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Or FFS...it's the goddamn flu. This shit was going around out here in PHX well before Christmas and around Thanksgiving. It was a nasty lung bug...like viral pneumonia. Tons of people had it out here. I got it. My gal got it. Same symptoms as they're maniacally describing. Just out of control bullshit. Get a fuckin grip people. A little perspective: https://weather.com/health/cold-flu/news/2020-01-28-flu-more-deadly-than-coronavirus Hell...back on 2017 or so 80K in the US alone died of flu per the CDC. How many have died from this mania so far? 14? 22?

America's propensity towards individualism and selfishness is on full display with this outbreak. When Japan told people to stay home, they listened. South Korea? Same thing. American's response is "who are you to tell me what to do?" You staying home is not about protecting you; the majority of us are not at risk. We are being asked to stay home to protect societies most vulnerable. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices personally for the greater good of all. This is one of those times. As MQR has already laid out, this is a resource issue. There are only 924,000 hospital beds in the USA. Of those 924,000, 66% of them are taken up year round for general issues like cancer and things. That leaves a little over 300,000 beds for other unforseen issues. Coronavirus has a hospitalization rate of about 10-15%; let's say 10% and error on the low side. The projection is for between 40-70% of the world population to contract he virus over the next year; lets, again, estimate on the low side and say 30% of American's get it this year. That's over 100,000,000 people; if 10% of those people need to be hospitalized, we're talking about 10,000,000+ people. We don't have the infrastructure, or the health care resources, to accommodate that. Which means? Hospitals will be forced to make tough decisions that costs people their lives (This is ALREADY happening in Italy FYI). By quarantining, you are not trying to "stop" the virus. You are trying to delay the spread of the virus in a way that allows doctors to keep up with the work load; which allows everyone an equal shot at survival if they're vulnerable. That's the point of bans on big public spaces, and while the rest of the world says "do whatever is best, we need to contain this," American's are fluttering about calling it the "flu" and downplaying the risk because it doesn't impose a risk to them personally. Furthermore, the USA has a healthcare system issue in general; many people can't even afford to go to the doctor, and even more can't afford to miss work for 2 weeks in the name of staying safe and healthy. This will lead people into the work place with illnesses, expediting the spread. There is no vaccine for this; the vulnerable have no way of protecting themselves. Instead of thinking about you and the personal problems/sacrifices you have to make - minor inconveniences in the grand scheme of things - think about the most vulnerable who have their lives at risk here. If the system is flooded, they can't receive proper treatment; if they can't receive proper treatment, they could die. This is not some small issue just because it doesn't effect you personally. This is a dangerous illness with no vaccine or cure. Show some compassion. I'll be sad when MLB plays games in empty stadiums - it will - but at the same time I understand it, and it's a sacrifice I'm absolutely willing to make for the better good of all.

There’s a chance that my office could shut down indefinitely because of this idiotic thing. With pay, of course. If it does, I’m going to rent out a mansion on Lake Como, for cheap. Spoiler alert, everybody: We are all going to die. Sometimes you get those horror movies where most of the people die but those two people you probably didn’t expect actually live. That’s not this one. In this one, everybody dies! So live your lives. Hang out with your friends, with your families, enjoy the small things and the big things, and don’t freak out because the same imbeciles who think Mike Bloomberg can give a million dollars to every American think some virus is the end of the world.

Yea and that's why we're better than China. But seriously fuck Gobert.

This entire Corona virus mass hysteria is a joke and insane...

Here's an easy answer for you Harry: Trust the Medical Professionals and Scientists. That's what they're here for. This isn't about politics or Trump - this is a global problem. When in doubt, trust the highly educated professionals.

Oh, sorry, Jack. You pulled another random number out of your butt, so I’ll totally panic now. Seriously, where do you get off telling people they need to panic about this? 5-7 on the alarm scale? WTF is that?

There are more important things than sports. This crisis is worse right now because short sighted people didn't take it seriously. I don't like the idea of empty stadiums, but that may be a price we have to pay for a short time. As for me, regardless of the MLB's decisions, I will wait until warmer weather until I go to a game. At least the conditions will be better. And I don't care about percentages of getting the disease. If you should be a person who gets it, you wouldn't give a shit about percentages. Right now baseball is not all that important. The state of our country is.

This isn't about the population, this is about you. And you need to believe science, not news

Listen to the epidemiologists ffs

The Italian Health Care system is on the brink of collapse with 10,000 known cases. This isn't a fucking joke. We have less hospital beds per capita than Italy, btw.

caulfield if you want to talk about how baseball is set to react talk about that. But don't just turn this into another corona thread, there already is one.

Park Park mentioned it on 670 and Bernstein has a relative who tested positive for it. Some idiot called in and classic Bernstein ensued. It was awesome.

I'm a few days from being told to stay home, and all I know is I will make a concerted effort to be more productive so I never have to come back in again

ehhhh this is the MLB draft, not the NBA or NFL draft, getting a solid-if-unspectacular player with the 4th pick is hardly a disaster considering how common it is for teams to just outright whiff

Yeah, I was joking about this but TV ratings should be fantastic. People will be indoors staying home. NCAA tournament and MLB ratings should be better than usual.

