The COVID-19 Thread - Discussion & Cancellations

[The Man in Blue]

@MadMax ... as I scrolled through, I re-read one of my posts that I think may be the one you keyed in on ... the one about lamenting the loss of games?

If so, there was a specific target for that post and it wan't officials.  It was coaches who are trying to get their teams together in this mess.  We don't have a ton of coaches here, so I should have been more specific.  Another forum I frequent has a bunch of coaches who are asking things like "If school ball is canceled, I can get my travel team together then, right?  Where can I find tournaments who are still playing?  I can't use my public park, where can I find fields to tell my players to get together at?"  That was my target of the JUST STOP IT remarks.

[Lou B]

As for travel team coaches trying to continue playing, You Can't Fix Stupid.

I would hope the players/parents are smart enough to say NO.  That said, I know some travel ball parents who would probably go along with it.  Stupid is as Stupid does.

[lawump]

When your weekly food budget quadruples because your son is home for college for spring break.  Then, you find out from your son he's home for a month (because the school is shut down) when he says, "let's go to the liquor store, Dad, 'cause I'm on a Coronacation!!!" 

[lawump]

On 3/13/2020 at 12:39 PM, lawump said:

Well the good news is that the SCHSL has not canceled high school sports in South Carolina, yet.  So now, thanks to Coronavirus, we have four college umpires working a high school game tonight.  The game is scheduled to be played at the Columbia, SC, minor league stadium.  We all won't be paid (they only pay for 2 umpires during the regular season), but we said "screw it...we'll divide the money up into fourths.  Let's just go have fun!"

Well, it happened...but if I had to bet it will be the last high school game I umpire in 2020.

[aaluck]

20 hours ago, JaxRolo said:

Everything up to march 28th cancelled.  Started getting new assignments today for the 29th and after...

Got a bad feeling those assignments may have been a "bit" premature!

[umpstu]

3 hours ago, The Man in Blue said:

@MadMax ... as I scrolled through, I re-read one of my posts that I think may be the one you keyed in on ... the one about lamenting the loss of games?

If so, there was a specific target for that post and it wan't officials.  It was coaches who are trying to get their teams together in this mess.  We don't have a ton of coaches here, so I should have been more specific.  Another forum I frequent has a bunch of coaches who are asking things like "If school ball is canceled, I can get my travel team together then, right?  Where can I find tournaments who are still playing?  I can't use my public park, where can I find fields to tell my players to get together at?"  That was my target of the JUST STOP IT remarks.

I had an umpire yesterday text me asking about how to  get games now?

[Kevin_K]

4 hours ago, yawetag said:

Yeah, and probably for the better. Rather than waiting for a case to show up in the schools, I feel the closure was a proactive move.

I did have to take the son by his school yesterday to pick up some items from his locker; e-learning begins Wednesday.

My next prediction: They won't return this school year. At some point, their e-learning will move from review to actual teaching.

Distance learning is in full swing already. 

We have been instructed to provide 45-60 minutes of instructional materials for all of our classes each day we are scheduled to meet. Our schedule has classes meet 88 minutes every other day.

My students are not reviewing. Today is introduction to the Jackson Era through readings, online videos, and open ended questions designed to get them to think. They are, however, missing out on the interaction in the classroom with their humble instructor and his interesting stories about how people from the past were not that terribly different from people of today.

I think I am going to miss things much more than my students might...... 

[yawetag]

Honestly, I was surprised they're moving to "review" over "advance" - but it might have more to do with the speed in which they had to get their curriculum together. I know all the teachers were in the schools yesterday and today, in advance of tomorrow's start. We're supposed to get official information around noon, but some of the teachers have said they'll have information up by mid-morning.

I think they're looking at this just being a 2-week delay for now. Once it's extended, they'll have to focus on advancing knowledge. Losing two months, even if standardized tests were only a month away, won't help them be completely ready for next year.

[grozzly]

Here in France, no trainings, no championships until June 1st.....

