Coronavirus: could the 2020 AFL season be called off?

[comrade]

3. How can you make a game like ours safe? What happens to this season if another player tests positive?

Unless you're planning on locking all players and staff into a self contained hub that no-one else enters, you can't.

Restrictions are being eased across the country, which means the virus is going to spread.

We either just play out the season and treat the virus like any other flu like illness, i.e. if you're really symptomatic and crook, don't play or we call the whole thing off.

[Grantysghost]

Unless you're planning on locking all players and staff into a self contained hub that no-one else enters, you can't.

Restrictions are being eased across the country, which means the virus is going to spread.

We either just play out the season and treat the virus like any other flu like illness, i.e. if you're really symptomatic and crook, don't play or we call the whole thing off.

Agree it’s a sentiment I share personally, but with over 400k dead and the spread at an all time high worldwide authorities would be negligent to treat it like influenza for example. We are walking a newly cast tightrope and keeping our balance is going to be an incredible challenge. I don’t envy their position. And also...
Bloody Essendon!

[EasternWest]

Bloody Essendon always testing positive to something

Thanks BT&T.

Your wit has made at least three different friends of mine think I'm actually funny.

I did not credit the author.

[bornadog]

All EFC players tested Wednesday were negative. Tested again Friday all were negative except for McKenna, who delivered an irregular test and returned positive today.

The rest of the EFC will be tested again Tuesday in line with DHS/internal AFL advice.

Obvious medicos need to find out what Mckenna has been up to? Has he breached protocls?

[jeemak]

Obvious medicos need to find out what Mckenna has been up to? Has he breached protocls?

It's probably a case of asymptomatic community transmission that was only detected because the AFL tests a few times a week.

They will be contact tracing, but something like this was bound to happen sooner rather than later.

[Twodogs]

Problem is the odds are high it will happen again. Part of me thinks this season is pushing it up hill.

Yeah I think so as well.

I've thought for a while now that I couldn't see a way that we could play out the whole season. It's a high contact sport and as soon as one player goes down then how do you protect the rest? We can't just quarantine every player away from the rest of the population.

West Coast and Freo have been in the hub for a fortnight and are already bouncing off every available wall. Multiply that x 9, find a suitable place where the players are closed away from contact with the outside world with arenas where they can play and you can start to see how complicated it gets.

I hate the idea but I can't see a way that this this season isn't null and voided.

[anfo27]

He didn’t. But he was named for this weekends game and likely was around his teammates prior to last weeks game. So now sydney and north players at risk.

McKenna is an asymptomatic carrier. Even by WHO own admission, transmission from asymptomatic carriers are very rare. We need to learn to live with it, particularly people like AFL players who more likely than not would be asymptomatic. The way we are doing it makes little to no sense. We need to get on with life because this is economic suicide & the economic repercussions has its own death toll.

[josie]

I do not want anything like what’s happening in US or Brazil or what happened in Italy, Spain or UK here. I am AOK with controls applied by federal and state government and the funding for those under hardship. Businesses can rebuild. If a friend, relative or colleague died or their health was seriously compromised as a result of covid it would be one too many for me. We also have no idea if long term health impact on those that have “recovered”.

I am 50 50 as to whether season will continue - x fingers it does though as long as we keep being competitive!!

[anfo27]

I do not want anything like what’s happening in US or Brazil or what happened in Italy, Spain or UK here. I am AOK with controls applied by federal and state government and the funding for those under hardship. Businesses can rebuild. If a friend, relative or colleague died or their health was seriously compromised as a result of covid it would be one too many for me. We also have no idea if long term health impact on those that have “recovered”.

I am 50 50 as to whether season will continue - x fingers it does though as long as we keep being competitive!!

Unemployment has its own death toll Josie, ask any economist. The death toll of 30% unemployment in the US will far surpass anything the virus will ever do. We are talking about a virus that by large affect an age group that do not even work in the economy & we are blowing the economy to the shizenhausen. The economy doesn't work by turning a switch on & off.

How can businesses rebuild when they are out of business? How do restaurants & cafes survive at 25% capacity when their rent is still the same & staff wages the same? Not to mention the trickle down effect of just about every industry out there.

