OT: - Before hitting the "Normal" button... | The Boneyard

OT: Before hitting the "Normal" button...

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Sifaka

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We are basketball fans.
We want to watch games.
We are growing weary of trying to substitute conversation for competition.

But before we declare that it's safe (enough?) to resume play, ponder the following, please.

"Basketball is one of these sports where you’re right on top of each other, face to face, and there’s no way around it,” said Joe Allen, a Harvard University assistant professor of exposure assessment science. “It’s hard to get away from breathing in someone’s face.”

A basketball court is more like a crowded bar than a socially distanced baseball field—and that makes each game a potential breeding ground for disease. The basics of the sport have never looked so risky. There is physical contact on every play. The ball is touched so many times by so many hands that it might as well be a doorknob. The best teams are in constant vocal communication as they talk with each other, talk trash at opponents and talk down to referees. From high-fives to Stephen Curry’s dangling mouthguard, almost everything about basketball now feels menacing.

In fact, if you were trying to design a sport to spread a highly contagious respiratory illness, you would probably come up with an idea like Naismith’s ingenious way of entertaining his restless students
."

source: Wall Street Journal,
 
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but if they are testing people prior to the start (and regularly) i have to assume, obviously, they will not allow infected players to play. and furthermore i don't think anyone knows what will happen if 1 player is found positive. (i would think they have to wait about 2 weeks to see if anyone else tests positive?)

regardless, getting back to the point, if no one is positive with corona, then there are no corona germs being spread.
 
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I had a very dear friend. He spent 25 years in the USMC. Two purple hearts, many decorations for valor, and strong like a bull. He knew fear but I do not think that he was afraid any one day of his life. He was hit by a car walking across the street and killed.
 

oldude

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but if they are testing people prior to the start (and regularly) i have to assume, obviously, they will not allow infected players to play. and furthermore i don't think anyone knows what will happen if 1 player is found positive. (i would think they have to wait about 2 weeks to see if anyone else tests positive?)

regardless, getting back to the point, if no one is positive with corona, then there are no corona germs being spread.
This is such an insidious disease that can be transmitted asymptomatically. Unless you test every player, coach and trainer before every game, every practice and every bus or plane trip there is the chance that someone can catch and spread the virus. College campuses are a particular concern. Students live in close quarters, eat in cafeterias and attend classes together, all of which increase the potential for exposure to the disease.

I dearly miss live sports. Korean baseball just doesn’t cut it for me. But short of a vaccine, I don’t see how sports like football and basketball work right now.
 

cohenzone

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I had a very dear friend. He spent 25 years in the USMC. Two purple hearts, many decorations for valor, and strong like a bull. He knew fear but I do not think that he was afraid any one day of his life. He was hit by a car walking across the street and killed.
Hard to know your point. Yeah, people die in all kinds of ways, but crossing the street and getting hit by a car isn’t contagious. We need to be smart about what and how we return to “normal” especially in the absence of a good vaccine. Some things just might not be the same no matter how much we want it. The disease experts are still trying to figure it out.
 
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Hard to know your point. Yeah, people die in all kinds of ways, but crossing the street and getting hit by a car isn’t contagious. We need to be smart about what and how we return to “normal” especially in the absence of a good vaccine. Some things just might not be the same no matter how much we want it. The disease experts are still trying to figure it out.
I hear ya. And there are two sides to this argument which I think have already been shared on this thread without belaboring this point. It may come down to an individual decision. I personally am not going to go through life even though what is left of mine is small, in such a manner that after I have dodged bullets, I have to worry about dodging bugs. Can't do it. My own personal perspective in and out of uniform. So have a nice day and enjoy it.
 

cohenzone

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I hear ya. And there are two sides to this argument which I think have already been shared on this thread without belaboring this point. It may come down to an individual decision. I personally am not going to go through life even though what is left of mine is small, in such a manner that after I have dodged bullets, I have to worry about dodging bugs. Can't do it. My own personal perspective in and out of uniform. So have a nice day and enjoy it.
I’m 75. Living life without inviting others to put theirs at risk seems like an easy choice. At my age, not being able to readily get on a plane to see my son and grandchildren a six hour flight away is much more of an issue than hoops. I hope the sport can be played because I love it, but what is, is.
 