[umpstu]

4 hours ago, yawetag said:

Honestly, I was surprised they're moving to "review" over "advance" - but it might have more to do with the speed in which they had to get their curriculum together. I know all the teachers were in the schools yesterday and today, in advance of tomorrow's start. We're supposed to get official information around noon, but some of the teachers have said they'll have information up by mid-morning.

I think they're looking at this just being a 2-week delay for now. Once it's extended, they'll have to focus on advancing knowledge. Losing two months, even if standardized tests were only a month away, won't help them be completely ready for next year.

Schools in Riverside County are now closed through 30 April.

[kylehutson]

All high schools in Kansas now officially closed for the rest of the school year.

[BigVic69]

Houston, TX area schools, etc. Shutdown until at least April 10th.

I take my son's out to the ballfields every other day to practice.  Otherwise we are on the garage working out.

On a sadder note, a TBall little league in Alvin, TX is infected. I guess they had one too many practices before the shutdown.

 

[BigVic69]

TEXAS STAAR tests and EOC exams are cancelled.

Online course work is up and running with zoom meetings.

This may be status quo for a while fellows.

I made hand sanitizer at home, it worked out well.

The CDC says you need at least 60% alcohol to kill the germs, so here are the ratios:

70% Isopropyl Alcohol and Aloe Gel, 6:1 and mix well

90%+ Isopropyl Alcohol and Aloe Gel, 2:1 and mix well

You can add essential oils for the smell factor. These formulations are for spritzers and are not gels. Do not use the "drinking" alcohol to make this formula as it is "not" high enough in alcohol content to do any good except give your hand an expensive bath.  But if you do use them you will need at least 140 proof liquor.

Stay safe and be well

[BT_Blue]

WIAA in Washington just released a video talking about what the thought process is currently.  Also, they actually had to say in the video "coaches... stop trying to convince your ballplayers to go out and practice with the team. I'd the kids do it on their own, that is ok. But you cant make those arrangements (it goes against the executive order of the governor)."

Another wild thought I had going through to some of the topics I haven't looked at yet. This all has happened in less than a week! From the NBA shutting down and Tom Hanks and his wife publicly saying they have caught COVID-19, until now has been 5 days... FIVE DAYS! How nuts is it that it has only been less than a week since the proverbial "house caught fire" to now!

[JaxRolo]

23 hours ago, aaluck said:

Got a bad feeling those assignments may have been a "bit" premature!

I think so too..

[stevis]

10 hours ago, BT_Blue said:

WIAA in Washington just released a video talking about what the thought process is currently.  Also, they actually had to say in the video "coaches... stop trying to convince your ballplayers to go out and practice with the team. I'd the kids do it on their own, that is ok. But you cant make those arrangements (it goes against the executive order of the governor)."

Another wild thought I had going through to some of the topics I haven't looked at yet. This all has happened in less than a week! From the NBA shutting down and Tom Hanks and his wife publicly saying they have caught COVID-19, until now has been 5 days... FIVE DAYS! How nuts is it that it has only been less than a week since the proverbial "house caught fire" to now!

When somebody talks about "exponential growth," this is as good a social referent for it as you're likely to see. (I'm sure the closings are not perfectly modeled by an exponential, but the feel of gradual change followed by runaway dominoes gives you the sense of it, and it's not like compound interest is a good example any more, with low interest rates and nobody having any savings.)

[JonnyCat]

On 3/16/2020 at 10:22 AM, MadMax said:

RIGHT??!!

Watch, it’s going to be something that we – as a sophisticated, “cultured” society – have utterly vilified that will turn out to be the cure for this.

Gluten! Gluten will be the cure. 

Oh, why is it so deadly in China, especially amongst men? One thing they’re finding is that more Chinese men than women smoke, and that smoking increases the chances of mortality from this by, like, 90%*. Time to quit smoking, guys. My only hope is that vaping results in a 110% mortality rate.

