?[LOCKED] Additional background on why the Purdue game was played despite Stefanovic's positive COVID-19 test

Submitted by FrankMurphy on January 22nd, 2021 at 11:20 PM

Stefanovic tested positive yesterday after having tested negative the previous day. Nonetheless, Stefanovic had been quarantining and had not had any contact with anyone else in the program since the team returned from their game at Ohio State. Purdue apparently informed Michigan (and Ohio State, which they had just played) of Stefanovic's positive test as soon as they learned of it on Thursday. Per Howard and the players, Purdue was fully transparent and gave Michigan the the option of postponing the game. Howard consulted with the players and with the doctors, and Michigan asked that the entire Purdue team take PCR tests. Purdue honored that request. When all of the results came back negative, Michigan decided to proceed with playing the game. Howard and the players praised Purdue for their transparency and cooperation.

https://www.mlive.com/wolverines/2021/01/with-covid-threatening-to-cancel-game-michigan-appreciated-purdues-transparency.html

[LOCKED the thread because a few too many MGoUsers took it in the wrong direction by making unnecessary personal attacks on others. I'll be issuing warnings later in the Mod Sticky thread, once I completely combing thru the thread after lunch.] 

outsidethebox

January 23rd, 2021 at 9:29 AM ^

You have routinely demonstrated yourself to be a very thoughtful, intelligent person. However, this is a very bad take-very toxic and a significant part of our larger societal issues...your first sentence of the second paragraph informs my judgement here. Admitting one's profound ignorance then proceeding with borderline nefarious questions that confirm said ignorance...but demanding answers which no amount of explaining would satisfy you is standard fare these days but...oh my. At least have the grace, in our world of information and specialization, to appreciate the efforts of the experts here. No one is expected to know it all.

The simple truth here is that the best and brightest with no significant agenda, other than the health and well-being of their fellow humankind, are being challenged to understand this virus. They cannot be held responsible for explanations that satisfy the ignorance of the viewing public. We have vaccines-herd immunity is now a reasonable option. Medical science actually includes serious, formal ethical training and considerations-more so than most other fields. There are new learnings every day.

Joined: 01/23/2017

MGoPoints: 18825

evenyoubrutus

January 23rd, 2021 at 10:06 AM ^

Without going into detail, I have had personal interactions with state appointed medical experts that were alarming, in that there was no indication that these people had any agenda other than something political. My spouse was involved in a public health issue that was in the news a while back, and the state's office was so incompetent in its handling of it that it felt like something from a bad movie script.

I also used to work for a county government managing federal grants and contracts. Before this job I always assumed that appointed officials were automatically cleaner and more honorable in their approach to their jobs. But it turned out that the opposite was true. The appointed department heads were FAR more corrupt, because they were not under a microscope the way elected officials are. They made EVERYTHING political. my department head managed to run up $200,000 a year (that is not an exaggeration) on personal expenses with her government credit card, and that doesn't include the unethical way she went about spending the department's money on official programs. She had two managers that worked under her who kept all of the evidence, ALL OF IT in a locked cabinet. Why? So they could have leverage if they ever got fired.

As it turned out, her boss, who was 2nd in command in this government entity, was also her sorority sister at UM 40 years ago. So once this got close to hitting the fan, she retired, quietly, and collects a six figure pension. 

So, maybe I am biased because of personal experience, and I realize that it's entirely possible that I had a bad experience with one office that sucked and that that is nowhere near the norm.. But I do not accept "because that is what the government says" anymore. I have seen the Gell-Mann amnesia effect (Google it if you don't know it) time and again. It is not true at all that I would not accept any level of answers to those questions. I simply won't accept "because the government officials say so." 

So, maybe there are reasonable explanations for those, maybe I'm just a nut job who has been sucked in by the crazy internet mobs. but I don't know where to look for honest answers because social media is toxic, and almost all news sources seem to have an agenda. 

Joined: 11/04/2008

MGoPoints: 178663

evenyoubrutus

January 23rd, 2021 at 10:14 AM ^

I get that is the official statement, but then why is COVID spreading so much? It's an honest question. Because to me, the answer is either that masks protect from the flu but not from COVID, or that flu cases are being erroneously counted as COVID. Is there another explanation I'm not considering?

