Sports and Schools, are they really that different?

                I’ve long been a skeptic about actually playing sports this year. Every part of me just said it can’t work. There are too many factors. At best, if everything goes well, you are asking athletes to essentially remove themselves from society. At worst you are asking them to remove themselves from their families for a failed attempt at entertainment. However, sports have always been a part of me. I’ve played them, I’ve watched them, I’ve over analyzed them, I’ve made my wife hate me because we don’t root for the same team. I held out hope that maybe I was wrong, and it would actually be possible to have that beautiful distraction again. The chance to argue and “hate” your neighbor for reasons other than whether or not they wear a mask. To root for those that seem to make your hometown special by playing a children’s game. I felt good for a hot second. Then the Marlins played the Phillies.

                The Marlins catcher, a former Phil, had tested positive for COVID-19 shortly before arriving in Philly for the opener. Apparently, it didn’t stop there, as the Starting Pitcher and 3 other players also tested positive on Sunday, just prior to the game. Many other players tested positive since then. Suddenly, my skepticism was back in full force. All of my optimism about having any sports at all were thrown away. Two games were cancelled tonight, one in Miami and one in Philadelphia. Miami was to host its home opener, but with half the team on the shelf was that ever going to happen? Philadelphia was to host the Yankees, but since the Yankees were about to occupy the same clubhouse the COVID riddled Marlins just did, people felt that maybe that would be a bad idea.

                Meanwhile, there are now three baseball teams residing in the city of Philadelphia, which is home to only one team. Since Miami was forced to Quarantine, and New York arrived before any official plans were made. On top of that the Toronto Blue Jays are set to arrive this weekend to be the home team because Canada won’t let them play in their home Country.

                So far, what I’ve said probably doesn’t make a lot of sense to many people. Just team names, some cities, a virus. What I’m trying to get at is that, we have no control over this virus at all. Even the supposed best laid plans put forth by people being paid millions of dollars can’t manage to find a way to isolate people enough to prevent the spread of this disease. These athletes are subject to the most stringent testing available. Sure, there have been problem with these tests, but players are tested very frequently. Even with that, far too many of them have tested positive and likely spread it to teammates, maybe even opponents due to proximity.

                Many leagues have gone to great lengths to create “Bubbles” for their players. The amount of contact is supposed to be highly limited, but I still hear rumblings and rumors of players within these “Bubbles” testing positive. There are obviously cracks in the system, as most of us would have expected. No plan is perfect, no matter how many things you consider, no matter how many edge cases.

                Given the example put forth by our professional sports leagues and players, who seemingly have more access to testing and resources to successfully isolate than the rest of us. How are we, the average citizen, expected to succeed in preventing the spread of this invisible thing? The calls to fully re-open business, and worse, our schools seem to ignore common sense. I know its easy for me to say, I have the luxury of being able to work from home. There is plenty of other considerations out that I either am unaware of, or fail to see. I would just for less people to have to suffer. Sure, the mortality rate of COVID is fairly low, but there is just so much more than that. There are months long hospitalizations, there is long lasting symptoms even after testing negative, there is the risk of stroke. I’ve been hearing that depression could be linked, however since that is more of a long-term symptom it’s too early to tell on that one. Even those with mild symptoms aren’t out of the woods, the symptoms can last for months, sometimes on a rotating schedule.

                Schools scare me more than anything else. It’s far from that I don’t trust them or their policies. It’s a matter of numbers. Even if schools do everything as safe as possible, it just doesn’t seem like its going to be feasible for them to sustain it. For starters, there are a lot of children in a classroom (I know teachers hear me on that), even with the “hybrid” model kids won’t stay 6 feet apart. We’re supposed to limit exposure; many staff will push in or interact with many different classes on a daily basis. Already exposure seems a little high. This hasn’t considered the home lives of the kids. These home lives can range from both parents work from home and make enough to fulfill any wish, to on Monday you’re with Mommy, Tuesday you’re with Daddy, Wednesday you’re with Grandma, Thursday you’re with Mee-Maw, Friday you’re with Uncle Joe who isn’t really you’re Uncle. I hope my last example it extreme, and not so accurate, but it could be.

                When you consider the exposure of Parents/Guardians, and then classes of students (even if minimized) exposure can be a huge number. It doesn’t matter how careful a school is, the evidence we have so far suggests that younger kids are asymptomatic, but still carriers. The kids may not front the burden, but their parents will. How is that acceptable?

                All of this said, I want my kids to interact with other kids. They need it, we can’t hold them back. We can only teach them so much, and I can’t speak for everyone, but my kids are at the age where they are just driving us nuts. None of this is normal, we can’t pretend that it is. We can’t try to force normalcy just because it makes us feel better, because we want/need it to. We need to do what is best for society, for our neighbors, for people we’ve never met. We need to do what is necessary for that eventual return to what we think is normal.