GAA Response to Coronavirus

[five points]

This is great and all, but it just won't work in the real world. The 'shielding' strategy will never be airtight enough that you can afford to have a huge proportion of the population running around unchecked. The best way to keep death tolls down is to keep infections down across the entire population. Unless you don't really care about death tolls, because it's mostly just old and fat people dying and they don't matter.

If this was true, entire countries would shut down annually for the duration of the flu season.

[five points]

The lockdown has never been about protecting young, healthy people from the virus. Where has that idea come from? Why are people arguing against this straw man?

It's about stopping young, healthy people (and everyone else) being a conduit for virus to not so young and not so healthy people.

Inherent in the argument that young, healthy people don't die, and should therefore be allowed to play away, is the notion that old and sick people should die so that this can happen. That's reprehensible.

[/b]

Not one single person is saying that. What people are saying is that we have very defined sections of the community that are at a much much higher risk from this awful disease, yet at the moment we are in total lockdown for everyone (barring essential workers etc...). There will come a time, be it for work, football whatever, where this will no longer be possible/acceptable. IMO the best way forward would be to shield/lockdown/cocoon whatever you want to call it, those who are vulnerable and let everyone else get on with it. So your young healthy footballer or worker or whatever will not be passing it on to someone vulnerable as they will still be isolating.

So if a young, healthy footballer lives with anyone old, vulnerable etc either they dont play and also isolate or they are shit out of luck and have to find a new home for the forseeable future in order to play ball?

as opposed to being shit out of luck and unable to play ball because competitions have semi-permanently ceased?

[Taylor]

The lockdown has never been about protecting young, healthy people from the virus. Where has that idea come from? Why are people arguing against this straw man?

It's about stopping young, healthy people (and everyone else) being a conduit for virus to not so young and not so healthy people.

Inherent in the argument that young, healthy people don't die, and should therefore be allowed to play away, is the notion that old and sick people should die so that this can happen. That's reprehensible.

[/b]

Not one single person is saying that. What people are saying is that we have very defined sections of the community that are at a much much higher risk from this awful disease, yet at the moment we are in total lockdown for everyone (barring essential workers etc...). There will come a time, be it for work, football whatever, where this will no longer be possible/acceptable. IMO the best way forward would be to shield/lockdown/cocoon whatever you want to call it, those who are vulnerable and let everyone else get on with it. So your young healthy footballer or worker or whatever will not be passing it on to someone vulnerable as they will still be isolating.

So if a young, healthy footballer lives with anyone old, vulnerable etc either they dont play and also isolate or they are shit out of luck and have to find a new home for the forseeable future in order to play ball?

as opposed to being shit out of luck and unable to play ball because competitions have semi-permanently ceased?

And who will pay for this new house? The GAA?

The GAA is built on the community aspect but are we going to say f**k the elderly and vulnerable now?

[trueblue1234]

The lockdown has never been about protecting young, healthy people from the virus. Where has that idea come from? Why are people arguing against this straw man?

It's about stopping young, healthy people (and everyone else) being a conduit for virus to not so young and not so healthy people.

Inherent in the argument that young, healthy people don't die, and should therefore be allowed to play away, is the notion that old and sick people should die so that this can happen. That's reprehensible.

[/b]

Not one single person is saying that. What people are saying is that we have very defined sections of the community that are at a much much higher risk from this awful disease, yet at the moment we are in total lockdown for everyone (barring essential workers etc...). There will come a time, be it for work, football whatever, where this will no longer be possible/acceptable. IMO the best way forward would be to shield/lockdown/cocoon whatever you want to call it, those who are vulnerable and let everyone else get on with it. So your young healthy footballer or worker or whatever will not be passing it on to someone vulnerable as they will still be isolating.

So if a young, healthy footballer lives with anyone old, vulnerable etc either they dont play and also isolate or they are shit out of luck and have to find a new home for the forseeable future in order to play ball?

as opposed to being shit out of luck and unable to play ball because competitions have semi-permanently ceased?

And who will pay for this new house? The GAA?

The GAA is built on the community aspect but are we going to say f**k the elderly and vulnerable now?

If it's a choice between football or not having contact with your parents for the foreseeable I think the GAA will take a big hit.

[Taylor]

The lockdown has never been about protecting young, healthy people from the virus. Where has that idea come from? Why are people arguing against this straw man?

It's about stopping young, healthy people (and everyone else) being a conduit for virus to not so young and not so healthy people.

Inherent in the argument that young, healthy people don't die, and should therefore be allowed to play away, is the notion that old and sick people should die so that this can happen. That's reprehensible.

[/b]

Not one single person is saying that. What people are saying is that we have very defined sections of the community that are at a much much higher risk from this awful disease, yet at the moment we are in total lockdown for everyone (barring essential workers etc...). There will come a time, be it for work, football whatever, where this will no longer be possible/acceptable. IMO the best way forward would be to shield/lockdown/cocoon whatever you want to call it, those who are vulnerable and let everyone else get on with it. So your young healthy footballer or worker or whatever will not be passing it on to someone vulnerable as they will still be isolating.

So if a young, healthy footballer lives with anyone old, vulnerable etc either they dont play and also isolate or they are shit out of luck and have to find a new home for the forseeable future in order to play ball?

as opposed to being shit out of luck and unable to play ball because competitions have semi-permanently ceased?

And who will pay for this new house? The GAA?

The GAA is built on the community aspect but are we going to say f**k the elderly and vulnerable now?

If it's a choice between football or not having contact with your parents for the foreseeable I think the GAA will take a big hit.

