Okay Now It's Postponed For Real
ROSEMONT, Ill. – The Big Ten Conference announced the postponement of the 2020-21 fall sports season, including all regular-season contests and Big Ten Championships and Tournaments, due to ongoing health and safety concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This knocks out football, soccer, volleyball, field hockey, and cross country. Notably, basketball and hockey are not yet on the chopping block. They probably will be, but let a man hold on to his hopes of seeing Kent Johnson and Owen Power and all the other super-talented guys in this hockey recruiting class while he can.
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August 11th, 2020 at 3:10 PM ^
LOL at anyone who thinks we are doing this in the Spring. We ain't.
August 11th, 2020 at 3:20 PM ^
Nope. They spent 5 months doing nothing at all to make a rushed decision to cancel a week after releasing a schedule. And you know it's rushed because none of the coaches or athletes know what this does to things like housing, training, scholarships, etc.
End of the day, this had little to do with the health of the players, and more about fending off lawsuits. Because if the things they are citing are really what they're worried about -- the variety of unknowns about COVID and extreme exertion -- none of that is going to get figured out by spring and you'll have all the same issues you had in August as you do in Jan/Feb when you need to decide if you're actually playing.
August 11th, 2020 at 3:22 PM ^
I mean there could be a vaccine in spring. This virus has existed in humans for about 9 months, its been seriously studied for about 7 months. Another 5 months of research is almost doubling the amount of time we have to figure out the impact the disease has and how we can fight it and what is safe.
August 11th, 2020 at 3:49 PM ^
Definitely agree they will know more about the virus in 5 months, how to better fight it, and what more of the side effects are.
However, while there might be a vaccine in the spring, college aged kids are going to be amongst the last people in line to get it. We all saw the public outcry when NBA players cut the line to get tests. How do you think that would play out if football players are getting vaccinated before a whole host of others?
August 11th, 2020 at 4:01 PM ^
Schools and universities will be among the first to get it since they can't social distance well.
August 11th, 2020 at 4:11 PM ^
Not when online learning is an option.
August 11th, 2020 at 4:27 PM ^
It's an option that almost everybody hates. It'll be elderly and high at risk first, then schools. That would be most efficient both in distribution and slowing the spread.
August 11th, 2020 at 4:56 PM ^
Military will be first. Get it in them, see how they respond, then pass it on to the high-risk groups and filter down.
August 11th, 2020 at 5:06 PM ^
Just because people don't like it doesn't mean its a valid reason to be amongst the first to get it.
August 11th, 2020 at 6:26 PM ^
By not liking online classes, they mean it's less effective. And education is generally viewed as kinda important, and is a huge part of the economy. Not to mention most students live with parents or in dorms, etc., so you'd be getting more bang for the buck to start out.
I'm not sure who else would get it first? Obviously emergency personnel, etc., but students/teachers will get it before Joe typical worker.
August 11th, 2020 at 5:54 PM ^
If you have limited supplies of a Covid vaccine, no way in hell do you give it to college students first. You give it to the highest-risk people. If they are in the clear, we're not going to care much about whether college students test positive or not.
August 11th, 2020 at 6:37 PM ^
That goes without saying. Those numbers aren't going to be huge tho.
At any rate, there's not going to be a limited supply tho, they're already making or have made hundreds of millions. It's just a question of inoculating people-that's what's going to take time. And that's where schools will get priority right after hospital patients and staff, nursing home patients and staff, police, EMTs, etc. Obviously the person doing the inoculations will have already been vaccinated, for example.
And if there's mass vaccinations they'll have drives at schools and churches anyway, doing students there is obviously most efficient as you try to reach herd immunity. Even if they're learning from home still, just roll the buses around. It's all set up. A lot of college students will still be near campus and can just walk.
August 11th, 2020 at 4:02 PM ^
True for your typical college student, but college football players more than likely would be at the front of the line for a vaccination due to the billions of dollars of revenue they produce.
August 11th, 2020 at 4:54 PM ^
This isn’t about the health of the players. It’s about the idea that if they play sports, that might possibly increase spread of the virus so that, via the butterfly effect, a vulnerable person somewhere else might get infected. It’s not an entirely satisfactory reason to a lot of people though, so we’re getting fed various fig-leaf justifications (“5 athletes have myocarditis and we can’t prove it wasn’t from COVID”) to make it more palatable.
