B1G stops fall football practice progression
Rapid testing kits could be available soon.
So could flying cars. What the fuck is your point?
For who and how many? If campuses aren’t shut down - which would essentially create pseudo-bubbles for college athletics and you’d need less testing - then you would have to test all athletes and coaches virtually every day in order to confidently stop spreads. I don’t see that happening for all FCS football programs, let alone the rest of the sports. NBA/NHL are testing multiple times a week and they’re in strict bubbles. College athletes wouldn’t be.
If mortality due to the initial bout of covid and were the only issue, we should 100% play football. Unfortunately it is not. Other considerations include:
1. Other health impacts - too me this is a growing concern. There is growing evidence that some number of people who get even mild bouts of covid are having short term heart issues that could be quite serious. Until we have a good grip on this issue and an appropriate level of screening for it in college athletics, I think there is a good chance the risks are higher than we’ve seen so far.
2. Logistics - what do you do when several players test positive, how many are quarantined, what are criteria for canceling games. As baseball has shown us, this can be a real challenge.
3. Resources in areas that get hard hit - if ERs are overwhelmed, ambulances are being diverted from hospitals, ICUs are full etc. should medical resources be expended to make sure football players are safe? From what we’ve seen to date, it is likely that there will be a number of areas in the country facing these challenges again this fall.
August 8th, 2020 at 10:00 PM ^
Smh...death is not the only setback for this disease! If kids may suffer long-term health issues by contracting it...then it is not worth playing. I would love to see the team suit up, but just think it’s unlikely.
If long term health issues is what you and others are really concerned about, football should have been banned a long time before covid19. Just the issue with CTE alone should have scared the crap out of players to stop playing.
August 8th, 2020 at 10:15 PM ^
I doubt the college age students are worried about death as a possibility. But, the athletes should worry about say an outbreak that leads to one or two that are impaired for 1 month to 6 months, especially those that would severely impact nfl combine timings or physical tests. Losing just a fraction on your times can costs a draft pick millions.
August 9th, 2020 at 12:06 AM ^
You clearly know nothing about science or epidemics. Science emphatically says don’t play.
This shit is so fucking stupid and embarrassing.
JUST CANCEL THE DAMN SEASON ALREADY.
IMO we need to delay the season until the spring and cross our fingers for a vaccine. We're fooling ourselves if we think we will get more than 2-3 games out of a fall "season" before it turns into a debacle.
Cases have peaked and are declining. The peak was 3x the number of daily cases we saw in April. Deaths have peaked and are declining. The daily death peak was less than half of what we saw in April. We are getting better at treating this and other things may be going on.
We need to re-evaluate where we are at in this and balance closing things down with controlling it using well thought out public health measures. Some of the close it demands are as crazy as the open it up with no restrictions demands. (Looking at you teacher groups calling for no in person school until a state/region has zero new cases for 14 days)
A vaccine, even if available by the end of the year is likely to have a 50 to 70 percent effectiveness and take a year to get out in the full population. It is another control measure. It does not make this go away. People are deluding themselves about a vaccine and are going to be very disappointed. Covid is not a death sentence. We can live our lives while taking precautions.
Covid has literally been a death sentence for 165,000 people and counting. What's wrong with playing in spring? Yes, it fucks up next season, but I don't get why people are so concerned about next season even if that means sacrificing this season.
August 8th, 2020 at 10:02 PM ^
I could give a shit if we play in the fall or the spring. There are far more important issues at stake. I think there is a decent chance we could play but as I said it’s really not that important.
What is important is getting kids back in school. At this point we have terrified people into thinking Covid is a death sentence well also creating the impression that a vaccine will quickly snap everything back to normal. The data and what we know at this point does not support this.
