December 21st, 2021 at 10:20 AM ^
This is my biggest fear heading into the Orange Bowl
December 21st, 2021 at 10:58 AM ^
Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, it is that we are powerful beyond measure.
- Coach Carter
- Michael Scott
December 21st, 2021 at 10:30 AM ^
I hope our team is taking this as a warning.
December 21st, 2021 at 10:41 AM ^
Can anyone explain to me why we haven’t made the rapid at home antigen tests free to everyone and just ask that everyone take one each day before leaving the house? Seems like it would cut down on a lot of possible transmission.
December 21st, 2021 at 10:49 AM ^
At home test is inferior to PCR.
December 21st, 2021 at 10:59 AM ^
Yes, absolutely it’s inferior to PCR. I can’t do a PCR test in my home in 15mins every morning though.
December 21st, 2021 at 11:43 AM ^
It's not so inferior as to not be useful. The errors in at-home antigen tests tend not to be systemic (other than sensitivity, which isn't really an "error" in this context) and err on the false positive side. This means you can run it more than once if you get a positive test to confirm, and two positive tests are highly unlikely to be wrong.
The at home tests are lateral flow assays. I explained them in the second edition of Covid Neck Sharpies: https://mgoblog.com/mgoboard/ot-covid-19-neck-sharpies-part-ii-tests-tests-tests
The example shown was to screen for anti-Covid antibodies but the setup essentially the same, you just fish for the antigen using fixed antibodies instead of the other way around.
December 21st, 2021 at 12:02 PM ^
My understanding was that the at-home tests got more accurate the higher your viral load as well and viral load determined how contagious you are. Is this correct?
If that's the case then it's probably safe to assume that if you test negative on an at-home test then you're most likely truly negative or at the very least not very/at all contagious. Seems to me like they'd be an exceptionally important part of stopping the damn pandemic even if not everyone will use them.
December 21st, 2021 at 10:52 AM ^
I had heard that congress wanted to do that way back in the beginning. But the administration said no. I believe they also wanted to send masks to every home and that was shot down also. So many mistakes were made in the beginning.
December 21st, 2021 at 11:00 AM ^
Ok, but the beginning was 2 years ago and a different administration. What’s stopping them now?
December 21st, 2021 at 11:52 AM ^
Systemic resistance to even use them from the people who followed every word and action of that former administration, including storming the Capitol. Now it is an obvious waste of designated resources.
December 21st, 2021 at 11:59 AM ^
I seriously disagree with your second premise. If anti-mask/vaxxers were the only ones spreading covid than you might have a point. That's not the case though. If I had an in-person business I'd require employees to take a test every day before they started their shift.
December 21st, 2021 at 12:13 PM ^
It's a reasonable idea, certainly, but relying on that exclusively would be trusting people to self-report honestly, which, at least in the current climate, I'm pretty skeptical about. I don't honestly believe every young football player who tests positive but feels 100% would remove himself from team activities immediately.
(I wish I could say that was a statement about the ignorance and sense of immortality common to young people, but of course it applies to the entire population).
December 21st, 2021 at 1:01 PM ^
I'm not sure what the price is now but I purchased 2 boxes with 2 test per box for only $40.00 last June. Prices may have went up? But it was not that expensive.
December 21st, 2021 at 2:42 PM ^
They're about $25/box (2 tests) now.
December 21st, 2021 at 10:46 AM ^
Going to WWF games and exposing yourself was silly. Signing autographs without a mask is silly...
It would be just our luck to get this far only to have it ruined by this.
Stay safe everyone. If you must indulge, wear a damn mask. Trust me, we understand.
December 21st, 2021 at 10:48 AM ^
It is fairly simple. If everyone associated with the team, including coaches, support staff, and all players, has received BOTH the full two dose vaccine AND the booster shot, the likelihood of testing positive for Covid is extremely low. Insignificant.
Players or staff that get significantly sick almost undoubtedly have NOT been vaccinated.
Want to avoid positive tests? Vaccine AND booster, and it is very unlikely.
In case you don't know, the typical symptoms of Covid for those fully vaccinated (2 doses) but not boosted is a cold or mild flu.
Unfortunately, I know personally: I was fully vaccinated early, but the schedule didn't allow me to get the booster shot until last Friday. I tested positive yesterday, and my symptoms are: mild headache, light cough, light body soreness, similar to a cold. No fever, no loss of taste or smell, no respiratory difficulty, no diarrhea, nothing else. Wish I had gotten the booster a month ago.
Oh, and the kicker is that I likely contracted this from my 20 year old unvaccinated son (who refuses to get vaccinated.)
