Would You Attend A Bills Game Without A Covid-19 Vaccine?

[Rochesterfan]

2 hours ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

Well, I could be shooting from the hip here, but judging by the number of candidate vaccines that have hurried into clinical trials, I'm not sure that's the case at all.  I know I looked at the thing's structure and said "hot diggity dog, what an epitope target!" which seems to be the reaction of my friends still working in industry.  I'd like to hear what your basis is for saying that, but the discussion should probably hop over to the Covid-19 discussion thread.

 

Agreed - do not want to take away from the other discussion.  I will just say in studying the other Coronaviruses - there seem to be a lot of good epitope and target sites, but few that seem to produce strong, long term antibody reactions in humans.  The immune response to the various Coronaviruses that cause the cold seems very small, limited, and they don’t last long.  Minor mutations allow it to come back year over year and make the same people sick even within the same yearly cycle.  This is with lots of live virus invading the body time and time again. 
 

I hope they find a vaccine that produces a good, powerful response and provides long lasting immunity - I just think that if the human body has not adapted to this virus to make antibodies in all of the years that the cold has been around and people have been infected and reinfected - the vaccine is going to be limited in its effectiveness also.  I think many trials will show some good signs, but like the flu vaccine - it will be very limited in its overall effectiveness and will really be useful to lessen the symptoms and help you feel better sooner - which is not a bad thing, but is not what most people think about with a vaccine.  
 

For example in this scenario presented by the OP - my feeling is the vaccine is not going to keep people from getting sick or spreading the virus - it will just make most people recover a bit faster and hopefully prevent what we are seeing in Italy, Spain, and NYC as a high concentration of cases.  Therefore, to me the vaccine would have little impact on my decision to attend the game with loads of other people.
 

I also think that a lot more people have been positive than the numbers suggest, but because of a lack of testing early and many more mild forms - they were missed, which is where the Ab testing would be great right about now.  Then we can see who has been infected and what kind of levels of ABs people have (which would help greatly with determining the effectiveness of the vaccine) and can tell us whether reinfection is likely and how cyclical this will be.  I am so curious from an epidemiological point of view to see this type of info.

[RyanC883]

15 hours ago, TroutDog said:

I’d love to say yes but I am 50 and have cancer. Can’t do it, unfortunately. I basically have no immune system. 

stay safe man!  And kick cancer's as$

[The Fiend]

17 hours ago, AlCowlingsTaxiService said:

Although I was unable to be tested, my symptoms and my doc indicate that I probably had the ‘Rona already, so I’d like to think I’d be good to go whenever the season starts. 

 

There is no evidence that a recovery from COVID-19 confers immunity.

16 hours ago, TroutDog said:

I’d love to say yes but I am 50 and have cancer. Can’t do it, unfortunately. I basically have no immune system. 

 

AFAIK, unless you are undergoing chemotherapy currently, you are not immuno-comprimised. I might be wrong. I have thyroid cancer and was undergoing external beam radiation, but the doctors said I was not considered immuno-compromised, so I could go ahead and get the pneumonia and Shingles vaccines.

 

BTW, if you are not immuno-comprimised, talk to your doctor; you should begin the Shingrex sequence if you have ever had chickenpox (almost all people age 50 and older have had chickeknpox as children), since you are eligible at 50. Shingles is a horrible disease. If you haven't had chickenpox, get the varicella zoster test to make sure, then talk to your doctor about getting the varicella vaccine for chickenpox.

Edited April 11, 2020 by The Fiend

[The Fiend]

15 hours ago, PetermansRedemption said:

I voted no, but I don’t attend games anyways. Can’t beat the view and comfort from home. That being said, stadiums are huge. I can’t see why they couldn’t devise some social distancing capacity for these games. Ticket revenue is such a small amount of revenue for the NFL. If a stadium has a capacity of 70,000 maybe sell 20,000 tickets, all seats spaced out strategically. Only have a gate for a certain amount of tickets at a certain amount of time. Spread the entrance times out amongst 2 hours. If you have X section you go to X gate at X time kind of thing. It sounds more complicated than I think it would be. You section off seats. Skipping a row or some seats between people. On the ticket you print what gate they are to enter and at what time. An organization as large as the NFL shouldn’t have a problem figuring out the logistics. 

 

There is no way to social distance with football. 22 men on the field, plus sidelnes packed with players, coaches, trainers, hydration techs, TV personnel, etc.

 

I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but I am pretty sure there won't be a season this fall. Too many governors do not want to lift shelter-in-place orders for fear of an upsurge of infections, which would happen. There probably won't be any school either. That brings many questions: will there be a draft in 2021, and in what order for the teams? Do players get credited for a season on their contracts?

15 hours ago, MAJBobby said:

Yep.  Fought the 'Rona and won, now I have the immunity.  It was an easy fight actually felt like the flu, I am going to attribute that to all the unknown shots the Army gave me for 20 years.  

