Let's Call The Whole Thing Off?

It does say on the article that testing per club was increased from 40 to 50 so potentially could be people within the club who weren’t tested before maybe. Or delayed incubation period not showing last week. Or they’ve done something they shouldn’t have in their personal lives since they were last tested. All potential reasons

 

it starts with a 1

 

Lockdown has been eased for the whole population - is that your point? Or will it just be footballers that experience a 0.75 positive rate that reduces 67% in the 2nd week?

 

Can I just point out that Arteta caught it in March when there was no testing regime nor containment strategy in the whole country, let alone in the football bubble.

 

Well we've had five people in our depot now who've gone off with it and been tested positive (one of them hospitalised), and the rail network is still running. Think they've lost count in my daughter's hospital of the number of staff who've had it (and that's just the lucky ones who actually got tested), but they have had one health care assistant who has died of it. It didn't start with a 1 there, not in terms of closing down the whole organisation anyway, or even at our local Tesco's who've also had several staff test positive.

 

Can I just point out we’ve still got over 200 people per day dying and around 3,000 new cases. Compared to 55 new cases and 2 deaths in Germany yesterday. We’re nowhere near having got this virus down to similar numbers and therefore the risk level here is much higher.

 

Also not close to seeing what the impact will be of the chaos immediately after the great Churchillian Sunday address.

 

So, and I just want to make this clear as you and Diego seem to be riding two different horses, you seem to be arguing that nobody should be returning to work (even key workers who've been there all along?) as the national rate is too high? And Diego (who I accept that you don't speak for) is saying that footballers seem to have a higher rate of risk than others returning to work since Johnson's jumbled message?

Okay. Football can not resume till... when? When the R is 0? When the rate is as Germany is now? Once started, does it stop again if a second peak happens in the Autumn or thereafter?

 

Very true. By implication, does that mean we go back to Lockdown version 1? Is the NHS still under the same threat it was in March even though we now have more testing, PPE and treatments? Don't get me wrong, we're still right at a crisis point with this imo, despite what the government says, but are we still in a March position?

 

Probably not a peak-level position, no, but above where we appear to be now in theory and way above where Germany are now.

 

tootles sounds as wrong as the newcastke fans criticising kashoggis fiance

 

Not what i said or implied at all. Trying to conflate a return to work with social distancing and a return to a full contact sport is completely disingenuous.

What I’m doing is laying out the facts, and highlighting the nonsense of the argument that Germany getting back to playing is somehow a yardstick to where we are here.

 

So do we wait until we get to Germany's level (September, suggest some?), or until we're utterly safe? Given the statistics Diego is quoting on the tests so far, my argument is that he is calling for utterly safe. One thing is clear - you cannot argue this season should end because it will finish under different conditions than it started, then propose starting next season under different condition than it will finish, can you? So all I'm asking is under what conditions is it acceptable to finish this season, and then what conditions to start (and finish) next season?

 

So under what circumstances do you think a return to contact sport can resume? Is there a cut-off point beyond which football, rugby or even cricket will just become extinct?

 

When it’s safe to do so, and players aren’t contracting the virus on a weekly basis, probably then.

 

So, without putting words into your mouth, is that utterly safe, as it would seem that the testing rate at the moment is lower than 0.2, and that is evidently not safe enough?

 

There’s been 8 positive tests in a week out of circa 800 individuals. I’d check your maths,

 

I doubt it’ll ever be 110% safe so there has to be an agreed level and then as we’re so incompetent in comparison you probably have to halve it from there.

 

6 last week, 2 this week? That is what I read. But even if you add the two weeks together and ignore the falling rate (I was assuming everyone got tested twice - I could be wrong) that would by a combined 1%. If you do the sums as Sisu used to do climate graphs, that is.

 

I honestly don't get why people are so bothered about it starting it again? It will be **** and hardly anyone will watch it. Football without fans is nothing.

I'm actually at the point where I'm hoping it gets called off and clubs start going bust. The money in the game is absurd now and completely unsustainable as this situation shows. If this doesn't make things more sensible then I reckon nothing ever will.