Welp, here comes panic.
The National College Players Association, a nonprofit advocating for the rights and safety of collegiate athletes, is calling on the NCAA to consider holding NCAA tournament games without fans due to its concern over coronavirus.
“In the wake of the emerging coronavirus pandemic, the NCAA and its colleges should take precautions to protect college athletes,” the group wrote in a public statement Saturday. “In regard to the NCAA’s March Madness tournament and other athletic events, there should be a serious discussion about holding competitions without an audience present. …The NCAA and its colleges must act now, there is no time to waste.”
Nah, I’m not talking about coronavirus panic. I’m talking about NCAA panic over ticket sales.
And what happens if this metastasizes into football season?
Nancy Messonnier, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, warned Tuesday that an outbreak of the virus could lead to school closings and the cancellation of major sporting events.
Also included in NCPA’s public statement: “(The NCAA) should also make public which actions will be taken and when. Precautions should include cancelling all auxiliary events that put players in contact with crowds such as meet and greets and press events. Athletic programs should also take every possible measure to sanitize buses and airplanes used to transport players.”
SEC Media Days should be cool with no players or coaches attending, amirite?
What I really can’t wait to see is how McGarity tells folks in September the boxes are closed while open stadium seating remains available. If that.
I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about.
Get The Picture 
The death rate is similar to the flu. I would liken America’s response to the coronavirus to the City of Atlanta when there is a “potential for mixed precipitation.” But to avoid running afoul of the rules we have agreed to here on cosa nostra, I’ll bring this back to footbaw. As long as we get to play in front of an empty stadium in Tuscaloosa, maybe this would be a good thing.
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Is it like the flu? I’ve seen numbers anywhere from 10x to 30x more deadly than the flu on average, but I haven’t seen any epidemiologist speculations that it’s basically flu-like.
China shut down one of its major industrial provinces for 2 weeks. They’ve never done anything close to that for a flu outbreak. And it’s country where labor produced matters more than the laborer. They only do that if they’re looking at a work force being sidelined for an extended period of time. They decided it was the lesser of two evils.
Singapore went medieval on the virus spread as well.
Not arguing for health policy here, but noting that everything I have seen in medical reports and presentations (not media) say this is way worse than flu.
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It is much more aggressive and contagious than the flu. But many people accept infected information.
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The death rates are based on confirmed cases. Estimates of the many more unreported cases suggest the rate is closer to a severe flu. It’s probably more communicable than most flus. It’s worth paying attention to, obviously, but there are still a lot of overreactions to it. I’d say playing to empty arenas in the NCAA tournament qualifies as one.
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I agree that “observed cases” is subject to a lot of caveats and probably ignores a multiple of mildly symptomatic and asymptomatic cases.
The problem is that those dynamics are also true to a degree for flu outbreaks.
Add in the fact that this virus is so new, and I do understand the abundance of caution in some quarters. Your worst case scenario is a spike that overwhelms an area’s critical response capability – basically what’s happening in some parts of Italy and Iran right now and happened in Wuhan.
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From what I’ve read, current reporting is around 2% for coronavirus, and around .1% for the flu, hence the claims it is far more lethal. However, there are a number of places I’ve read that they’re basically certain that the actual number of people with the virus are way underreported, as many people don’t even have severe symptoms. So logic says that the actual death rate is most likely far less than 2% if all cases were actually reported, putting it closer to what we see from the flu.
Maybe I’ll be horrifically wrong (I hope not), but my guess is that by the time football season rolls around, the hype surrounding the coronovirus will be more of a joke than anything. I don’t mean that offensively to anyone who passes away from it, as that’s not a joking matter. Just saying I think the hype itself will be proven to be vastly overblown.
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You said my thing, but a lot better.
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The worst case scenarios will lessen as more is known. But everything initially was driven by how hard China and Singapore cracked down on it. Which was driven by worst case scenarios magnified by a ton of unknowns.
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…magnified by the media…FTFY
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What do you expect the “media” to do? Kemp holds a news conference to announce 2 cases and tells people “if they get to feelin bad” go to the doctor. Should they ignore it?
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China and Singapore shut downs had zilch to do with media. The governments own the media.
We can’t blame the media for everything.
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I don’t trust the Chinese media. I have a strong suspicion that they have underreported the number of actual deaths. They can’t handle 1.4 billion people in a panic. Watch what they do, not what they say…
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Wow. I assume this panic will subside by May, so McGarity is probably fine.
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2020 football season ticket renewals are due March 31.
Rest assured, our home football games will be held regardless of whether fans are allowed to participate inside the stadium as new facemasks are being designed and tested by our Office of Sustainability. Outside the stadium, season ticket holders may access our Grab-N-Go concessions and Enhanced Wi-Fi for a nominal fee.
