NM governor sends letter to both FBS schools in state, asking to postpone all fall contact sports
Link: https://www.abqjournal.com/1478233/governor-asks-unm-nmsu-to-suspend-fall-contact-sports.html
The letter is simply a request, not an order, but is noteworthy that the governor is pushing for a full pause of fall college contact sports and not just banning fans.
I've seen both NM football teams play, and this order should be no issue. They gave up on contact many seasons ago.
At this point, I simply can't convince myself that there will be college football this fall in any great quantity.
As for next spring, different situation. Living in Ann Arbor, that would also mean game attendance as a vaccine should be available.
In case no one noticed it, we lost over 1000 more people yesterday to CV19, the first time daily deaths exceeded 1000 in a while.
I just don't think there is a huge difference between this Fall and Spring. I am not an anti-vac person, my kids have every vaccine but the Flu Shot. You mean to tell me you are willing to get a vaccine that they rushed out in 9 months or less?? I am not a medical professional, but I would be a little cautious with putting that in my body or my children's body. Maybe I have my wife do it, see how she does?!?!?
Just my two cents, I am not arguing with you either.
As I understand it, most (all?) of the rapidity can be attributed to developing manufacturing infrastructure in advance of the knowledge that the vac will be effective. It's a gamble economically of course, but there doesn't seem to be any changes to the actual drug trial processes and research from the normal situation AFAIK.
It may only be 30-50% effective like a flu shot, it may be better than that or worse, still in a wait and see situation there.
Having manufacturing capabilities is a big deal in terms of production but what is taking place goes way beyond that. Vaccine manufacturing has been an area fraught with peril from a product liability standpoint and companies haven't been quick to jump in. On top of that, certain diseases that have been in the headlines over the last decade have been relatively short lived. Developing a vaccine is not a cheap thing to do.
Enter CV19...billions of doses needed, opportunities to make a fortune, liability removed and new technologies available. All of these items provide big incentives to pharma.
As to safety, the various items that will go into a vaccine are not new nor are vaccines for coronaviruses...we have made similar vaccines for some time.. Assuming that a vaccine is effective, and it seems that through Stage II testing that seems to be the case, it is a get out of jail free card where the downside seems way less than the upside. I'll feel a bit under the weather for a couple of days knowing that my risk of getting a disease that could kill or leave me compromised long term will be avoided.
Article on federal funding for CV vaccines: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-pfizer/u-s-to-pay-pfizer-biontech-1-95-billion-for-millions-of-covid-19-vaccine-doses-idUSKCN24N1I9
How long will this rapidly developed vaccine confer immunity?
That is a question that is yet to be answered and may take several years to fully determine. Even if it were to confer six months of immunity it would be a game changer and allow for measures to be done to get CV under control.
"may take several years to fully determine"
So we won't actually know if the vaccine is safe or effective for several years. Six months would be great but that would require six months worth of testing (which we haven't reached yet), then testing on the safety and length of immunity of the booster. Game changing requires time which just wait for the vaccine doesn't seem to consider.
"Safe and effective" will have already been answered. How long it will be effective may not be known for years if antibodies remain for a long period of time. That is what is hoped for.
You can only tell how long antibodies are effective through continuous testing over time. A very significant number of pharmaceuticals that come to market have side effects or contraindications that are discovered after FDA approval. That isn't a reason to wait. You have to do an analysis that weighs risk against reward, which is not a new concept in pharmacology.
Here's how I see it. I'm either going to get the vaccine or the virus (if I don't get vaccinated I will likely eventually get it as will most people).
What would I rather subject my body to: a vaccine (however rushed) that's gone through the clinical trials process and deemed effective and safe? Or a novel disease that we don't know everything about and don't know what, if any long term side effects there are? I'm choosing vaccine everyday in this scenario.
Keep in mind that Fauci and his crew have already been developing the vaccine for a couple years now in anticipation of when they released the virus to the public in Wuhan during this election year. Vaccine will be plenty safe when it becomes available.
The amazing thing is I can't even tell if this is an excellent joke or an actually serious post by a crazy person.
The way he phrased it is hilarious... "Fauci's crew" lmaooo like this 80 year old infectious disease expert has some kind of nefarious crew
Now that QAnon got kicked off twitter, it's leaking into sports blogs I guess
Even without a vaccine, I think there is a very good argument that we are in significantly better shape to cope with Covid now than we were 6 months ago. Even forgetting drugs, Drs have learned about positioning in covid patients to improve oxygenation, alternatives to ventilators. We’ve obviously also made progress on drugs. While testing is still far from perfect, we’ve ramped up testing numbers tremendously.
I think that it is entirely reasonable to assume that progress will continue over the next 6 months even if a vaccine isn’t available.
There are other promising therapeutics being researched that are likely to help more. There are also potential advances in testing that could allow for further improvements in the testing area (if any of these home tests at under $5 come to be, that alone could be a game changer to allow for significantly more and more timely testing to prevent significant community spread).
Excellent, common sense post.
Everything you say is valid. Time is on our side which is why a few months of time shifting makes a lot of sense.
The hardly talked about Florida and Texas death rates being low should be discussed more. Obviously something is better cause deaths aren't surging like cases and it's been over a month since the spike.