There are many parts of the country where we can safely open schools and keep it open most of the year if we take reasonable health precautions. We could play sports as well. Instead we are tending towards writing off the whole school year and going with a remote learning approach that will have devastating effects on children who are already struggling due to their socioeconomic conditions. It also will disproportionately hurt working class families who don’t have the resources to support their kids education in a remote environment and/or work to provide the income they need to for food and shelter. More well off families will move towards private schools, teachers and online programs and then of course use their political power to draw funds that should go to public education into tax credits to partially fund these efforts (though of course their won’t be enough money for families with no money to afford these luxuries)
Next fall, or maybe winter 2022 (we just need to give that vaccine a little more time and more time to research those unknowns about the virus) we finally get back to school. Of course both public K-12 schools and many colleges are financially devastated and the quality of education available to those he can’t afford private options is terrible
80% of the deaths from Covid are people over 65. This is tragic and much of it could be avoided but we can’t let this destroy our education system and ruin the education of a major percentage of our kids. This is not the 1918 flu. That killed 50 million people among a much smaller world population. That kind of death rate is not going to happen with Covid.
August 8th, 2020 at 10:28 PM ^
Deaths aren’t the only negative effect. And saying young people won’t die doesn’t mean much when young people live with other people and often older people more likely to face severe symptoms. College students live in densely populated areas.
It is important to get kids back in school. Unfortunately, federal and state governments haven’t taken the necessary steps in order to make this possible in a safe way.
August 8th, 2020 at 11:00 PM ^
let them make their own choice, don’t dictate what you can or cannot do.
It appears there are many that would give up their freedom for the promise of safety. That never has turned out well for those who do that.
August 8th, 2020 at 11:06 PM ^
Sigh .... you can’t just focus on deaths. You have to also focus on LONGTERM issues to both old AND young.
August 8th, 2020 at 10:44 PM ^
most of those don’t have more than 5 year left in their life, and half of those in nursing home have a few month left without COVID. this crisis is totally blown up by the media. Sweden has implemented nothing and now they have few cases for many weeks. If you google T-cell immunity COVID you should find two papers, one on Science and one on Nature that were published in last 30 data, show that up to 50% never infected individuals show immune response to COVID from their T-cells and likely acquired such immunity from previous infections of other coronavirus. Since T-cell memory is long term, all those who were infected recently likely will have lasting immunity against COVID. Hence in places that had a widespread of virus earlier this year such as West Europe , New York and SE Michigan, the predicted 2nd wave may be a much weaker one if it ever comes. Not just that, tremendous amount data shows that the effect of virus on health child and young adults is minimal. Anyone who wants to play safe can stay in their basements or bunkers the rest of their life but let those who are willing to take their risk take their risk!
August 8th, 2020 at 11:04 PM ^
Your comments are so wrong it’s funny. Kids and adults are affected with lots of long term issues. As an example:
August 8th, 2020 at 11:20 PM ^
Did you post the wrong link here? This has nothing to do with Covid. Its a disease that has been around since 2014 and has infected a total of 633 people. A total of 2 people have died from it. Its bad shit that leads to persistent motor deficits and significant muscle atrophy in 50% of cases but again 633 cases in 6 years and not related to Covid in any way.
August 8th, 2020 at 11:42 PM ^
there could be always chance of long term harm but it could take 60 years to figure it out, and to be honest, i would rather have my children live a full 60 years than live in a cage for 100 years
August 8th, 2020 at 11:53 PM ^
are you sure that you cited the right article? what is the relation btw AFM and COVID-19?
August 9th, 2020 at 12:03 AM ^
You really should edit this as it is complete fear mongering and may lead people who only read the headline to think that the CDC is warning of some massive outbreak targeting kids related to Covid.
August 8th, 2020 at 11:05 PM ^
Sorry, I should have clarified. Covid is not a death sentence for the vast majority of the people who get it. Current CDC best estimates puts it at a 99.35% survival rate.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/planning-scenarios.html
With 80% of deaths occurring in those over 65 the risk of death for those under 65 is well below that. There are other risks of course but those are also likely are in limited percentages of cases. We should of course continue to take precautions but there is a perfectly reasonable argument to be made that some and potentially many of the actions we are taking are not warranted and doing more harm than good based on what we know about Covid.
A 50-70% effective vaccine would make a massive difference if all people interacting with each other (like football players) had that 50-70% decrease in their likelihood of getting and spreading the virus.
August 8th, 2020 at 10:06 PM ^
Football players will not be getting a vaccine in time for a spring season. High risk college students and faculty might, but your typical healthy college student is gonna be way behind, medical professionals, first responders and high risk individuals.
