NCAA Tournament to be Played in Front of No Crowds

[Mongo]

https://apple.news/AVGhL3WN7TReGZY5AbfdNdg

[PeterRamTime]

This is some of the craziest shit ever.

[rhodylaw]

This is absolutely insanity - everyone is going to get this thing no matter what we do here. We should save this absurdity for when it is a real dangerous virus. Next year will we cancel things for the flu?

Maybe they should just not let anyone over 70 into the arena?

[PeterRamTime]

Can you go if you wear a hazmat suit?

[section(105)]

.......or a frogman suit......?

[RIrugger01]

If URI wins the national championship and nobody is there to see it, did it really happen?

[RamStock]

Might as well just cancel the whole tournament. Playing the tournament in an empty arena. Talk about lack of excitement

[ramster]

Agree. If no fans just shut it down. Hypocritical to still play the games. Does the virus come only from fans?
No interest in watching games with no fans at the games.

[Rhody15]

This thread is going to turn into a republican vs democratic debate about this is being overblown or is a legitimate worry.

[TruePoint]

The concern about public gatherings is that it greatly increases the chances of transmittal, and could potentially contribute to accelerating the spread which would overrun hospitals. It’s easier to make sure that none of the 30 or so essential people that will be at the game are not sick than 30,000 members of the public, so that explains why they would shut out fans.

[Rhodymob05]

I’m ok with taking precautions if it means stopping the virus. All the traveling and crowds of the tournaments is disease central if you think about it. It sucks a lot though.

[ramster]

Media driven hysteria. Internet world of 24 hour instantaneous news.

It’s not political.

[RamStock]

Agree. If no fans just shut it down. Hypocritical to still play the games. Does the virus come only from fans?
No interest in watching games with no fans at the games.

It is like watching a pickup game in a huge arena. No excitement or drama. If they want go about it this way cancel the whole event and those boring NBA games why we are at it.

[Seawrightspostgame]

So much madness this March.

[section(105)]

So much madness this March.

.......this is why, for me, this board never fails to produce good stuff......

[gorhody89]

Tv ratings will never be higher with everyone working from home

[Mongo]

These games will be like the “secret scrimmages” but with TV cameras. This will go down as the BIGGEST overreacting in history!!!

[rambone 78]

Heard today that Merkel in Germany said that two thirds of her country [40 million people] could become infected.

That is the most ridiculous statement and completely irresponsible. Talk about fanning hysteria.

I mean, in China the virus infection rate has declined to the point where they are going to resume their BB pro league, and have recalled the 40 Americans that play in it. That's where the virus started about 3 months ago.

Does anybody know if someone has predicted how many in this country will become infected?

In China with almost 2 billion people, not quite 100,000 became infected, and that's in a country that doesn't have the medical capability the US has.

That's less than the number of yearly regular flu cases here. A LOT less.

A media driven hysteria indeed.

I'm not saying reasonable precautions shouldn't be taken. But this is way out of line.

[ramster]

NBA, MLB, NHL should all be played with no fans.

Those are the adults. Lead by example.

Why is college shutting down and no one else?

Makes no sense

It is not fair

I don’t hear the media addressing the professional sports, only the colleges.

[rambone 78]

NBA, MLB, NHL should all be played with no fans.

Those are the adults. Lead by example.

Why is college shutting down and no one else?

Makes no sense

It is not fair

I don’t hear the media addressing the professional sports, only the colleges.

ramster, they will. Also golf and nascar will too.

Imagine the Masters with no fans.

The bigger issue is, what if players and coaches get infected?

Then EVERYTHING gets shut down. What about employers like EB and Mohegan?

We then get talking heads on ESPN 24 hours a day, unless someone in Bristol gets sick.

Where does it end then?

[Rhody74]

NBA, MLB, NHL should all be played with no fans.

Those are the adults. Lead by example.

Why is college shutting down and no one else?

Makes no sense

It is not fair

I don’t hear the media addressing the professional sports, only the colleges.

Golden State just announced they’re playing in empty arenas. Diocese of Seattle cancelled public Masses. I’m sure more to come.

[theblueram]

Has anyone recovered from this virus or is it a death sentence? Just asking.

[ramster]

NBA, MLB, NHL should all be played with no fans.

Those are the adults. Lead by example.

Why is college shutting down and no one else?

Makes no sense

It is not fair

I don’t hear the media addressing the professional sports, only the colleges.

ramster, they will. Also golf and nascar will too.

Imagine the Masters with no fans.