If there is a vaccine, the games will resume, because our society will become far more tolerant of COVID than it currently is. That’s the endgame. We won’t eradicate it, we’ll just live with it like we do influenza.
August 11th, 2020 at 5:35 PM ^
It has nothing to do with the health of the players, since as a matter of objective fact that are least at risk from Covid in the population. It's also not really about them spreading it, since there are multiple ways of keeping athletes on football teams from coming into close contact with at risk people (coaches will coach knowing what the risks are) because we know from seeing sports like the EPL and others that this is can be done with no spread. Just as we know from numerous countries around the world schools can open. Both are facts that are out there and not contradicted by any data.
So that leaves A-emotions driving decisions instead of science and risk based data analysis, B- concerns for liability. Clearly, from the arguments on the board, there is a lot of "A." Unlike every major decision we make in our personal lives and in public policy, for Covid alone, we have otherwise intelligent people arguing that we can't make decisions because of what we don't know. A formula we don't follow for literally any other choice in life or in public policy, all of which we make based on the data we know at the time and weigh the risks that we know at the time. And with "B" liability, this is likely the main reason behind the scenes than many voted to postpone the season.
So we've made a decision of great import, against the preferences of the people who are most impacted by that decision, based upon fear of the unknown and fear of lawsuits. That's how we do things now.
August 11th, 2020 at 6:43 PM ^
Young people are least at risk from dying and being hospitalized, but they also have the most to lose long into the future. This virus gets in you, it's going to kill cells, it's going to cause inflammation, until your immune system takes them out. Young and healthy people are better prepared to take on that damage, but it's going to cause damage. And once that happens it's not even close to a given that you'll ever get back to 100%.
August 11th, 2020 at 8:41 PM ^
So as I stated, speculation about we we don't know is driving your decision. You quite literally have zero facts behind this assertion, which comes fro pure speculation. So again, we are making decisions for others, not yourself importantly, based upon no facts, no studies, anecdote and pure conjecture.
All infectious diseases, all of them, have potential for longer term images in those seriously affected (a tiny minority in this case). There is nothing different at all about Covid in that respect. Some small number of people may have those longer term symptoms and that's unfortunate. It's also not a reason to make decisions for others. Anyone who wants to opt--opt out if you're concerned. For the rest, let them play, the risks, data and common sense line up squarely on their side.
August 12th, 2020 at 11:39 AM ^
LOL, the people negging comments like this. Just shows how this is a purely emotional issue with minimal rational thinking.
What's really ironic is this is in conjunction with a sport where career-ending injuries are the norm. They happen every year, yet everyone overlooks that and wants them to keep playing. But we should stop the games this year because a few players might have covid outcomes (which could happen anyway, unlike sports injuries).
Traumatic brain injuries should be a much greater concern, if there are any reasons to stop playing it should be that.
August 11th, 2020 at 9:13 PM ^
None of these nasty viruses and bacteria ever go extinct. We just figure out ways to treat people that have them. Bubonic plague has been around for hundreds of years and people still die from today. But we control it with penicillins.
The vaccine is the tonic to get our lives back.
August 11th, 2020 at 10:17 PM ^
Ah, no. I understand your point but to be accurate, the various forms of the plague are NOT treated with penicillin.
August 12th, 2020 at 9:08 AM ^
Please change your name to “Whimpering and Frightened Wolverine.”
August 11th, 2020 at 6:07 PM ^
According to some of our posting friends no one (yes, no one) will take the vaccine anyway so there should be plenty for college football players.
August 11th, 2020 at 10:36 PM ^
I've worked in vaccine development and scale-up for the better part of 20 years. There may well be a front-running vaccine candidate in the spring, but there will not be a marketable vaccine in the spring. In a normal world, college athletes are low on the totem pole of who gets priority vaccines. I have been near the top of that list because I've worked in vaccine development and supply chain most of my career. For example, when I worked at Sanofi we'd get vaccines via the vaccine cart that rolled through the office. It may seem comical looking back but Sanofi was serious about preventing lost time due to influenza when they made the influenza vaccine.
Vaccine manufacturing is difficult and even more difficult with a novel virus. The news reports we are hearing are principally candidates with promise. "Promise" means sweet fuck-all to the FDA and for good reason. The path of good intentions is littered with the vulnerable and innocent dead.
Hugs.
August 12th, 2020 at 1:36 PM ^
Thank you, no vaccine will be available as soon as Spring.
