Bobref

As with other facility issues, first, communicate with the AD in the week before your game, and discuss the facilities that are available. If you arrive at a game site and are faced with inadequate facilities, you have the right to refuse to work under those conditions. Or, if you are dissatisfied with the arrangements to be provided, as Just Rules said, come dressed. Whether you choose to work or not, you should inform the IHSAA if it is an unsafe facility.

I can tell you that the B1G and MAC officials will be wearing masks in game.

The Lake County Health Dept. issued an order today requiring masking in all public spaces, including outdoors when social distancing cannot be maintained, or in groups of 25 or more.

There are several documents trickling down through association football chairs. One of them addresses administrative issues for officials, and contains the following: “Host school will provide adequate dressing facilities for officials to include lockers, showers, and adequate space to observe social distancing.”

Any idea what their protocol response is?

Well, if you’re going to do some kind of cost-benefit analysis to determine whether the restrictions are “worth it,” shouldn’t you include all of the “costs“ in the analysis? Death is not the only “cost” associated with COVID-19.

Dann, that was intended as a comment on @Coach Nowlin’s observation that he “should have known better,” but went ahead anyway. That’s all. That persecution complex is going to get you in trouble on the field if you’re not careful.

A veteran official gave me some advice very early in my career: “Don’t get in arguments with coaches. It’s like wrestling a pig in the mud. Eventually you realize that you’re covered in filth and the pig is enjoying himself.“

I am loathe to make important decisions on the basis of studies like these. They call it a “novel” coronavirus because it’s new. Most of the studies being done now are, of necessity, short term and very limited in scope. For example, we still don’t know to what degree an infection provides future immunity, if any. This inability to generate reliable information early in the process is absolutely normal in the scientific world, but doesn’t sell well in the era of the 15 second sound bite, or the 280 character tweet. So, a lot of people who have only a passing acquaintance at best with the scientific method just throw up their hands in frustration. There are more than a few of them on the GID.

Just trying to get better every day.

I fear you’re fighting an uphill battle, my friend. Unfortunately, this is no longer primarily a public health issue. All sides have “weaponized” the pandemic for use in political warfare. So, decisions are often driven by concerns other than public health.

So, you would miss a meeting, and thereby potentially disadvantage your crew in their tournament rankings - not to mention your own prospect of self-improvement - just because you won’t wear a mask for 90 minutes? Interesting ... Wonder how the other crew members feel about that?

OK. But exactly what does that mean? The devil is always in the details.

You’re fortunate the meetings aren’t held in Merrillville this year. Town Council voted for mandatory masking in public spaces starting at 11 a.m. today. I know you wouldn’t consider defying the law. 😷

I’ll be there. I’ll be the one with the mask.

Geez, I would hope so. Because what has gone before is 💩.

What I’m asking is if a player testing positive right now requires suspension of team activities for a week or two for reasons of safety - as we’ve seen happen several times already - why would a player testing positive during the season have a different result?

What’s the justification for treating an in-season positive any differently than they’re treating it now?

Feel free to substitute the political party, company, governmental entity, or other group or organization of your choice.

Now, I’m even more confused about your line of reasoning. I’m struggling to find something relevant to the issue in your post.

This post is intended for those who read @Howe’s post above, since there’s no use directing this to him. What @Howehas done here is propose a logical fallacy known commonly as a “tu quoque“ fallacy (Latin for “you also”). The tu quoque fallacy is an invalid attempt to discredit an opponent by answering criticism with criticism -- but never actually presenting a counterargument to the original disputed claim. Here @Howe answers the question of whether fear of COVID-19 should cause a cancellation of football with an “argument” that medical errors cause great harm, but we’re not shutting down the medical system as a result. Two different issues with virtually nothing in common. Merely deflection of the issue. Similar to “if we can put a man on the moon, why can’t we make a cereal box closure that actually works?” There are worthwhile points to be made on both sides of the issue. This isn’t one of them.

It will be interesting to see how the Commish responds to this, compared to what the NBA did with that jackwad Sterling. I don’t see how Snyder survives this. The culture in the organization starts with him.

Does anyone think that, as if by magic, positive tests are not happening once the regular season starts? If the universal response to a player with an active infection is “suspend practice for a week,” do you see anyone saying “we can’t practice this week, but we’ll still show up Saturday to play?” If the answer is “no,” then how are we going to have a season?

People focusing on the declining death rate as evidence that resuming “normalcy” is appropriate are looking at an incomplete picture. COVID 19 is not an “all or nothing” disease like influenza. You get the flu, you recover or, in a very small % of patients you die. There’s generally no in between. Increasingly, researchers are finding that is not the case with COVID 19. Although COVID 19 is many times more likely to kill you than the flu, researchers are now finding a disturbing rate of complications in recovered patients. The most serious appears to be some type of coagulopathy which causes blood clots to form, which can result in heart attacks, pulmonary emboli, or strokes, including strokes in very young people. There are also neurological and kidney complications, not to mention permanent lung scarring. So, the next time someone poo-poos COVID-19 because it “only” has a 1% fatality rate, keep in mind that the rate of those experiencing significant and potentially permanent health effects is many multiples of that.