Shot.
Another shot.
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Would it be possible, or make sense, to intentionally create team-wide herd immunity?
It’s a question that has been lurking for weeks now. It gains steam as Clemson rolls on despite 37 positive COVID-19 tests. Most college athletes who contract the virus, the thought goes, will be asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic. They’ll recover and become immune, or so they think. They’ll be free to live life and compete. One Power 5 athletic director told Yahoo Sports that multiple football players and other athletes have said they’d like to get the virus now, so that they don’t have to worry about missing games in the fall.
And while coaches clearly want players to be healthy, now and throughout the season, some have mentioned to Yahoo Sports that teams with large early summer outbreaks could be at a competitive advantage come September.
Hey, they’re just asking!
Soooo… if you had to pick, which coach would you put money on to be deliberately manufacturing a COVID-19 outbreak on his team right now?
Get The Picture 
Dabo. The moron thinks he can pray his players’s illnesses away.
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Mike Gundy
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He was the coach that popped into my mind first.
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I bet most big time programs are going this. Get everyone (Except those with the sugar or other high risk ailments) exposed in a controlled environment, let them recover and move on
I’d be stunned if we don’t find out after the 90 day waiting period lapses if we haven’t had as many positives as clemson
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Jim, you’ve caught on! This is the unspoken strategy of the NCAA.
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Saban, of course. He’s probably already done it and kept the lid on it so media doesn’t know. He also probably hired an epidemiologist as an analyst.
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Well, they’re having COVID parties in Tuscaloosa with students betting on who the next “positive” will be. So, yeah.
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Jimbo Fisher.
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It makes no sense to talk about having “herd immunity” on a football team. Herd immunity is something that happens at the level of the overall population: once enough people are immune (due to past infection or vaccination), a pathogen can no longer spread effectively due to a lack of susceptible people.
The whole point of the concept is that this happens at a level of infection lower than 100%. That’s why kids with medical conditions who can’t take the measles vaccine, for example, are still safe as long as enough other kids do get vaccinated to achieve herd immunity.
There is no such thing as herd immunity on a college football team. You can say “Screw it, let’s just let all the kids get infected and hope for the best.” But you shouldn’t try to dress it up with some fancy word that implies what you are proposing is any more sophisticated than that.
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Farstriker, you shot yourself in the foot!
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In fact, it’s a pretty Novel idea!
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Novel or not, it’s got F all to do with herd immunity.
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Farstriker, There’s no reason that they have to have 100% infection. The ones that are going to get sick will do so and recover in plenty of time for the season. Most won’t have symptoms at all.
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All of them
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I mean UGA is not even reporting. Seems like a likely reason.
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Kirby doesnt report much. One way or the other.
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The university has reported 143 cases on campus. There are no in person classes on campus right now so at least some of those are likely to be football players.
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Most not some.
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Auburn. I predicted before they will insist on testing opposing teams and shockingly find the star players are positive while equally as shocking all of their players test negative. The SEC will fail to intervene.
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Chip Kelly
Jimbo Fisher
Jeremy Pruitt (Just because Foolmer saw the article about the competitive advantage and made him)
Tom Herman (I feel is a caring coach but that hot seat)
Ryan Day (because Urban said so)
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If they disqualify players who test positive but are asymptomatic, the season is going to be craziest ever seen. You will see teams lose their best players and some teams will have to forfeit for lack of players. 2020 will have to have an asterisk by it forever in the College Football Books.
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The problem is with the outliers.. there are people that contract the disease and continue to shed the virus for weeks/months, which is why many healthcare institutions require 2 consecutive negative tests before an employee can come back to work. I am acutely aware of a situation now where someone has had tested +,+,+,+,+,-,+ so still not allowed back to work, all while not displaying symptoms.
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There is no certainty that having COVID gives a person any sort of immunity at all. There are many reports of the same people being infected more than once and no clinical evidence that any sort of acquired immunity lasts for any amount of time. There is simply too much we don’t know yet.
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BTW, if you read Seth’s piece in the Athletic today about former UGA players saying the current players should be paid to play during a pandemic, there are some interesting numbers there.
For the entire university (because UGA doesn’t separate numbers by student, staff, athlete, etc) it looked like this:
“That number was 44 as of June 3. It grew to 61 on June 8, and has gradually increased to 173 on June 30. ”
You have to assume a significant number of those are athletes because they were the largest group returning to campus, and they are the ones being tested.
So, we’re having our surge as well, We just won’t know about it for ~75 days.
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Leach, Gundy, and Brian Kelly
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It is scary to think of kids with Sickle cell being purposely exposed. I hope Coaches are isrrning to their medical people.
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*Listening
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As the numbers of cases rise across the Southeast, I am becoming more and more concerned that our public figures and universities will succumb to the media’s misconstruction of the current pandemic and cancel society and sports…again. In our society, all that matters is how you feel, disregarding all facts.
Here are the data (previously known as facts) from Georgia taken directly from the Georgia Department of Health:
84,237 cases (8.4% positivity) and 2827 deaths
Death Rate/Hospitalization Rates
Age 18-29: 0.08%, 3.5%
Age 30-39: 0.3%, 7.2%
Age 40-49: 0.8%, 10.4%
Age 50-59: 1.8%, 16.1%
Age 60-69: 5.6%, 25%
Age 70-79: 13.5%, 34%
Age > 80: 23%, 23.4%
Other “facts”
Georgia is not a health state…average life expectancy is 72.6 yrs.
60% of deaths in Georgia have occurred in people 72 and above.
86% of deaths in Georgia have occurred in people 60 and above.
There have been 3 deaths in Georgia between the ages of 15 and 24; 17 yo AA male with chronic conditions, 22 yo AA female with chronic conditions, 23 yo AA female with chronic conditions.
The population of Georgia is 10.6 million people. Estimates for our state suggest 12% of the population is aged between 15 and 24 years (approximately 1.3 million).
To date 3 of 1.3 million college age kids in Georgia have died from covid-19.
Nearly 800 kids in Georgia die every year in automobile accidents.
I “feel” we should get back to school and back to sports.
God Bless America and Go Dawgs.
JW
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Well if they cant practice this month you can forget it.
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Considering the recent studies indicating antibodies dramatically reduce or disappear over time, that would be an unfortunate strategy. Perhaps timing your team’s outbreak for late July would be best, but you’d have to brace for a return during the time of championship games and bowls.
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Doesn’t Georgia have 150 some odd cases?
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