@The Man in Blue, I’m finding myself at odds with your rather frantic, authoritative tone. I am going to seek out any game possible, because some of us are dependent upon games as a significant part of our income. We don’t have employers that are now compelled to keep us home, but still pay us. For us it’s No Game = No Pay. And don’t fire off at me, “Well, you should have other forms of income, you should have planned better”. I did! One of my other forms of income? Heavily dependent on what amounts to “social calls” (home renovation visits, in my case). This isn’t a pandemic; this is a panic-demic, whipped up into a frenzy by a cacophony of social media, for an ulterior purpose (I’m not going to get into the details of which here).

Now, with that said, I had this coronavirus.

Yes, I said that right. I had it. Right after Christmas, as in December 26th. Knocked me flat in my back for two weeks. My snot resembled Grey Poupon mustard, in copious amounts, and I had a nagging throat cough that felt like someone had spackled styrofoam peanuts at the top of my lungs – obtrusive, but “no mass”, so when I went on a hacking fit trying to dislodge it, nothing came out. I had zero energy. None. Like trying to start a car in the cold, or after you discover that the dome light had been left on all night. My Dad also had it. At the same time! Technically, he gave it to me, as he got it from one of his colleagues... who happens to run an Elderly Care Facility.

It’s the flu, people. In this case, it’s an engineered flu. The American strain ain’t the same as the Chinese strain. This crap’s been in circulation since November (at least). It’s no different than bird flu, swine flu, H1N1, SARS, MERS, or Guppy Goldfish Flu. The “crisis” is artificial, injected (more like dumped) into this politically overcharged cesspool like mentos into a tub of Diet Coke.

Let’s get back to baseball, and back to life.

————

*- I’m exaggerating. It’s a high number. Don’t go looking it up just to state I’m wrong.

I'm with you MadMax. I possibly had it, too, just before Thanksgiving. Same symptoms, but mine also turned into pneumonia. Interestingly enough, right before that I was doing some remodeling work and one of the clients was traveling back and forth to China for work. Not sure where in China she traveled to, but I find it curious. Not sure if she became ill, the job wrapped up just before I stated exhibiting symptoms. Can't say for sure if that was the causation.

When I went to the Doctor and was diagnosed with pneumonia, I remember him commenting that there was a lot of this going around. At the time you wouldn't think anything of it. It was just a virus that turned into pneumonia. But it wasn't like the regular flu, and I had a flu shot 2 months prior. Now I'm starting to re-evaluate what happened. BTW, my wife got the same thing, minus pneumonia.

I can't say for sure 100% that is what I had, but it sure seems like it. All the symptoms I had, according to what I have read, were textbook Coronavirus. 

I think there were, and still are, a lot of cases that went un-diagnosed.

 

[yawetag]

11 minutes ago, JonnyCat said:

But it wasn't like the regular flu, and I had a flu shot 2 months prior.

Flu shot doesn't completely prevent you from getting the flu. It's very possible what you exhibited were signs of a low-grade flu, leading to pneumonia.

[JonnyCat]

21 minutes ago, yawetag said:

Flu shot doesn't completely prevent you from getting the flu. It's very possible what you exhibited were signs of a low-grade flu, leading to pneumonia.

Of course. Agreed, it is entirely possible it was just plain old flu related. But I can tell you it was nothing like I had ever experienced before. Not saying conclusively I had anything related to the Coronavirus, but I now find the circumstances surrounding what I experienced as very curious.

As I understand it, the Coronavirus was not diagnosed in the US until January of this year. If that is the case, the virus had to be around prior to that and just went un-diagnosed. Most Doctors would just treat what I had as a form of the flu, or a bad chest cold, that turned into pneumonia. Perfectly understandable. And remember, it was found that the flu shot given out this year was not the strain they thought would be the more common. Again, Doctors would not have had any reason to think otherwise late last year.

But I guarantee you this, if I went to the Doctor today with those same symptoms, I most assuredly would be tested for Covid-19.

