Coronavirus and football

I was not surprised to see that the people responsible for recladding Grenfell are admitting their part in so much loss of life. However that has nothing whatsoever to do with the coronavirus or football. This is causing huge problems for many people. Visitor numbers are way down which will have the effect of people unable to keep a business going, and loss of jobs. To worry about paying out £178 is not even worth the time. Some people in London pay more than that for a single meal at a restaurant.

 

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A great atmosphere in the ground tonight!

 

Yet Leipzig have a full house..

See most European games will be behind close door now.

Hopefully fans can get their money back.

 

The former East Germany has been relatively untouched by this so far Mark. However, you are right in that most games will now be behind closed doors.

 

They would appear to be pulling ahead but this may not be the full picture - they may be conducting more tests which, predictably, shows up more cases. The way of doing tests is different in different countries - South Korea is testing over 10,000 per day in mobile testing centres, drive in test centres where the tester does not have to change clothing after each test, and is getting the results back in 6 hours. They are now down to 30-40 new cases per day so if they can turn the corner they must be doing something right and we should be looking to their example. Italy is increasing testing, though not to the same levels, and is now doing it randomly. Other countries are only testing those who come in with a fever and a cough, and in the USA it costs money. Numbers are also not everything - the country with the second highest (after Italy) rate of registered infection per 100,000 population is Switzerland. I also do not understand why the fatality rates are so different - so very low in Germany and South Korea (Germany has 2 deaths for over 1,500 known cases) and non existent in Sweden, which has circa 350 cases. There are also very few cases classified as serious in those countries. This differs radically to the position in Italy and the USA.

 

There may be more than one strain of the coronavirus.

 

Yet most of the original cases in Germany had been brought in by people who had been in Italy SH. I have heard it said that it may have mutated into different strains - nonetheless it is very difficult to compare countries on this - Italy has the oldest population in Europe, and you only need it sweeping through a couple of old people's homes to make a marked statistical difference. From the 2 fatalities in Germany one was an 89 year old woman in Essen and the other was a man who had just been through cancer treatment. Italy has taken the right step in sealing off whole areas - a little bit too late, but this should have been done in other countries at a far earlier stage.

 

Italy has a very aging population which may account for the death %

Football - they stop shaking hands but continue to sweat , spit and grapple each other for 95 minutes!

Re the virus, most people would get over it easily and for perspective I would point you in the direction of flu deaths each winter. Nevertheless us older people need to do their best not to catch it and to depress you they are now advising that the numbers will spike next winter!

 

I think the fatality rate of this Coronavirus is ten times that of standard ‘flu’.

 

There have to be quite a lot of variables to take into account I think. Age certainly comes into it and normal health care as well. I don't have the figures for spend by individual countries on health care, but an indication perhaps is the number of hospital beds per 1,000 people. Germany has 8, France 6, Italy 3, Spain 3, USA, 2.7 and UK 2.5. Elderly people who are basically well are less likely to die.
France has been doing a lot of testing certainly, and out of the 33 who have died 23 were 75 years plus. Currently 86 are in intensive care, but it is expected that 98% of confirmed cases will recover, and 85% of the confirmed cases have a very mild form of it.

 

It is higher but not 10 times as high. Nevertheless thousands die from flu each year yet we don't go to these lengths to contain it. Obviously a vaccine will stop this in the future but not for a year maybe.
But the Italy % for this virus is very high and I am just suggesting that may be down to an aging population. Certainly all deaths so far have been down to the victim having underlying health issues.

 

Does anyone really know what the consequences of cancelling the season would be if it actually happened
Would it mean that next season kicked off exactly as it was at the start of this season
Relief for teams in danger of going down but horrendous for teams likely to win promotion
But, imagine the meltdowns at LiVARpool and Leeds

 

The Director General of Health in France stressed the "immense difference" between this coronavirus and the seasonal flu which, each year, causes 10,000 deaths on average. "We have known the flu virus for 100 years, we study it very well (...), we know antivirals, we have vaccines every year. Here, we are really on a new virus, which certainly looks like to flu in terms of symptoms (you have a headache, everywhere, you have a fever) but there are big differences. " "It is not a flu, it can give serious forms on people not so old as that" not suffering from chronic pathologies.
There is a long way to go for this to cause 10,000 deaths, but it could if it spread throughout the country, which is why the aggressive measures are being taken.

 

No in one word. I imagine that a number of people are hoping that it doesn't come to that.

 

They will probably try and delay the season for a while or try to play games behind closed doors - certainly not ideal but who knows by May this could be under control a bit more when it comes to the big cup finals/play-offs?

Euros must be in doubt due to the fact they are meant to be played all across Europe - typically bad timing.

The issue might be fans just go to the pub etc and risk picking up infection though.

Bit like kids being off school - they'll just be running around town instead!

Its maybe unlikely but could they test everyone thought to be at risk for the virus?

I see the health minister has been diagnosed with it!

 

Man City v Arsenal off.

https://www.arsenal.com/news/manchester-city-match-postponed

Guess Arsenal's game at the weekend might be off too?​

 

‘Flu’ is about 0.1%, COVID-19 is currently 3.4% - although this is because of high death rate in China. It is expected to revert to previous estimates of 2.3%. The flu ‘expert’ chap I heard on R4 said he thought it would revert to about 1%.
In terms of reaction to it, ‘flu’ is not new, and while pandemics happen every half century, there are ‘flu’ vaccines and there is some ‘population immunity’ to it. There are 5 types of ‘Coronavirus’. Four of them account for about a quarter of cases of what we call the Common Cold. COVID-19 has no vaccine and no ‘cross-immunity’ with the other coronaviruses. The main worry is that it may mutate.

 

Presume we won't see clubs flying out on long world wide Pre-season tours this summer?

They might still be playing league games I guess!

 

I work in Parliament and developed the same symptoms as Nadine Dorries MP on the same day. I’ve had a dry cough, chest pain and fever for four days.

NHS 111 services triaged me away from Coronovirus on Friday. I could not be tested because I hadn’t been in close contact to a previously confirmed case.

The official 111 advice for me this morning - after calling again to check after hearing about Nadine Dorries MP - is to go to work with a cough, wash my hands, and assume that I don’t have it. (I am actually going to ignore that advice and work from home.)

I am worried that only testing people who have been ‘contact traced’ is missing a lot of people in the community, and that people like me may have coronavirus and are being advised to go to work anyway. Is this because the Government simply can’t do the number of tests needed?

 

It's 4.2 beds per 1000 in Scotland.