My thoroughly uneducated guess is that we’re overreacting to the coronavirus. But what I’m absolutely sure of is that the fear about it is real and that the fear very much matters.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that the flu has infected 34 million Americans, hospitalized 350,000 and killed 20,000 since Oct. 1. That has freaked out exactly no one. But a new disease, one with the same symptoms and no vaccines, has already changed our lives and figures to affect the sports world more than most parts of our daily existence. The panic stems from a higher death rate for the coronavirus than the flu (for now), a lack of knowledge about the disease and a poor job of explaining the outbreak to the public. Social media has lived up to its reputation for making things worse.
But, again, fear is really what we’re dealing with here. The reality is that too many people view COVID-19 as if it were the bubonic plague. And so there is reaction and overreaction. History will be the judge of which was which.
It seems almost certain that a fan-less existence is going to happen at stadiums throughout the sports world for an extended period. The NCAA announced Wednesday that its men’s and women’s basketball tournaments would be played without fans in the stands, in the hope of stopping the virus’ spread. If it stops the anxiety as much as it does the coronavirus, it’s a good thing.
Most of the major sports leagues are contemplating whether to play games without fans in attendance. The Warriors will play a home game Thursday against the Nets with only essential personnel in the building.
The Illinois High School Association’s executive director, Craig Anderson, said the Class 1A and Class 2A state tournaments are still on for this weekend in Peoria. The IHSA will “put out some hand sanitizer and anti-bacterial wipes in a lot of locations,’’ he said. “We will have signage directing and recommending people wash their hands and do those kind of things.”
Let’s see how long that plan lasts.
Opening Day in baseball is two weeks away. The Mariners announced Wednesday that they would move their six home games in March to another location because of Washington state’s ban on large-group events in response to the coronavirus. The NBA is considering moving games to cities that haven’t had serious outbreaks.
There don’t seem to be many major downsides (relatively) to any of this, though it will cost the powers that be money. And you know what that means: ticket-price increases down the line. But we can live with empty stadiums, and so can the players.
The NBA, the NHL, Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer recently closed their locker rooms and clubhouses to the media, which seemed like an odd first step and a new twist on “killing the messenger.’’ Now the messenger is a killer armed with a cough? I’ve been in enough clubhouses to know that they’re one big Petri dish without any help from the media. I’ll stop viewing the locker-room ban with suspicion only when it’s lifted. Until then, I’ll wonder if the grand plan is to keep it in place long after the virus subsides.
The outbreak is another reminder of how large a role sports play in our lives. Stadiums and ballparks are where we gather in large numbers. They’re our public squares. It makes sense that the games we watch would be at the forefront of the discussion on the coronavirus and, possibly, on how to hold it at bay. Again, a good thing. Still, the approaching silence will take some getting used to.
Cutting down on human contact seems like an adult approach. Whispering doesn’t. Too many people seem to know somebody who knows a doctor who is “privately’’ very worried about the outbreak. Saying something like this serves no purpose beyond sowing fear.
The stock market might look ridiculous as it jumps up and down in reaction to the latest kernel of news, but it’s a reflection of the anxiety and uncertainty gripping the country. We can snicker at the people who are stockpiling goods as if nuclear missiles were on their way, but the fear is real. It has to be respected, as much as the virus does.
Experts have said that COVID-19’s death rate (possibly as high as 3.4 percent globally compared with 0.1 percent for the flu in the U.S.) is almost surely skewed by the fact it’s based only on the people who have shown symptoms of the virus. There’s a very good chance that more people have the disease but don’t even know it. That would significantly lower the death rate.
There’s a large segment of the population, sheltered in place, that doesn’t want to hear it. They’re answering to a primal fear. That fear is inside all of us to varying degrees. And so we all take it in differently. Where I see overreaction, you see germs everywhere.
For the common good, it’s best that, if the games are to go on, they go on without fans in attendance. It will be eerie — and if you really think about it, nonsensical. Who is more likely to spread the coronavirus – two fans sitting next to each other or two NBA players trading sweat?
But better safe than sorry. And better calm than panicky.
.png?w=600)