Joined: 11/04/2008

MGoPoints: 178663

Hensons Mobile…

January 23rd, 2021 at 10:49 AM ^

I addressed this in my other post. It seems intuitive to me.

Rona spreads at a higher rate than flu because as a society we have more immunity to the flu.

 When I go to the grocery store I am more at risk of getting covid than the flu because I got a flu shot.

Flu is down because we have lots of social distancing like we haven’t had since 1918 when the flu was kind of a big deal. Social distancing is cutting down on the spread of the flu. There is nothing suspicious about that. It doesn’t eradicate the flu or covid. It slows the spread. It is slowing the spread of both. Covid spread would be worse if we did zero masks and social distancing. This is why the US has worse spread than other countries. We have a population that takes social distancing less seriously.

 I don’t think I know how else to say this.

 

Joined: 09/12/2019

MGoPoints: 50225

itauditbill

January 23rd, 2021 at 6:25 AM ^

Spanish flu of 1812... looks it up... uhhhh, nope... War of 1812, yep... But maybe now we know the real story, The Canadians came on down and burned the white house because it was a hot bed of Spanish Flu activity in the US... so they were actually good guys who saved us. 

Joined: 06/30/2010

MGoPoints: 1656

blue in dc

January 23rd, 2021 at 10:43 AM ^

If you compare deaths by age from Covid in the last 10 months to deaths by age for top categories in a typical year, Covid would be a top 10 cause of death for every age category 15 to 24 and up.   It would be in the top 5 for every age category 35 to 44 and up.   It would be top 3 for those 55 and up.

Joined: 01/22/2011

MGoPoints: 20401

bassclefstef

January 23rd, 2021 at 2:04 AM ^

Hey MGoBlue96- I'm not sure if you're trying to argue with me on that- I wasnt trying to say that flu cases are being under-reported to boost Covid numbers, I was being sincere in pointing out that evidence seems to suggest that the flu numbers are, in fact, down this year compared to recent years, during the same time frame that Covid numbers were skyrocketing. (Mostly cause TatewasGreat or whoever was getting on my nerves) Sorry if I didn't make that point clear, but we're on the same page here.

Joined: 09/01/2019

MGoPoints: 5576

YoOoBoMoLloRoHo

January 23rd, 2021 at 8:50 AM ^

Covid and other inconvenient issues have exposed two startling traits in alarge section of the American population: 1) the number of people who don’t understand and/or rely on science and sound data, and 2) the willingness of people to openly admit and even advocate for nonsensical and unscientific POVs.

The Age of Ignorance is alive and well with many people.

Joined: 11/01/2012

MGoPoints: 18077

MGoBlue96

January 23rd, 2021 at 12:32 AM ^

I mean it's great that the communication between the programs was on point and they made sure all parties were ok playing but that does not mean UM didn't take some risk here. Some of those Purdue tests could have been false negatives.Could cost themselves the conference if they have a key player out with it as well.

Joined: 12/26/2010

MGoPoints: 26173

gbdub

January 23rd, 2021 at 9:10 AM ^

Inverted stupidity is not intelligence. “Following the science” actually does mean evaluating risks and making decisions that appear reasonably safe by a well considered standard - not just assuming this is the 100% worst most dangerous thing ever and one positive test makes the whole Purdue organization unclean and “not taking things seriously”  

If your personal risk tolerance is lower, that’s fine, but smugly asserting that everyone who comes to a different answer than you is a COVID denialist idiot or, as Ace says “not an adult” is not helping the situation. 

Joined: 02/16/2010

MGoPoints: 26791

Ham

January 23rd, 2021 at 12:39 AM ^

One of the big unknowns for the public at this point is how many Purdue players have already had COVID in the past and thus were not at risk of getting it from Stefanovic. 

From an article about COVID and the Purdue basketball team from August:

Nevertheless, COVID-19 struck the Boilermaker roster, numerous members, actually. Extrapolating from Purdue's athletic department's data, all cases recovered without normally and without incident, and none remain active.

Joined: 01/10/2011

MGoPoints: 37221

MGoBlue96

January 23rd, 2021 at 12:44 AM ^

Last I saw there will still alot of unknowns if people could be reinfected, could be carriers only, etc.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/faq.html

Edit: The CDC stance at the moment is that reinfection while rare is not out of the realm or possibility. Preliminary research also seems to be that the antibodies created may only last 90 days or so. So if that timeline is correct it has been passed 90 days for those Purdue players. I mean we can slice it anyway we want it, but UM did in fact take some risk here even if all protocols were followed as claimed.

