# Christine Brennan, hyperbolic reporting, and Agendas are bad for football **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 17, 2020, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christine-brennan-hyperbolic-reporting-and-agendas-are-bad-for-football/920833 "2020-09-17T12:20:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christine-brennan-hyperbolic-reporting-and-agendas-are-bad-for-football/920833/21 "2020-09-17T16:27:20Z")
You’re entitled to that viewpoint. All I can say is, I hope the family of the student athlete who collapses and dies of a cardiac event related to a mild case of COVID ends up suing the ever-living piss out of the school, the conference, and the NCAA for gross negligence. ---
**Author:** ![Kearsen1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Kearsen1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kearsen1)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christine-brennan-hyperbolic-reporting-and-agendas-are-bad-for-football/920833/22 "2020-09-17T16:33:45Z")
I think they would likely have an uphill battle proving that myocarditis was directly caused from Covid. Between 3,000 and 50,000 people die from the flu every year (since the 70’s), how do we ever play any sport if we are going to shut down and stop when a death occurs from something contagious? I guess all of you who think it’s a bad idea can come back and crow when a massive outbreak causes a stoppage or deaths occur. I am hoping you are wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christine-brennan-hyperbolic-reporting-and-agendas-are-bad-for-football/920833/23 "2020-09-17T16:52:39Z")
> [@Kearsen1](#): > > I think they would likely have an uphill battle proving that myocarditis was directly caused from Covid. And that’s exactly why the sport authorities in this case are so cavalier about potential loss of human life. They know they are very unlikely to be held financially responsible, so who cares if some quarterback’s grandparents drop dead or if cases in the area double? ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christine-brennan-hyperbolic-reporting-and-agendas-are-bad-for-football/920833/24 "2020-09-17T17:02:27Z")
> [@Kearsen1](#): > > Yet here you are taking a hard line in the sand about something that will likely find a balance? How many would be too many, if 200,000 is too much, why aren’t we railing about smoking, or alcohol consumption, or obesity? Yeah, I’m the rigid one. I am offering a compromise. I’m saying we keep the strict protocols in place and as a compromise we pay higher taxes so that businesses and people who are adversely affected can be compensated. And your back of the envelope calculations seems a little off. It’s 60% of businesses **that closed down may** not reopen. While most, If not all, businesses have been affected, it’s a small percentage that have closed down completely. I don’t know where you’ve been these last few decades; but on my world there are national campaigns designed to curtail (if not eradicate) smoking, obesity, and alcoholism. But you may have noticed a difference in those things and covid…those ailments come about thru personal behaviors not viruses. > [@Kearsen1](#): > > I am hoping you are wrong And if you’re wrong even more people die. ---
**Author:** ![Kearsen1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Kearsen1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kearsen1)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christine-brennan-hyperbolic-reporting-and-agendas-are-bad-for-football/920833/25 "2020-09-17T17:04:26Z")
> [@Kearsen1](#): > > Between 3,000 and 50,000 people die from the flu every year (since the 70’s), how do we ever play any sport if we are going to shut down and stop when a death occurs from something contagious? How do we ever play anything, or even go to school? ---
**Author:** ![Kearsen1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Kearsen1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kearsen1)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christine-brennan-hyperbolic-reporting-and-agendas-are-bad-for-football/920833/26 "2020-09-17T17:05:19Z")
I’ll ask you the same question. How do we ever do anything? > [@Kearsen1](#): > > Between 3,000 and 50,000 people die from the flu every year (since the 70’s), how do we ever play any sport if we are going to shut down and stop when a death occurs from something contagious? ---
**Author:** ![Kearsen1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Kearsen1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kearsen1)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christine-brennan-hyperbolic-reporting-and-agendas-are-bad-for-football/920833/27 "2020-09-17T17:06:38Z")
> [@mikecurtis](#): > > I don’t know where you’ve been these last few decades; but on my world there are national campaigns designed to curtail (if not eradicate) smoking, obesity, and alcoholism. But you may have noticed a difference in those things and covid…those ailments come about thru personal behaviors not viruses. Personal behaviors like choosing to play football? They were given the choice to opt out at no cost to their scholarships. ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christine-brennan-hyperbolic-reporting-and-agendas-are-bad-for-football/920833/28 "2020-09-17T17:07:55Z")
Because covid and the flu are not the same thing. So far we’ve quadrupled the flu numbers and if we let up that could reach 10x. > [@Kearsen1](#): > > Personal behaviors like choosing to play football? That personal behavior affects others. ---
**Author:** ![Kearsen1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Kearsen1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kearsen1)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christine-brennan-hyperbolic-reporting-and-agendas-are-bad-for-football/920833/29 "2020-09-17T17:18:09Z")
We are talking about a difference of degree but they are the same thing. What makes one ok and the other not? Almost every personal behavior affects others. ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christine-brennan-hyperbolic-reporting-and-agendas-are-bad-for-football/920833/30 "2020-09-17T17:31:06Z")
A matter of degree?? Covid is 2 - 3 times as infectious as the flu and 10 times more deadly. The flu is not surreptitiously infectious like covid. We have tools to battle flu; none so far for covid. We will, in time, be able to get back to normal and “live” with covid. But now is too soon. It’s not even like bringing a knife to a gunfight. It’s like showing up to a gunfight with no weapon and no knowledge and hoping everything goes ok. ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christine-brennan-hyperbolic-reporting-and-agendas-are-bad-for-football/920833/31 "2020-09-17T17:32:16Z")
> [@Kearsen1](#): > > Almost every personal behavior affects others. Yea, but most are not contagious! ---