#COMMITTOTHEG
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Holy shite! I hadn’t even thought along those lines, Senator! What a cluster fook that would be! Hopefully, Biggus ^ will be right about it being gone by May.
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https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6
Very interesting Johns Hopkins live map of the virus spread. From the physicians I’ve talked to personally or heard on conference calls, for most people, it will be mild, feel like a common cold. It is serious for those that are older and/or have other medical issues. Wash your hands, don’t touch your face, stay home if you’re sick.
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Serie A postponed the biggest rivalry in their league, plus 4 other games over concerns about the spread of the virus. A 3rd division player has contracted the disease in Italy.
UEFA is monitoring how it will handle Champions League and Europa League moving forward.
The Tokyo Marathon only had elite runners entered this weekend – it’s one of the biggest participatory marathons in the world.
If the spread of the virus hasn’t been abated by May expect the IOC to either postpone or make serious decisions about the Summer Olympics.
6 deaths were announced today around Seattle.
While it may sound like overkill, one of the best methods for stemming the spread of any virus is to reduce the incidences of large public gatherings.
In the case of march Madness it makes a lot of sense. First, it has been reported that you can be a carrier and contagious up to 14 days before you start showing symptoms. Second,the Men’s tournament has 14 site locations for this year’s tourney which will require a large number of staff and volunteers to facilitate the event if you have ticketed patrons. There are about 75K coronavirus testing kits in the US. Diverting the testing kits to make certain the volunteers and staff are in the clear seems unnecessary. Add the fact that if spectators travel there is a risk of infection from interaction at airports, hotels, restaurants, etc.
The USA is a bit late to this party but it doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t make some basic changes to help the long-term. The happy talk from last week I think was more about trying to alleviate the Wall St reaction more than anything.
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So why don’t we do the same for the flu? And please don’t interpret that as coming from POTUS. Just my admittedly simple brain.
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There’s a vaccine for the flu that at the very least mitigates the effects for high risk groups. There’s already work on a coronavirus vaccine, but the best guess is it won’t be available for at least a year.
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I don’t think young athletes in the prime of their life are high-risk groups. But maybe some of the people in the stands would be.
We’ve gotten far afield, Senator. You can’t get this many smart people in a room and not expect our collective ADD to take over at some point.
So Obama, Rush Limbaugh, a Catholic Priest and a transvestite walk into a bar…
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Could be bad news for Atlanta but good news for UGA.
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If they close the games to fans in the fall, I better damn well get a refund on my personal seat license fee (aka “donation”) and not just a ticket refund. Anything short of that and they’ll never see another dollar from me.
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Which, unfortunately, would be fine with them. They’ll sell it to the next guy. Your Hartman Fund contribution is not a PSL. It’s a contribution that doesn’t even guarantee you the right to buy tickets. If enough other folks give more than you, you don’t get to buy tickets and you don’t get your contribution back. But you already know that.
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You’re wrong. If I pay my personal seat license fee (aka “donation”), I am guaranteed the “right” to buy tickets for my seat. You don’t know how it works.
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Rest assured, this is accurate as long as you exceed our minimum annual, cumulative, game-specific, and arbitrary points cutoffs.
#COMMITMORETOTHEG
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Incorrect … if you are a renewable season ticket holder and you make the minimum contribution for your seat, the AA cannot under the current terms take your seat(s) away from you.
If you are not a season ticket holder, you get in line based on the number of cumulative points you have and hope your number gets called for the cutoff score.
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It’s a little known fact, but drinking alchohol counteracts the virus.
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Finally some good news !!!!! Plenty of vaccination down at the county line liquor store.
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At the 1996 Olympics, the Macarena was at its peak, a nauseating overplayed ear worm complete with a silly dance that ended up being a signature theme of the games.
Perhaps, if we combine drinking alcohol with this:
The Tokyo Olympics can be a blast
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There is a greater likelihood of catching STD’s in the student section than the C-virus.
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The inital mortality or death rate (2%) is based on a very small subset (initial 500 cases from Wuhan). Interestingly, no one under 15 was identified in this group.[https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2001316] Further studies appear to confirm the children are lmesslikely to become il comparedto the elderly. This death rate compares to 9 to 15% for SARS and MERS. To add to the confusion, this corona virus is being renamed SARS-Co-2.
Additionally, 1 case is confirmed in a dog which was owned by a person also confimed positive. It is unknown whether the owner infected the dog, the dog infected the owner, a 3rd party infected both, or the dog was a fomite. (Virus just sitting there no differently than it might on a someones hand after wipe their nose)
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My dog ate my hearing aids!
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It all goes back to Spuds McKenzie drinking those Bud Lights.
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