent the spread.  Thanks to every good citizen of our fine county for your compliance.  We are all in this together and the only way out is depend on each other to do the right thing to prevent the spread.  Working together we can win this fight.