Absolutely and now many teams that had low attendance now have half of what they had then.
It looks like at least the VT game yesterday had a full attendance though. It will be interesting to see what today’s games are like.
A potentially mitigating factor is that outdoor stadiums are outdoors, so spread from a contagious fan is likely to be limited to those seated nearby (maybe for a slightly greater distance downwind), as opposed to everyone in an indoor room, even those who may never get close to the contagious person.
Still, sitting next to a contagious person for three hours, even outdoors, is likely to be high risk.
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Pitt had a big bonfire pep rally last night. There appeared to be thousands of students in attendance. Kids were packed shoulder to shoulder without a mask in site (actually there was one girl in one shot wearing hers on her chin). This was hosted by the athletic director who made made a speech and introduced the football team. The video was posted on Facebook but I am technically unskilled and can’t figure out how to link it here.
I’m really kind of surprised they did this. At first I thought it was a video from a couple years ago until I caught site of the chin mask.
Dartmouth just announced weekly testing for the vaccinated, twice weekly testing for unvaccinated, and buildings (excluding a performance center and art museum) are closed to the public. They have protocols in place for attendance at athletic events.
https://www.vnews.com/Dartmouth-College-adds-COVID-restrictions-42297610
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MLB attendance has definitely been down in my small market and I imagine other small markets are down too. The Rockies game last night was half full. Officially, 25k people in a stadium that holds twice that. By contrast, Folsom Field, where my beloved CU Buffs play, was packed. But, with community transmission rates surging in Boulder County, the party may not last long.
US Open tennis has been packed, but you must show proof of vaccination to enter, or if under 12 a negative test result. That’s how all stadiums should be handling it IMO.
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OK, I only read the abstract, but it appears that we don’t know that ages of the people who were wearing masks, just overall numbers in a village. Observers just went to mosques, markets… and observed the number of people wearing masks. I would imagine that older, more vulnerable people might be more likely to be wearing masks, and this would drop off in younger, healthier people. Also, they are not comparing villages with 0% mask wearing to those with 100% mask wearing, it’s 13% versus 42%.
If proof of vax includes easily obtained and forged vax cards, there are folks who will forge and use such cards, such as the 7 people who have been arrested and charged in HI. It’s not that easy to check the cards to be sure they’re valid and apply to the person presenting them.
Half full looks pretty high for a team this late in the season with almost no chance of making the playoffs.
Depends where you go to see a baseball game, @mwfan1921. Went to four games in DC, Baltimore and Phila with S2 when he was here from Eastern Europe (came to get vaccinated because he couldn’t get FDA vaccines over there). No problem maintaining social distancing. I’m immunocompromised and pay significant attention to that sort of thing! We’d get there shortly after the game started, didn’t get food, hung around til the crowds left after the game. Nats have been running about 15-20k per game.
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Obviously, you don’t live in Denver. The Rockies have never been competitive. People go to the games for the fun atmosphere downtown and at Coors Field.
Yep, Baltimore Orioles averaging 12,500 attendees, down from 29,000 two years ago (pre-pandemic) in a stadium that holds almost 46,000.
Every college football game i saw today was pretty packed and not much in the way of masking going on either. Many college stadiums hold WELL over 50,000 fans.
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The night of the hurricane the US Open definitely looked like a superspreader event, highly packed Ashe stadium, closed room, not a mask in site. Even with proof of vaccination it was a concerning event,
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Masks aren’t required in the outdoor stands, but were required in the press box and in the Chancellor’s box/suites. Also required in the field house, Alumni club, in all the bathrooms and elevators, so basically indoors.
Next week they play in Denver (Bronco’s stadium) and Denver rules apply (which I think are no masks).
Run Ralphie Run.
Honestly, I won’t go see the Rockies play because it is too difficult. No paper tickets. Everyone has to have their own ticket on their own phone, so if you buy tickets for a group of 4-6 friends, you have to send each person his own ticket. To get that ticket, the person has to download the app for ticketmaster and open it, get the ticket. Now if someone is supposed to use ticket #3 but instead uses ticket #1, then when the person #1 goes to enter, it is going to reject him, and he has to figure out who used his ticket. My daughter, BF and my brother all tried to go in and it took them 3 attempts just to get in the door. No cash allowed inside the stadium, so no sales in the stands. Luckily everything costs $10 so no $1 charges on your credit card! Don’t have a cell phone with data? Can’t go to a game.
I’m not really seeing how this is a good idea. Spread is spread, and the loud prof, if infected, is going to be spraying that stuff all over the classroom while speaking. I notice that profs doing in-person for dual room/zoom presentations seem to do fine with mask and mic. The sound’s slightly muffled, but plenty loud enough, and it beats catching a super-catchy virus whose longterm effects still aren’t really known, but seems to be good at hanging around and causing multi-organ havoc.
It’s bad enough if the prof is infected and masked: check www.microcovid.org to run the model for your area. We’re seeing guidance that says if you were exposed, but are vaxed and asymptomatic, get in there and teach. The model, though, says “not such a good idea.”
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I agree. While there are plenty who’ll still be elite or bust, I think that we’ll see a lot of mid-tier privates closing as more students hedge. If there’s a fair chance of serious restrictions, or of full or partial zoom school, I think we’ll see many more turning back to state Us and community colleges. I’m thinking of places like Ithaca College, a nice small school, pretty expensive, already struggling before covid hit. I can see that being nail-in-coffin territory. I can also see serious expansion of online universities.
Personally, I think either/both are fine, and that if this goes on a while, as it shows every sign of doing, I can see online and public doing a lot of merging, plus room for very well-funded schools really making a big move into online territory in a technologically/pedagogically astute – and expensive – way. In other words, online no longer being an afterthought. And along with that, a lot of creativity going into “you can’t teach that online” problems.
I’d be all for it (and am glad the “what are tenure and research now” headaches wouldn’t be my problem). I had a pretty awesome campus time, but I also wasn’t paying for it, and – looking back – I think I’d be pretty mad to see all that money wasted on partying and drama. I was the first in my family to go away to school, but I don’t see that a more city-school experience hurt my parents’ generation.
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Was cringing so much reading this article. What about the millions of delivery drivers, restaurant staff, aides, factory workers etc who have been in close contact working non stop for the past 18 months? Why is it ok for the PhD educated who don’t come in much close contact with others to continue teaching remotely? Especially if they are fully vaccinated I don’t understand the extreme worry. It’s sending a message of entitlement and superiority that those who are paid most in these colleges(professors) get to stay home while the “peasants”
such as janitors and food service workers are expected to work. We must learn to live with COVID and these professors who shelter themselves in are doing themselves or their students no favors.
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It’s not just professors. How many white collar software workers, bureaucrats, finance, managers, are still working remotely?
Much of federal workforce not returning until October.