How Could the Coronavirus affect the Argos and the CFL

[doubleblue]

The Ontario Hockey League has put the season on hold indefinitely. The Province of Ontario is in a lockdown and three United States based OHL teams cannot get into Canada because of the shut down of the American-Canadian border. The OHL wanted to start up on February 4th.

This is all so crazy that these young strong healthy boys cannot play hockey. Just because our "politicians" have had too many "cases" of stupidity. Or maybe too many "cases" of beer.
Many years ago when I was playing minor hockey, our coaches wouldn't let us drink water (they had a case of stupidity) but we could have cut up Sun Kist oranges (Vitamin D) to suck on between periods. So I guess they did know something. The same goes for football players. Let them play. The modern athletes take more vitamins now than you can shake a stick. All we had back then was Cod Liver Oil. But it worked. They were the good old days.

[Will]

The Ontario Hockey League has put the season on hold indefinitely. The Province of Ontario is in a lockdown and three United States based OHL teams cannot get into Canada because of the shut down of the American-Canadian border. The OHL wanted to start up on February 4th.

This is all so crazy that these young strong healthy boys cannot play hockey. Just because our "politicians" have had too many "cases" of stupidity. Or maybe too many "cases" of beer.
Many years ago when I was playing minor hockey, our coaches wouldn't let us drink water (they had a case of stupidity) but we could have cut up Sun Kist oranges (Vitamin D) to suck on between periods. So I guess they did know something. The same goes for football players. Let them play. The modern athletes take more vitamins now than you can shake a stick. All we had back then was Cod Liver Oil. But it worked. They were the good old days.

No way to find temporary homes in Ontario for the American teams?

[doubleblue]

No way to find temporary homes in Ontario for the American teams?

No reason those three US teams couldn't play each other several times or also some exhibition games against college teams. Whatever it takes to get these kids some playing time.
I believe there are about 4 US Major Junior teams out west who could maybe do the same.

[jerrym]

The Ontario Hockey League has put the season on hold indefinitely. The Province of Ontario is in a lockdown and three United States based OHL teams cannot get into Canada because of the shut down of the American-Canadian border. The OHL wanted to start up on February 4th.

This is all so crazy that these young strong healthy boys cannot play hockey. Just because our "politicians" have had too many "cases" of stupidity. Or maybe too many "cases" of beer.
Many years ago when I was playing minor hockey, our coaches wouldn't let us drink water (they had a case of stupidity) but we could have cut up Sun Kist oranges (Vitamin D) to suck on between periods. So I guess they did know something. The same goes for football players. Let them play. The modern athletes take more vitamins now than you can shake a stick. All we had back then was Cod Liver Oil. But it worked. They were the good old days.

There are still problems with this no matter how healthy the players are. The OHL players are 16-20 and therefore in most cases either living with parents or billeted with other adults that could become seriously ill or even die from the disease brought to their home by a player. In addition, since many are under the legal age of adulthood, no one can sign away these players right to sue, which could happen, if they or their parents got seriously ill from the disease or died. If the league ignored health authorities' rules they could well be open to being sued.

[AngeloV]

There are still problems with this no matter how healthy the players are. The OHL players are 16-20 and therefore in most cases either living with parents or billeted with other adults that could become seriously ill or even die from the disease brought to their home by a player. In addition, since many are under the legal age of adulthood, no one can sign away these players right to sue, which could happen, if they or their parents got seriously ill from the disease or died. If the league ignored health authorities' rules they could well be open to being sued.

Great points Jerry. I agree 100%.

[jerrym]

New Covid variants keep popping up, some of which are definitely more contagious and may also be more deadly, raising more questions about what 2021 sports seasons, include the CFL, will be able to start and finish. I hope the CFL can complete at least a shortened season, even if it has to start in September, after most of the population hopefully has been vaccinated.

[jerrym]

There's an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal discussing what the NFL learned about dealing with Covid from this season because it had the money to test every day, do immediate and extensive contact tracing, as well as data analysis. While some of it would be beyond the CFL's resources, there were some interesting findings that caused the US Centre for Disease Control to take the information from the NFL and revise some of the information to the public. What the NFL found was it could not stop some players from becoming infected, but it could stop it spreading to other players through testing and extensive contact testing. The data also showed that six feet is not a large enough distance to prevent the spread of Covid and that the original idea that it took 15 minutes of contact to get sufficient virus to become sick was wrong if was in the interior. The data also showed that the contact time to become sick did not have to be one period but could be the same amount of time over several intermittent periods.

The data also showed that almost no players were getting ill through close contact on the field because the time of contact in a hit was so brief and outside, which is good news for the CFL. The disease was spreading when players were inside in close contact, without a mask, and eating together was especially dangerous. So by using this information, after the initial spread of infection among a couple of teams, the NFL was able to keep teams from having widespread infection. Another major conclusion was the vast majority of infections were occurring at home and not related to football. Therefore, the teams emphasized to the players they must follow the rules even when not involved in football activities.

