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Post by longsuffering on Feb 21, 2021 23:27:31 GMT -5
With respect to fans in the stands for spring sports. HC is going on a six day break over Easter. After Easter, the campus alert level will be raised to orange. All students must be tested on the Monday and Tuesday after Easter. Presumably, all students will also be tested later that week. If there are very few positives, then I expect the campus alert level to be lowered to yellow (where it is now). An alert level of yellow potentially allows fans in the stands. I expect student-athletes participating in sports being competed during the spring will remain in Worcester. Other students are strongly encouraged to remain in the Worcester area during this Easter break, but are not being compelled to do so. The strong possibility that students will travel beyond the immediate area is the reason for raising the alert level. In the week ending February 19th, there were six student positives, five of those students reside off-campus. I hope HC students will have the good sense not to travel to a Spring Break hot spot.
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Post by bfoley82 on Feb 22, 2021 4:17:31 GMT -5
The NY Times today has an interactive graphic on when the U.S. might reach herd immunity. www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/02/20/us/us-herd-immunity-covid.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=HomepageThe NYT's model has the U.S. at 40 percent of herd immunity as of February 16th. The Hopkins doctor asserts, without evidence because of inferior serological testing, that the U.S. is already near 70 percent of herd immunity, because many more people were infected by the virus than is realized. He is pretty much alone in this view, perhaps in large part because there is no ability to prove his predicate of 'if only a better serological test was used'. The number of cases and the number of individuals who have received at least one shot totals about 70 million as of Friday. That's 25 percent of the adult population, ages 18 and over. Of the 42 million vaccinated, nearly all are over 18. STAT, the health and medical news website owned by the Boston Globe asked epidemiologists and public health experts to explain why new cases are dropping so sharply. The reasons offered are similar to those listed in the Atlantic article; each explanation has its own supporters. Massachusetts issues a weekly public health COVID report, one section of which summarizes the results of contact tracing for the most recent four week period. Of 11,978 clusters of new cases identified between Jan 17th and Feb 13th, 11,645 were household clusters. or 97.2 percent. The next highest cluster count was 95, for child care. Families, not co-workers, not friends, are the primary source of spread in Massachusetts at this time. I can say I was really ill last February which meant I ended up at the doctors twice over a virus that would not go away and quite a few people in my circle also had something nasty. Was it COVID? I don't know but I suspect it could have been as I had never felt that bad before and just wouldn't break.
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Post by HC92 on Feb 22, 2021 8:44:25 GMT -5
There are definitely a lot of people who have had it and didn’t know it. How many I have no idea but I think it’s a lot. In many cases, the advice, at least when testing was scarcer, was to just quarantine for two weeks and not get tested because the treatment was going to be the same either way. In many other cases, the symptoms would have been so mild or non-existent that people just wouldn’t have bothered getting tested. The people I know who have tested positive have mostly been asymptomatic or very lightly symptomatic and got tested for a reason other than symptoms or because they had something minor and the doc tested out of an abundance of caution. You also hear a lot of stories like Brian’s where it was early on and tests weren’t yet available. I know several people who were really sick in February and still don’t know whether it was Covid or not. None of those people are in the herd immunity counts. Hopefully the vaccines start getting produced and injected more quickly and we can get mostly through this by summer.
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Post by hcpride on Feb 22, 2021 10:02:23 GMT -5
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Post by alum on Feb 22, 2021 10:58:48 GMT -5
Not suprised at all. The crowds were sparse enough to reduce the risk of transmission to very low rates. I have a question semi related to this. Did they serve food, drink, and in particular alcohol at college and pro football games? I am assuming that not doing so would keep masks on more people and further reduced the potential for virus spread. Anybody know?
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Post by Tom on Feb 22, 2021 11:33:38 GMT -5
I expect student-athletes participating in sports being competed during the spring will remain in Worcester. Other students are strongly encouraged to remain in the Worcester area during this Easter break, but are not being compelled to do so. The strong possibility that students will travel beyond the immediate area is the reason for raising the alert level. Will Kimball be open? If kids from out of town are living on campus, it's asking a lot to encourage them to stay in Worcester, but not have food for them. No "normal" Spring Break this year, just an extra day over Easter. Also a little later in the calendar for normal Spring Break hot spots. Normally lots of HC kids do some volunteer thing over Spring Break. I hope a year off from this doesn't break the momentum
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Feb 22, 2021 11:53:38 GMT -5
I expect student-athletes participating in sports being competed during the spring will remain in Worcester. Other students are strongly encouraged to remain in the Worcester area during this Easter break, but are not being compelled to do so. The strong possibility that students will travel beyond the immediate area is the reason for raising the alert level. Will Kimball be open? If kids from out of town are living on campus, it's asking a lot to encourage them to stay in Worcester, but not have food for them. No "normal" Spring Break this year, just an extra day over Easter. Also a little later in the calendar for normal Spring Break hot spots. Normally lots of HC kids do some volunteer thing over Spring Break. I hope a year off from this doesn't break the momentum From the horse's mouth Based on this, Kimball will be open for sit -down dining through Easter. However, Kimball will revert to take-out only (because of the elevated Orange alert) immediately after Easter. The referenced Massachusetts COVID travel order can be found here: www.mass.gov/info-details/covid-19-travel-order#:~:text=All%20visitors%20entering%20Massachusetts%2C,your%20arrival%20in%20Massachusetts.
