I'm just not bright enough to learn, I guess, because it continues to surprise me how many folks will hyperventilate, will badly over-react to any stimulus.
Young people are going back to school this fall. That's true from kindergarten to college. We've already decided this, as a collection of states and communities, decided that educating our youth effectively, which means face to face, is important and needs to continue. It is going to happen.
And so the young folks will, more and more as time goes on, be exposed to covid-19. A lot will never even know they got it. Most will experience minor symptoms, get over them after a few days, and get right back to doing what kids and young adults do.
Key point: this is true whether anyone plays sports or not.
We act like the disease is hiding out only in locker rooms and on playing surfaces. Reading this thread and others like it, you'd think success or failure combating the disease depends on athletic seasons or the lack thereof.
It doesn't.
Sport is just one of the many social aspects of a young person's life. And is not even the one with the highest "body density" (young folks packed into an enclosed space). That distinction probably belongs to dances, or parties, or church, or going to class in those big lecture halls, or the movies. Compared to all those, being on a field in the open air seems comparatively safe from a communicable disease perspective.
Young folks are going to do all this--live all aspects of their lives--because they and their parents are more and more broadly coming to realize that this disease carries very little risk for them personally (whether they should go home at Christmas and visit Grandma is a different issue).
They will gather together. Over and over again.
And as they gather, they'll get the flu. And get over it.
So why on earth are we acting like singling out and eliminating sport is somehow The Big Decision for them, or for us?
It's not. It's just one aspect of the lives they're going to live, with or without our "permission."
~ ~ ~
Will any college kids die of covid-19? Yes. It is a sad statistical truth. Younger kids as well. A few already have*, and more will. Even after a vaccine is produced and widely implemented. We have a new killer among us, to join the man-eating tiger, the shark, the lightning bolt, the car accident, influenza, pneumonia, heart disease, diabetes, leukemia, and...well, you get the point. It's a dangerous world we live in. Even for our youth..
Sucks, but not a single one of us can put this genie back in the bottle.
So folks, we're going to have to get used to the new reality, and figure out how to go on living in a world that includes Covid-19.
Stopping sports has no part in the answer we're looking for. Not even temporarily. Because it wouldn't help.**
Go Vols.
* in the US, six children age 0-18 have thus far had to be placed in an ICU while infected with covid-19, and three died. All of the six in ICU had at least one underlying condition (chronic lung disease, like asthma, cardiovascular disease, or immunosuppression). Among the three who died, the medical community have not yet determined whether covid-19 was the cause of death or how significantly it contributed.
** now, a decision not to have fans--or not so many fans--in stands is a totally different discussion, one that can widely impact disease spread rates in a community. Having 100 kids and coaches on the sideline is roughly the same level of risk as a partially full church or cinema theater. But 100,000 people cheek-by-jowl in the stands is...well, it is mathematically 1,000-fold the level of risk, before even factoring in that fandom tends to include the much higher-risk age bands. This question deserves to be more carefully considered.