Quick summaries of what’s going on around the world of college athletics:
- Yesterday, Kent State became the first program to suspend spring practice and cancelled its spring game.
- Virginia followed suit.
- Ohio State cancelled its spring game.
- So did Michigan. Michigan has also suspended spring practice until at least April 21.
- Ohio State has also suspended recruiting visits to its campus and won’t allow its coaches to visit recruits during the spring.
- Baylor is suspending spring practice and recruiting activities.
- The Ivy League has cancelled all spring sports.
- Fans are barred from March Madness.
To call this situation fluid is an understatement. I’m sure there will be plenty more developments we’ll learn of today.
Get The Picture 
Absolutely ridiculous. The flu kills more people than this and it is the same population group that this virus has killed.
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No offense, but I don’t see how anybody at this point can draw any absolute conclusions about the coronavirus as you are doing here.
The scary part is how little we know.
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Exactly! It is no secret that the flu and even common cold has killed more elderly people, and the Coronavirus itself is not new…but, this has been reported as a new/different strand of the virus. It’s not about the damage it HAS done but the unknown possibilities. It’s smart to be safe until you know. If someone close to me got very sick because I didn’t take precautions… oy!
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Just to clarify, it’s more than a different strain of the same virus. The coronaviruses are a large subfamily of viruses. Some cases of the common cold are coronoviruses (others by rhinoviruses), but SARs was also a coronavirus, and that had a mortality rate of around 10% (fortunately, it didn’t spread nearly as rapidly or widely as Covid-19).
So saying that the common cold and Covid-19 are both coronaviruses is a bit like saying that Tigers and house-cats are both felines. It’s technically true, but one is significantly more dangerous than the other.
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Good analogy. The word “corona” means “crown” (that’s why there’s a crown in the middle of label on the beer). “Coronavirus” simply refers to the shape of these viruses – they have a protrusion that is crown shaped, which is actually what they use to infect the host. But just because they have similar shapes doesn’t mean they behave the same way at all. Your cat/tiger reference illustrates this well. This is a completely new virus, that just happens to have a similar shape as previous viruses. I’m definitely in the “let’s don’t panic” crowd, but also in the “let’s don’t spread misinformation like ‘this virus has been around for years’” crowd.
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You think Corona is beer? You’re killing me Rev!!
Now do Miller Light….
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Senator, why would any school cancel spring practice? Covid 19 hasn’t killed any young people anywhere in the world so the players aren’t at risk. The coaches for the most part are too young to be in the high risk group too. A few head coaches (Nick Saban) are old old enough to be in the high risk category but they can just stay on a tower and run things from a distance. Under this rationale everybody should just stay home 24/7. Don’t go to school. Don’t go to work. Nothing. No snark intended. Why do that?
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I keep saying this — right now, I don’t know how any non-professional can make broad factual assertions about the coronavirus based purely on anecdotal evidence.
I’m sure Rudy Gobert is relieved by your diagnosis that he’s not at risk.
That’s exactly what’s happening in Northern Italy right now.
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It has killed young people. Not a lot, less than 1% of reported deaths, but the number is not zero.
This thing attacks the lungs pretty aggressively. Some percentage of recovered cases show signs of fibrosis, which may or may not be permanent.
That’s just one example out of possible dozens of unknowns that decision makers are trying to grasp. And then there is always the “low-risk junior takes it home and then granny dies” issue.
What we know about the disease is that it is aggressively contagious and fills up hospitals fast if a country falls behind the curve. China and then Italy proved that.
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People who don’t understand the word and concept “viral” (jhc, it’s the backbone of modern social media), and think that only your personal risk should dictate your actions astound me.
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Maybe the flu does, but that is an irreverent point. Carina virus makes a lot of infected people very sick and they need medical care. I do not know where you live but I will bet anything that the public health system is prepared only for a certain volume of need. With a rapid increase in the number of people seeking medical care because of a virus for which there is not yet an established treatment plan will overwhelm medical service providers.
Since carriers can be asymptomatic there is no way to easily contain infectious people at this time.
The “flu is more deadly” is a Sean Hannity argument. It isn’t a public health argument.
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Ridiculous is comparing the flu, a virus which the health system knows everything about and plans for annually, to one that no one saw coming and which will fill up your hospitals in a snap. It’s Covid19 on top of the flu and all the other things which put people into hospitals that forced China and Italy and Singapore into such drastic measures.
It’s like 200,000 people showing up for a Georgia game with tickets. Except in this case, that kills people. Why is the death rate in South Korea more than 100x times lower than Italy? In part because they’ve been aggressively testing and enforcing social distancing since early February. They kept the infection rate from swamping their health care system. Northern Italy’s got overwhelmed. The 62 year old doctor/med chief for that region just died of it.
The flu comparison was never accurate, and it cost us weeks we could have been prepping for this thing like South Korea did.
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These restrictions are dumb. It’s airborne. It has a life outside a host for up to 9 days. Restricting these events is nonsense. You risk exposure going to the grocery store, bank, etc… Unless everyone is ordered off the streets and a country wide curfew goes into effect 24/7, then not a damn thing will change.
