SI Article on NCAA Football and COVID-19

[76-1]

June 1st is the more likely timeline. It's really the best long term strategy, including economically. So much productivity is lost in the "transition".... it's not worth the risk to start too early and then have to do it again. Let the govt money flow for another month and then try to get restarted.

It might even be July or later...

In my opinion, it's all about testing, we need to identify, in depth, who has had it and survived (without knowing for certain that they had it) and who the asymptotic carriers are and then somehow convince them to self quarantine... along with making it possible for the most vulnerable to ride things out (for up to 18+ months) until a working vaccine is found... All the while, opening up clear zones one area at a time (which brings up the other sticky question of how we keep those who haven't been tested out of the clear zones)...

I don't have anything close to what I think is a good answer to how to accomplish all of that but I'm sure hoping our best and brightest are allowing themselves to leave the politics out of it and are working their butts off to solve this potentially deadly, three dimensional moving, jigsaw puzzle...

Personally, I'd start in the states of Alaska, Washington and Oregon in the west and work east, attempting to clear the earliest and apparently least hit states from the North Pacific coast to the Mississippi River say including these states: AK, WA, OR, ID (they [Idaho] are hit hard I know) MT, WY, ND, SD, and Nebraska..., and then put draconian restricted access to those states (trucks moving to and from with food and medicine only) until a vaccine is found... That gives us seaport access along with a couple of Interstate highways and two major rail lines and oil pipelines to be used as lifelines to the rest of the country.

After that things really get complicated... We'll probably have to identify blocks of states that seem to have a handle on things and mass test those areas and clear them (I'm thinking KY, OH, WV and PA as one zone..., and MD, D.C., VA, NC & SC as another) first and work out from there... Those areas seem to have the natural resources and industry and infrastructure necessary to keep the rest of the country afloat while we attack the hottest spots..., allocating max testing resources one area at a time...//I live in Indiana..., so I'm not playing favorites...//

We've paid a lot of lip service to this being a war... In my opinion, it's high time we took the offensive and that we begin attacking this virus as a true wartime enemy that has taken land from us and that we begin, in earnest..., to kill (the virus) , clear(areas of it) and then Hold those cleared areas as we would in a conventional war; reclaiming our country one geographic area at a time...

In my opinion, we need to all pull together and attack this virus as though it was an invader from outer space (even though we know exactly where it originated [China])...

 

[ce36ei]

Someone said relatively healthy people are dying of this...that’s true...but a tiny fraction. If you look at Indiana’s deaths, 90% of them are 40 and over and someone with the state said 90% of those dead had 2 pre-existing conditions. Remember, the regular flu will take generally healthy too. Happens every year. At some point we have to take a little bit of risk. The economy cannot take an extended time of this.

 

[vesuvius13]

Someone said relatively healthy people are dying of this...that’s true...but a tiny fraction. If you look at Indiana’s deaths, 90% of them are 40 and over and someone with the state said 90% of those dead had 2 pre-existing conditions. Remember, the regular flu will take generally healthy too. Happens every year. At some point we have to take a little bit of risk. The economy cannot take an extended time of this.

Very good points and people didn't know how regular flu was deadly too but the media has been pushing this story too much. Taking real measures to fight the corona virus helps control it but shutting the economy down isn't good for our nation.

The states 76-1 noted are not very populated is why they aren't getting the virus as bad as the Eastern states. I hope after this virus is under control the world punishes the China Government for lying and hiding what this virus is like from the world. I know from Americans with family in China they are very angry at their government for what they did over this virus IE welding doors on apartment buildings to let people die from this virus. There are big reasons China kicked out western media during this outbreak; so we couldn't know what was going on in China.

 

[Courtsensetwo]

Desperate idea for this fall but how about allowing schools to sell 8,000 seats to each game at a high price ($100 - $200) with assigned seats spread out over the lower 50 rows / 80 per row on each side. No concessions they can bring in a cooler. That is $1MM per game? I think enough people would pay just for the novelty of it. Everyone gets on the big vid board and all get seat cushion, box lunch, free parking and a letter signed by the team.

 

[82hoosier]

There could be a season Without many fans in the stands or even without any at all. If they can get that at a minimum, then tv revenues could still flow. The issue is safety period. If we can test in preseason practice, the whole staff and team that would be mandatory. It then becomes a test in seeing if during these practices any player or staff member gets it after being tested during pre season. If we are seeing within the practice players getting it and if any die then it shuts it all down period. We will have to keep players and staff somewhat isolated during preseason to see if this works.
It can work and it’s a long way out but testing is a must almost weekly for all players and staff moving forward.

I think they will be filling movie theaters before they will be filling football stadiums. Let’s not forget that these are college sports played by college students to audiences of college students. Take any of that away in the whole thing collapses.

Not to mention that colleges are beginning to make contingency plans for no on-campus activities until 2021.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/14/us/u...coYxxOFWdmc2bjQUcj1mT5SxwkW-fYAJmxdyVlfhrdcnw

 

[ce36ei]

I don’t see fans at any sporting event in 2020. But I do see sports. It’s has to happen or else leagues and athletic departments will fold. If they play, they can at least survive off TV money. Universities can’t afford to educate everyone from home this Fall either. They need that room and board money, especially the privates, or else they won’t survive. The government can’t bail everybody out. At some point, we’re just going to have to take it on the chin a little.

 

[Bowlmania]

Very good points and people didn't know how regular flu was deadly too but the media has been pushing this story too much. Taking real measures to fight the corona virus helps control it but shutting the economy down isn't good for our nation.

The states 76-1 noted are not very populated is why they aren't getting the virus as bad as the Eastern states. I hope after this virus is under control the world punishes the China Government for lying and hiding what this virus is like from the world. I know from Americans with family in China they are very angry at their government for what they did over this virus IE welding doors on apartment buildings to let people die from this virus. There are big reasons China kicked out western media during this outbreak; so we couldn't know what was going on in China.

Regular flu and coronavirus are apples and oranges. Sure, regular flu is deadly and it can and does kill tens of thousands each season, but that's over the course of 6-7 months. Coronavirus has killed over 30,000 Americans in just the past five weeks. It's put an unprecedented strain on our healthcare system in places like New York, Detroit and New Orleans, with first responders and hospital workers dying along with their patients. This doesn't happen with regular flu. And, unlike coronavirus, there's a vaccine for the flu. The overwhelming majority of flu deaths are in unvaccinated people.

Also, people who live in less densely populated states are hardly in the clear. One of the biggest Covid-19 clusters in the country is currently in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Over 500 employees of a single pork processing plant are infected.

There's no way sports or anything else can return to any semblance of normalcy until we have better information about the virus. That requires much more testing and contact tracing.

 

[travlinhoosier]

Yes, the ability to test lots and lots of people a day and the ability to find whom the sick ones contacted for some number of days before they became obviously sick seems to be the consensus among the knowledgeable for significantly re-opening the country. It would seem the government (I won't get more specific to stay nonpolitical) should be requiring any company with the capability, to be making quick and accurate tests. Smart phone makers are working on the tracing problem but it's not a simple problem and who knows when they'll have apps for that. Then everybody with smart phones will need to get and use them. And we can predict how that will go over.

I have my fingers crossed for basketball season, likely played by often-tested teams in empty gyms. Maybe we can pipe sound into Assembly Hall.