Are we happy to send this country to a depression? Are we happy to sacrifice the futures of kids coming through who once they finish school have no jobs to go to? Are we happy for people who will hit retirement age in the next decade see their super in the toilet?

Do you think the government has unlimited funds? Their money is our taxpayers money. To wait for a vaccine is utter madness! It could take years, they may never have a vaccine. People are under the impression that this is the first time they are working on a vaccine like this. Reality! its been nearly 17 years of trying to get a vaccine for a corona virus & they hadn't been able to get it passed the animal trials because of safety concerns. There are reasons drugs can take upto 10+ years to get approval but now we want to bypass that?

Have a real look at those numbers coming out of Italy or the US to have a better understanding of what is really happening instead of seeing the numbers in the paper or on the news.

[josie]

I saw doctors deciding on who would live and who would die in Italy and health care workers in anguish after appalling mismanagement from Trump. I know where I would rather live. Economies can recover. Australia survived the last gfc well due to good government policy. We can do it again. Retail did well last quarter with some easing of restrictions. Respect your opinions however beg to differ.

[jeemak]

I saw doctors deciding on who would live and who would die in Italy and health care workers in anguish after appalling mismanagement from Trump. I know where I would rather live. Economies can recover. Australia survived the last gfc well due to good government policy. We can do it again. Retail did well last quarter with some easing of restrictions. Respect your opinions however beg to differ.

I think the issue we have is we don't really understand how bad the economy is going to be, wait for the fourth quarter of the calendar year and you'll see things are a lot different and I suspect, the sentiments of a lot of people who hold your views will be different.

That's not me saying you're wrong in what you're saying, nor is anfo for that matter. It's just a couple of different views on how to handle death and misery should things get worse which they very may well.

Our economy wasn't performing well prior to this crisis, it's been in steady decline since the last crisis and that's not a political statement. I am glad we live where we live, because as populist as our politics can be we're not the UK and we're not the US, and irrespective of political sway it seems we can deal with this sort of thing with a level of pragmatism or have done to date. Part of that pragmatic response will involve accepting that without a vaccine we just need to get on with things and accept that infections will increase and more people will get seriously ill and possibly die.

[josie]

Good points too Jeemak.

If there is no vaccine found or at minimum no drugs that ease outcomes considerably there will be some hard decisions to be made as agree we cannot keep economy stymied forever. One of the reasons I understand from reading research scientists articles is that governments (US and Australia) and private enterprise pulled the on coronavirus type vaccines after sars and swine flu etc. as interest in it waned after outbreaks dissipated. We sometimes reap what we sew by not thinking long term and not investing in R&D.

Anyhow-let’s hope the AFL season continues and other teams are able to follow the extra controls they have agreed to.

Will be fascinating to see if other bomber players test positive after watching Conor spit on his hands and blow his nose etc during training.

[Dry Rot]

Some random quick points.

About 650,000 people die from flu every year.

These kinds of pandemics usually have at least a second wave > 6 months after the first.

Second waves of pandemics are usually worse.

Victoria has always had community transmission and it seems to be picking up.

Our NSW Premier is hell bent on opening everything up. She has pretty much said that it will involve sickness and casualties a nd we have thousands of ICU beds and ventilators at the ready. Whether all that transpires and whether it is wise or moral I will leave up to you to decide.

In various countries, there are flare ups due to opening up restrictions. Eg the night club districts of Seoul and now parts of Beijing.

Re what happened to McKenna, COVID 19 tests have a high (25+%) false negative failure rate.

[Dry Rot]

If there is no vaccine found

Be careful what you wish for. Most the leading vax candidates are new fangled mRNA vaccines which IIRC have not been used before.

Google how mRNA vaccines allegedly work. What could possibly go wrong?

Everyone I know bar one idiot don't want a bar of them. They are not anti-vaxxers, they have just read up on how mRNA vaccines work.

[Dry Rot]

If you want to save/protect yourself, here's some interesting info re Vit D and COVID 19:

Worth watching the lot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyMFsLFAE5o

Watch from 27 minutes onwards:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbZy...tBDxg&index=40