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You are saying that the only rational choices from a public health policy are to do nothing towards containment or to enforce a total, nationwide quarantine. One choice allows spread of a virus, the effects of which we cannot at this point manage at the macro level and damages the economy as well as health.The other choice has massive negative effects on the economy .
You ridicule an attempt to at least balance America’s need for commerce with a need for containment of the virus.
From a public policy standpoint the smarter response is to take containment steps that will not destroy the economy.
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We are not going to contain this in the US. But it is critical to try and slow the spread as much as possible to prevent the health system from being overwhelmed. If we fail to do that, a lot of people are going to die. Not just from Covid-19, but also from other causes, due to a shortage of ICU beds, ventilators, ambulances, etc.
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Except we have plenty of data from other countries and their responses by this point to see what works and what doesn’t.
This isn’t rocket science. 50,000 extra people showing up at a hospital over 5 months is way different than 50,000 over 5 weeks.
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You should leave the thinking to the experts.
Even a 25% reduction in human mixing results in a 50% reduction in infection rate.
The largest human mixing happens at large events.
You cancel the large events/gatherings so people can still go to grocery stores and other businesses needed for normal life operation.
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If the games are going tp be held, refund all advance ticket holders, then open them up with a come at your own risk policy. Sell tickets at the gate, and let those who want to go, go.
A perfect example of this option would be SCs statement from the playpen post yesterday, ‘We’re going to let our athletes spread their blood, sweat, and tears all over each other during the game… But they ain’t shaking hands afterward.’
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“Your own risk” is an interesting concept in the context of a contagious disease.
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How will this affect me?
How will I affect others?
Everyone’s asked the first question. Most are coming around on the second.
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Even if you are not concerned about others, you should want to slow the spread of this disease. You may be young and healthy, but when you are in a car crash and the ambulance doesn’t come for 30 minutes because the system is overwhelmed by Covid-19 patients, you will bleed out and die all the same.
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I’m going to Colorado over Spring break to visit my son and take his car to him. We were going to fly home, but in an effort of caution, I decided to rent a car and drive back.
I’m also going to ski while I’m out there. There might be other people on the slopes. Should I not ski because I might pass within a few feet of someone who is skiing and has the virus but doesn’t know it?
I’m not going to go around my Mom or any othere any elderly people when I get back.
Bleed out and die in a car crash? Holy screaming eagle shit. If it’s so bad that I might bleed out and die in a car crash because all the hospitals are overwhelmed, then like I said above, we’re all fucked anyway.
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Response time for ambulances in northern Italy went from under 8 minutes to over an hour. It’s an example of what can happen if the rate of infection is allowed to grow out of control.
This thing doubles every some number of days. It’s what aggressive viruses do. In South Korea, they’ve pushed that number into the months. Here, geneticists looking at RNA mutations in this thing think we’re looking somewhere between 6 and 8 days.
Which means 5,000 cases over 8 weeks turns into 1.2 million cases.
So the goal is to slow it down. Which takes everyone making some sensible and responsible decisions.
Skiing is not going to be high risk except when you’re in the lodge, for example. And if you’re renting equipment, I doubt they disinfect it. Skiing is big in northern Italy and a big reason it exported so many cases to other countries.
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Foolishness, acting as though your right to be entertained is somehow more important than slowing the spread of a virus that could destroy the lives of millions. And people say millennials are entitled.
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Thank you for staying home and keeping me safe.
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What I’m getting at is a stadium like Sanford stadium, holds @ 93k. It is an open air stadium. If 35k show up for the game, are they all going to be in serious danger? If it’s that bad then we’re all fucked anyway.
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I don’t know the answer to that right now, and neither do you.
Experts in the field are advising that large groups of folks should not congregate. Until we know better, why should we question that?
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I’m not claiming to have any answers other than I’m personally using an abundance of caution when in public. And I’m definitely questioning the experts because I don’t know jack squat, but right now, the arbitrary numbers for large crowds is 250. There can easily be over 250 “essential personnel” at a lot of these games, especially football. So if they’re going to ban all the crowds, they might as well cancel all the games. I’m not discounting this thing, but maybe I’m just as not as worried about it as some because I live in a little Podunk place and I can control my environment more than a lot of people can I reckon.
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FWIW, and this is pure speculation on my part, I think it’s 50/50 whether we see a full 2020 college football season.
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The longer we wait on the front end, the longer we will have to deal with it on the back end.
So I’m there too.
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That’s my opinion as well. I’d also be surprised if the NCAA tournament still takes place even with no spectators. I can’t see the Olympics going forward as planned either. I think all high school and eventually college spring sports will be shut down for the rest of the school year. If played at all, the Masters will most likely be patron free. Major League Baseball will most likely delay the start of the season.
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*definitely not questioning
How come you get to edit comments but we don’t? 😉
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If you don’t think there’s a difference between skiing and sitting shoulder to shoulder with thousands of people and sharing rest room facilities, then we’re truly fucked anyway but not for the reasons you think.
It is ponderous to me how thick headed some people are being about this. ASEF put it perfectly, and so I will say it again “This isn’t rocket science. 50,000 extra people showing up at a hospital over 5 months is way different than 50,000 over 5 weeks.”