 

I know I have given a ton of plasma already

 

How do you know you have immunity?

14 hours ago, JMF2006 said:

 

By September this should be just a bad memory....hopefully.

 

It will not just disappear until and unless a vaccine is developed. Maybe there will be effective treatments by then, but that is very uncertain.

Edited April 11, 2020 by The Fiend

[The Fiend]

14 hours ago, BillsFan4 said:

No. I have high risk family members that I’m in frequent contact with and I am higher risk myself. I don’t see myself attending any crowded events until there is a vaccine. I couldn’t live with myself if I gave this to one of my family members and they died.

 

There will be no crowded events until a vaccine is developed or there is an effective therapy for it with widespread instant testing available.

[chongli]

14 hours ago, plenzmd1 said:

I think we will see tons of folks with masks on ( somehow rigged so we can still drink beers)

 

You mean like this:

 

 

[The Fiend]

10 hours ago, driddles said:

I run a site and we post medical info, but we pay $5K a year for errors and omissions insurance.  If I ran this site I'd be blocking all medical advice, unless they have the insurance.

 

Anyone who relies on a site like this or a comments section from a news article is nuts.

10 hours ago, Boatdrinks said:

 

Fans will be more starved for live sports programming in September than they are already. The networks won’t need to resort to phony piped in noise or graphics to draw viewers. Play by play is fine and cameras won’t do the obligatory panning  around the stadium. 

 

As I said earlier, if fans are not allowed for safety reasons, neither will players. 22 men on the field and , plus 7 officials, plus packed sidelines full of other players, trainers, coaches, TV personnel, etc. will be too much.

[The Fiend]

10 hours ago, Boatdrinks said:

Maybe, maybe not.  I think it’s possible that a stadium could be open in one state but not in another.

 

The NFL will take an all or nothing approach. Either all stadiums will allow fans, or none will. You cannot give certain teams an advantage. But, as I said earlier, if no fans are allowed, neither will teams be. There will be no games until a vaccine is discovered, or cure is discovered along with rapid testing.

10 hours ago, Sherlock Holmes said:

Us military folk are probably immune to almost everything...sure had enough vaccines tested on us... Gah I feel terrible as I was responsible for giving so many immunizations.

 

Except there was a huge outbreak of sailors with COVID-19 on a US military ship in Guam recently:

 

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/coronavirus-outbreak-diverts-navy-aircraft-carrier-guam-all-5-000-n1169726

Edited April 11, 2020 by The Fiend

[PetermansRedemption]

2 hours ago, The Fiend said:

 

Anyone who relies on a site like this or a comments section from a news article is nuts.

 

As I said earlier, if fans are not allowed for safety reasons, neither will players. 22 men on the field and , plus 7 officials, plus packed sidelines full of other players, trainers, coaches, TV personnel, etc. will be too much.

Assuming availability of instant testing, that part is easy to overcome though. You treat every game as an away game, meaning both teams enter a hotel Saturday. Before coming together, each coach and member undergoes a rapid test. They are cleared and allowed into the hotel. They don’t have contact with anyone but team/staff/coaches until after game day Sunday. 

Edited April 11, 2020 by PetermansRedemption

[The Fiend]

7 minutes ago, PetermansRedemption said:

Assuming availability of instant testing, that part is easy to overcome though. You treat every game as an away game, meaning both teams enter a hotel Saturday. Before coming together, each coach and member undergoes a rapid test. They are cleared and allowed into the hotel. They don’t have contact with anyone but team/staff/coaches until after game day Sunday. 

 

Good idea, but I am worried about it. A player can still acquire the virus by simply walking through an inected area where there are still aerosolized droplets or droplets on a surface. And the minute someone gets it, there will be a scandal in the NFL with all kinds of people and politicians condemning them. Bad publicity for the NFL. And I can't see our governor, Gavin Newsom of California, allowing any NFL games in the state. The games will also inspire fans to gather at a person's house, violating social distancing. I cannot see it happening.

Edited April 11, 2020 by The Fiend

[Billsfansinceday1]

There will definitely NOT be a vaccine by this season, but possibly next year.   It is possible, however, that there will be reliable testing and/or therapeutics by this Fall.  Those will be the determining factors for when life can get back to relative normalcy to include football.

[PetermansRedemption]

49 minutes ago, The Fiend said:

 

Good idea, but I am worried about it. A player can still acquire the virus by simply walking through an inected area where there are still aerosolized droplets or droplets on a surface. And the minute someone gets it, there will be a scandal in the NFL with all kinds of people and politicians condemning them. Bad publicity for the NFL. And I can't see our governor, Gavin Newsom of California, allowing any NFL games in the state. The games will also inspire fans to gather at a person's house, violating social distancing. I cannot see it happening.

