hardtack

I'd like to see them play the first couple of rounds (at least) to empty stadiums, and then take a 7 week break (the 5 dropped rounds and 2 weeks of the "bye" no longer required) and then, if the situation has settled enough, play the remaining rounds. The AFL has said they could extend the season if necessary, so there might be room to make that break 9 or 10 weeks.

It took you two weeks to get to my comment... have you checked the figures since my original comment at which time I think there were less than 100 cases? The US as of today, has 4,657 recorded cases and in just the past day recorded 977 new cases. This has nothing to do with the Democrats; Trump is the current POTUS and he has been failing miserably. My comments were made at a time when he was signalling that people should just go about their business as usual (including going to work), and telling us how he had it all under control, despite the warnings from health experts. You're so rusted on to right wing politics that you cannot see what is patently obvious; he has failed and is now scrambling to do something meaningful. Kiss the ground knowing Trump is in charge??? Hah! Kiss my [censored]!

Can I request that you please change your monicker to Mr Empathy.

I suggest you go back and re-read Dazzle’s response to you where he outlined certain issues he is dealing with closer to both home and his heart. You are starting to look embarrassingly silly.

Mine was obviously tongue in cheek... I think it was the work of the NRL in an effort to win back their dwindling supporter base (I see that their games are going ahead) ?

If we are going to go down the conspiracy path, then who's to say it's not the work of a doomsday cult such as the one in S. Korea where the infections went through the roof. Apparently a number of their members returned to S Korea from Hubei Province in January at about the time the rest of the world became aware of the virus' existence. And yeah, those other big threats such as Italy.

What makes you think it's not? Let's put it this way, it's likely to be as much a natural occurrence as was SARS.

I would argue that it's good hygiene and a sensible approach to prevention more so than purely population density. As I have mentioned already on more than one occassion, Taiwan has an almost identical population to us, but is the 4th most densely populated country on the planet, yet they have "officially" 49 cases, whereas we have 156. All customer facing workers wear masks, all restaurants, department stores, cafes, cinemas etc provide hand sanitiser on entry and most also take your temperature before you can enter. I think the numbers speak for themselves. We need to start taking all of the precautions that we can.

The wet markets need to be either abolished completely, or at the very least very heavily policed with regards to the conditions and hygiene. Unfortunately, there is so much corruption at local government level that it would probably never work.

I’m not averse to the games being played in empty stadiums. I was simply responding to the ridiculous supposition in the previous post.

Actually, with the way things are heading due to the virus, I think all clubs are going to need memberships to keep the clubs solvent. Being a member is not just about going to games and the club’s week by week performance, it is also about supporting the club through the bad times as well as the good. Yes, we’ve been bad for decades, but what’s been thrown at us this year is something that we’ve not had to deal with before, and is something that the club has no control over. I’m happy to continue my son’s and my own membership during this time.

I’m one who tends to jump on posts that have racist undertones, but why anyone would jump at LG’s post is beyond me. It deals in facts and targets the govt, not the people.

Um, canceling the first round will definitely help, for precisely the reason you say it won’t help!! All it takes is one or two people in the crowd (and there would likely be more than that) to be infectious, and they could unknowingly spread the virus to numerous people around them in queues waiting to enter the ground, in the crowd in the stands, in queues for food and drinks, by leaving virus (thanks LdC) on counters where others could pick it up, etc etc.

I think Smokey summed it up quite well. But I would be interested in the bolded part... could you please provide me with a link to something that provides a little more info on this mandatory quarantine, as I have google searched and found nothing at all. Maybe I'm just not good at googling? EDIT: I did find this which is hardly an example of staying ahead of things (every country was doing that and it doesn't explain his other later statements that virtually dismissed the virus as nothing too serious)... "In January the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued its first mandatory quarantine in more than half a century, keeping healthy Americans repatriated from Wuhan, China, originally the epicenter of the virus, isolated on an Air Force base for 14 days."

When traveling on public transport, wear a mask. As the virus is contagious before the symptoms appear, it is prudent to wear a mask as they do stop the spreading more so than stop you from catching it. I’m not saying they’re 3rd world. I’m saying that because Taiwan instigated common sense early in the piece in dealing with this, they have a low infection rate compared to these other countries. Masks have always been a thing in Asian countries to stop flu/cold symptoms spreading, but not so much in the West. Apparently quite a few countries are now adopting Taiwan’s measures. I have no idea why Italy is so bad, but if you compare stats, they are going at a much worse rate than China ever did... it’s scary.

Agree DL... so let’s hope the AFL aren’t so blasé and take the lead for a change.

Agree. People saying “oh it’s only x number in a population of n size!”, don’t seem to realise that as there are more infections, the numbers grow exponentially. The only way to keep numbers down, is to take all precautions possible. I mentioned before that I was in Taiwan, a country with an almost identical population to ours, but the world’s 4th most densely populated by area; yet they have just 48 cases to our 127. Why might that be? Could it be the fact that most people, but in particular those customer facing people in stores, cafes, restaurants etc, all wear (much to SWYL’s chagrin) masks? Could it be that on entering an establishment you are given a spray of hand sanitiser and have your temperature (in many, not all, places) taken? And there is no panic buying of sanitiser, toilet paper, tissues etc etc... in fact they openly laugh about what is happening here and in other “civilised” western countries with regards to that. It’s all about risk reduction and containment; and by removing large gatherings from the equation, a large part of the risk is removed. This is one thing that the AFL could get right if they put peoples’ welfare ahead of the game and profits.

Considering the US went from a handful of cases and Trump bragging about how he has it under control, to 1,000+ cases in under a week, I’d say they’re probably making the right call.

Too true.

I’d be hoping that all clubs have regular testing. And I’m sure players will be under strict instructions regarding their comings and goings away from the club. I also imagine teams will be bussed into the grounds to avoid close contact with the public and the players’ race will probably have an exclusion zone so supporters can’t get close... particularly those ferals that have a penchant for spitting on players.

No more so than Melbourne.

Hence my purchasing of a membership for my son as well. I’m on no income other than a small indexed pension, super went in supporting a mortgage after being made redundant at 62, but that’s my choice (cue world’s littlest violin). The point is that most are likely in a position to afford a membership (I never made a sweeping generalisation to the effect that all are in that position). If I made my decision based purely on performance, my son might never have gotten a membership and I would have diced mine years ago. I’m a believer in taking the good with the bad.

Airports are so empty of late that they’re probably one of the safer places to be. And once on a flight, apparently the air conditioning uses 50% air from outside and the rest is filtered through the same filters used in operating theatres. So as long as you’re not seated close to someone coughing their lungs out and sending coronavirus particles your way, then no problem!