Unpopular opinion. Just cancel all pro sports until a vaccine hits

[uncfan888]

PU continues to churn out the quality posts 

[Brooklyn 3.0]

People are STILL trying to point to "it doesn't kill young people"? Jesus. No one is arguing it does. That has never been the point. Ever. It's that young people can spread it. Period.

[PanthersATL]

3 hours ago, stirs said:

For the doctors and statisticians in this thread, what do deaths from Covid 19 look like in the 18-30 year old male athlete category?

I am not a doctor or a statistician. However, I believe that there is a major misconception about Covid and morbidity rates being reported. My intention here is not to take anything away from the seriousness of Covid and its effects, but to point out one specific aspect of how things have been reported.

From what I've read online in various (hopefully legit/non-biased) health-related sites, the Journal of the AMA, and the CDC site --  Covid *by itself* has a relatively low morbidity rate. Lots of analysis has been done since March, and the vast vast majority of patients who passed had Covid listed as a co-morbidity among their other conditions.

The studies have found that the most at-risk patients who contract Covid are those with obesity, hypertension, and diabetes. In one study, 94% of those who passed had one chronic health problem in addition to Covid. 88% had two or more.  (The NY Dept of Health reports 89.9% co-morbidity rate as of this writing https://covid19tracker.health.ny.gov/)

That being said -- I doubt that the majority of young professional athletes have "chronic health problems" that would result in a Covid-related death. Could it happen? Yes, it could. But the likelihood is low.  The problem is not the athletes themselves getting sick, but that they could spread the virus to others who are more susceptible to issues.  Plus, there's the support staff on the field or elsewhere in the stadiums that could be innocently exposed in such a gathering. 

I want the 2020 season to happen. I want to see Teddy and CMC and the gang kick some surprised butts all over the NFC South and beyond. But I'm beginning to think more and more it'll be canceled.  (Would rather have it canceled entirely then canceled three games into the season)

[edit: also, what @Peon Awesome said]

[stirs]

3 minutes ago, Brooklyn 3.0 said:

People are STILL trying to point to "it doesn't kill young people"? Jesus. No one is arguing it does. That has never been the point. Ever. It's that young people can spread it. Period.

But for this particular thread, about sports being cancelled, we can ascertain that the athletes themselves will be fine.  That was the crux of the conversation.

Now, can you have teams play and keep them away from the elderly?  Can you have fanless games?

[Brooklyn 3.0]

25 minutes ago, stirs said:

But for this particular thread, about sports being cancelled, we can ascertain that the athletes themselves will be fine.  That was the crux of the conversation.

Now, can you have teams play and keep them away from the elderly?  Can you have fanless games?

Can you tell every athlete to wear a mask off the field, stay away from at risk people and the elderly? If so, game on.

[Peon Awesome]

4 hours ago, stirs said:

For the doctors and statisticians in this thread, what do deaths from Covid 19 look like in the 18-30 year old male athlete category?

Good question. The mortality is pretty low although exact numbers are difficult to come by since most of the people in this age range may have contracted it without even knowing so they don't enter the equation. It's not zero; a friend of mine lost his sister to COVID who was in her 20s. Although she wasn't an athlete so who knows?

I have a couple concerns as it relates to athletes. For one, obesity is a major risk factor for morbidity and mortality, so I do worry about the risk for offensive linemen and defensive tackles. Even if they're in great shape for their weight, I suspect much of the increased complications have more to do with decreased lung compliance and airway capacity from the increased abdominal girth, in which case, those players wouldn't be excluded from potential complication (although I'm not a pulmonologist so take my conjecture for what it is). 

The second issue would be that COVID has been associated with multiorgan damage that could pose a serious threat without killing any players. It's been associated with a high rate of venous thromboembolic events, like pulmonary emboli which effectively ended Chris Bosh's career and forced our new LT Okung to spend much of last year on the injured list. It's also been associated with heart complications like cardiomyopathy and myocarditis, which would restrict any athlete from playing for a good period of time with highly restricted exercise capacity for weeks if not the entire season. This is largely why the NBA has included in their plan a period of no exercise and clearance by a physician for any player that tests positive, even without any symptoms. 

Personally I think the NBA has been incredibly thoughtful and created a proposal that could work without being too risky. It's not clear that the NFL, who has a much harder endeavor on their hands with larger roster and staff sizes, and players more at risk, has taken anywhere close to the needed precautions and seems to be operating way too close to status quo to have a chance at an uninterrupted season, but I hope I'm wrong.

[mc52beast]

On 6/20/2020 at 1:14 AM, onmyown said:

A vaccine is not around the corner. No one in their right mind would willingly get a vaccine that comes out in less than a year.

But I agree somewhat, sports will be cancelled. Who knows when they’ll come back.

Don’t worry, when the FDA approves something that means it’s safe.... well not really.

[Brooklyn 3.0]

The uprise in Florida certainly makes the NBA an interesting thing to watch right now.

[Panthero]

On 6/19/2020 at 8:57 PM, PanthersNC1984 said:

Is it even worth it at this point? The current Covid required protocols are impossible to maintain, I keep reading all these proposals to restart MLB and NBA and my god, they are so ridiculous it’s like why even bother? A vaccine is right around the corner, at worst we will have a vaccine by Valentine’s Day 2021 (which honestly isn’t long at all) and now there are even talks of a vaccine possibly by November. Just wait it out. Forget all this non sense and rules and restrictions. I don’t want to watch the NFL be weakened and a shell of its former self. I want it with the bright lights, the raucous fans in attendance, I don’t want distracted players. 
 

