NFL 700 Covid positives / Seahawks 0 positives
The subhead gives the gist:
"The only [NFL] team to play the entire season without any confirmed positive cases did so with innovative thinking, vigilance to protocols and some Pete Carroll-style competition."
February 5th, 2021 at 4:22 PM ^
Probably helps being located in a state with one of the lowest COVID rates.
February 5th, 2021 at 4:57 PM ^
Well ....why do you think we have one of the lowest rates?
February 5th, 2021 at 4:58 PM ^
Guessing they wear masks, get tested regularly, socially distance and have a brain. ?
February 5th, 2021 at 7:03 PM ^
Not everyone does but our Governor has refused to bend to pressure if the science says to keep things closed. Where I live there's definitely a mini-rebellion about it but the Seahawks don't come over here. In King County there is much better adherence to the safety rules.
February 5th, 2021 at 11:11 PM ^
Or that it was one of the first areas in the US to blow up. Got the worst of it well before football started. Just thinking outside of the box.
February 6th, 2021 at 2:17 AM ^
^ This.
Around this time last year, Washington State had more COVID cases then the rest of the country combined.
I did google before posting that times have definitely changed and Washington presently has the third lowest COVID spread in the nation.
February 5th, 2021 at 4:31 PM ^
Let’s see them try to get 0 positives while playing a season in Sturgis, South Dakota! Now that would be a challenge.
February 5th, 2021 at 4:43 PM ^
Hey there! We aren’t all heathens here!
February 5th, 2021 at 4:34 PM ^
Seattle resident here - not surprised at the least.
- The city and state governments actually believe in science, and have put in place the proper guidance and restrictions
- Residents are generally well-educated, meaning they also believe in science and understand the need for the restrictions
- The weather during the fall/winter sucks anyways, so shit, might as well stay home, play some Xbox, and chill where it's dry
- Seattlites are pretty unsocial by nature, so the pandemic has been a great excuse for everyone to continue the freeze.
February 5th, 2021 at 4:44 PM ^
I've noticed that Oregon seems to have also done consistently well. Its COVIDiots tend to live in sparsely populated areas.
February 5th, 2021 at 8:37 PM ^
I think in Portland at least, the virus was consumed in flames along with the rest of the city.
February 5th, 2021 at 8:52 PM ^
While I don't disagree business week had a interesting article last week. They showed Texas and California have taken 2 different approaches to covid. Both states have the same number of cases/deaths and unemployment is almost identical.
February 6th, 2021 at 2:18 AM ^
Ummm... I'm not so sure populated portions of Oregon should be held up as a hallmark of proper behavior.
February 5th, 2021 at 4:50 PM ^
But doesn’t staying indoors for extended periods lower the immune system? I’m not a doctor but that’s what my doctor told me.
And wouldn’t people living in sparsely populated areas be less likely to contract the virus? I thought the virus was concentrated more in city environments?
February 5th, 2021 at 4:54 PM ^
Yes it does. I had heard this early on and didn't believe it. But I've been told this same thing repeatedly by doctors and nurses over the last year.
February 5th, 2021 at 6:34 PM ^
It's not quite a direct effect, but there is something to it.
There are two things working in your favor if you're spending time outside: vitamin D production (absence of which has a measurable if modest effect on the function of several different types of immune cells), and stress reduction, which is probably much more important.
People spending more time outside are probably getting more exercise (from walking if nothing else) and alleviating the stress of feeling cooped up, especially under current circumstances. Stress, as much as any "environmental" factor you can name, is immunosuppresive, mostly when levels of cortisol are chronically elevated. Plus, exposure to natural light keeps your sleep cycles a little more in tune, and adequate sleep feeds right back into reducing stress and general health.
So, in theory, you would be just fine indoors if you're able to supplement the Vitamin D and keep the stress under control (maybe you prefer just being inside and watching movies, and have a Peleton maybe?). But for most of us, being outside a little is welcome relief and good for our mental health, and per usual, if the mental side is tended to, the physical side (and immune system) has one less reason to go bad.
(That's all presupposing you're not spending that time outside in close proximity to a lot of people and generally observing Covid best practices.)
