School Closings

[xxxxxxx]

I am by no means one to panic but here in the Northeast they are closing high schools, and a local University recently sent an e mail to the faculty that said. "Please get all your current classwork on line in the highly likely scenario where we will have to close the school" This school has a D1 Lacrosse program. I fear that these Universities are not willing to take the liability risk of keeping students on campus and will send them home early, like in the next few weeks. If this is the case I believe the spring sports seasons will be cancelled. I could be wrong but am wondering what others are hearing.

[ICGrad]

Johns Hopkins, which is hosting first-round games in the NCAA DIII Basketball Tournament this weekend, has just announced that fans won't be allowed to attend the games due to fears over coronavirus. In other words, all games this weekend will be played in empty gyms, with no fans allowed for any of the teams.

So yeah, it's a valid question. I think the next 2 weeks will tell: either this thing really starts spreading like crazy, or the tempest dies down. But I don't think it's outside of the realm of possibility that we begin to see some game cancellations. I mean, hell, Baltimore is pretty much the epicenter of the college lacrosse world, no?

[Peter Brown]

I am by no means one to panic but here in the Northeast they are closing high schools, and a local University recently sent an e mail to the faculty that said. "Please get all your current classwork on line in the highly likely scenario where we will have to close the school" This school has a D1 Lacrosse program. I fear that these Universities are not willing to take the liability risk of keeping students on campus and will send them home early, like in the next few weeks. If this is the case I believe the spring sports seasons will be cancelled. I could be wrong but am wondering what others are hearing.

Hopkins and Towson will be happy.

(more seriously, I think this will likely occur; go to games now, folks)

[OCanada]

Universities are cancelling foreign programs and recalling students. The question of attendance at sporting events and other large gatherings is a real thing. Feds are under reporting spread and that has everyone concerned about what the real numbers are. One of the EU countries has drive through testing meanwhile the USA had magnitudes too few. Plenty of reason for institutions to consider risk, liability and ethics

[jhu72]

University of Washington closed classes today.

[Gorilla Fan]

https://goterriers.com/news/2020/3/6/sa ... poned.aspx

[Peter Brown]

Viruses generally strike one group more severely than another. There have been no deaths among infants, toddlers or children younger than 10. It could be that kids in high school or university age are somewhat safe(r) as well. It appears so far that this virus has much worse impact on older men with underlying health issues.

Hoping lacrosse doesn't get canceled, but I probably would not bet that way...America tends to overreact to most things as the media eggs the hysteria. Around and around it goes.

Attend a lacrosse game now.

Seems like the top guy about Corona-19 is in Baltimore at Hopkins: Dr. Amesh Adalja.

[QuakerSouth]

I mean, hell, Baltimore is pretty much the epicenter of the college lacrosse world, no?

...if they say so...

[QuakerSouth]

Hopkins and Towson will be happy.

(more seriously, I think this will likely occur; go to games now, folks)

Hop can't cancel the season yet, they are only 2 wins away from their auto-bid...

[Peter Brown]

Hopkins and Towson will be happy.

(more seriously, I think this will likely occur; go to games now, folks)

Hop can't cancel the season yet, they are only 2 wins away from their auto-bid...

[Matnum PI]

Hop can't cancel the season yet, they are only 2 wins away from their auto-bid...

Quaker, this line should be framed.

Heard in the FanLax D1 Men's Forum re: School Closings

[RumorMill]

BU vs Bucknell postponed

https://goterriers.com/news/2020/3/6/sa ... poned.aspx

[Wheels]

America tends to overreact to most things as the media eggs the hysteria. Around and around it goes.

Hasn't Italy forced several Serie A teams to play games in empty stadiums? Don't think that media driven...

[a fan]

Seems like the top guy about Corona-19 is in Baltimore at Hopkins: Dr. Amesh Adalja.

Might want to give him a call. Hopkins is barring fans from the DIII Basketball NCAA tournament.

[xxxxxxx]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/06/us/c ... sings.html

East Coast about two weeks behind west, here we go.

[faircornell]

The USILA has recommended that players "fist bump" with gloves on instead of shaking hands.

This is noted as "flu related."

[NElaxtalent]

Bucknell - BU postponed

https://goterriers.com/news/2020/3/6/sa ... poned.aspx

[youthathletics]

Where is the Zika, H1N1 Swine, and Bird Flu when we need them. ugh!

[Ghost]

PC gone way wrong... Ebola virus was 1000x worse, no school closings... wash your hand,
If you are sick stay home...
Otherwise LIVE YOUR LIFE, as Normal

[The Orfling]

PC gone way wrong... Ebola virus was 1000x worse, no school closings... wash your hand,
If you are sick stay home...
Otherwise LIVE YOUR LIFE, as Normal

Ghost or others thinking this is "PC gone way wrong" -- talk to a doctor (or better yet, an epidemiologist) and you'll see they are taking it extraordinarily seriously. We don't yet know the mortality rate, but the conservative range would be 10 - 15 times greater than flu (seasonal flu has a .1% mortality rate, so 10x - 15x would be 1 - 1.5%), and in the New England Journal of Medicine ("NEJM") a study from Wuhan reported a 1.4% mortality rate for labaratory-confirmed cases. If you read the NEJM editorial by Dr. Anthony Fauci (NIH Head of Infectious Diseases) -- google "New England Journal of Medicine editorial Fauci") -- you'll see he talks about a possibility that the mortality rate could end up being lower if one takes into account mildly-symptomatic cases not confirmed because there was no testing.

But, let's say we are talking about a mortality rate of 1% (very conservative) -- with 60,000 flu deaths in the U.S. every year times 10, that's 600,000 deaths. Many in populations over 60 (who, by the way, still count!) but, in addition to younger victims with compromised immune systems or respiratory issues, doctors expect, as is the case with the seasonal flu, that otherwise healthy young people will basically inexplicably die although they have none of the major risk factors (you might think of the 35 year old doctor in Wuhan who tried to warn his colleagues about the outbreak).

The Spanish flu, which killed 500 million people worldwide (and 6 million in the U.S as compared to 100,000 U.S. deaths in World War I) had a mortality rate of around 2.5%. So you can see that a fairly easily transmissible illness with a 1% mortality rate is in fact a highly serious matter.

Are we lucky this doesn't have the mortality rate of Ebola (over 80%), SARS (9-10%), or MERS (35%)? Yes, and thank God for that. But we are probably a year away from a potentially successful vaccine, so this is something we'll all have to navigate.

In the short term, with our wonderful escape into lacrosse, I think we'll have to be prepared for:

• Changes in game locations (for example, University of North Carolina is restricting any university-affiliated travel to any states with a state of emergency -- right now that's Washington State, Florida, and California, but it could expand;

• Teams taking buses rather than flying to further-flung destinations -- airports are seen as major places to avoid because of both the nexus to international travel and the fact that they are places of congregation;

• Playing games with no fans (NBA is also making preparations for this);

• Season cancellation.