Ok, got it Rising.  They will take it home no matter what GW does.  Nonetheless GW doesn't have to abet their efforts.  But I'm happy you wear your mask.

Just got off the phone with a dear friend who is a Pulmonologist at a somewhat rural hospital in
Maryland.He is beside himself.Seeing many new cases daily with overwhelming percentage of the
unvaccinated and a small contingent of vaccinated elderly.He’s about had it dealing with folks who 
refuse to get the shots.He is no longer advising anybody to take any precautions because he feels totally 
beaten down by the “politics” of the situation.He cried.

Gwmayhem wrote:

Students are gone as finals have shifted to online.  Much of the school's personnel are working from home, at least through the holidays.  

Let's also try to remember that this decision was by no means a random one.  Covid cases on campus are up by a lot according to the school's testing.  

And no, often when it comes to public health and safety, it's just plain wrong to let everyone decide for themselves what their best course of action is.  Sometimes people don't take risks seriously.  Or, they see something as a far smaller risk than what it really is.  Or, they just want to see their game so badly that they're willing to take irrational risks in order to get what they want.

Believe me, this is far better than a school that under similar circumstances might conclude that after losing so much money over the past couple of years, they have to allow fans to attend to avoid taking another hit in revenue.

If the goal is public health and safety then no one should ever leave their house during COVID or get up on a ladder while at home. Your risk of falling off a ladder while stringing holiday lights may be higher than your risk of dying from COVID depending on your age. We all assume risks everyday - some known and many significant ones unknown. For example, we board an airline trusting that both the mechanic and pilot are not drunk or on drugs. But if they are it is likely we will not know of this risk.

There are known and unknown risks associated with the virus. We do know that if you mask up and get vaccinated (and now boosted) your odds of not dying while not 100% perfect are much, much better. GW has imposed a vaccine (and or testing regimen) along with a mask.to attend games. That is the gold standard of safety at this point. We cannot eliminate all risk. But people have knowingly taken the risk up until this point. There is no evidence that the risk is now somehow much greater from attending the UMES - GW game than it was on Monday when GW allowed fans at the Radford game. Recall that the spike of cases was already occurring at that point - it had to be for GW to state what it did as its rationale.

We allow people to engage in wide-ranging risk everyday at their peril. If we will only accept a zero risk from a COVID stance as I have said we will be shutting things down regularly for eternity unless a complete cure is found. We didn't do that with past epidemics throughout history and society survived and move forward. We have more weapons at our disposal than at any time in history as far as treatments and vaccines. 

As I have said, I truly believe that people's willingness to shutdown is largely directly proportional to their means and the ability to ride it out. That is not the same for everyone. There needs to be a recognition of that. GW-UMES is just part of the larger issue.

The science is pretty obvious to most of us.  Just not to a certain type of voter.

BC wrote:

The science is pretty obvious to most of us.  Just not to a certain type of voter.

 It's got nothing to do with type of voters unless inner city minorities align with rural Trump voters in voting patterns. 

https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/latest-data-on-covid-19-vaccinations-by-race-ethnicity/

Last edited by GWRising (12/16/2021 5:50 pm)

GWRising wrote:

BC wrote:

The science is pretty obvious to most of us.  Just not to a certain type of voter.

 It's got nothing to do with type of voters unless inner city minorities align with rural Trump voters in voting patterns. 

https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/latest-data-on-covid-19-vaccinations-by-race-ethnicity/

recent poll on vaccination status by party identification: https://twitter.com/ryanstruyk/status/1471163346191798272?s=20

This is from October, but research on reasons for lower vaccinations in rural areas: https://surface.syr.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1151&context=lerner

Right, Anti-vaxers, QAnon, and RFK reincarnators are all inner city minorities.  Also the Capitol insurrectionists were all antifa.  At he rate other schools are canceling games, we may not have a lot of Basketball or Bowl games this season.    At least GW hasn't canceled its games.   BTW GWRising iirc you were an anti masker in the early days of Covid.   Am I wrong?

Last edited by BC (12/16/2021 8:16 pm)

Maryland cancels all winter commencement events. 

Wrong again.  Nobody said masks work 100%.  I gave you an experiment to try.  Did you?    Also very few people I've seen have the medical N95 mask which work fairly well, but the masks I could buy early on were really dust masks , not medical masks.  But they all obviously reduce the vapor you expel into the abyss and reduce to some unknown degree the vapor you inhale.  So like your silly argument with Mayhem, it's the degree to which they are (schedule is bad) or (masks work - don't work).  If they save 75% of the people from illness or hospitalization isn't that good?  Or 50% or 25% or 10%  where your line? I find masks irritating - my glasses are always fogging up, but I accept the inconvenience because it helps the general good, a concept that the anti-maskers/vaxers don't seem to agree with.     More dead under Biden?  Maybe, but I don't have the number and it's hardly an apples to apples comparison due to the - time frame that the virus has been widespread, the version of the virus etc.  One thing for sure - If Trump had been reelected, there would be more dead.  You should drink some bleach, take a horse de-wormer or take anti-malaria pills if your don't want to follow the science.  Be my guest.  Just don't force people to breathe your expelled air.    



 

BC wrote:

Wrong again.  Nobody said masks work 100%.  I gave you an experiment to try.  Did you?    Also very few people I've seen have the medical N95 mask which work fairly well, but the masks I could buy early on were really dust masks , not medical masks.  But they all obviously reduce the vapor you expel into the abyss and reduce to some unknown degree the vapor you inhale.  So like your silly argument with Mayhem, it's the degree to which they are (schedule is bad) or (masks work - don't work).  If they save 75% of the people from illness or hospitalization isn't that good?  Or 50% or 25% or 10%  where your line? I find masks irritating - my glasses are always fogging up, but I accept the inconvenience because it helps the general good, a concept that the anti-maskers/vaxers don't seem to agree with.     More dead under Biden?  Maybe, but I don't have the number and it's hardly an apples to apples comparison due to the - time frame that the virus has been widespread, the version of the virus etc.  One thing for sure - If Trump had been reelected, there would be more dead.  You should drink some bleach, take a horse de-wormer or take anti-malaria pills if your don't want to follow the science.  Be my guest.  Just don't force people to breathe your expelled air.    



 

 Do you just have talking points or do you actually read what is being written? I already told you I wear a mask and have been triple vaccinated. I do follow the science of reducing risk. However, I don't follow the impossible science of eliminating ALL risk which seems to be the new rage for some. As I think it was Merrick who posted that there is a cost-benefit to all of this in general. It is not just we save people from COVID. We also have to save people from suicide, drug overdoses and economic ruin all of which can be as deadly either in the short run or long run. Saving one person from COVID may make you feel better but what if it comes at the expense of causing one person to commit suicide?  

I think it was FQ who asked if I had school aged children. My youngest is now in his early 20s. However, I spend a lot of time around HS kids almost year round due to sports. I can't begin to tell you how this COVID has screwed them up mentally. It's one of the reasons we see so much anger and violence. HS suicides are increasing so are drug overdoses. We've had 3 already in one school just this year. The isolation is killing these kids slowly but surely.

We've been told we are protected if we follow the science (not absolutely but relatively). We have been told that we will not die or get very sick. There are no guarantees in life. If attending a game where you must be masked and vaccinated is too big a risk for you or anyone else then don't go. But if me going poses a huge risk to society then what does that say about the "science"?