August 8th, 2020 at 10:47 PM ^
anyone who wants to play safe can choose to stay out for a year or two or for ever. But let those who want to take a risk a choice to do what they want to do.
August 8th, 2020 at 10:48 PM ^
There's a very good chance you're right. Even still, if the vulnerable members of our population were vaccinated then having a spring season would still make a lot more sense.
August 8th, 2020 at 10:58 PM ^
Vaccinations will not be the silver bullet. It will take years to perfect a vaccine that works near the polio shot - if ever. Doctors are already saying it could be only 50-60% effective.
August 8th, 2020 at 11:21 PM ^
They may not be a silver bullet, but they should be good enough to drastically slow the spread. 50-60% effective is still immensely better than the alternative.
August 8th, 2020 at 11:00 PM ^
Key is the stopping the spreaders who show no symptoms. They are like 40% of the total infected. Stop them and we can get this under control.
Cases have peaked in the middle of the summer when heat and humidity were supposed to be our friend. Maybe we’ll get lucky and there won’t be a surge when millions of kids return to colleges, high schools etc, but I’d like to see tgat happen before we get too cocky that we’ve seen the worst of this.
August 8th, 2020 at 10:49 PM ^
humidity is never our friend for common flu.
August 8th, 2020 at 11:48 PM ^
It’s going to be badddddd when schools really open up. Nothing like 2-4K high schoolers packed like sardines in a hallway 5-10 times per day...then bringing that shit home to parents and grandparents.
Because there is no way to create procedures at school that don’t lead to packed hallways. It’s impossible?
August 9th, 2020 at 12:10 AM ^
Love it when non-experts know more about the science and epidemics than the experts. The minute everyone returns to campus the numbers will spike again. And they’re already painfully high. You don’t reopen until numbers are very low, not just a little lower than the peak. Stop embarrassing yourself.
August 9th, 2020 at 12:11 AM ^
Also so maddening that people like you are willing to roll the dice with other people’s health for the sake of your own entertainment. We’re not talking about teachers or firemen. We’re talking about students. Rethink your priorities, dude. And please don’t say you’re really just thinking about the players. You’re not. You’re thinking you want to watch football.
I know you have quacks like ....... Dr Fauci saying we should focus on opening schools including in placea with moderate infection rates.
I would ask all down voters to look at how sweden handles it. i don’t care about the football season or whatever sports but i want to ask all down voters what is the end of it? if you don’t believe that we will have herd immunity and there will be no effective vaccine. are you willing to live the remain of your life in a bubble? do you think that it is moral to lock everyone in the bubble even if science has proved that nearly half of us have immunity against COVID already? should medical school and nursing school stay open to train next generation of health care professionals or they should go all online learning. i bet that most of down voters don’t even know a single person hospitalized because of COVID yet you want to dictate how others should live theirs.
Sadly I not only know people who have been hospitalized and still are, but I know a person who died.
2nd, let's look at Sweden... and compare them to Finland and Norway:
Sweden Population 10 million, Deaths 5,766 (so far)
Finland Population 5 million, Deaths 331 (so far)
Norway Population 5 million, Deaths 256 (so far)
Finland won't release 2nd quarter GDP (or Balance of Accounts) until Aug 14. Norway until Aug 25.
Sweden did and grew .1% in the first quarter and decline 8.6% in the 2nd quarter.
I would like to know what excess death is worth in economics.
August 9th, 2020 at 12:42 AM ^
Spring football is the biggest fake news item out there. Michigan would start their season in late March and play through June, then summer camp for 2021 would start? You would have to get the entire NCAA on this but that will not happen. Odds are is that the big 12, SEC and ACC will be playing football without the B1G and PAC-12.
August 9th, 2020 at 10:22 AM ^
Total agreement with your take. Those conferences you mentioned obviously value money over safety. Why isn’t someone asking the young man from IU about effects on long term health of this virus.
August 9th, 2020 at 10:19 AM ^
This goes against everything this conference stands for. We are NOT the SEC. well, maybe OSU is. But the rest of us?
August 9th, 2020 at 12:37 PM ^
I heard, from a source far, far away,
or maybe just inside my head:
Ohio to join NFC Central Division and the Lions go the the BIG.