The bigger issue is, what if players and coaches get infected?

Then EVERYTHING gets shut down. What about employers like EB and Mohegan?

We then get talking heads on ESPN 24 hours a day, unless someone in Bristol gets sick.

Where does it end then?

So let pro sports lead. That’s where all the money is. Screwing around with college basketball but not shutting down the greediest league of all. Shut them all down.

[scine20]

Part of the experience of the tournament for these players, particularly the ones at the smaller schools, is to get the ability to play in front of all of these fans.

And also to be able to play in front of your own fans. Take a school like Hofstra, for instance. It’s been 19 years since they’ve been in the tournament. And now that they’ve made it they won’t be able to play in front of any of their fans. And none of their fans will be able to watch their school play in its first tournament in nearly two decades.

I feel like it’s gotten out of line. But that’s just me.

[Rhody74]

Has anyone recovered from this virus or is it a death sentence? Just asking.

Roughly .7% die of the virus. So if 100,000 get it, 700 will die. The other issue is that hospitals are getting overwhelmed in countries where it’s spread. That affects people with other serious illnesses not to mention burnout of medical personnel. The idea in the US is to get ahead of the spread and slow it down so hospitals don’t get overwhelmed.

[ramster]

Part of the experience of the tournament for these players, particularly the ones at the smaller schools, is to get the ability to play in front of all of these fans.

And also to be able to play in front of your own fans. Take a school like Hofstra, for instance. It’s been 19 years since they’ve been in the tournament. And now that they’ve made it they won’t be able to play in front of any of their fans. And none of their fans will be able to watch their school play in its first tournament in nearly two decades.

I feel like it’s gotten out of line. But that’s just me.

And these are kids. Taking their dreams away while NBA MLB NHL all keep playing. Why?

[theblueram]

Has anyone recovered from this virus or is it a death sentence? Just asking.

Roughly .7% die of the virus. So if 100,000 get it, 700 will die.

74, can you give the stats on who is dying, pre-existing health issues etc? Are healthy people dying from this cold?

[TruePoint]

Media driven hysteria. Internet world of 24 hour instantaneous news.

It’s not political.

This was my opinion about Ebola and some of the other dumb media-driven health scares. But this is obviously different. Like four people got Ebola. The long incubation period and the ease with which this is transmitted from one person to another means that this is going to explode. People misuse the word exponential a lot, but in this case it is apt. The virus itself is not the most lethal we’ve ever seen but it is new and has spread all over the world in an insanely short period of time. The concern is not that everyone that gets it will die, it’s that everyone getting it at once will overwhelm our healthcare infrastructure and people that shouldn’t die from it will because they can’t get the care they need.

It is political because the federal government lied about the number of cases and their severity because the President is more concerned about the stock market and it’s impact on his re-election than he is about the health and safety of Americans, and as a result the efforts to contain the spread of the virus have been too little and too late. People can say it only kills 2% of people but if the virus spreads without constraint that will result in the deaths of 5-6M people in the U.S. and about 150M people worldwide. And that 2% is likely to increase significantly if our ability to treat people is limited by massive amounts of people getting sick at the same time. It’s not a joke.

There was an article in the WSJ this morning that had quotes from the Rhode Islander who had the virus after returning from Italy. I’d suggest reading what he had to say about having the illness.

[rambone 78]

I agree scine. They are trying to be proactive, but it's not like this is a death sentence.

99.7% of those under 50 who have been infected so far, have recovered.

Yes the death rate is higher [around 3-5%] if you're older and have other respiratory issues, but that's close to the rate for the regular flu.

They are acting like millions will get infected. If so, yes that would overwhelm the hospitals etc.

Safe rather than sorry I guess. We are definitely a more mobile society than China, so the potential does exist for more cases.

They need to get on with making more testing kits though. Nowhere near enough right now if this does blow up over the next few weeks.

[section(105)]

......I thought fringe propaganda was not welcomed here.....

[theblueram]

Media driven hysteria. Internet world of 24 hour instantaneous news.

It’s not political.

This was my opinion about Ebola and some of the other dumb media-driven health scares. But this is obviously different. Like four people got Ebola. The long incubation period and the ease with which this is transmitted from one person to another means that this is going to explode. People misuse the word exponential a lot, but in this case it is apt. The virus itself is not the most lethal we’ve ever seen but it is new and has spread all over the world in an insanely short period of time. The concern is not that everyone that gets it will die, it’s that everyone getting it at once will overwhelm our healthcare infrastructure and people that shouldn’t die from it will because they can’t get the care they need.