The likelihood of anything passing through FDA protocols before 2022 are slim.
Variations of this virus have been around since the early 2000's, name one vaccine developed.
The Chinese Govt would have loved to corner this lucrative market, but nothing developed in two decades.
Nice to hear from someone else formally in vac development.
August 11th, 2020 at 7:46 PM ^
We’ll have the same issues a year from now. The vaccine is vaporware. When does it stop? Nothing is zero risk. We are living in a nanny state our future selves will be disgusted.
August 11th, 2020 at 3:48 PM ^
The thought process is that there will be a vaccine some time this fall, which is pretty likely. It's not that complicated.
August 11th, 2020 at 3:58 PM ^
If it was that easy, we would have had a vaccine for the common cold decades ago.
August 11th, 2020 at 4:03 PM ^
You need ~100 vaccines for the common cold. This just requires 1.
August 11th, 2020 at 5:21 PM ^
i made a stupid comment by not properly understanding the above comment and deleted it.
August 11th, 2020 at 4:07 PM ^
Nobody's going to spend billions of dollars to make a vaccine for something as tame as the common cold because nobody's going to pay for that vaccine.
August 11th, 2020 at 6:04 PM ^
Never underestimate capitalism. They pulled it off for the Flu. If it was that easy for the Common Cold, they would have done it.
August 11th, 2020 at 4:13 PM ^
The only "common" thing about colds is that they have very similar symptoms. Their origins vary substantially, from various rhinovirus and coronavirus subtypes in adults to Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) and parainfluenza in young children. The targets change every season and even within seasons. There are too many moving targets for an effective vaccine.
SARS-COV-2 has modest diversity in strains but for the most part it's one virus with a variety of common targets even among the mutations.
And as Jonesy points above, even if you could make a vaccine, why would you? People don't die of colds, they're just annoying.
August 11th, 2020 at 9:21 PM ^
As someone who had RSV a couple of times, and severe bronchitis for weeks thereafter each time, if someone told me I could pay $1,000 for a vaccine, I would have happily paid it.
August 11th, 2020 at 6:35 PM ^
40 to 50% efficacy coupled with 60% of the population opting out of the 'shot'.... equals = corona not going anywhere
August 11th, 2020 at 6:45 PM ^
Efficacy should be higher than that, and we could have multiple options.
August 11th, 2020 at 7:50 PM ^
Not according to Fauci. He said this vaccine was not going to be terribly effective.
August 11th, 2020 at 9:27 PM ^
That's not what he said. This is the exact quote:
The chances of it being 98% effective is not great, which means you must never abandon the public health approach.
He said 75% is the hoped-for effectiveness, but 50-60% would be acceptable.
August 11th, 2020 at 4:41 PM ^
I don't accept it as given there can't be Spring football...
Guess I'm the foolish optimist
August 11th, 2020 at 3:21 PM ^
man, i don't know...honestly, vlad? the recent history of inoculations administered under putin's orders is...Not Good.
August 11th, 2020 at 3:22 PM ^
Right. Some people do not survive the flu shot in Russia.
August 11th, 2020 at 3:41 PM ^
That's because in russia, flu shoot you...
August 11th, 2020 at 3:26 PM ^
Let Putin be the first one to receive it.
August 11th, 2020 at 4:45 PM ^
He says he gave it to his kid already and she's "fine"...
No one has actually seen her yet, but that's his story.
August 11th, 2020 at 5:40 PM ^
She's absolutely fine. Seriously though, has there ever been a vaccine that killed people other than adverse (allergic) reactions?
August 11th, 2020 at 6:44 PM ^
Yes.
25 people died from complications from the Guillain-Barre Syndrome they developed after receiving the swine flu virus during the Ford Administration.
August 12th, 2020 at 9:48 AM ^
I was one of those that got the Swine flu from the vaccine back in the late 70s...fortunately I didnt get the Guillian Barre disease..it was the sickest Ive ever been..I had to take the vaccine ..we were forced to if we wanted to attend classes..Ive never taken a vaccine shot since that day...On the other hand Ive never had any type of Flu since so maybe that innoculated me to other strains... who knows...
August 11th, 2020 at 8:29 PM ^
The proposed SARS vaccines killed trial participants and were never approved.
August 11th, 2020 at 10:40 PM ^
Yes, people can and do die from vaccines. Others can have permanent damage. But if you like math, math is on the side of getting the vaccine(s) and it's not even close.
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