**Author:** ![Kearsen1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Kearsen1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kearsen1)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christine-brennan-hyperbolic-reporting-and-agendas-are-bad-for-football/920833/32 "2020-09-17T17:35:23Z")
I just don’t see it the same way, and you won’t be changing your stance anytime soon either so we can let it go. Death panels exist in our everyday lives, I realize they exist, I see them. Some folks do not or do not want to. Risk vs reward, we differ on how much of either there is. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christine-brennan-hyperbolic-reporting-and-agendas-are-bad-for-football/920833/33 "2020-09-17T18:00:20Z")
> [@Kearsen1](#): > > We are talking about a difference of degree but they are the same thing. What makes one ok and the other not? > > Almost every personal behavior affects others. Getting attacked by a housecat, a lynx, a leopard, and a sabertooth cat – all the same thing. Just a difference of degree! ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christine-brennan-hyperbolic-reporting-and-agendas-are-bad-for-football/920833/34 "2020-09-17T18:04:57Z")
> [@Kearsen1](#): > > I’ll ask you the same question. > > How do we ever do anything? > > > [@Kearsen1](#): > > > > Between 3,000 and 50,000 people die from the flu every year (since the 70’s), how do we ever play any sport if we are going to shut down and stop when a death occurs from something contagious? Well we are 2/3rds of the way through the year and Covid deaths are at 197k – so we could easily hit 250-300k, if people like you have their way. Meaning that COVID has already killed between 65 times and 4 times as many people as the flu would have – and by the way the CDC estimates that 24k people died from the flu in 2020 so far, so this isn’t an either/or question. I’d say that something that’s 4 to 65 times worse and could become 6 to 100 times as bad as the flu should be taken pretty seriously. ---
**Author:** ![Kearsen1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Kearsen1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kearsen1)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christine-brennan-hyperbolic-reporting-and-agendas-are-bad-for-football/920833/35 "2020-09-17T18:41:14Z")
Yes, they are, and all of them can be carefully worked around. But you dodged the question. Yes Covid is more dangerous than the flu, that doesn’t change the fact that we choose for the level of maintenance to be what it is vs what some folks would have it be. People who get the flu sometimes also get myocarditis, and people with Herpes 6 , etc etc … We choose the level of safety protocols we want. Hint: Probably determinant on the danger of the issue. Hint 2: We don’t shut down for anything else (or haven’t yet anyway) ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christine-brennan-hyperbolic-reporting-and-agendas-are-bad-for-football/920833/36 "2020-09-17T20:01:08Z")
So you agree that the difference between getting attacked by a lion and getting attacked by a housecat is just one of degree, right? And that is why it should be OK to own a lion. I mean, we don’t regulate housecats, and yes, a lion is more dangerous than a cat, but that doesnt change the fact that we have to choose the level of safety protocols we want. ---
**Author:** ![Kearsen1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Kearsen1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kearsen1)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christine-brennan-hyperbolic-reporting-and-agendas-are-bad-for-football/920833/37 "2020-09-17T20:23:51Z")
Degree, much like the degrees of no mask business as usual vs full economic shut down. I am sure you’d agree that a balance could and should be struck. I’d much rather the housecat but I’d take the lynx or leopard over the sabertooth. It just so happens that you, personally, do not like the balance that was struck. So, NOW that I have shown you how you just went **Reductio** ad **absurdum** maybe you would care to offer an answer to the question of the flu that kills 49,000 people (and is contagious) doesn’t warrant a shut down, or a slowing, or even masks and social distancing protocols? ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christine-brennan-hyperbolic-reporting-and-agendas-are-bad-for-football/920833/38 "2020-09-17T20:55:13Z")
Because as we have pointed out, THIS IS NOT THE FLU. Like the lion that’s deadlier than the cat, this is far deadlier than the flu. You’re like someone pointing at the escape hatch in a submarine 20 feet below the surface and demanding that it be opened, because yes, some water will get in, but hey, no one complains about opening the door in the rain, right? ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2020, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christine-brennan-hyperbolic-reporting-and-agendas-are-bad-for-football/920833/39 "2020-09-17T22:31:39Z")
> [@spifflog](#): > > But I also acknowledge that this is giant money grab, pure and simple. > > But let’s be clear. These conferences (and their fans I’d argue) don’t give a rat fart about these young men and their health. This. I live in the Big Ten football university town and it is **money**. For the athletic dept, the university, the town and the state. Money and **puerile incapacity for delayed gratification** on the part of fans. I have doubts that positive test results of the players and staff will be reported. Fans and partiers will still tailgate and bar hop and party since they can’t cram themselves into the stadium. I can guarantee you that damn few of them will wear masks or socially distance. If they were willing to do that they would be watching the game at home with only people they live with, people in their bubble. The contagion will spread throughout not only my city but also everywhere those tailgaters and bar hoppers return to after the partying is over. That affects me, the risk becomes mine. People are going to justify dropping all precautions because “if college football can be played I obviously don’t need to keep wearing a mask or socially distancing”. It undermines everything public health scientists have been trying to educate the populace about. The Big Ten had it right the first time, they shouldn’t have caved. Money and the religion of college football. I’m a fan of my team, BTW and I haven’t missed a game for years. ---
**Author:** ![Kearsen1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Kearsen1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kearsen1)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2020, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christine-brennan-hyperbolic-reporting-and-agendas-are-bad-for-football/920833/40 "2020-09-18T15:25:29Z")
No IT IS NOT THE FLU, IT IS LIKE THE FLU only different in degree (more deadly) Why do we do NOTHING for the Flu, but you want to shut down the economy for the other. If the data you have shown is correct, its 4 times as deadly! It is ok to say “I don’t know” or “we should” and if you believe that it is a fine place to be arguing from. So, are you ? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christine-brennan-hyperbolic-reporting-and-agendas-are-bad-for-football/920833.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/christine-brennan-hyperbolic-reporting-and-agendas-are-bad-for-football/920833.md?page=3)