[umpstu]

1 hour ago, JonnyCat said:

Of course. Agreed, it is entirely possible it was just plain old flu related. But I can tell you it was nothing like I had ever experienced before. Not saying conclusively I had anything related to the Coronavirus, but I now find the circumstances surrounding what I experienced as very curious.

As I understand it, the Coronavirus was not diagnosed in the US until January of this year. If that is the case, the virus had to be around prior to that and just went un-diagnosed. Most Doctors would just treat what I had as a form of the flu, or a bad chest cold, that turned into pneumonia. Perfectly understandable. And remember, it was found that the flu shot given out this year was not the strain they thought would be the more common. Again, Doctors would not have had any reason to think otherwise late last year.

But I guarantee you this, if I went to the Doctor today with those same symptoms, I most assuredly would be tested for Covid-19.

And then you would know for sure.   This should have been taken seriously and not minimized at all.  I think my dogs are bored of my wife and staying home so much.   At least I was able to get some toilet paper at Costco yesterday.  They removed all of the dining tables in the food court and have placed yellow lines 6 feet apart at the cashiers.  It was a very efficient and impressive system.  They also had security.

[HokieUmp]

On 3/16/2020 at 12:22 PM, MadMax said:

It’s the flu, people. In this case, it’s an engineered flu. The American strain ain’t the same as the Chinese strain. This crap’s been in circulation since November (at least). It’s no different than bird flu, swine flu, H1N1, SARS, MERS, or Guppy Goldfish Flu. The “crisis” is artificial, injected (more like dumped) into this politically overcharged cesspool like mentos into a tub of Diet Coke.

If you were to see what I write on FB, you would know that I'm a couple things:  1) highly opinionated, and 2) a political animal.  (You can't really grow up in the DC area, and not be the second of those, I wouldn't think.)  And I know that even clicking the "Quote" button to START a reply - with *me* typing - has the potential to turn this thread into to an utter SH*#show.

So I don't want to get too nutty (edit:  I wrote like another 6-7 paragraphs, so I may not have hit that target).

But even the other day when I first read this paragraph, it ..... gave me pause. I really, really, REALLY disagree with, well, pretty much all of it.  This is not "no different" than any of those.  It's killing people.  And at a rate that is frightening - around 30x what regular flu does.  Just now, I took the numbers from the Washington Post, which got them from places like the WHO, the CDC, Johns Hopkins (just to stave off any "yeah, buts") - and the world-wide death rate is around 4.1% right now - that's INSANELY higher than regular flu, or some of the other flus.  (For laughs, since our US testing situation is a joke, and it could arguably lower our current death rate by showing how widespread this virus REALLY is, I took out the US numbers, and it was still right about 4.1%.)  This SH*# is serious, and should be treated as such.

Look, I had the flu this year, too.  Mine was about mid-January.  I think the swab revealed it was Influenza-B.  If you had it in November, I would argue that while you may have had a rough go, it wasn't COVID-19.  Even now, AZ doesn't have but 21 cases out of the 7800+ in the US right now, and that's even since it started the exponential increase.

You know why the person that resides in the White House finally started taking this a little more seriously?  A British scientific group, using data on this specific virus and being experts in disease, its spread and the modeling thereof projected that if the current "la la lal i'm-not-listening-i'm-not-listening" tone of the WH was maintained, the death toll on this could reach 2.2 MILLION.  That number starts to approach 1% of the total US population, to state the obvious.  Even finally starting to get more ambitious, that effort might only knock the toll in half, to 1.1 million.  Now, I hope they're wrong, and wrong to a major scale, but I'm not so sure they are, since it still seems people aren't reeeeeeally taking this fully seriously.

