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Post by unafied on Mar 24, 2020 6:40:18 GMT -6
Since the board is dead with no sports currently being played, I thought I'd start this thread IF anyone wants to discuss what's going on with the Coronavirus. I'd like to keep this a friendly, no-politics discussion (I despise political talk), but I get that sometimes the politics are difficult to ignore.
First off, how's everyone doing so far? How are things in the Shoals? I heard rumors that the new hospital was already stressed, but with only three confirmed cases in the area I tend to have a hard time believing that.
Here in Chattanooga we have 12 confirmed cases as of this morning (3/24). Today is my last day at the office, as our mayor has basically locked down the city beginning at midnight tonight. I'll be working from home for the foreseeable future. We have a good week to maybe 2 weeks of food at home, but I'll tell you guys... having a newborn during all of this is not easy. Plus my wife has been struggling from some minor complications due to the delivery (C-section). But we're hanging in there. Hope the rest of y'all are as well.
On another note, hope everyone stays safe from the storms today. You gotta love springtime in the South. The tornadoes don't stop for a pandemic.
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Post by brandon on Mar 24, 2020 15:05:31 GMT -6
We are doing ok...
Food will be a major priority for everyone, but as long as people keep a level head, it shouldn't be too much of a problem.
My wife is an RN at the new hospital, it's always pretty much maxed out(thanks to Huntsville hospital) because they had to build it smaller (less beds) than ECM was. But they havent had much issues with this situation. The difference at the moment is, unless it's a very bad (dieing) no visitors are allowed in the hospital. If someone is dieing, only 1 visitor will be able to go, and no others at any time. So not one at a time, but just the 1 person.
I am a Firefighter/EMT. We changed our protocols to help protect ourselves and others. We now only run trauma and cardiac arrest on the medical side, whereas before, we would run any general "sick" call. The Fire side is the same. We have had two firefighters exposed before the protocols were changed, but they have tested negative.
Myself, this is the worst time of the year for this, since I turned 30, my sinuses have been jacked, before, never had a sinus problem... right now, I sound like you need to distance yourself from me, but it's just a sinus infection. The pollen and 45 degree one day and 80 the next back to 50 the next makes me suffer. I'll take 90 all year....
Looks like my 4th of July trip to Perdido Key is probably canceled, and that sucks...
Hopefully football will go on...
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Post by unafied on Mar 24, 2020 17:59:36 GMT -6
We are doing ok... Food will be a major priority for everyone, but as long as people keep a level head, it shouldn't be too much of a problem. My wife is an RN at the new hospital, it's always pretty much maxed out(thanks to Huntsville hospital) because they had to build it smaller (less beds) than ECM was. But they havent had much issues with this situation. The difference at the moment is, unless it's a very bad (dieing) no visitors are allowed in the hospital. If someone is dieing, only 1 visitor will be able to go, and no others at any time. So not one at a time, but just the 1 person. I am a Firefighter/EMT. We changed our protocols to help protect ourselves and others. We now only run trauma and cardiac arrest on the medical side, whereas before, we would run any general "sick" call. The Fire side is the same. We have had two firefighters exposed before the protocols were changed, but they have tested negative. Myself, this is the worst time of the year for this, since I turned 30, my sinuses have been jacked, before, never had a sinus problem... right now, I sound like you need to distance yourself from me, but it's just a sinus infection. The pollen and 45 degree one day and 80 the next back to 50 the next makes me suffer. I'll take 90 all year.... Looks like my 4th of July trip to Perdido Key is probably canceled, and that sucks... Hopefully football will go on... Glad to hear NAMC is good for now. Hope you and your wife can both stay safe. My wife is in the medical field as well, and had planned maternity leave until the first of May. I can’t lie, I’m a little happy she’s staying at home for now. I hope and pray that by May 1 a lot of this is behind us.
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Post by roaringsince96 on Mar 24, 2020 20:22:15 GMT -6
Helps you realize during a pandemic just how much control we have...God is not surprised. God is in control. I pray this gets better with warmer temperatures and sunshine. Humidity and moisture have slowed other viruses, but this one may not react like other viruses? I have been working at home, traveling is not an option for the next couple of weeks. Use the good sense God gave you, keep your distance and keep washing hands. Be safe and also help those who aren’t able to help themselves. I am healthy in 40’s, couldn’t imagine being in 60’s or older during this outbreak, has to be quite scary. Keep on praying, for mankind, leaders, healthcare and first responders, those infected and their families.