If you don’t understand the basic premise that EXTREMELY LARGE GROUPS WITH HIGHLY CONTAGIOUS PEOPLE WHO DON’T KNOW THEY ARE SICK is bad and are so uninvested in the public health of yourself and your country then it’s either through stupidity or malevolence.
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Well put, mp.
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If you can’t read the totality of my comments and understand what I can can’t differentiate between… Then we are truly fucked all the way around.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/about/transmission.html
“Can someone spread the virus without being sick?
People are thought to be most contagious when they are most symptomatic (the sickest).
Some spread might be possible before people show symptoms; there have been reports of this occurring with this new coronavirus, but this is not thought to be the main way the virus spreads.”
“Highly contagious” but well enough to go to a ballgame something something.
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I feel the need to make this announcement. Due to the coronavirus known as Covid-19 I am suspending my participation on this blog. I will no longer either read posts here or make posts here myself. Doctors and government leaders have stated we should avoid crowds and like the universities listed above I will comply with that request….,Wait……What’s that?….You can’t catch the virus from a blog no mater how many people are on it?….Oh!…..Never mind.
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We just don’t know at this point if you can catch it from a blog….
“Out of an overabundance of caution” and all that bullshit…..
Go long on toilet paper futures….
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Reading the comments here could threaten your health if, for example, you are persuaded by some idiot that Covid-19 is no different than the common cold so you don’t need to take any precautions.
However, if you have a healthy level of resistance to bullshit the risk should be minimal.
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Not to downplay the seriousness of covid-19 cause actually we know very little at this point. It seems to be in early stages but wonders what Mickey’s gonna do with all the time slots of the spring games.
MLB is going to have to address this as well as I saw the Mariners will play their opening games in Arizona.
Even the Masters which I would is at the forefront of all sports as being a cutting edge innovator will most likely be played with no Patrons. I doubt they will feel much of pocket hit but the city of Augusta will as all the regional, sectional sites and Atlanta for March Maddness.
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I wonder what Mickey’s gonna do about his own Playpens, in Orlando and Anaheim.
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Well, things might get a bit dull for us sports fans for a while. I am just wondering when DisneyWorld closes. That is a big domino.
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The sky is falling, falling so tell you.
Grown adults acting like f*cking tards in the smartest nation in the planet, with college institutions and captains of industry leading the irrational panic train.
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Glad to see you’re so up on world news and an expert on viral diseases.
You literally have no idea what you’re talking about. But you sure do bring some conviction with it.
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If you think my comment is bad, you’ll be really distressed by this….I going to go about my day like any other day, unafraid of dying from the cheese touch.
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The virus doesn’t give a shit about your proud defiance of it. It does not have, “I’m an American, dammit!” code built into its RNA.
If you haven’t read any articles about how this disease has affected other countries already and what it could do here – based entirely on choices we all make right now – then that’s your right.
But we return to this: you have no idea what you’re talking about.
Stay away from old people, please. They’re somebodies mom and dad.
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Hole up in your house, buddy.
Be safe.
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I cannot make you care about other people. Your parents and/or your house of worship have failed you.
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Lol.
So to go about your day as normal is “uncaring” and a failure of God and man?
You people are priceless.
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In a way, yes. This is about individual civic duty, something Americans have taken pride in since the beginning of our existence. What a sad day that so many are unwilling to row in the same direction for a little bit.
Only you know whether “going about your day as normal” exposes you and, THEREBY others to risk factors we’re supposed to minimize. If you work in a small office with minimal contact, maybe already brown bag your lunch, it sounds like you very well could “go about your day as normal.”
If your livelihood depends on close contact with people, I’d respect your decisions and ask that you be diligent in hand washing, etc. But if “going about your day as normal” means insisting that you have all the DISRETIONARY options you prefer (entertainment, etc) as your disposal, then you are being an ignorant asshole.
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Nice internet words.
Something tells me if the power goes out in the neighborhood, all the breathless civic dutarians will want the power company linemen to come out of their houses and “risk exposure” on their behalf.
Full of shit, message board virologists are.
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Again, you are missing the point. There are going to be folks on the front line of this that we have to rely on. Doctors, nurses, and yes power company folks.
Which is why dumb fucks like you need to minimize the spread so that when they are really needed, we will have a snowballs chance in hell of them being available to help.
You are so dumb it’s astounding. Please go get a vasectomy as soon as this dies down.
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Go to a MAGA rally numbnuts.
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“To call this situation fluid”
I see what you did there
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For sports entertainment I hope they replay our entire 2017 season…over and over until 2nd and 22 doesn’t happen.
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Rudy Gobert mocked Coronavirus by touching all the mics
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The conference basketball tournaments are being cancelled and that means March Madness as well. “Oh it’s just the flu”.
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5 years from now, there will be vaccine bundled into our flu season shot.
They’re just ahead of their time 🙂
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The SEC has suspended all sporting events through the month of March.
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Kansas (the presumed #1 seed) and Duke have pulled out of the NCAA tournament.
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