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Waquoit

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I hear ya. And there are two sides to this argument which I think have already been shared on this thread without belaboring this point. It may come down to an individual decision. I personally am not going to go through life even though what is left of mine is small, in such a manner that after I have dodged bullets, I have to worry about dodging bugs. Can't do it. My own personal perspective in and out of uniform. So have a nice day and enjoy it.
Screw everyone else, got it.
 

Majic Hands

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Why not force labs to quit seeing what they can create with existing virsus. Then if your afraid or have a compromised immune system keep yourself quarenteened. The rest of us can go ahead and live our lives. I'll take responsibility for my health, thank you very much. After recovering from what I thought was the flu in January (down for 3 weeks) which the Dr. said wasn't influenza, I went on with my life. Oh yes I've been diagnosed with prostitute cancer so don't tell me about how compromised you are.

[ ]
 
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oldude

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I hear ya. And there are two sides to this argument which I think have already been shared on this thread without belaboring this point. It may come down to an individual decision. I personally am not going to go through life even though what is left of mine is small, in such a manner that after I have dodged bullets, I have to worry about dodging bugs. Can't do it. My own personal perspective in and out of uniform. So have a nice day and enjoy it.
veryolddog, I have enormous respect for your service to this country. Like my father in 1942, you chose to serve as a Marine, fully accepting all the risks that came with that decision to defend this country. But this pandemic is not simply about taking personal risks as frontline medical personnel, first responders and essential workers are heroically doing every day. It is also very much about putting others at risk.

I have a son, daughter-in-law and 2 year old grandson that I love very much and haven’t seen, other than FaceTime, since Christmas. My son is an executive with an energy services company, who’s job requires that he travels a good amount of time, even during this pandemic.

He has reluctantly asked that my wife and I stay away from him and his family for the time being, and we have reluctantly agreed. As much as I want to see them, I know that if either my wife or I were infected as a result of exposure to the virus that he might contract during his travels, he would never forgive himself.

Semper Fi.
 
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1590673491871.png

Safer than regular flu for college age and younger players. Older coaches should sit behind the bench.
 

oldude

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View attachment 54802
Safer than regular flu for college age and younger players. Older coaches should sit behind the bench.
Not sure how this chart demonstrates anything other than older people are more at risk of dying, which is exactly the same for the “regular flu.” What the medical professionals have stated is that this virus is 3 times easier to transmit and 20 times more likely to kill someone than the regular flu.
 
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Not sure how this chart demonstrates anything other than older people are more at risk of dying, which is exactly the same for the “regular flu.” What the medical professionals have stated is that this virus is 3 times easier to transmit and 20 times more likely to kill someone than the regular flu.

However, It is NOT 20 times more likely to kill a healthy person of college age.
 
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After looking at that chart, all I can say is: I am glad that I am not in the over 85 year old group. Look, as I type this I am in my second home in the San Antonio, Texas area visiting my son, his wife and my grandson. You cannot keep my wife away from her grandson. A few days ago I went to the local grocery store to pick up a few items, HEB. I went in at 9:00 AM in the morning. The place was packed, no masks and people buying their usual groceries with the store fully shelved with all of their items. It's like nothing happened. The only reference to social distancing was 6 ft marked spots on the floor for checkout, single entrance single exit, and plexi panels between you and the checkout person; and no masks. Life goes on. Traffic on the road just like always. This does not bother the Texans. My point is that you cannot live your life in a cocoon. If you do, it is your choice. Oh yes, one more point, there was plenty of Charmin.

As I think about this, both my parents, may they rest in peace, were born in 1909, and lived as children through the Spanish flu, Scarlet fever, and other crap of the day where they had other health issues and no vaccines. My Mom was born in Hartford, and my Dad was born in Meriden. Me: Albuquerque, when it was just a quiet community and drive thru on US 40. They survived.
 