‘What happens if half of a NFL team gets Covid? How do you even work around something like that Then I hear these ridiculous NBA proposals about playing in a bubble in Disney land, just hang it all up. Shut down all pro sports until the vaccine hits in several months, it will be here before you know it

 

[stirs]

2 hours ago, Brooklyn 3.0 said:

Can you tell every athlete to wear a mask off the field, stay away from at risk people and the elderly? If so, game on.

So you are saying young athletes cannot be trusted to do the right thing?  Well, we rail in these threads each day about people not doing the right thing, guess we can add them to the list.

[Brooklyn 3.0]

26 minutes ago, stirs said:

So you are saying young athletes cannot be trusted to do the right thing?  Well, we rail in these threads each day about people not doing the right thing, guess we can add them to the list.

I don't think any person can be 100% trusted. It takes a lot of work and effort to completely make yourself and those around you safe. Either we let them play so fans can be happy (what it's really about) and be ok with it if anyone dies as a result ... or cancel the season which only effects the players income (which by the way is effecting millions of americans right now anyway).

[4Corners]

4 hours ago, Peon Awesome said:

Well let me address the core of your question. You seem to be implying that the mainstream media suggests COVID is a universally lethal super virus that will kill anyone who gets the slightest whiff of it and thus we all should hide in our bunkers for the next 2 years. I don't pay much attention to the media so if that's the case, thats not true and they are wrong or if that's the impression they have given you to lead you to distrust them, that is also wrong. I have yet to hear anything even remotely that alarmist from Dr. Fauci. So you still haven't quoted anything he's said recently to suggest we shouldn't take his advice.

Second point, is COVID no different than the flu, which doesn't prompt us to take really any precautions every year? That is also a resounding NO. We get COVID updates 3 times a week from our hospital leadership. Our most recent update came on Friday, which said there were 17 patients in our medical ICU with COVID, the majority on the ventilator. In an average flu season, we have about 3 patients with the flu in the ICU on the ventilator at any one time and that's with the entire country open and almost no one taking any precautions. There are times when the entire medical ICU doesn't even have 17 patients TOTAL in a regular season. Now we have 17 just with COVID despite a lot of things still closed down and most people being careful. How many would we have with concerts and sporting events going on, bars statewide open, you know things that are true during a flu season?

A lot of the COVID patients in the ICU have very few if any medical problems. I can't give specifics or risk a firing due to HIPAA violations but trust me that not every person in the ICU is 80 years old. The average age seems to be more like 50 and there are more than a few in their 30s. Most of the healthier ones eventually come off the ventilator and go home, although not all. And even so, is a 3 week hospitalization with a couple weeks on a ventilator and the associated $400,000 hospital bill anything to sneeze at? We quote the 120,000 that died, but there's at least as many whose lives have been turned upside down with horrendous hospitalizations and lingering medical issues.

Meanwhile, are there people who get it with basically no symptoms? Yes! Like I said, it's not universally fatal. With the range of patients we're seeing, we can't tell with certainty who will get sick and who won't. We can say "You're more likely to get sick" but we don't know. There have been organ transplant recipients who are immunosuppressed that got COVID and had basically no symptoms and there's been multiple people in their 40s with no medical problems or very few (like well-controlled hypertension) who have died. So we have to recommend everyone try their best to be careful, not only for themselves, but for people they will undoubtedly run into who they could unknowingly spread it to if they're not taking any precautions.

What is my stance? We don't need to shut the whole country down but everyone needs to wear masks whenever they can in public, stay home if they have any symptoms and avoid unnecessary social packing until we have an effective vaccine. Need to socialize with friends? Invite over a select group for a dinner party on the outdoor patio, rather than going to a crowded bar and pounding shots on the bar counter. Hell I'm not even opposed to the proposals that suggest opening up a bar that is willing to heavily restrict capacity and focus primarily on outdoor seating. There are ways we can still live our lives and keep the economy running without saying that we need to force everyone to get the coronavirus and sacrifice hundreds of thousands if not a million or more. It starts with those measures, which lots of people don't want to take already even though it's the best chance we have.

So I'm sorry if the media made you lose its trust somewhere along the way. I don't let the media guide me. I let the best available medical literature as well as my own personal experience working in the hospital guide me. And it suggests while some are doing their part, there are still too many people not taking the bare minimum precautions for our country to prosper. God forbid people all assume this is just the seasonal flu because we'll look back and wonder why we let so many people die for no good reason when all we had to do was a couple simple things like wear a mask.

This is an incredible post. One of the best Non football posts  I have ever read here in 15 years of posting. 

[RASTAN66]

PGA Tour player tested positive this week and the event motored right along without a hiccup...

...in case you were wondering a Charlottean won the event — Webb Simpson clipped a $1,350,000 1st-place check for his hard work. 
 

Players gonna play...

 

#NextManUp

[Davidson Deac II]

6 hours ago, stirs said:

So you are saying young athletes cannot be trusted to do the right thing?  Well, we rail in these threads each day about people not doing the right thing, guess we can add them to the list.

Young professional athletes not doing the right thing?  That almost never happens. lol