Roar Lions
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Post by brandon on Mar 25, 2020 11:17:27 GMT -6
If this mess ends before football season, or even in enough time for some baseball, do you think people will be so glad that they can watch live sports that they will attend games, thus making attendance go up, or stay home and watch?
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Post by unafied on Mar 25, 2020 14:00:51 GMT -6
If this mess ends before football season, or even in enough time for some baseball, do you think people will be so glad that they can watch live sports that they will attend games, thus making attendance go up, or stay home and watch? I think it could go either way. I think a lot of people may be hesitant to be out in large crowds for a while. Especially those who know someone affected by this. But then, there are also a lot of folks who think the measures being taken to prevent the spread are an overreaction. Can’t see them being kept in the house when the games start back. I have a disease that requires medication that keeps me immunosuppressed. 99% of the time you wouldn’t know I have it, so it’s not a huge deal, but I’m personally taking things pretty serious. I think I will be cautious in public until there is a consensus on treatment or a vaccine available. Hopefully both of those things happen sooner than later.
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Post by roaringsince96 on Mar 25, 2020 21:10:34 GMT -6
If this mess ends before football season, or even in enough time for some baseball, do you think people will be so glad that they can watch live sports that they will attend games, thus making attendance go up, or stay home and watch? May be a much younger crowd at the games initially? Wonder how many season tickets will sell starting next month for all schools? Expect that number to be down.
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Post by brandon on Mar 29, 2020 5:53:01 GMT -6
There is speculation that football may not be played the coming season.
Before I go further, understand that I want this stuff to go away and not let it hurt anymore people. That's the most important thing, not sports. But this is an issue that I think can be talked about.
On a prospective of a school still in transition to D1, will this mean that UNA, Tarleton State and Dixie State have to add another time period to their transitions? Will the NCAA say that this was out of anyone's control and just keep on as is?
I'm not too worried about the money aspect as far as ticket sales, and so on. No travel means no money being spent, so it's almost a wash?
The other issue student enrollment, there is a good number of students at UNA that are from other countries, will this continue? Will they decide to stay home or be forced to?
Anyway, just some questions on my mind while I try to take my mind off the fact that everything is changing around me....
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Post by roaringsince96 on Mar 29, 2020 17:50:28 GMT -6
This would easily be the best payouts for the football team with Virginia Tech and BYU. Football season is still pretty far off, believe as fluid as this situation is today, it would be late summer before that decision could be reached. Ahhh summer, will City pools be open to the public? Does chlorine plus UV rays kill Corona? Lot of questions still to be answered....
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Post by unafied on Mar 30, 2020 9:17:48 GMT -6
The next few days will be interesting. I follow a site ( www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/) that shows up to the minute updates on number of cases and deaths. Yesterday was a day where we saw fewer deaths and fewer number of new cases. One day obviously isn't a trend, so I'd like to see this continue. If it does, and the curve is flattening, it at least proves that what we've been doing the past couple of weeks works. The problem as I see it is, while flattening the curve is very important, it doesn't mean eliminating this thing. We are likely stuck with it until an effective vaccine is in place, or at least a combination of drugs that have a huge impact on lessening symptoms. So even if we greatly reduce the number of those infected over the summer, what prevents us from panicking if/when numbers start to rise again? Say "spring" practice begins in July in hopes of a normal fall season. Out of the hundreds of NCAA football programs, it's likely a football player somewhere comes down with it at that time. Do we quarantine the entire team when it happens? What if a coach gets it? What if a game is about to be played in September, and the opposing team has had a few players out sick? As a coach, do you run the risk of putting your team out there on the field against possibly infected players? And then there's the fans of course. Are we prepared, even by September, to let thousands of fans cram on top of each other for 4 hours? What if a mild recurrence of the virus happens this fall, as some experts think is possible? It would almost be worse (to me) to see half the season played and then it all stop, than for it to never start at all. I feel like I'm a pessimist at times, but I just see these as realistic scenarios. I'm not prepared to say we won't see any sports until sometime in 2021, but I think a lot of work needs to be done on weakening the impact of this thing before I can see things going back to "normal".