December 21st, 2021 at 10:53 AM ^
This *used* to be true, but Omicron appears to have much higher infection rates among vaccinated people than other variants. So high, in fact, that the vaccine appears to do very little to prevent Omicron infection. However, the vaccine does appear to greatly lessen disease severity with Omicron, so if you're vaccinated, you likely have nothing to worry about for your personal health, but you're just as likely as an unvaxxed person to get it and transmit it to someone else. With mitigation protocols focused more on cases than disease, this means that Omicron could still shut down a football program that has everyone vaccinated.
December 21st, 2021 at 12:15 PM ^
You're half right but the other half is unwitting misinformation. Based on the neutralizing antibody titers - and these have lined up pretty well with real world evidence - a 3 dose mRNA regime should provide you about 75% protection against symptomatic infection. So you'll still see a lot of people get sick but less than the unvaccinated or only double vaxxed. There's also been enough longitudinal studies to show a vaccinated person clears the virus faster than an unvaccinated person. All this adds up to 1).yes Omicron has a high attack rate even among the boosted 2). You're still less likely to get it if boosted 3). A vaccinated person is likely to clear the virus faster than an unvaccinated person.
So the part about have less severe disease = true, the part about just being just as likely to pass it on is not so much true.
December 21st, 2021 at 11:00 AM ^
My understanding is that 15 percent of the NHL has tested positive (they are about to shut down till after Christmas because of this). I also understand that only one (1) player in the NHL has not been vaccinated (I do not know if this includes boosters). I'm not sure about your "unlikely" to test positive if vaccinated statement.
December 21st, 2021 at 11:01 AM ^
This is entirely NOT true. A DII woman's basketball team, 100% vaccinated, 50% have also gotten a booster..... 100% had covid prior to getting the vaccination...
10 of the 14 tested positive on Saturday.
Edited.... Not the Michigan Women's team, to clarify
December 21st, 2021 at 11:28 AM ^
To clarify, they tested positive and then played Baylor?
December 21st, 2021 at 11:23 AM ^
Vaccination will not prevent testing positive. That's what has so many people in the sports world worked up. There are different protocols in place about what to do with those who test positive.
December 21st, 2021 at 10:55 AM ^
Dr. Ashish Jha at Brown's School of Public Health has consistently been one of the better communicators on TV since the pandemic started. He said this yesterday on ABC Nightly News:
We've got to stop paying attention to the infection numbers and really pay attention to who's getting sick.
I agree. He's not saying don't test-- he goes on to provide recommendations for at home tests people should use before family get-togethers, especially if there are elderly, vulnerable, or god forbid unvaccinated people mixed in and further suggests at least a 5-day self isolation period if you test positive-- but his point is that Omicron is going to burn through the vaccinated population very quickly and that's OK, we aren't going to see a lot of serious illness among the vaccinated.
Put the team in a bubble where no unvaccinated people are allowed to interact with them and stop testing at this point. Test on their way out to see if they need to isolate before mixing with the general population again.
December 21st, 2021 at 10:58 AM ^
I can already tell this isn’t going to be a fun thread…
December 21st, 2021 at 1:39 PM ^
Aside from one sub-thread that takes up the bulk of p1, it's actually been pretty decent.
December 21st, 2021 at 10:59 AM ^
Holy shit..... Holiday Inn Express killed it last night!!!!!
December 21st, 2021 at 11:55 AM ^
I am one of the people this should be targeted toward and it made me authentically laugh. Thanks for that.
December 21st, 2021 at 11:05 AM ^
Sigh.
I'm beginning to grow pretty concerned about our game on 12/31. That's, um, TEN days away.
December 21st, 2021 at 11:43 AM ^
It will be a minor miracle if all four playoff teams aren't affected by COVID to some degree. Omicron is simply too transmissible.
December 21st, 2021 at 11:52 AM ^
SIMPLY TOO TRANSMISSIBLE!
Would make a good song.
December 21st, 2021 at 12:11 PM ^
Unfortunate that Robert Palmer is no longer with us.
December 21st, 2021 at 12:46 PM ^
Sung with an old girlfriend in mind.
She was so fine…but simply too transmissible.
December 21st, 2021 at 12:02 PM ^
This may be B1G/Michigan paranoia, but I wish I had confidence that the SEC teams are just as likely to report positive tests as Michigan would be as opposed to burying them.
December 21st, 2021 at 11:55 AM ^
My mom has cancer and had a leg cut that wasn't healing appropriately with her compromised immune system. It was a few days ago. Going to the ER in her condition was absolutely out of the question because it was so overloaded. Luckily she's improved with the help of the internet and aggressive home care by non-medical professional relatives.