It is political because the federal government lied about the number of cases and their severity because the President is more concerned about the stock market and it’s impact on his re-election than he is about the health and safety of Americans, and as a result the efforts to contain the spread of the virus have been too little and too late. People can say it only kills 2% of people but if the virus spreads without constraint that will result in the deaths of 5-6M people in the U.S. and about 150M people worldwide. And that 2% is likely to increase significantly if our ability to treat people is limited by massive amounts of people getting sick at the same time. It’s not a joke.

There was an article in the WSJ this morning that had quotes from the Rhode Islander who had the virus after returning from Italy. I’d suggest reading what he had to say about having the illness.

Huh? Over 28,000 people got EBOLA and over 11,000 people died.

[rambone 78]

TP, China had about 100,000 cases [reported] and of course more that wasn't, but your numbers of 5-6 million US and 150 million world wide is way overblown.

No matter how unchecked. Of course in the US it WILL be checked.

Nowhere near those numbers.

105 I would love to talk about you know who, but that's a no-no on this board.

[TruePoint]

Heard today that Merkel in Germany said that two thirds of her country [40 million people] could become infected.

That is the most ridiculous statement and completely irresponsible. Talk about fanning hysteria.

I mean, in China the virus infection rate has declined to the point where they are going to resume their BB pro league, and have recalled the 40 Americans that play in it. That's where the virus started about 3 months ago.

Does anybody know if someone has predicted how many in this country will become infected?

In China with almost 2 billion people, not quite 100,000 became infected, and that's in a country that doesn't have the medical capability the US has.

That's less than the number of yearly regular flu cases here. A LOT less.

A media driven hysteria indeed.

I'm not saying reasonable precautions shouldn't be taken. But this is way out of line.

This thread is incredible. You have people complaining that they are trying to stop mass gatherings to slow down the spread of the virus. You also have (the same) people saying how China has successfully contained the virus. Any guesses on how they did that? Here would be a good place to point out that authoritarianism has some benefits - the Chinese people do not enjoy the same freedoms as Americans. The Chinese government closed off an entire part of their country and severely limited people’s ability to move around, limited access to fever reducers so that they could more easily identify infected persons. And I wouldn’t believe official statistics put out by the Chinese government or its state-run media with respect to number of deaths or infected persons.

[TruePoint]

Media driven hysteria. Internet world of 24 hour instantaneous news.

It’s not political.

This was my opinion about Ebola and some of the other dumb media-driven health scares. But this is obviously different. Like four people got Ebola. The long incubation period and the ease with which this is transmitted from one person to another means that this is going to explode. People misuse the word exponential a lot, but in this case it is apt. The virus itself is not the most lethal we’ve ever seen but it is new and has spread all over the world in an insanely short period of time. The concern is not that everyone that gets it will die, it’s that everyone getting it at once will overwhelm our healthcare infrastructure and people that shouldn’t die from it will because they can’t get the care they need.

It is political because the federal government lied about the number of cases and their severity because the President is more concerned about the stock market and it’s impact on his re-election than he is about the health and safety of Americans, and as a result the efforts to contain the spread of the virus have been too little and too late. People can say it only kills 2% of people but if the virus spreads without constraint that will result in the deaths of 5-6M people in the U.S. and about 150M people worldwide. And that 2% is likely to increase significantly if our ability to treat people is limited by massive amounts of people getting sick at the same time. It’s not a joke.

There was an article in the WSJ this morning that had quotes from the Rhode Islander who had the virus after returning from Italy. I’d suggest reading what he had to say about having the illness.

Huh? Over 28,000 people got EBOLA and over 11,000 people died.

You need a new media diet, friend.

[theblueram]

This was my opinion about Ebola and some of the other dumb media-driven health scares. But this is obviously different. Like four people got Ebola. The long incubation period and the ease with which this is transmitted from one person to another means that this is going to explode. People misuse the word exponential a lot, but in this case it is apt. The virus itself is not the most lethal we’ve ever seen but it is new and has spread all over the world in an insanely short period of time. The concern is not that everyone that gets it will die, it’s that everyone getting it at once will overwhelm our healthcare infrastructure and people that shouldn’t die from it will because they can’t get the care they need.