I feel like the first part is being scared of a boogeyman in the closet. It’s such a small chance that the same hotel you chose to stay at (where probably no one has been staying because no one is vacationing) happens to have remaining particles. And if the governor of California doesn’t want games I am certain the NFL will have no trouble finding another venue. 

[Doc Brown]

My best guess at the moment is they start  in October and they'll play games without fans.  All coaches, players, refs, necessary medical personnel, and broadcasting crews will be tested outside of the stadium on game day before being allowed in the stadium.  It's going to be strange but it's better than nothing.

Edited April 11, 2020 by Doc Brown

[machine gun kelly]

9 hours ago, hondo in seattle said:

 

Ben's a retired neurosurgeon, not an epidemiologist.  He's not an expert.  

 

But let's say he's right.  If you get this highly contagious disease, there's a 1 chance in 50 you die.  It's a significant enough possibility that I avoid people outside my own immediate family, wash my hands a lot, carry hand sanitizer with me at all times, and wear a mask when going to public places.  

Another concern...  Under normal circumstance, according to the data collected thus far, an infected person will typically infect 2-3 others.  I don't want to inadvertently get someone else sick and potentially kill them.    I'm not going to any games.

Hondo, good points and putting watching a game over you’re life and the lives of others is foolish.  People can do what they want, but I don’t have to participate.  Btw- As of a report this morning, the death toll exceeded now 100,000 worldwide and not stopping.  Hydroxichloroquine seems to help some but with a high risk of permanent eye damage and coronary issues.  Given that the elderly and sick are at the greatest risk, they are also at the highest risk for adverse events.

 

Do what you want guys, but I’m not hurting myself, my loved ones because of my illness and couldn’t forgive myself if I could do something about it and made three others sick or worse.  Given that we don’t exhibit symptoms until we a,ready have it, you don’t know it until after the fact.  Is going to a game really worth it when you can watch in the safety of you’re own home.  I hate this too, and as I acknowledged on another thread, I’m one of the ones laid off, and in my field in medicine there is currently a hard hiring freeze.  Having said that, these quarantine measure are the best we can do now until there is a vaccine, or effective reproducible treatment options that doesn’t have these extreme risks.

[The Fiend]

1 hour ago, PetermansRedemption said:

I feel like the first part is being scared of a boogeyman in the closet. It’s such a small chance that the same hotel you chose to stay at (where probably no one has been staying because no one is vacationing) happens to have remaining particles. And if the governor of California doesn’t want games I am certain the NFL will have no trouble finding another venue. 

 

I hope you are right. This is the Bills year.

[TroutDog]

6 hours ago, The Fiend said:

 

There is no evidence that a recovery from COVID-19 confers immunity.

 

AFAIK, unless you are undergoing chemotherapy currently, you are not immuno-comprimised. I might be wrong. I have thyroid cancer and was undergoing external beam radiation, but the doctors said I was not considered immuno-compromised, so I could go ahead and get the pneumonia and Shingles vaccines.

 

BTW, if you are not immuno-comprimised, talk to your doctor; you should begin the Shingrex sequence if you have ever had chickenpox (almost all people age 50 and older have had chickeknpox as children), since you are eligible at 50. Shingles is a horrible disease. If you haven't had chickenpox, get the varicella zoster test to make sure, then talk to your doctor about getting the varicella vaccine for chickenpox.

Thanks for the info. I am absolutely immuno-compromised but can still get vaccines as they aren’t ‘live’ versions. My oncologist stresses emphatically every time I see him that fact. Ugh. 

[PetermansRedemption]

1 hour ago, Doc Brown said:

My best guess at the moment is they start  in October and they'll play games without fans.  All coaches, players, refs, necessary medical personnel, and broadcasting crews will be tested outside of the stadium on game day before being allowed in the stadium.  It's going to be strange but it's better than nothing.

This is how I see it happening as well

[MAJBobby]

7 hours ago, The Fiend said:

 

There is no way to social distance with football. 22 men on the field, plus sidelnes packed with players, coaches, trainers, hydration techs, TV personnel, etc.

 

I hate to be a Debbie Downer, but I am pretty sure there won't be a season this fall. Too many governors do not want to lift shelter-in-place orders for fear of an upsurge of infections, which would happen. There probably won't be any school either. That brings many questions: will there be a draft in 2021, and in what order for the teams? Do players get credited for a season on their contracts?

 

How do you know you have immunity?

 

It will not just disappear until and unless a vaccine is developed. Maybe there will be effective treatments by then, but that is very uncertain.

it is a Virus. Like any virus you get it and get better you now have the antibodies build. Now if it mutates that is a different thing but a non mutated virus will not take hold. 

[Pine Barrens Mafia]

7 hours ago, The Fiend said:

 

There will be no crowded events until a vaccine is developed or there is an effective therapy for it with widespread instant testing available.

 

Or until our benevolent government issues us papers.

[GimmeSomeProcess]

Don’t need a vaccine but antibody and rapid tests are a must