Too many people still getting too sick from this. When that happens, they obviously go to the hospital. And you can't blame them. And many of them could have prevented the severity by getting vaccinated.
The wide proliferation of the vaccine and booster would have curtailed this problem where positives among vaccinated people wouldn't matter much.
It's like there is a portion of society that looks at a serious problem and is totally in denial. Just wants to plow forward business as usual when it's compromising the health care system.
December 21st, 2021 at 11:58 AM ^
Amen. We talked about this a bit in the earlier thread about Alabama, but at this point, we need to start seriously discussing denying hospital admission to unvaccinated people showing symptoms. It's harsh, but I'm increasingly of the mind we need to do it to protect the hospitals and people like your mom.
December 21st, 2021 at 12:09 PM ^
It would be nice to see the rest of Alabama take the pandemic as seriously as its football team. Saban's really in charge down there anyway, maybe the state's residents should listen to him instead of the state govt.
This new surge totally sucks. I'm afraid it's going to affect these games and I'm starting to think I should maybe cancel my travel plans. I don't want to pick it up and bring it home to my mother who is almost 70 and has had asthma her whole life.
December 21st, 2021 at 1:19 PM ^
Understandable given the circumstances, but not a slope I think is worth trying to not slip on.
December 21st, 2021 at 1:15 PM ^
Glad your mom is doing well
December 21st, 2021 at 12:12 PM ^
Are universities testing students before they enter lecture halls?
December 21st, 2021 at 1:15 PM ^
Universities are not a monolith, but some are testing weekly.
December 21st, 2021 at 12:44 PM ^
DAMN YOU OMICRON! If only you were a Xi
December 21st, 2021 at 12:53 PM ^
Happy Humbug day! If I felt sick I would want to get tested to see if I had COVID. The bad news is that the omicron variant breaks through the vaccines more frequently. The good news is that it looks to be less severe symptoms than delta, and will probably replace the delta variant by January. I hope the FDA approves the new Pfizer pill, which studies show reduces deaths by COVID by over 90 percent. This pill will be a potential game changer in the fight against COVID.
December 21st, 2021 at 1:06 PM ^
Yeah, yet another “game changer”.
This thing will run its course until it becomes the equivalent of the flu. It’s never going away completely. We just have to learn to live with it.
As for the pending “universal” flu vaccine reported in another thread, that just means it doesn’t need annual tweaks. Doesn’t negate the need for flu shots.
My worry is that when it does get down to flu level cases, people won’t be able to tone down the hysteria. Fear is a powerful thing.
December 21st, 2021 at 1:17 PM ^
I say in a year or a couple this thing will have mutated to flu levels. It’ll get to the point that seasonally having the flu/covid will be synonymous.
December 21st, 2021 at 1:18 PM ^
Unfortunately it isn’t down to flu level cases, in part because of fear of taking the vaccine.
December 21st, 2021 at 1:41 PM ^
This post is going about as well as I expected. Good work MgoBlog!
December 21st, 2021 at 2:31 PM ^
True, I think the fear of the banhammer helps to prevent bloggers from expressing their true thoughts. As a federal worker, discussing politics and religion in the work place is a big no no. I think it should carry over to a Michigan sports blog, where only sports should be discussed. I guess this thread was kind of sport related, since covid may play a role in bowl season, which is unfortunate.
December 21st, 2021 at 3:27 PM ^
So much negativity about the chances of the CFP games getting cancelled. You people need to relax. Studies show that Omicron is milder than previous versions, but more transmissible. The previous 2 dose vaccine, assuming you got it months ago, isn't as effective at stopping you from getting infected, but still effective at preventing hospitalization/death. The booster shot is much more effective (75% efficacy) at preventing symptomatic illness. Knowing that much/all of the Michigan program is fully vaccinated, I bet that many of them also got their booster shot. I'm also betting (and hoping) that Harbaugh and the staff are being very careful. I would hope that the athletic department would spend extra money to send the players to Florida in advance and have them up in a hotel "bubble" until gameday, just to be extra safe.
I hope that, should somebody test positive, that they are REASONABLE about the process of quarantining and then getting back on the football field. Don't go overkill with the quarantining if the players that test positive are asymptomatic and are fully vaccinated + booster, because not only are they asymptomatic, but having all the vaccine protection should also significantly decrease the chances of spreading it to someone, ESPECIALLY those who are also vaccinated.
This whole thing has gotten to the point where we just need to learn to live with COVID. It's gonna be around forever, like the flu. Just gotta continue to take protective measures... booster shots, masking up/social distancing when in hot spots... and just live your life. We can't keep shutting everything down when there are outbreaks for the rest of time.