Joined: 12/26/2010

MGoPoints: 26173

BursleyHall82

January 23rd, 2021 at 12:52 AM ^

Brian needs to take Ace off the basketball beat and put him on the COVID beat. Every story is a lecture about how we shouldn't be enjoying any of this. (Whatever the sport.)

Joined: 07/14/2013

MGoPoints: 27280

IDKaGoodName

January 23rd, 2021 at 8:13 AM ^

Could just take him off the payroll and solve a lot of issues. Kind of odd to me that one of the biggest issues around this blog is self-perpetuated by one of its few bloggers, who really doesn’t move the needle much with his work. Then again, the blog owner is pretty hypocritical himself, so none of this surprises

Joined: 12/17/2018

MGoPoints: 7378

Blue@LSU

January 23rd, 2021 at 11:26 AM ^

I don't always agree with Ace, but I hate when people throw this back in his face. I'm sure it wasn't easy for him to have to rely on other people. I know it wouldn't be easy for me. But for people to turn around and shit on him because he needed help at a low point in his life is just classless. I hope you are never in a situation to need someone's help like that but, if you ever are, I also hope that you are treated with a lot more compassion and respect that Ace gets.

Joined: 11/04/2016

MGoPoints: 81289

Go for two

January 23rd, 2021 at 8:16 AM ^

I am not a doctor or expert on Covid, but I was wondering why we would still play last night with this news. Surely other Purdue players that we hugged and high fives after the game could be carriers that would show up later. We do have a makeup PSU game on the 27th which would keep our team sharp if we canceled last night

Joined: 12/23/2016

MGoPoints: 20523

Michigan Arrogance

January 23rd, 2021 at 9:41 AM ^

This thead is unbelieveable. Even with all the alleged protocols PU explained, had this been a HS game one of my kids would play in, I would not have allowed them to play against a team with a COVID confirmed contact.

People are allowed to express these opinions, including Ace, and yes, even in the gamer since it does provide context and could have HUGE implications on the B10 season going forward.

That doesn't mean he shouldn't do his job either. And it doesn't mean he shouldn't enjoy something that he has no control over of. I personnally don't think any fans should be in the stands at this point (until spring outdoor low risk sports anyway) but if someone gave me SB tix, I'd probably go and just keep my distance. Everyone that is advocating that these teams be allowed to choose and you shouldn't critique those choices - that's exactly what you are doing as well. People can have different perspectives and risk tolerances (Ace has very low risk tolerance for legit reasons, as do people with kids, like me). Others don't. Just accept that and move on.

TL;DR: If a vegan needed a job and the best one available is at Texas Road House, I'm not gonna call them out for being a hypocrite. Nor would I call them out for refusing to work there. Everyone decision is a risk/reward analysis. Not everyone calculates the exact same ratio. 

Joined: 06/30/2008

MGoPoints: 35551

thelomasbrowns

January 23rd, 2021 at 9:56 AM ^

We won't really know for a few days whether this was a good idea or not. Seems like an unnecessary risk.  The scenario Ace is worried about may be the most likely one.

Joined: 01/05/2018

MGoPoints: 2037

NittanyFan

January 23rd, 2021 at 12:08 PM ^

This b-ball season is what it is, but I am curious about the endgame and future seasons.

It's November 2021, Michigan vs Duke in the B1G/ACC Challenge.  Are both teams getting tested on a daily basis?  If so, does one positive test still cancel the game?

I'd hope both answers are no.  

Joined: 12/04/2012

MGoPoints: 43937

blue in dc

January 23rd, 2021 at 12:45 PM ^

Isn’t the whole point of this post that today one positive test doesn’t cancel the game?   If we are at the point next November that 1 positive test is in fact canceling the game, that would seem to imply that we are in a worse situation for Covid than we are today.   That seems pretty pessimistic.    Do you expect that there is anyone who hopes the answer is yes?  My hope (and I imagine most share this hope) is that well north of 200 million people in the US have been vaccinated and that we are all living much more normal lives.

Joined: 01/22/2011

MGoPoints: 20401