Rideon77 wrote:
riverdaledad wrote:
I actually do want to cancel Christmas. There are predictions that there will be a huge outbreak after Christmas due to families giving each other COVID. This pandemic is not going to get better until everyone (including you) get serious. Traveling to Arizona for a triathlon and flying to Aunt Ruby’s for Christmas is not taking this situation seriously. I want to race in 2021. I want my kid to go back to school. If our country keeps acting like you and our President, then we are never going to get out of this nightmare.
So you have an advance degree in virology? You're a epidemiologist? A medical provider, infectious disease doc? An internal med doc, or at least a proctologist? Assuming all those answers are no because of what you have said already your predictions are weak at best.
The deaths caused by this virus have been in people with 2 or more comorbidities and/or over the age of 65 have been 80%. Since we know this we should have protected this population. Instead we started by doing what you have advocated and spent $16 Trillion in tax money and loss to the economy.......not to mention racing. So we have tried it your way and it didn't work. The overall death rate in the US has been about 3-4% depending on who you believe. If I promised you a 96% chance of wining at Las Vegas you would go and bet your mortgage every day! So please take your fear and politics in the lavender room unless you actually have a cogent argument to offer.
I am just an earnest but middle-of-pack age grouper.
I am also a physician, have lead numerous clinical trials amid the COVID pandemic, led development of an investigational therapeutic for SARS-CoV-2 infection, married to an epidemiologist who leads a team that models and tracks the COVID-19 pandemic, and I personally know what it is like to have a loved one die alone in a hospital amid this pandemic—with family unable to be at the bedside. I hope this give me a little bit of credibility.
I agree there needs to be a balance between being able to live, and having a quality of life that makes living worthwhile.
And I agree with the concerns raised in this thread with regard to the pandemic. To be clear, this is an airborne virus, highly contagious, and the core principle is not how individually strong we are or able to withstand infection, but that we are all potential vectors for transmission of the virus, much of which can happen while asymptomatic, to vulnerable members of society. By any metric, this is a deadly virus—in about a year of this virus’s journey through the US, we may see about 400,000 deaths due to COVID-19–this is all with variable measures of social distancing.
We are all, even slow triathletes like myself, ambassadors to the sport.
Generally as athletes, we tend to be the physically stronger and healthier members of society—but that should not render us uncaring for the vulnerable members of society, such as the elderly, the sick, immunocompromised, obese, cancer survivors, the list goes on and on.
There are a TON of things we can do while responsibly social distancing, wearing masks, hand-washing, and able to practice reasonable hygiene. My family goes out shopping a lot, usually at our local brick-and-mortar establishments—wearing masks! (supporting the economy, albeit painful to my wallet). We eat out at restaurants frequently, at venues with socially distances outdoor seating. I still frequent my local bike shop—wearing a mask and distancing. I am sorry to say large events, even if outdoors, if unable to reasonably social distance, should wait until it can be done safety—again, most participants in the sport are likely to tolerate infection with only mild to moderate symptoms, but would be vectors for transmission to others in society, often occurring before becoming reasonably aware of being infected.
I understand the desire to move this to the lavender room.
But I can’t think of a more important general topic than how triathletes can be good stewards and ambassadors to the sport.
In my opinion, it is unfortunate for strong (and generally young) participants in a sport to act and be seen as being uncaring for vulnerable members of our society.