“I’m not a medical professional, but here’s my reason to be skeptical”
=
”I don’t know anything about football, but harbaugh should run this play”
Not even a close comparison.....I know football, played football, can be an arm chair QB when it comes to a game. Never questioned Harbaugh's Football knowledge, but can question it after the games whether play was right/wrong, etc. I can be skeptical about jamming needles in my arm with something they've been pushing through their trials. What if people get worse when they have the Vaccine? or die because of it? We can't be an arm chair QB about that.
Thanks for all the good info / thoughts from everyone up till SugarShane's worthless contribution.
Considering the government still pushes the "food pyramid" as the correct diet to eat it's probably a good idea to decide for yourself what's best for you.
That said I'm not an anti-vaxer but do take my health very serious.
Totally agree. Think we need to start looking at things closer and maybe adjust the strategy overall cause death rate percentage is dropping big time. States like Florida, Georgia, Texas have death rates at some of lowest levels we've seen anywhere in the world.
Likely because of the average age has dropped quite a bit plus they've figured out better ways to combat this but at some point needs be a goal and discussed.
I was shocked to see on CDC website this past flu season we had between 39-56 million cases (October 2019 thru April 2020) in the United States. Cases are going to happen with covid here especially with all the testing going on but at some point if they go down then we can expect deaths to drop also. This should be the goal going forward as it's the most realistic thing.
A couple of things that may be relevant. New Mexico has coped with the pandemic far better than their neighbors TX and AZ, but competing means travelling to and from some hard hit areas. Out west it also means travelling by air, something some other leagues are trying to avoid. NM only has G5 and lower schools, but this may make it easier for a couple of other western states to do the same.
As things currently stand, the Big Ten is best positioned to play in the fall. It's looking more and more like that won't matter as they wouldn't go it alone.
On a related note, the Colorado Rockies have scrapped their plans to keep their taxi squad in Albuquerque. They planned to use the Isotopes stadium, their AAA team, but are now going to keep them in Denver. They'll use the field at Metro State - Denver, and use the now vacant Pepsi Center as their clubhouse. These are both walking distance to Coors Field. I think it makes sense to minimize the travel of the players as they move between the active roster and the taxi squad.
If neither school played this season I'm not sure anyone would notice.
We'll end up playing Ohio State in something that is equivalent to a scrimmage and we'll win and it won't count for anything.
I've been missing some good BPONE, and appreciate this return to normalcy
I’d definitely count it and I’d enjoy trolling their objections to counting it
At this point, the most realistic thing CFB programs can do is wait for spring. It’ll entail financial complexities but the big programs should be able to keep the ship afloat until then. An effective vaccine isn’t guaranteed by spring, but it’s hard to see how you play football safely without one, sans a comprehensive bubble. And all it would take is one kid getting severely ill for this to blow up in the faces of even the most powerful programs
Just have to feel for the young men who invest so much time and effort preparing to play and their families. Must be crazy stressful wondering if there will be a season as we are now only weeks away from when they would be suiting up.
I don't see how any schools, except in the Power 5 conferences, will have the money, political backing, and popular support to have fall seasons.
Money is important, b/c one reason the NFL will happen is they can afford (to pick one example) to spend $75 million on tests in order to mitigate and manage any outbreaks. Ohio State, Michigan, Texas, Alabama, etc can do similar, so that gives them a chance at a fall season; New Mexico, Eastern Michigan and Akron etc can not.
Popular support also matters. If EMU moves to the Spring, 99% of politicians & people will easily move on; if Michigan does the same, it will be a huge deal to millions of people. And can you imagine the governor of Alabama requesting the Tide and Auburn shut down for the fall? I can not.
And finally, the University of New Mexico's athletics department lost $15 million last year (i.e., pre-COVID). Beyond just moving football to Spring, they (like about 50 other programs) need take the opportunity to re-think what they are doing and drop to Division II. It is ridiculous they are spending close to $1 million to pay Bob Davie's buyout (for example) while taking millions more away from their general fund.
https://www.petedinelli.com/2019/11/27/make-unm-athletics-a-division-ii-program-stop-pouring-money-down-unm-football-black-hole-concentrate-on-declining-enrollment-and-academic-excellence/
In addition to driving home the point at how useless the NCAA is (at least in terms of being positioned or able to provide leadership, especially in times of crises), I really hope the pandemic forces a realistic review of the college football landscape. I don't want to create an elite tier of Power 5 schools, but it would be worth an examination of the FCS/FBS landscape and maybe do some re-shuffling based on competition, TV, finances, etc. How long is it sustainable for a program like NM (much less NMSt) to compete on the same level as Alabama or Clemson? Is it worth spending the money necessary to even pretend to compete? Maybe another tier of teams is necessary. At the very least, some schools should be given a long look at whether their football programs are worth continuing.
This is the exact same deal as the CT governor cancelling Fall sports. Connecticut has no worthwhile college football team to speak of so what pushback will he possibly get?
You think you’d ever see the governors of Alabama, Texas, Florida, Georgia, or Oklahoma ever do this? They’d get crucified and would never be re-elected. That’s not because of politics. That’s because those states have one or multiple major college football teams that are huge revenue drivers.