The South Needs to Get Its Act Together If It Wants to Save Football Season
Reactions to the coronavirus have varied state by state and city by city, and not always on partisan lines. Republican governors in Indiana and Ohio have ordered residents to stay indoors, while some Democratic governors in the Northeast have not; Democratic New York City mayor Bill DeBlasio’s resistance to closing public spaces may have contributed to the disastrous spread of cases in the country’s worst hot spot.
The Deep South, though, is seemingly on the verge of a major outbreak—3,600 known cases in Florida, 2,200 in Georgia—and is almost uniformly controlled by Republican governors who have adopted Donald Trump’s empirically deranged insistence that the country is almost ready to go “back to work.” Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves and South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster have overridden local authorities who issued stay-at-home orders, while Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey insisted Friday that such measures are not necessary in her state despite a per-capita rate of infection higher than California’s. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis refused to close the state’s beaches until after spring break season had ended.
This attitude threatens the health and lives of the South’s residents, but also jeopardizes something even more important to them: college football season. Though games aren’t scheduled to begin until the end of August, a number of coaches have said that they don’t think that will be feasible unless their players can begin working out together by July 1. (Teams are typically allowed to hold practices during the spring semester and gather players for summer conditioning, but the major college football conferences are currently prohibiting all team activities.) But even Mike Pence has said that “we could well be dealing with coronavirus cases in the United States well into July.” And as demonstrated when the NBA season was suspended but March Madness was cancelled outright, pro leagues can be more flexible than the NCAA, whose competition schedules are tied to the academic calendar. College football’s season is also shorter than the NFL’s, with the bulk of games played before December.
(Cont'd at link)
Link: The South Needs to Get Its Act Together If It Wants to Save Football Season
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It seems we're getting somewhat of a handle on this thing. The true fatality rate, as pointed out by Baron in the Open, is likely to be about 0.7%, according to the Lancet. That squares with what three Stanford University School of Medicine professors have estimated. Add to the fact that many doctors are reporting the combination of hydrochloroquine and azithromycin (sp?) are working wonders.
If we're not back to normal by September, it's not just college football that is in deep trouble.
We need a solution to this pandemic scourge!
I come on here to read and chat about Football.
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