I'd really like to take in a ballgame this summer. I know I won't be able to. Which is odd, because if this sport were played indoors, I think I MIGHT be able to understand why not having fans was a reasonable step to keeping people safe. But as I've watched the protests over the last several weeks - all far more crowded than the Sandy Hook beach I sat on during the July 4th weekend - and the crowded beaches themselves, I've noticed there has been no spike in NY/NJ of any meaningful nature.
Obviously what were told originally - distance is important - really only plays a large role indoors, not outdoors.
But let's stick to baseball (or football, soon enough) and mull over the possibility of sitting in a crowd cheering. Is it safer, or less safe, than marching to protest Trump, or the US in general? I'm going to be a heretic and say it's just as safe. Oh I know some people will cry "condemning people to die" or some such nonsense. The reality has been quite the opposite, though. As testing has increased, new cases have (naturally) increased. Like a witch hunt, when you search for something, you tend to find more of it. This, of course, is particularly true of a natural spreading event like a virus. What must be driving the lockdown supporters nuts is the lack of increase in the mortality rate. Recent spikes in mortality were simply delayed reporting. (see chart below fold)
If it's OK to go protest our leader(s), I'm going to say it OK to go to a ballgame. Let's get this nonsense over with. We were originally "flattening the curve" and now we are "waiting for a vaccine." It's really hard to play a game when the rules keep changing. I'm not really liking this game, and that's all it is. A political game, and none of us are going to be winners even if they are right about needing to keep things locked down even a little bit.