As a high risk candidate - not REAL old yet, but I have diabetes, my thyroid has been impacted for years by an autoimmune thing (controlled by taking hormones), and I had the cancer and chemo thing a year and a half ago - I'm taking this seriously.  A week ago, I didn't WANT to, just because I still wanted the season to keep going.  But the more information that's out there - not the breathless manner in which it's portrayed, but the actual WORDS AND DATA that are said - means this still can go terribly pear-shaped.

So please don't say the word crisis in quotes, or otherwise make this sound like it's designed to remove the current occupant of the WH, or cow the population, or lead us to that One World Order, or whatever.  This is a problem.  And got the potential to go from problem to A Real Problem.  We'll get past it as a species - inexplicably, we always seem to - but this could be a rough go.

This is all I'll write.  But evidently, that had been pent up.

[umpstu]

18 minutes ago, HokieUmp said:

If you were to see what I write on FB, you would know that I'm a couple things:  1) highly opinionated, and 2) a political animal.  (You can't really grow up in the DC area, and not be the second of those, I wouldn't think.)  And I know that even clicking the "Quote" button to START a reply - with *me* typing - has the potential to turn this thread into to an utter SH*#show.

So I don't want to get too nutty (edit:  I wrote like another 6-7 paragraphs, so I may not have hit that target).

But even the other day when I first read this paragraph, it ..... gave me pause. I really, really, REALLY disagree with, well, pretty much all of it.  This is not "no different" than any of those.  It's killing people.  And at a rate that is frightening - around 30x what regular flu does.  Just now, I took the numbers from the Washington Post, which got them from places like the WHO, the CDC, Johns Hopkins (just to stave off any "yeah, buts") - and the world-wide death rate is around 4.1% right now - that's INSANELY higher than regular flu, or some of the other flus.  (For laughs, since our US testing situation is a joke, and it could arguably lower our current death rate by showing how widespread this virus REALLY is, I took out the US numbers, and it was still right about 4.1%.)  This SH*# is serious, and should be treated as such.

Look, I had the flu this year, too.  Mine was about mid-January.  I think the swab revealed it was Influenza-B.  If you had it in November, I would argue that while you may have had a rough go, it wasn't COVID-19.  Even now, AZ doesn't have but 21 cases out of the 7800+ in the US right now, and that's even since it started the exponential increase.

You know why the person that resides in the White House finally started taking this a little more seriously?  A British scientific group, using data on this specific virus and being experts in disease, its spread and the modeling thereof projected that if the current "la la lal i'm-not-listening-i'm-not-listening" tone of the WH was maintained, the death toll on this could reach 2.2 MILLION.  That number starts to approach 1% of the total US population, to state the obvious.  Even finally starting to get more ambitious, that effort might only knock the toll in half, to 1.1 million.  Now, I hope they're wrong, and wrong to a major scale, but I'm not so sure they are, since it still seems people aren't reeeeeeally taking this fully seriously.

As a high risk candidate - not REAL old yet, but I have diabetes, my thyroid has been impacted for years by an autoimmune thing (controlled by taking hormones), and I had the cancer and chemo thing a year and a half ago - I'm taking this seriously.  A week ago, I didn't WANT to, just because I still wanted the season to keep going.  But the more information that's out there - not the breathless manner in which it's portrayed, but the actual WORDS AND DATA that are said - means this still can go terribly pear-shaped.

So please don't say the word crisis in quotes, or otherwise make this sound like it's designed to remove the current occupant of the WH, or cow the population, or lead us to that One World Order, or whatever.  This is a problem.  And got the potential to go from problem to A Real Problem.  We'll get past it as a species - inexplicably, we always seem to - but this could be a rough go.

This is all I'll write.  But evidently, that had been pent up.

Great post.  

[The Man in Blue]

Thank you @HokieUmp.  I was beginning to lose faith in humanity.  I don’t want to be an a$$#ole, so I am tapping out of several forums that I had been frequenting because I feel it coming on.