But it seems some people are willing to take that hit & play on which seems madness

[five points]

as opposed to being shit out of luck and unable to play ball because competitions have semi-permanently ceased?

And who will pay for this new house? The GAA?

The GAA is built on the community aspect but are we going to say f**k the elderly and vulnerable now?

It is never a matter of saying f**k the elderly and vulnerable.

If there are neither games nor gatherings in the medium term, there is no GAA and not much community either.

While the GAA is indeed built on the community, the reverse tends to apply too.

[Ed Ricketts]

This is great and all, but it just won't work in the real world. The 'shielding' strategy will never be airtight enough that you can afford to have a huge proportion of the population running around unchecked. The best way to keep death tolls down is to keep infections down across the entire population. Unless you don't really care about death tolls, because it's mostly just old and fat people dying and they don't matter.

If this was true, entire countries would shut down annually for the duration of the flu season.

Except that COVID-19 is much more infectious and has a much greater mortality rate than seasonal flu. This info has been available for weeks, keep up.

Oh, and there's a vaccine for the flu!

[five points]

This is great and all, but it just won't work in the real world. The 'shielding' strategy will never be airtight enough that you can afford to have a huge proportion of the population running around unchecked. The best way to keep death tolls down is to keep infections down across the entire population. Unless you don't really care about death tolls, because it's mostly just old and fat people dying and they don't matter.

If this was true, entire countries would shut down annually for the duration of the flu season.

Except that COVID-19 is much more infectious and has a much greater mortality rate than seasonal flu. This info has been available for weeks, keep up.

So your argument is about rates. At what mortality rates are you happy to see GAA games  and activities take place during the flu season?

[Taylor]

as opposed to being shit out of luck and unable to play ball because competitions have semi-permanently ceased?

And who will pay for this new house? The GAA?

The GAA is built on the community aspect but are we going to say f**k the elderly and vulnerable now?

It is never a matter of saying f**k the elderly and vulnerable.

If there are neither games nor gatherings in the medium term, there is no GAA and not much community either.

While the GAA is indeed built on the community, the reverse tends to apply too.

Even if its in the distant future the GAA wont disappear - we will come back strong.

Unfortunately if the vulnerable or elderly catch Covid they will disappear forever.

Seems a pretty easy distinction and choice to make

[five points]

Even if its in the distant future the GAA wont disappear - we will come back strong.

Unfortunately if the vulnerable or elderly catch Covid they will disappear forever.

Seems a pretty easy distinction and choice to make

There will always be people who are vulnerable or elderly, or both.

By your yardstick, will there ever be a good time for GAA activities to resume?

[rosnarun]

Despite the PR campaign put out by our Government  far more people have been infected in Ireland than  the UK or The us
apart from Microstates we are behind only Spain in the World  per head of population.
check out https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

its very way to take the unthinking  autocratic route and just ban every thing .
it takes a bit more guile to think of ways life can go one despite the dangers involved .
our way of doing things is not the only or even the best way .

[Rossfan]

Even if its in the distant future the GAA wont disappear - we will come back strong.

Unfortunately if the vulnerable or elderly catch Covid they will disappear forever.

Seems a pretty easy distinction and choice to make

There will always be people who are vulnerable or elderly, or both.

By your yardstick, will there ever be a good time for GAA activities to resume?

When " Social distancing" is no longer required, as stated by John Horan last Sunday night.

[Itchy]

Even if its in the distant future the GAA wont disappear - we will come back strong.

Unfortunately if the vulnerable or elderly catch Covid they will disappear forever.

Seems a pretty easy distinction and choice to make

There will always be people who are vulnerable or elderly, or both.

By your yardstick, will there ever be a good time for GAA activities to resume?

What about your yards stick, comparing the death rates of Flu to Covid effectively? 1500 people have died since our first death on March 11th in the republic (dont have 6 counties info to hand). Thats 8 weeks and that includes a substantial lock down. Flu is not as dangerous as this and its disingenuous to use flu in any comparisons.

[Ed Ricketts]

This is great and all, but it just won't work in the real world. The 'shielding' strategy will never be airtight enough that you can afford to have a huge proportion of the population running around unchecked. The best way to keep death tolls down is to keep infections down across the entire population. Unless you don't really care about death tolls, because it's mostly just old and fat people dying and they don't matter.

If this was true, entire countries would shut down annually for the duration of the flu season.

Except that COVID-19 is much more infectious and has a much greater mortality rate than seasonal flu. This info has been available for weeks, keep up.

So your argument is about rates. At what mortality rates are you happy to see GAA games  and activities take place during the flu season?

Humanity has lived with the flu for a couple of thousand years and seems to have come to terms with the risk it poses.

COVID-19 is six months old, and we have no grasp of its medium to long term impact. Until we have a solution, or get our heads around a world where this virus exists, the only sensible thing to do is to attempt to mitigate its impact by all means possible. If that means no football for a year or two, then so be it.

[Blowitupref]

Despite the PR campaign put out by our Government  far more people have been infected in Ireland than  the UK or The us
apart from Microstates we are behind only Spain in the World  per head of population.
check out https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

its very way to take the unthinking  autocratic route and just ban every thing .
it takes a bit more guile to think of ways life can go one despite the dangers involved .
our way of doing things is not the only or even the best way .

Ireland to be fair has done more testing  per million population which finds more infected cases. That fact some countries ran out of beds and ICU space and had to call in hospital ships tells you situations was far worse than reported in some other countries. Thankfully that never happened in Ireland.

Good to hear you are one the 19,470 people in Ireland that has made a recovery Lar.