Some of this, IMO could be useful in helping the CFL avoid Covid becoming widespread among its team and help it finish the season. However, one question that remains is whether the new variants that have recently arrived in North America and are more contagious may make these guidelines obsolete by the time the CFL season starts as the variants become more common. Some of what I wrote come from the introduction to the WSJ article, which is behind a paywall, so only the first few paragraphs can be read if you are not a subscriber, but much of what I wrote comes from an TV interview of the author. Here's the link to the article.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/super-b...dc-11612104460

[jerrym]

Early on Sunday I saw a TV interview of fans in Tampa Bay on the street, many not wearing masks making me wonder if the Super Bowl and its 25,000 fans from all over the country will turn into a super-spreader event. We now know that the Sturgis motorcycle rally in South Dakota that attracted 500,000 people in August, American Thanksgiving and the Christmas holiday travel all caused large spikes in infections. Expert opinion on whether the Super Bowl, and for those who stay home Super Bowl parties, will do the same. By the way, Florida has the second highest number of the UK highly contagious variant in the US, which could increase the problem. The UK variant almost crashed the British health care system.

How could this affect the CFL season? If it turns out that the Super Bowl helps spike infections, it could cause Canadian politicians to tighten there rules regarding Covid including for football. Below is some info on the Super Bowl, Sturgis and Covid.

Experts worry that football fans gathering on Sunday in Tampa, Fla., for the championship game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, or at watch parties across the country, could set back the nascent progress of recent weeks. ...

While health experts worry about a rise in cases after the game, some said they don’t anticipate anything as deadly as the post-holiday wave that peaked in January. That is because Thanksgiving and Christmas tend to spur more domestic travel than the Super Bowl does.

Still, even parties pose a threat, said Carl Bergstrom, a professor of biology at the University of Washington....

“Any time you get 25,000 people together yelling and screaming during a pandemic, you’re going to have transmission,” Dr. Bergstrom said. vPublic health experts worry that new, more contagious variants, like one first identified in Britain and known as B.1.1.7, will soon become dominant and drive a deadly surge this spring.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/07/u...rus-surge.html

Within weeks of the gathering, the Dakotas, along with Wyoming, Minnesota and Montana, were leading the nation in new coronavirus infections per capita. The surge was especially pronounced in North and South Dakota, where cases and hospitalization rates continued their juggernaut rise into October. Experts say they will never be able to determine how many of those cases originated at the 10-day rally, given the failure of state and local health officials to identify and monitor attendees returning home, or to trace chains of transmission after people got sick. Some, however, believe the nearly 500,000-person gathering played a role in the outbreak now consuming the Upper Midwest. ...

Many went unmasked to an event public health officials pleaded with them to skip, putting themselves and others at risk, because they were skeptical about the risks, or felt the entreaties infringed on their personal liberties.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/healt...-rally-spread/

[doubleblue]

Early on Sunday I saw a TV interview of fans in Tampa Bay on the street, many not wearing masks making me wonder if the Super Bowl and its 25,000 fans from all over the country will turn into a super-spreader event. We now know that the Sturgis motorcycle rally in South Dakota that attracted 500,000 people in August, American Thanksgiving and the Christmas holiday travel all caused large spikes in infections. Expert opinion on whether the Super Bowl, and for those who stay home Super Bowl parties, will do the same. By the way, Florida has the second highest number of the UK highly contagious variant in the US, which could increase the problem. The UK variant almost crashed the British health care system.

How could this affect the CFL season? If it turns out that the Super Bowl helps spike infections, it could cause Canadian politicians to tighten there rules regarding Covid including for football. Below is some info on the Super Bowl, Sturgis and Covid.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/07/u...rus-surge.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/healt...-rally-spread/

Anything written in the NY Times and the Washington Post is always suspect in my books.

[Jon Gonzo]

Anything written in the NY Times and the Washington Post is always suspect in my books.

Hard to find unbiased news anywhere anymore. It's sad and it's why fewer and fewer trust the news at all. Hope to see some balanced, objective news sources in the future. Just tell fact-based-truths and call a mistake a mistake regardless of which political party. There is good and bad in all organizations. Do some good old fashioned investigative, and ethical journalism, and stop trying to confuse the sheeple.

People are seeing through this.

Cut through the spin! Don't swallow the spin and re-spin it for heavens sake. The media is partially culpable in fanning the flames of unrest, and look no further than to our friends on the other side of the border to see how that can go.

[paulwoods13]

Mods, can we pls move this breakout discussion about journalism somewhere else?

[Jon Gonzo]

Mods, can we pls move this breakout discussion about journalism somewhere else?

Really?

A censure. Pretty grumpy.

Would it not be easier to simply move to the next post, as most do?

Discussions can evolve and discussions can devolve, but this is a website where we .....have them.

[Rich]

Anything written in the NY Times and the Washington Post is always suspect in my books.

Yes, you should stick to more reliable sources of truth like Q-anon.

[Wobbler]

I'm still hoping this will die out naturally. Needless to say it has nothing to do with coronavirus or the Argos, and has no reason to "evolve" in this thread.

[AngeloV]

Yes, you should stick to more reliable sources of truth like Q-anon.

hahaha.