EDIT: I was poking around the literature in this topic and found a paper reporting "forest bathing" in Japan (basically aromatherapy on location in the forest, breathing in the trees, soil, and... uh... Ewok dander or whatever else is in a Japanese forest) results in a measurable benefit to Natural Killer (NK) cells, a general line of defense versus viruses. LINK
February 6th, 2021 at 6:53 AM ^
All the above plus when you go outdoors you are exposed to more allergens that will exercise your immune system and give your body more practice in recognizing which invaders are harmful and which are harmless. Our immune system is stronger after defending us from things that are mostly harmless than when it stays home and has nothing new to fight.
February 6th, 2021 at 8:57 AM ^
That's really more when you're getting "maturation" of the immune system in childhood. By the time you're an adult, that process is basically over. In fact, your thymus, the "schoolhouse" of the uber-important T-cells, begins to disappear after puberty. Fortunately, all the T-cells are generated by then.
February 5th, 2021 at 5:03 PM ^
Going outside more to boost your immune system, but not masking up, isolating, and limiting social interactions diligently is like drinking diet coke to lose weight while eating four Big Macs at each meal - you're still gonna have issues. The impacts of isolating, masking, and hand washing far outweigh most other factors. Plus, we're still going outside - gotta walk the dog, grab groceries, etc. We're just being way more careful about it.
And yes, city environments have a higher concentration of cases due to having a high concentration of people. But the per capita rate of incidence is highest in some of the most rural states in the US (looking at you Dakotas).
February 5th, 2021 at 5:31 PM ^
I’d also add that we do get outside a lot. Skiing, hiking, etc... we just tend to not congregate indoors too often to begin with. I live two blocks from Greenlake. It is still packed with runners, walkers, and so on. Just (almost) everyone is wearing a mask and giving others space.
February 5th, 2021 at 7:42 PM ^
Ballard here. Yes, Green Lake is a good walk for me and the pooch once a week. 95% masked and 99% obeying the one way rule.
February 5th, 2021 at 10:25 PM ^
Have seen some double and triple mask. Would be great to see that more often, the more the merrier. If there is added benefit, go for the quad mask. While we're at it...is 5 too much to ask??
February 6th, 2021 at 2:17 AM ^
I always double mask at the grocery store.
February 6th, 2021 at 3:53 PM ^
Definitely a punchline from "Get Smart". I have an even better idea
February 5th, 2021 at 5:42 PM ^
This is true, the Dakotas had a pretty hellish 60 days in that Nov-Jan timeframe. That said, they also have far and away the best vaccination plans in the country.
February 5th, 2021 at 5:03 PM ^
The Dakotas say otherwise.
February 5th, 2021 at 11:43 PM ^
Bah, I worked from home from 2012-2016 and I don't think I've ever been healthier. No colds, no sicknesses. It's amazing how healthy you can be if you never interact with other humans. :)
February 5th, 2021 at 5:01 PM ^
haha where you at in Seattle? I live in Snoqualmie
Seattle freeze is for sure real, yes we will say hi to you, open doors for you, wish you well, and just be cordial....but then we dont want to see you again lol
I agree with all your bullets...WA was first to have the outbreak and Inslee shut shit down and we didnt really care. (you know what I mean, we cared but we knew what had to be done, what still has to be done...)
February 5th, 2021 at 5:06 PM ^
What up Snoqualmie! I'm over by the Sculpture Park, a few blocks from Seattle Center. I'm a fixture at Buckley's in Belltown for games during normal seasons. Do you stay on the Eastside to watch?
February 5th, 2021 at 5:16 PM ^
What up my dude!! Love your area
Buckleys is the shit, love that place. I used to go there pre kids, been mostly eastside for me. Kids are 8 and 4 now, so old enough for me to drag them to Buckleys for games.
If/when I end up at Buckleys for a game...Ill do a bird call "PASADENABLUE WHER ARE YOU...SHOT AND A BEER?"
February 5th, 2021 at 5:20 PM ^
I have a reserved table at the front corner of the restaurant (where 2nd and Battery meet). I'm there just about every game when there isn't a global pandemic (exceptions made for trips back to Michigan to watch the game in person, or the occasional heathenous gameday wedding). More often than not, I'll be the one banging the cowbell after scores. Come stop by if you're around on gameday (hoping that the vaccine distribution allows for that to be starting this September).