It is political because the federal government lied about the number of cases and their severity because the President is more concerned about the stock market and it’s impact on his re-election than he is about the health and safety of Americans, and as a result the efforts to contain the spread of the virus have been too little and too late. People can say it only kills 2% of people but if the virus spreads without constraint that will result in the deaths of 5-6M people in the U.S. and about 150M people worldwide. And that 2% is likely to increase significantly if our ability to treat people is limited by massive amounts of people getting sick at the same time. It’s not a joke.

There was an article in the WSJ this morning that had quotes from the Rhode Islander who had the virus after returning from Italy. I’d suggest reading what he had to say about having the illness.

Huh? Over 28,000 people got EBOLA and over 11,000 people died.

You need a new media diet, friend.

Thought we were talking pandemic which means the whole world. So in that case 1100 people have this new strain of coronavirus, which every bottle of disinfectant says it kills. Stop spreading the hysteria.

"Ebola virus disease (formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever) is a severe, often fatal illness, with a death rate of up to 90% caused by Ebola virus, a member of the filovirus family. The Ebola virus can cause severe viral haemorrhagic fever (Ebola HF) outbreaks in humans with a case fatality rate of up to 90%."

[rhodylaw]

Ok - except the only way to really stop it (herd immunity) means a bunch of people need to get it. Canceling stuff is dumb. Old people and folks with pre-existing conditions should take extreme precautions. Everyone else just take normal precautions and go with it. Italy had to shut down because the average age of he population is death.

[PeterRamTime]

This is about the most comprehensive assessment I've heard about the situation.

[rambone 78]

The key is of course, if the US is able to diagnose and treat people and not fall far behind versus the number of cases that occur.

That we don't know yet. There are a few hot spots already.

As long as the number of people infected or suspected of being infected doesn't rise too far too fast.

[ATPTourFan]

This thread will soon be locked.

[NYGFan_Section208]

because of...

[ramster]

This thread will soon be locked.

Should be no politics

Everyone should know that by now

[theblueram]

This thread will soon be locked.

good. lock it ATP. Cause the mass hysteria of 1,000 people being sick with a glorified flu is beyond comprehension.

[TruePoint]

Huh? Over 28,000 people got EBOLA and over 11,000 people died.

You need a new media diet, friend.

Thought we were talking pandemic which means the whole world. So in that case 1100 people have this new strain of coronavirus, which every bottle of disinfectant says it kills. Stop spreading the hysteria.

"Ebola virus disease (formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever) is a severe, often fatal illness, with a death rate of up to 90% caused by Ebola virus, a member of the filovirus family. The Ebola virus can cause severe viral haemorrhagic fever (Ebola HF) outbreaks in humans with a case fatality rate of up to 90%."

The difference is that because Ebola made people so sick so quickly, it was fairly easy to contain it. This is not like that. It’s spread easily and it takes up to two weeks for infected people to show symptoms (ie, know they’re sick), so it’s not going to be contained the same way. I don’t know how anyone can see the rate at which this is spreading and not realize where that is going to lead. Again, the concern here is not that everyone that gets it will die, but that A LOT of people are going to get it, and even a small amount of A LOT of people dying is a concern.

I’m not spreading hysteria, I’m trying to bring some balance to the irresponsible minimizing that is going on here. People losing their minds about taking precautions because they imagine it might slightly reduce the quality of their entertainment. Can’t wait until an American political party adopts anti-vaxxer rhetoric as part of its platform so half the country can mindlessly start spouting crazy vaccine conspiracy theories....

[reef]

Please don’t cancel the NCAA tournament!!!!!

[section(105)]

This thread will soon be locked.

.......great, but why bother it will pop up in other existing or near future threads.....

[ramster]

No politics of any kind

[DeanDome88]

I have no problem with any of the precautions taken to fight COVID-19. I'm not sure what statistics you want to trust but this appears more contagious and also having a higher mortality rate than the flu. WHO has a lot of information out. I hope we catch some break to limit the possible damage.

[UCH21377]

China basically shut the country down when they figured it out. We (my employer) has operations there, in a different province, hundreds of miles from the epicenter. Didn't matter; they were sent home, told to stay home, all travel restricted. A city of 6 million a ghost town. That's what slowed it down. They're back up and running now. We didn't do that here. It may be too late to stop the spread; that doesn't mean you just let it happen. There are not enough facilities to go around if suddenly thousands of people converge on any given hospital. Sucks but don't think there's much choice. Hoping my employer let's us work from home.

[hrstrat57]

Lots of very troubling perhaps irresponsible posts on this forum tonight.

Just saying

[LoveThoseRams]

Can we pleeeeze talk about the NCAA tournament on this thread...if I want politics I’ll go to Twitter