[Will]

Let us please do our utmost to ensure that this thread does not mutate into a political debate.

[doubleblue]

Let's try and keep this discussion focused on how the Coronavirus will impact the CFL and the Argonauts.

If anyone wants to start a political discussion in the lounge then please feel free.

This thread generally has a history repeats it's self every year or so.

[jerrym]

The rapidly growing supply of vaccines and today's ruling by Canada's National Advisory Committee on Immunization that "the second dose can be given up to four months after the first dose" enabling many people to get vaccinated faster, could benefit the CFL by having 80% of the eligible population vaccinated by the end of June. With Biden now saying all American adults will be vaccinated by the end of May, American players should be able to come north and still have a two week isolation period in June, if not earlier. The Edmonton football team is watching closely what happens to the Oilers proposal to allow a limited number of fans to watch hockey games. As vaccination proceeds, it may be possible to allow a limited number of fans to watch football games with the number increasing as the vaccination rate proceeds and people have vaccination passports. This is the optimistic picture of the future and Covid has already ruined a lot of optimistic pictures around the world over the last year, but it's not an impossible picture.

- The panel of medical experts advising the federal government on vaccination now says that the second dose of COVID-19 vaccines can be given up to four months after the first, if Canada wants to maximize the number of people being immunized.
Canada's National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) has issued new guidance advising that the window between shots for all three of the currently approved vaccines—Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and AstraZeneca—can now be considerably extended, while still being effective. ...

Based on the expected supply of the two mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, approximately 80 per cent of the eligible population could be offered a COVID-19 vaccine dose by the end of June, if the four-month interval is implemented this month, leaving second doses to begin being administered in July. ...

These recommendations are an evolution from NACI’s previous advice in regards to the Moderna and Pfizer shots, which allowed a delay in administering second doses for up to 42 days.

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/corona...says-1.5332497

[jerrym]

The Vancouver Canucks now have 16 players on the Covid-19 protocol list. While this doesn't mean they have all tested positive, it does disrupt the team's ability to play temporarily and perhaps for a longer period. It provides a warning that the Argos and CFL need to be very careful in dealing with Covid while getting back to play. I know the CFL has to get back in action this year if it is to remain relevant to much of its fan base. Nevertheless, the example of the high potential disruption of a sports team illustrated by the Canucks, show that even now, as vaccines are given, that caution needs to a watchword in TC and the regular season. The risks should decrease greatly as the rate of vaccination climbs.

The Vancouver Canucks’ health woes worsened again on Sunday, as the number of players entering the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol climbed to 16.
Three members of the coaching staff are also believed to have entered the protocol.
Canucks games have been suspended until at least Tuesday, and appear likely to be put on pause for much longer as the number of affected players and staff grows.


On Sunday, the NHL confirmed that Travis Boyd, Jalen Chatfield, Thatcher Demko, Alex Edler, Adam Gaudette, Travis Hamonic, Jayce Hawryluk, Braden Holtby, Bo Horvat, Quinn Hughes, Zack MacEwen, Marc Michaelis, Tyler Motte, Tyler Myers, Antoine Roussel and Brandon Sutter had entered the protocol.
A player on the COVID-19 protocol list has not necessarily tested positive.

https://globalnews.ca/news/7738332/c...protocol-list/

[jerrym]

The Lancet, one of the top medical journals in the world, has received a study showing a spike in Covid cases in the surrounding region two to three weeks after NFL games, suggesting that Covid may be linked to the increase in the cases. Further work in this area may create problems for sports leagues, including the CFL, attempting to return to fan attendance at games. Yesterday, the Texas Rangers allowed 38,000+ fans to attend a baseball game, providing a test of the impact of closely packed fans at games on Covid cases that may starting appearing in cases two to three weeks from now.

Major League Baseball, the N.B.A. and other sports leagues have started to let fans back into their stadiums and arenas, with most teams limiting attendance to 10 to 20 percent of capacity, but some allowing more. The N.F.L. has even grander plans. Last week, Commissioner Roger Goodell said the league hoped to open all of its stadiums at full capacity when the season kicked off in September.
Yet new research submitted to The Lancet, a scientific journal, in late March suggested that there was a link between the games that had large numbers of fans in the stands and an increase in the number of infections in locales near the stadiums. The study, which is being peer reviewed, is one of the most comprehensive attempts to address the potential impact of fans at N.F.L. games. ...

The authors, led by Justin Kurland of the University of Southern Mississippi, used the number of positive cases not just from the counties where the 32 N.F.L. teams play, but also from surrounding counties to track the spread among fans who may have traveled to games from farther away. After adjusting the figures to eliminate potential false positives and days when counties did not report cases, they found surges in infection rates in the second and third weeks following N.F.L. games that were played with more than 5,000 fans in attendance. The study does not prove a causal link between fan attendance and Covid-19 cases, but suggests that there may be a relationship between the two. ...

“The evidence overwhelmingly supports that fan attendance at N.F.L. games led to episodic spikes” in the number of Covid-19 cases, the researchers wrote.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/06/s...ity-covid.html