Here’s another brutal local economics story about the impact of COVID on a college town, in this case, Champaign, Illinois.
Two quick points from it… first,
(As the numbers illustrate, the Big Ten’s decision not to play fall football—while still under siege from coaches and fans and administrators and players and parents of players—is not triggering financial ruin. COVID-19 already did that, by demolishing schedules and reducing stadium capacity nationwide. No season at all is only slightly more ruinous financially than a partial season in a mostly empty stadium.)
And second…
This is a recent development. Students came back to campus and enjoyed a YOLO lifestyle for the first week, but COVID-19 testing numbers told on them—after more than 400 positives between Aug. 24 and Sept. 1, the university cracked down. “We believe taking swift action to identify and remove students who refuse to follow safety guidelines is the right decision,” Illinois chancellor Robert Jones said in a statement. “We have been encouraged that the vast majority of our students have been compliant, and we believe this effort will require noncompliant students to make the choice to either comply or leave campus.”
That was Sept. 2. On Sept. 3, Green Street was almost empty. The fencing came down at 8:06 at Kam’s, and the front door was closed by 9:15.
“We’ve just got to ride it out,” Reda says. “Bars are public enemy No. 1 right now with COVID.”
That is one reason why they can’t have nice things.
(Oh, and before some of you go on in the comments thread to talk about the non-existent threat to young, healthy college football players — not that you should, mind you — maybe somebody should have explained the stats to this kid.)
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UPDATE: This is a helluvan “oops”.
Get The Picture 
RIP, Jamain. I think that is going to hit home with a lot of college players. My thoughts and prayers to all that loved him. That is a tough, tough, pill to swallow.
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Kam’s closed early, you have no idea what that means!
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With a BMI of 44 the kid was not a “healthy” college football player. I feel for his family and friends.
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But is he atypical for lineman in college football? I’m guessing there are quite a few players with similar body types spread across the 120+ teams.
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Most P5 OL and DL have BMIs of 30+. 44 is extreme. BMI is a health risk for a lot more illnesses than the one that dominates the media currently.
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But the narrative!
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Yes, that is terribly sad and I am sorry for their loss as well.
On the good side though, it was reported yesterday that 29 other campuses (incl.UGA) had recorded just at 26,000 positive test results in total over the last 3 weeks, with no resulting hospitalizations.
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Say it louder for the people in the back!
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Sad for the kid for sure..
Here’s a study put out by The University of Minnesota..
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2020/09/kids-covid-19-flu-equally-prone-severe-illness
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That sucks for that kid. It really does. I feel for his family to lose someone so young. It also sucks for all the families of all the grannies Cuomo killed in New York. Grantham’s Replacement mentioned the kid had a co-morbidity. This is important to note, because again, healthy people under the age of 60 without a co-morbidity have little to fear. Healthy under-25’s without a comorbidity have nothing to fear.
You never want to see anyone die from this virus, because as we’ve now found out, this virus is not the boogeyman. It affects some far more than others; it’s far more deadly for a small subset of our population, and we should do everything we can to protect them.
The rest of us should live our lives with precautions. Nothing illustrates that more than the fact that we’ve had 40K positive tests since college was back in session and not one single hospitalization. Not one. Why isn’t that news being blasted out everywhere?
That is far more telling than anything else I’ve seen in the last few weeks. And that number isn’t just healthy under-25’s. It’s professors, it’s administrators, and it’s support staff. Most of the positive tests wouldn’t even know they had the virus if they weren’t tested.
Be safe. Wear a mask. Wash your hands. And more than anything, stop trusting those who keep pushing fear on you, regardless of the source.
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Good news is not allowed. Hurts the narrative. ☹️
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But we know that the incubation period for virus is somewhere between a few days to a few decades. Mark my words. Those kids will die from C19. It may be sixty years from now when they’re riddled with cancer. But they will die because you didn’t wear a mask.
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I’m not sure how a school would know if a positive test resulted in a hospitalization unless the student volunteered that information. Even then it would not be in their best interests to release it (privacy laws) and indeed, they are under no obligation to do so. Furthermore, hospitalizations generally take a while. Few people get that that sick that quick. Let’s check back in a month and see if those numbers change. They may not. If we’ve learned anything during the pandemic it’s that quick takes are generally incorrect.
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RE: Furthermore, hospitalizations generally take a while. Few people get that that sick that quick.
Actually:
“After observing thousands of patients during China’s outbreak earlier this year, hospitals there identified a pattern of symptoms among COVID-19 patients:
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That’s not true. These numbers go back almost a month now, and generally people who need to be hospitalized are hospitalized with covid-19 within a week of infection.
So… again… 40K tests, no hospitalizations.
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Man, I even had a general admonishment in the post about discussing stats.
Thread closed.
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Be honest with yourselves. Would you as a college student have just sat in your dorm room or apartment for days/weeks on end? I doubt I would have. When your classes have all moved online, you can’t get a part-time job, and you can’t do anything as a student organization or have intramural sports, there’s really nothing else to do.
The universities have taken the tuition payments (and, more importantly, the fees), the book money, and the room and board fees. The students have nowhere to go now other than comply with the lockdown for the remainder of the semester.
I wonder how many students are going to decide to take the spring semester off rather than deal with the restrictions. I bet as course registrations & counseling appointments start, students are going to see a lot of the same things they saw in the spring.
“We’re planning for full in-person instruction.”
“We’re planning to have full student access to sports.”
“We have a plan for how student organizations can meet in person.”
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I was discussing this with my wife the other day. I think I probably would have taken the year off of school – worked a labor job installing windows like I did in the summers. I wouldn’t want to waste one of my college years/football seasons on a shut down campus. I know many friends who took the 5 year route for an additional football season in normal times. While that wasn’t for me, I probably would rethink it if one of my 4 years was like 2020.
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My son is 18 and about to graduate high school. We have raised him to believe that this gap year thing ain’t going to happen. Well, I just told him yesterday that it may be wise to take the gap, earn some money, and set his goals up while everything is in such turmoil. Go figure.
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This guy died of spontaneous human combustion. Obviously that is a huge risk that we should all turn our lives upside down to avoid.
https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_2734730?guccounter=1
#IfItSavesEvenOneLife
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This made me laugh. There was a time in my life (college) when I actually put a bit of effort into convincing people spontaneous human combustion was a thing.
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“We talkin’ bout Cases.” – Allen Iverson, probably
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