[udbrky]

7 hours ago, HokieUmp said:

If you were to see what I write on FB, you would know that I'm a couple things:  1) highly opinionated, and 2) a political animal.  (You can't really grow up in the DC area, and not be the second of those, I wouldn't think.)  And I know that even clicking the "Quote" button to START a reply - with *me* typing - has the potential to turn this thread into to an utter SH*#show.

So I don't want to get too nutty (edit:  I wrote like another 6-7 paragraphs, so I may not have hit that target).

But even the other day when I first read this paragraph, it ..... gave me pause. I really, really, REALLY disagree with, well, pretty much all of it.  This is not "no different" than any of those.  It's killing people.  And at a rate that is frightening - around 30x what regular flu does.  Just now, I took the numbers from the Washington Post, which got them from places like the WHO, the CDC, Johns Hopkins (just to stave off any "yeah, buts") - and the world-wide death rate is around 4.1% right now - that's INSANELY higher than regular flu, or some of the other flus.  (For laughs, since our US testing situation is a joke, and it could arguably lower our current death rate by showing how widespread this virus REALLY is, I took out the US numbers, and it was still right about 4.1%.)  This SH*# is serious, and should be treated as such.

Look, I had the flu this year, too.  Mine was about mid-January.  I think the swab revealed it was Influenza-B.  If you had it in November, I would argue that while you may have had a rough go, it wasn't COVID-19.  Even now, AZ doesn't have but 21 cases out of the 7800+ in the US right now, and that's even since it started the exponential increase.

You know why the person that resides in the White House finally started taking this a little more seriously?  A British scientific group, using data on this specific virus and being experts in disease, its spread and the modeling thereof projected that if the current "la la lal i'm-not-listening-i'm-not-listening" tone of the WH was maintained, the death toll on this could reach 2.2 MILLION.  That number starts to approach 1% of the total US population, to state the obvious.  Even finally starting to get more ambitious, that effort might only knock the toll in half, to 1.1 million.  Now, I hope they're wrong, and wrong to a major scale, but I'm not so sure they are, since it still seems people aren't reeeeeeally taking this fully seriously.

As a high risk candidate - not REAL old yet, but I have diabetes, my thyroid has been impacted for years by an autoimmune thing (controlled by taking hormones), and I had the cancer and chemo thing a year and a half ago - I'm taking this seriously.  A week ago, I didn't WANT to, just because I still wanted the season to keep going.  But the more information that's out there - not the breathless manner in which it's portrayed, but the actual WORDS AND DATA that are said - means this still can go terribly pear-shaped.

So please don't say the word crisis in quotes, or otherwise make this sound like it's designed to remove the current occupant of the WH, or cow the population, or lead us to that One World Order, or whatever.  This is a problem.  And got the potential to go from problem to A Real Problem.  We'll get past it as a species - inexplicably, we always seem to - but this could be a rough go.

This is all I'll write.  But evidently, that had been pent up.

Watching people deny all of this reminds me of trying to argue with people who don't know the rules/mechanics like we do, that they're wrong. But hey, they've played baseball or watched it all their lives, so they're experts.

I tune out most media stuff and just try to look at the sources, like that British study (no, I didn't understand most of it), The WHO, CDC, etc. 

Everyone saying it's overblown, I assume they have at least made it halfway through medical school?

[yawetag]

17 hours ago, HokieUmp said:

Even finally starting to get more ambitious, that effort might only knock the toll in half, to 1.1 million.  Now, I hope they're wrong, and wrong to a major scale, but I'm not so sure they are, since it still seems people aren't reeeeeeally taking this fully seriously.

I don't think we'll see that. With the measures taken by individual states - keeping kids home, closing restaurants and gatherings - you're lessening the impact. Had the country relied on the White House's public stance, we'd all be in trouble. Thankfully, many of the states were able to listen to smarter people and make decisions that, hopefully, will save a lot of lives.

10 hours ago, udbrky said:

Watching people deny all of this reminds me of trying to argue with people who don't know the rules/mechanics like we do, that they're wrong.

"You can't reason someone out of something they didn't reason themselves into."