I brought it up cause it was apparently “relive losing to Miami (OH)” day! All in good fun.
BIG TEN FOOTBALL IS BACK
- Thread starter lou v
- Start date
I brought it up cause it was apparently “relive losing to Miami (OH)” day! All in good fun.
So because we can’t test people entering every nursing home we shouldn’t do any?
I’m sorry but testing really is a zero sum game. You have a certain capacity of tests as a country and they should be directed to the critical needs. The Big Ten will probably use 150,000 tests during the season. How many nursing homes in current hotspots could that protect? How many lives saved? You can’t on the one hand argue that the risk to athletes is low and then argue that they should be prioritized above all others for rapid tests.
TheC has had the only good argument for why it’s ok to prioritize athletes, but we better see other communities get access to antigen testing soon.
This is straying off topic so I’ll stop after this one. But- yes I think there is more societal benefit to allowing college football to happen than by trying to extend the life of a small portion of people in nursing homes for a couple more years that are likely not far from dying anyways. I say this from the perspective of having seen multiple grandparents who are or were at that stage in their life, who I very much loved and didn’t want to die, but had lived great lives and generally were or are probably ready to go. But that’s just my opinion I guess.
If and when I am at that stage of my life, outside of maybe waiting for a new grandkid to possibly enter the world, I would rather go earlier than try to cling to life too long for an extra few months or year or two and waste money that could go to my kids and grandkids and other far more useful causes.
I could say more about death being the natural course of things following after life, and a chance for the celebration of life, but that would sound religious and I’m not really very religious at all.
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Just wow. He actually said it. “I would rather old people die if it means we can have football.” Just wow.
Yes, Trump straightened it out and ‘forced them to look at the science:’ And a rooster thinks he makes the sun rise.
Isn't it refreshing to hear the honesty instead of people trying to express the same desires in euphemisms? /s
Honestly, yes. I'd rather he just come out and say "I'm okay with people dying, they were on their way out anyway" than pretending we're actually doing a good job on the pandemic or making up reasons why it's okay that we can have football but that NYC schools just had to delay in person learning again.
Of course he knows that old people in nursing homes aren't the only ones dying from the virus but in fairness I did use that as an example of a place where these rapid tests could be put to better use.
There are only a certain number of tests prodced on a daily basis It had gone to about 70K per day but not sure what it is now but the ramp up has been constrained, likely by raw materials and other issues becase thry could sell whatever they could produce. Not enough tests available so appropriate to use them in highest leverage situations.
Things in Nursing homes are much mor under control now than they were. Access controlled etc. Some limited rapid antigen tests might be needed but it would be limited. With sports it becomes more of a daily ritual because of the PR aspects
This is more likely bottlenecks in productin system that cannot be easily overcome. Shortage of materials(supposedly wipes for example will be in short supply for a years because of material shortages) to shortages of qualified people etc. Abbott could probably sell every test they could produce so have to assume that the reason there are not more is that they have not been able to overcome those bottlenecks
it is not just the testsd. it is also the equipment to process them and potentially people as well. The ramp up you talk about is recent as it was only a week ago I was told thaty Rush was not using quick test ofr their exposed employees or pre proceedure because of lack of availability
I guess you will stop agreeing with him pretty quickly thenI guess that maybe I only agree with you when you are right!
In the beginning Nursing homes would have been appropriate place to use limited supply of rapid tests. Now they are under much better understanding of what happens. If a case occurs then move tests there but othewise it is less likely they are needed there on regular basis. We are talking about 2K tests per day for athletes and it is as much pr as anything else to insure the public knows that they are taking appropriate precautions.
Lets look at the numbers. 1400 BIG players plus staff might get you to 2000. 1.4 million in nursing homes with staff gets one to about 2.5 mill
In Phillips' defense, he was tasked with fixing the COVID-problem for Fall NU/B1G sports. The broader university COVID issues are Morty's problem/purview.
Tens of millions of people don't tune it on TV to watch Calculus class every year either. Just a reality.
Thanks to Lou for a full and informative piece which has prompted multiple thoughtful responses.
On a somewhat related topic yesterday also saw an announcement about the prospective opening up of tourism in Hawaii despite their challenges with recent spiking. The October 15th date will coincide with the start of Big Ten Football.
Interestingly the state's Lieutenant Governor, Dr. Green who has been assigned to coordinate the effort just contracted Covid-19 himself, a fact that I had learned of when my daughter-in-law had to be tested after seeing him as a patient concurrent with his being tested positive. His clinic's safeguards proved effective as she tested negative.
In any event here is the link as to Hawaii's forthcoming opening up for tourism:
https://governor.hawaii.gov/newsroo...hip-team-and-realignment-of-covid-19-efforts/
On a somewhat related topic yesterday also saw an announcement about the prospective opening up of tourism in Hawaii despite their challenges with recent spiking. The October 15th date will coincide with the start of Big Ten Football.
Interestingly the state's Lieutenant Governor, Dr. Green who has been assigned to coordinate the effort just contracted Covid-19 himself, a fact that I had learned of when my daughter-in-law had to be tested after seeing him as a patient concurrent with his being tested positive. His clinic's safeguards proved effective as she tested negative.
In any event here is the link as to Hawaii's forthcoming opening up for tourism:
https://governor.hawaii.gov/newsroo...hip-team-and-realignment-of-covid-19-efforts/
You raise another point that I will concede (or play devil's advocate on) in regards to economic effects of restarting football and value for dollar spent on tests and the knock-on consequences.
Safely restarting football (if possible) allows the millions of dollars of TV spend and advertising to resume, which in turn flows to ad agencies, universities and other companies who will have to lay off fewer people, who will suffer fewer consequences such as the inability to feed their family and the ability to get healthcare. It provides entertainment that will occur largely in the home since in many places people can't gather in bars (though I worry about bars in places that are allowing it) which means people will stay home instead of seeking other entertainment. Sports are also very lucrative for journalism, which gives news orgs more money to spend on hard news.
It's a bit of a stretch but I'm sure it could be modeled in a way that shows testing investment here pays off at a greater rate than other uses of testing.
Of course people could also just wear a damn mask.