February 5th, 2021 at 5:22 PM ^
Hell yeah brother
February 5th, 2021 at 6:34 PM ^
The comradely exchange is giving me warm fuzzies.
BTW, Seatlanders, I used to fight forest fires in the West, including one near you. It was in the Olympia Rain Forest! At one point, the fire was burning AND it was raining on us. Not nice, Mother Nature.
February 5th, 2021 at 7:30 PM ^
If they still have a slightly faded Michigan flag at Buckleys that was mine! I gave it to my daughter when she was living out there (dancer at PNB, then undergrad at UW) and she donated it to Buckleys since it's Seattle's UofM bar. Watched the 2011 Northwestern game there with her. Good times!
February 5th, 2021 at 7:46 PM ^
Can a Ballard guy crash this party? I used to be a regular at the place in West Seattle but Belltown not so much.
Maybe a gathering is in order for March Madness?
February 5th, 2021 at 9:49 PM ^
I like what you steppin in DT. I’m all for this
February 5th, 2021 at 8:06 PM ^
Hello, fellow Washingtonians. I live in Redmond.
February 6th, 2021 at 12:05 PM ^
Me too!
February 5th, 2021 at 5:08 PM ^
Geography doesn't hurt either.
February 5th, 2021 at 6:46 PM ^
Wish I could + 1 million this.
February 6th, 2021 at 7:00 PM ^
You got down votes? Curious.
February 5th, 2021 at 5:00 PM ^
Either this or Pete had someone take their tests for them.
February 5th, 2021 at 5:31 PM ^
Did the Penn State social media team put this graphic together for you?
February 5th, 2021 at 7:27 PM ^
You should update your image to say 2006 when Hawks got jobbed by the refs and lost to Pitt in the Super Bowl.
I count three three super bowl visits and a ring since 2005....seems like that would build solid fan base no?
run the ball
February 5th, 2021 at 6:18 PM ^
There is just literally no way that 0 positives isn't a number that was manipulated to get an advantage. No chance.
February 5th, 2021 at 11:40 PM ^
Cycling down the PCR tests...
February 5th, 2021 at 6:27 PM ^
Because Covid started in and already ran through Seattle?
February 5th, 2021 at 8:37 PM ^
This one hurts a lot of people.
But for the people who tout "believe the science", umm, "science" and "scientific method" is literally about asking questions, challenging dogma, and (Number One) falsifiying hypothesis.
Hypothesis = Questioning
Falsifying = Testing
"Science" is anything but "belief" and something you can "trust", or is "settled".
Yes of course wearing a mask is a no-brainer, yes of course social distancing is a no-brainer, but NOT because of any sort of "Science" (I'm sorry to say but the weight of studies suggested masks did not do very well in preventing respitory illnesses in close quarters prior to 2020, but because we have a scientifically illiterate--and "me first" country--this nuanced, detailed information simply turned into black-or-white dogma---akin to "the best contraceptive is abstinence" dogma, which is inarguably true in the abstract and completely detrimental in practice).
Wearing the mask, and social distancing is the "right thing to do" precisely because WE DON'T KNOW ENOUGH about the transmission characteristics, re-infection rates, and/or long-term effects of the virus. It's the precautionary principle, and it comes from ethics, not "science".
And as you've said in your post, the pre-existing immunity to the disease is quite high, and asymptomaticity is abnormally high for influenza-like-illnesses, and it does look like the population in Seattle, for those with a quality recall, was one of the earliest hit cities.
In fact it's possible the Military Olympic games, in the fall of 2019, of which the US military participants flew through Seattle Tacoma may of been some of the first to bring the illness over.
Also, there's no question the virus was here in January 2020, and likely as early as Fall 2019--"science" isn't as "objective" as one might think, what doesn't get "funding" also doesn't get "discovered".
There have been 20 reported deaths in the Military from corona virus as of today. (that's an interesting one!)
Scientific findings/theories/models are complicated, confusing, counter-intuitive, reversed all the time, and maybe even beyond our comprehension/mathematical/modeling abilities (theorhetical physics), but it is never black-or-white, left-or-right, settled-and-finished.
Sadly very few people are able to exist in the state and condition of "not knowing" and the human mind hates ambiguity and craves "completion".
"All models are wrong, but some models are useful"
February 5th, 2021 at 10:26 PM ^
Very well said.