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Post by tuna85 on Mar 30, 2020 9:49:24 GMT -6
There is speculation that football may not be played the coming season. Before I go further, understand that I want this stuff to go away and not let it hurt anymore people. That's the most important thing, not sports. But this is an issue that I think can be talked about. On a prospective of a school still in transition to D1, will this mean that UNA, Tarleton State and Dixie State have to add another time period to their transitions? Will the NCAA say that this was out of anyone's control and just keep on as is? I'm not too worried about the money aspect as far as ticket sales, and so on. No travel means no money being spent, so it's almost a wash? The other issue student enrollment, there is a good number of students at UNA that are from other countries, will this continue? Will they decide to stay home or be forced to? Anyway, just some questions on my mind while I try to take my mind off the fact that everything is changing around me.... Just my thoughts, but being able to get institutional control, academics programs, governance and scholarship levels up to D1 standards has always been the "primary reason" touted for the four years of death probation. These activities continue on, with or without games being played. That would be my argument for "not" extending the transition. Additionally, any NCAA monies we would have relied on to assist us during the transition period has probably been reduced as the NCAA has stated they are reducing the awarded monies to be distributed this year. We and our conference ASUN/Big South should be very aggressive in pushing against any further extension. As Trump has been saying about America's companies and workers, this was not our fault.
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Post by brandon on Apr 1, 2020 16:51:17 GMT -6
Hope everyone is doing well still...
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Post by unafied on Apr 2, 2020 5:58:03 GMT -6
Doing as well as can be here.
I’ve noticed cases in the Shoals aren’t really increasing. Is this from a lack of testing, or just a fortunate lack of spread? This is the kind of time when being isolated from larger cities can be a good thing.
I’m working from home and staying home as much as possible, and wearing a mask if I have to go to the store. I’m just trying to minimize my and my family’s risk as much as possible, even if I look goofy doing it. I really think we as a nation dropped the ball on not wearing masks weeks ago. I believe the CDC actually said it wouldn’t help, but have now went back on the statement. The cynic in me a.) thinks they did that to make sure hospitals had as many as possible, which certainly isn’t a bad thing, and b.) I’m not sure the American public will wear the masks like we see in Asian countries. I’d wear a mask 24/7 for a month if it meant ending this thing.
On another, less important note, I wonder how this will affect UNA long term. I’m obviously not privy to our finances, but there’s certainly potential revenue loss in a variety of areas. If this continues into the summer I can see fall enrollment taking a hit. As a sports fan, I’m anxious the stadium projects will just get pushed further back. What if this causes live attendance to drop even more than we’ve seen in recent years?
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Post by brandon on Apr 2, 2020 9:03:10 GMT -6
Doing as well as can be here. I’ve noticed cases in the Shoals aren’t really increasing. Is this from a lack of testing, or just a fortunate lack of spread? This is the kind of time when being isolated from larger cities can be a good thing. I’m working from home and staying home as much as possible, and wearing a mask if I have to go to the store. I’m just trying to minimize my and my family’s risk as much as possible, even if I look goofy doing it. I really think we as a nation dropped the ball on not wearing masks weeks ago. I believe the CDC actually said it wouldn’t help, but have now went back on the statement. The cynic in me a.) thinks they did that to make sure hospitals had as many as possible, which certainly isn’t a bad thing, and b.) I’m not sure the American public will wear the masks like we see in Asian countries. I’d wear a mask 24/7 for a month if it meant ending this thing. On another, less important note, I wonder how this will affect UNA long term. I’m obviously not privy to our finances, but there’s certainly potential revenue loss in a variety of areas. If this continues into the summer I can see fall enrollment taking a hit. As a sports fan, I’m anxious the stadium projects will just get pushed further back. What if this causes live attendance to drop even more than we’ve seen in recent years? I think the Shoals numbers is from a combination of location and testing. If you look at the bigger numbers all you have to do is find the interstate and major airports. As far as testing, not sure. But I do remember running medical calls all the way back to December, people all over were showing signs of the flu, but kept saying they showed negative on the flu test. So I kinda believe most around have been, in the very least, exposed to this virus. At far as UNA, and I hope more than anything I'm wrong, but I dont see fall sports happening this year. (Not just UNA, but any school) I'm also getting less optimistic about any level of congregation for schools. Like I said, I really hope I'm wrong, but have read different things about this type of pandemic and the major timetable for protocols and time to find vaccines are around 18-24 months. You had a once optimistic President and panel on this virus that is now changing their demeanor, that should tell everyone this is going to be a long road. God Bless, (dont take a microchip)
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Post by unalions on Apr 3, 2020 14:01:26 GMT -6
I'm doing well down here in Pensacola. Just on alert like everyone. We have about 100 cases in this county and a handful of hospitalizations. The neighboring counties in AL and FL don't have quite that many combined.
I've had a hotel reserved for a trip to Florence to see my mom for Mother's Day and her birthday a few days before but have already prepared her that we're not coming. Bummed about that part.
I seriously hope we have fall sports. But, who knows how this will all play out. I've read y'all's posts but hadn't had a chance to respond. Good to hear an update from you all!
Roar Lions!!
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