SARS-CoV-2 Coronavirus (COVID-19)

That's what the "science" says?

I hate to always play the contrarian (sometimes) but I suspect that this is because a lot of the bug hunters didn't go to very many home games when they were in school.

It will be interesting to see what happens when they start playing round-ball.
Heck.....sometimes there are even decent college basketball programs that are not concentrated in flyover country.....

 

If some or even most of the spaghetti that they've thrown at the wall up to this point is true then we should be able to determine if putting 71,829 screaming, drinking, hugging and (in some cases) bottle throwing fans in one outdoor building with no attention to paid to social distancing, masking, or card checks results in an uptick of some kind.......

 

it doesn't have to be completely controlled. cluster studies can help answer the question, such as the provincetown study from last summer. may not be perfect, but what has been in this long strange trip?

 

I've known people who spit a lot when they talk (a couple of examples), so a little common sense says that Covid can easily travel from mouth to mouth when people are close enough regardless of whether or not they are outside. It is not like the outside has this magical decontamination effect on the spit flying between mouths. When people are vaccinated, the risks of serious sickness aren't so high, but it doesn't seem wise to have unmasked, unvaccinated people congregated closely together, inside or outside.

 

Actually, sometimes (not always) it does. This magic is something we secretly call the "wind."
Additionally, we have the "sun" which does kill off viruses on surfaces much faster than they do sitting on a surface in a lab.

So sure standing outside at a baseball game with a manager yelling/spitting in the face of an umpire is not a good thing.
But I'd rather be outside on a park trail hiking than indoors on a treadmill.

Mike

 

but if 60,000 maskless fans are spitting all over each other, and there is no spike in the next few weeks, doesn't that tell us anything?

 

a lot of guessing and bewilderment:
us-covid-coronavirus-cases-hospitalizations-drop

 

here we go again, more fodder for anti vaxxers:
cdc-removes-holiday-covid-guidance-amid-confusion-122737733603

 

It takes about 7 minutes for the sun to destroy Coronavirus according to an Oxford University Press article, which is pretty quick for surfaces, but won't do anything for spittle coming from someone else's mouth. And the wind can be your friend or foe, depending on which way it is blowing. There are plenty of Coronavirus tracing studies in restaurants showing people catching the virus several tables away from contagious people because it was blown across the room by air conditioning.

Of course in an uncrowded area (park or beach or just a walk down the street or trail), it is going to dissipate pretty quickly, so I can't imagine there is much of a threat. But I would worry about being in the audience at a crowded sporting event if I wasn't vaccinated.

 

But even with much better dispersive dilution outdoors, close contacts there should still be 'fleeting', or at least brief, to keep received doses well below minimum infective levels. Some of us even hold our breath while passing others closely on trails.

How 'briefly' are these fans packed into these stadiums?

 

i do that too, but admittedly, it's probably paranoia. but if infections are happening at these games, and i don't doubt they are to some degree, there aren't enough to cause a spike, which is the cdc's main concern.

so if you want to go, have at it.

 

There was a link in my post--I'll make more explicit here:
New Study Finds Covid Spikes After N.F.L. Games With Fans

 

Hit a paywall.
I'm sure it's a well-thought-out piece that references a "valid" study.

 

Behind the Great Paywall

 

We are hearing some heartbreaking stories from your healthcare workers on this side of the pond.

This from Medscape which sends us regular professional medical updates, might be behind a paywall:
Doctors Grow Increasingly Frustrated Over COVID-19 Denial


But as the original report was from AP, I found it published here too:

https://newsbinding.com/health/doctors-grow-increasingly-frustrated-over-covid-19-denial/amp/

Feel so sorry this is happening. There are no winners in these situations.

 

paywall

 

fortunately, it's only in the low vax states, and even florida is finally coming around