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Post by Tom on Feb 22, 2021 13:02:23 GMT -5
The take out vs sit down makes sense with the yellow/orange alert thing.
Is Kimball normally open for all students during Spring Break? If not, nothing in that statement says this COVID break is different and it will be open. What do the athletes do about food over Christmas? Even if they normally get some take out from Kimball, special arrangements will need to be made. You gotta know up front if you're cooking for 100 people or 2000
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Post by hcpride on Feb 22, 2021 15:48:43 GMT -5
Not suprised at all. The crowds were sparse enough to reduce the risk of transmission to very low rates. I guess this qualifies as a very low rate: Conclusions and relevance This time-series, cross-sectional matching study with a difference-in-differences design did not find an increase in COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the counties where NFL and NCAA games were held with in-person attendance. Our study suggests that NFL and NCAA football games hosted with limited in-person attendance do not cause a significant increase in local COVID-19 cases. www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.02.15.21251745v1Perhaps we'll see HC follow the science/data and let a few fans into the stands this spring for the two scheduled home football games.
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Post by Crucis#1 on Feb 22, 2021 20:22:24 GMT -5
It’s not HC’s unilateral decision. The college must follow the guidelines of the Commonwealth and the Patriot League. Until they give approval, your monthly subscription to ESPN +, is the ticket.
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Post by rickii on Feb 23, 2021 13:06:32 GMT -5
spectrumnews1.com/ma/worcester/news/2021/02/17/holy-cross-spring-footballWORCESTER, Mass. - The Holy Cross football team is back on the practice field preparing for a modified spring season. The defending Patriot League champions are scheduled to play at least four games against league rivals. The Crusaders return a lot of talent from the 2019 team and while some of the players practiced together in the fall and winter, the whole team has only been together a couple of weeks. Athletic director Marcus Blossom says their goals right now go beyond just winning games. Blossom said, “ I hope they can use these four games to learn a new offensive system, grow as a team, stay healthy. Primarily stay healthy for what we think will be a very competitive fall football season when we have a full schedule. But they are the defending champions and we are although the goal is to play and to stay healthy..Once we get on that field, we're going to try to win every game." Holy Cross' first game is scheduled for Saturday, March 13 at Lehigh. The Crusaders’ first home game a week later against Fordham. The winner of the Patriot League championship this spring qualifies for the FCS playoffs. As of right now, fans won't be allowed in the stands at Fitton Field to start the season. Huh ? Can anyone explain ?
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Post by Crucis#1 on Feb 23, 2021 13:10:49 GMT -5
Seems clear. The only option to see the games will be ESPN+.
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Feb 23, 2021 15:59:48 GMT -5
spectrumnews1.com/ma/worcester/news/2021/02/17/holy-cross-spring-footballWORCESTER, Mass. - The Holy Cross football team is back on the practice field preparing for a modified spring season. The defending Patriot League champions are scheduled to play at least four games against league rivals. The Crusaders return a lot of talent from the 2019 team and while some of the players practiced together in the fall and winter, the whole team has only been together a couple of weeks. Athletic director Marcus Blossom says their goals right now go beyond just winning games. Blossom said, “ I hope they can use these four games to learn a new offensive system, grow as a team, stay healthy. Primarily stay healthy for what we think will be a very competitive fall football season when we have a full schedule. But they are the defending champions and we are although the goal is to play and to stay healthy..Once we get on that field, we're going to try to win every game." Holy Cross' first game is scheduled for Saturday, March 13 at Lehigh. The Crusaders’ first home game a week later against Fordham. The winner of the Patriot League championship this spring qualifies for the FCS playoffs. As of right now, fans won't be allowed in the stands at Fitton Field to start the season. Huh ? Can anyone explain ? Massachusetts currently prohibits outdoor gatherings of more than 50 people. www.mass.gov/doc/covid-19-order-57/downloadAs I understand it, Holy Cross will request an exemption to exceed that limit to cover players, coaches, officials etc. for outdoor sporting events, and will receive an exemption, in part because of HC's rigorous testing, and very low positivity rate, 0.08 percent yesterday. HC's first scrimmage exceeded limits on indoor gatherings, and presumably the college requested and received an exemption. ADMB has said the PL will not impose any league-policy regarding fans, leaving it to individual schools to determine whether to have fans or not, consistent with state and local policy. ADMB hinted that, assuming continued progress in reducing infections in MA, the current state policy will probably be revised in a month or so, and he hopes that there can be fans in the stands later in the spring.