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Sooner or later, most will be exposed to this virus one way or the other (just like flu - or the common cold).
Immunity happens ONLY through exposure or a vaccine. Either you become immune (with or without symptoms) or you don't get exposed.
All of this "shutdown" only delays - it doesn't cancel
 

oldude

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However, It is NOT 20 times more likely to kill a healthy person of college age.
That’s really not the point. Colleges are not simply occupied by kids 18-22. College campuses include many older professors, coaches, maintenance staff, cafeteria staff and so on. Interaction between college students and the adjacent community is inevitable and poses a legitimate risk of transmission.
 

JordyG

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However, It is NOT 20 times more likely to kill a healthy person of college age.
That is from my view, at best, aside the point, and at its worse extremely cavalier. Those under the age of 44, although unlikely to die of the virus, are society's incubators and transmitters of the disease. They contract the disease then spread it to family members and friends, and the older these people are the more likely they are to die. Worse, who is to know the long term ramifications of contracting this disease? No one knows if those who have had mild symptoms or are asymptomatic will have major health issues in the future due to this virus.
 
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One of the problems with this is that the "experts" that are dragged out on the netwrks, are sitting on either one side of the aisle or the other. It has become a political pi$$ing contest. They are not sitting with us regular Americans.
 
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That’s really not the point. Colleges are not simply occupied by kids 18-22. College campuses include many older professors, coaches, maintenance staff, cafeteria staff and so on. Interaction between college students and the adjacent community is inevitable and poses a legitimate risk of transmission.

Of course that must be taken into account, however it CAN be taken into account. Distancing, use of and hiring of younger employees, etc. e.g. I hate to say it, but if Geno doesn't want to get up close with his players, he needs to either work around it, work in the background, or step aside temporarily. Stopping life for young students is theft (and cowardice).
 
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Sooner or later, most will be exposed to this virus one way or the other (just like flu - or the common cold).
Immunity happens ONLY through exposure or a vaccine. Either you become immune (with or without symptoms) or you don't get exposed.
All of this "shutdown" only delays - it doesn't cancel
Exactly.
That’s really not the point. Colleges are not simply occupied by kids 18-22. College campuses include many older professors, coaches, maintenance staff, cafeteria staff and so on. Interaction between college students and the adjacent community is inevitable and poses a legitimate risk of transmission.
Nothing has changed. There's no available effective treatment, no vaccine. Social distancing is intended to buy time and minimize spread to ensure the hospitals are not overwhelmed. Politicians have apparently decided that some level of death is acceptable. As someone in the high risk category this gives me pause.
 

Centerstream

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Bottom line is that economics will play a big role in how we address this in the future months. Not sure if this is a good thing or not. Oh, and politicians will play a bigger role and we know what they truly care about.
 
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Exactly.

Nothing has changed. There's no available effective treatment, no vaccine. Social distancing is intended to buy time and minimize spread to ensure the hospitals are not overwhelmed. Politicians have apparently decided that some level of death is acceptable. As someone in the high risk category this gives me pause.
I am about to turn 79 years old and I don't think we should shut down just for me. I will take care and self isolate, but I say let the younger people get on with life. Why should I expect a restaurant to remain closed to protect me ? Why should Geno et. al. expect WCBB to remain shut to protect him ?
 

Sifaka

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[...] Oh yes I've been diagnosed with prostitute cancer so don't tell me about how compromised you are.

I started this thread in hopes of a vigorous, civil discussion and so far, most of the comments have contributed to that aim. I am a terrible typist, especially in weed pulling season, when carpal tunnel makes my hands nearly as numb as my brain. Thus I am not in the habit of pointng out typographical flubs by others. That said, I offer Majic Hands warm thanks for the good chortle.
:rolleyes:
 

JordyG

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I am about to turn 79 years old and I don't think we should shut down just for me. I will take care and self isolate, but I say let the younger people get on with life. Why should I expect a restaurant to remain closed to protect me ? Why should Geno et. al. expect WCBB to remain shut to protect him ?
Yes. Let's just let all of those in college that coach sports, run the programs, all those who teach the courses and man the bursars and other offices, maintain the grounds and generally care for the students contract the disease and die. Who needs them? Heck, let the under 44's run the world while the rest of us get busy dying. Let's ignore the fact that there is a chance that those under 44 who contract this virus may have their lifespans shortened by 20 or 30 years. We're all going to die anyway. What's the fuss? Just pass the pancake syrup.
 
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