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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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)
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.
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?
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?
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.