The real risk isn't with the players -- the real risk is that if you have someone (spectator, foodservice worker, officail, etc.) who's been infected, but hasn't yet shown any symptoms, they're interacting with a ton of other people in a short span in an uncontrolled way. It's a huge potential driver for community spread.
The kids playing are the least at risk. It’s their fellow passengers, people they meet and who serve their food, clean their hotel rooms, fans, etc who are at risk.
This hurts a lot for some of us. I am a Creighton fan and this was our first big year in a long time, maybe our best of all time.
Sports fans get accused of forgetting "it is all a game" sometimes. It is certainly more than a game when you think of how much some people's lives depend on the money from these events, but limiting the impact of this virus is certainly not "soft".
Same with me and BYU. We had potential for the best tournament run since Jimmer Fredette, and we’ll likely end the year #1 in men’s volleyball with no championship to play for. (Our last title win was in 2003.)
Will teams that finish #1 in various polls claim national titles?
Of course none of it matters that much in the long run but it is a big bummer for the athletes and fans!
I really don't think I should be having to make this comment, but it's not the flu. You know it's not the flu, we all know it's not the flu. Please stop trolling.
The decision is not about the players, it's much bigger than that.
It was also the players' choice to make their life about something that was always going to lose in priority to public health, if it ever came to that.
Great majority of cases are asymptomatic, great majority of symptomatic cases are very mild possibly indistinguishable from common cold so people may be inclined to ignore it. So, it's not safe to have any gatherings of this scale since inevitably many people will be infected.
Is it actually true that the great majority are asymptomatic? I know the great majority of cases (currently, in the US) are untested, but they might very well be symptomatic.
Also, is it true that the great majority are as mild as the common cold? I ask just because I heard "mild" encompasses "feels like death but doesn't need hospitalization", like the kind of cold I've had perhaps twice in my life.
(Asking from the point of view of being all-in-favor of canceling large gatherings, to protect the folks that would be hit hard by the illness.)