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Post by rickii on Feb 23, 2021 16:21:09 GMT -5
pp - My question related to team learning a new offensive system ( in bold ).
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Feb 23, 2021 16:24:47 GMT -5
pp - My question related to team learning a new offensive system ( in bold ). I took the question to be the orange-colored, larger font size question.
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Post by hc2020 on Feb 23, 2021 18:34:55 GMT -5
MA Governor Baker tells everyone to “stay tuned” about the possibility of having fans in stadiums soon. Sadly, Baker hasn’t had an original thought during the entire pandemic and essentially relies upon other Governors to be the first to make these important decisions:
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Post by hcpride on Feb 23, 2021 18:53:22 GMT -5
/\ Since NY is permitting a few fans tonight (and going forward) into their INDOOR arenas for hoops (and had thousands of fans at the Bills games) one would imagine it would be beyond caution for MA to ban fans from OUTDOOR college football this spring. (There doesn't seem to be any science supporting a continued ban on all OUTDOOR fans in MA sporting events but well, you know...)
Somebody with some free time ought to calculate if the comparative risk of covid transmission indoors at home watching the game on ESPN+ with family is greater than the risk of covid transmission outdoors in the (very) socially distanced Fitton Field.
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Post by hc2020 on Feb 23, 2021 18:57:51 GMT -5
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Feb 23, 2021 19:03:50 GMT -5
The New York protocols would make it very easy for HC students to attend games. Others not so much. (Proof of negative COVID test taken within 72 hours of game day).
HC, with students tested twice a week, and free of charge, and with results within 24 hours easily satisfies that testing protocol..
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Post by efg72 on Feb 23, 2021 20:33:15 GMT -5
Reason for lower infection rates?
Simple answer Testing is approaching An 8 month low- I guess it is hard to diagnose if you aren't being tested
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Post by timholycross on Feb 23, 2021 22:32:02 GMT -5
There are definitely a lot of people who have had it and didn’t know it. How many I have no idea but I think it’s a lot. In many cases, the advice, at least when testing was scarcer, was to just quarantine for two weeks and not get tested because the treatment was going to be the same either way. In many other cases, the symptoms would have been so mild or non-existent that people just wouldn’t have bothered getting tested. The people I know who have tested positive have mostly been asymptomatic or very lightly symptomatic and got tested for a reason other than symptoms or because they had something minor and the doc tested out of an abundance of caution. You also hear a lot of stories like Brian’s where it was early on and tests weren’t yet available. I know several people who were really sick in February and still don’t know whether it was Covid or not. None of those people are in the herd immunity counts. Hopefully the vaccines start getting produced and injected more quickly and we can get mostly through this by summer. How were people who were exposed to a positive person, went into quarantine; had some mild symptoms themselves, but those symptoms were gone well before the quarantine period was over? Many of those folks didn't even have a test, were they counted as positives?
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Post by timholycross on Feb 23, 2021 22:33:09 GMT -5
Reason for lower infection rates? Simple answer Testing is approaching An 8 month low- I guess it is hard to diagnose if you aren't being tested Because as many people aren't feeling ill, I would guess!
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Post by efg72 on Feb 23, 2021 22:43:47 GMT -5
Perhaps I think people are exhausted and see the vaccine coming their way-no sense of urgency for testing.
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Post by hcpride on Feb 24, 2021 6:30:02 GMT -5
Perhaps I think people are exhausted and see the vaccine coming their way-no sense of urgency for testing. I could see that diminishing voluntary asymptomatic testing at this point...but symptomatic folks probably continue to test at the same rate...
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Post by Pakachoag Phreek on Feb 24, 2021 8:19:11 GMT -5
The answer with respect to testing can be found in Massachusetts Dept. of Public Health's COVID dashboard. www.mass.gov/info-details/covid-19-response-reporting#covid-19-interactive-data-dashboard-^^^ Click different 'tabs' for detail. As of yesterday, there were 15.7 million molecular tests of individuals in Massachusetts, of which 10.8 million were repeat tests. 4.8 million individuals have been tested at least once, or about 70 percent of the total population. That leaves 30 percent of the total MA population who was never tested; note that 16 percent of the total population is under age 14, and is probably rarely tested. Which leaves a relatively small percentage of the total adult population (including 15-19 year olds) that has yet to be tested at least once, and probably will never be; i.e., they likely will be vaccinated before they are tested. ______________________ The 542,000 individuals in MA who have tested positive aren't being tested again, As of yesterday, 1,061,000 individuals have received a first vaccine dose in MA; these individuals aren't being tested again. The test positives and the already vaccinated currently represent 23 percent of the total MA population, so the number of individuals who might be tested in the future is dropping dramatically. __________________ There were 1,100 new cases reported in Massachusetts on Monday. Peak daily case count was over 9,000 on January 4th. (<< Family gatherings over the holidays.) As the number of new cases decline markedly, the need for individuals who are considered contacts of an infected individual and who are urged to be tested will also decline markedly. _________ I'll stop here before ACTP has an aneurysm.
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