I will say this; it is going to harm small to medium businesses substantially. I am spending my day reading contracts and agreements trying to find loop holes or outs pertaining to acts of god because we're bleeding millions a day. A stimulus package would be helpful, but certainly not the one that has been proposed so far. Loan forgiveness for hardship purposes may help; paid time off for hourly employees is a must, but we'll never get that past so I'm not holding my breath. Small-medium business loan forgiveness for effected industries - which is everyone at this point - would be helpful. I also want to add that Italy is hurting because 23% of their GDP is tied to the service industry. America's economy revolves around the service industry/hospitality industry more than any major country in the world. The GDP growth this quarter is absolutely fucked, and the job of the government right now needs to be protecting societies most vulnerable (physically and economically) because this is just getting starter. The 8th biggest ECONOMY in the WORLD has just shut down entirely. As other countries follow suit, we're looking at one heck of a global recession.

Two things are evident to me: Removing fans is necessary (need to limit virus spread to help our healthcare system) Games should probably be played Play to empty stadiums, keep people safe.

This is the key right here.

This is despicable. You’re really insinuating that 20% of asthmatics on this planet are going to die this year? Yes, I’m calm, because I think people like you are full of shit. But the fact that you and Jack and all these others are perfectly happy to run around and inspire fear is absolutely disgusting. I don’t block people but don’t bother responding to me.

We can't stop people from getting sick. It's out there and in the wild and there's not much we can do about that for the foreseeable future. We need to keep everyone from getting sick at the same time. It's not that hard to understand.

This is going to kill a lot of people's grandparents and hospitalize a lot of otherwise healthy young and middle aged folks. The lead Doc at the CDC directly told Americans "this is not the flu, it's much worse" this morning. But hey, stick your head in the sand if you want. What do we have to lose other than our health and parents?

A. That's only ICU. B. That number is only going to continue to rise at an exponential rate. Italy is going to get to the point where all the 15% of people who require breathing assistance aren't going to make it. That number, by the way, includes otherwise healthy and young people.

Well I'm 62 and already have COPD from smoking and a bad immune system so If I disappear the Corona Virus got me. PS. I have to live my life. The only way, so far, it's affecting me is the yo-yoing of the stock market.

Thanks for the stats- So let's just say it kills 15% of people over 80 and that number sticks. And let's use the 1.3% of people over 50. Should we do nothing and not try to contain it? Kill millions of people over 80? Roughly 2 billion of the 7 billion people in the world are over 50. Using your mortality rate that is 26 million dead over the age of 50- of course not all of them will get this virus- but hopefully the point is made. Your parents, your grandparents. 16% of the USA population is over 60 so about 56 million people. So should we not do anything for those roughly 725k people? Don't forget we have a normal flu season coming too. And this virus is more easily spread because of the incubation period- people can walk around for up to a week with no symptoms. Do you know why the Avian H5N1 (mortality rate of 60%) didn't wipe us out? Because it caused people to get super sick super fast thus they can't spread it because they are home sick. This is the opposite easy to spread but not as deadly. Leave world health issues to the experts like the WHO and the CDC. It is a huge deal if they don't get this under control quickly. BTW this isn't directed at you- just anyone that thinks this is a media conspiracy. They stopped SARS by utilizing effective quarantines- had they not that would have killed millions.

I did not see an option for just start the season as normal allowing fans to come to the game as usual....so I did not vote in this Soxtalk survey. Would that be the Libertarian button that was not included?

This thing is less threatening than a bad flu season and it has people turning their lives upside down. Absolutely unbelievable. The media should be ashamed of themselves. This is hurting people businesses/lives.

This.

That could be the greatest post in SoxTalk history but I will never know because I couldn’t make it past the first 2 of 50 bolded, italicized, individually-spaced sentences.

Maybe they saw Rod Carew in Madrigal. There are superstars that are great fielders, with great speed and great bat control. Everyone doesnt have to be a masher.

In China, they were threatening the death penalty or at least 20-30 years in jail for having the virus and intentionally spitting at or coughing on someone. Basically, attempted murder or at least manslaughter. It happened on a Thai Airways flight from Bangkok to Pudong/Shanghai this past Friday, where a Chinese passenger flipped out and starting coughing on flight attendants just to get off the plane after being stuck waiting to deplane for seven hours. Right behind Gobert is Congressman Gaetz from FL, wearing the gas mask into the House to make light of the “hysteria.” That’s not aging well, especially if he tests positive and has spread it to the President and other Cabinet members while on Air Force One.

Rudy Gobert should be suspended forever. He's positive for corona.

I have a sadistic urge to bump the “Why has Hahn failed” thread from the middle of the offseason and add this detail.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/03/coronavirus-cancel-everything/607675/ I think this article might already have been cited...but it’s definitely worth revisiting.

His age is a legitimate reason to be concerned. But in the 2nd half last year, EE had a slash line of .321/.392/.643. Now, granted, and not helping the age concern is that his 2nd half consisted of 125 PA. But he mashed at least. And his first half, even though he hit 25 homers, featured a .199 BABIP. The dude can still hit when he is healthy. He has also been pretty darn durable. Last season was the first in which he didn't play at least 130 games since 2010. Maybe last season was foretelling his demise with missing some games. But his spring ABs are meaningless. He isn't a AA player trying to impress management to make the team. To even consider his spring is ignorant, silly or trolling.

I do agree that it would get lonely. I have a cousin and friend who do it every day and I feel each goes stir crazy. Doing it twice a week would be great. Could make those my errand days when it is slower in the office. Or I can plan personal stuff better at least.

Because large groups of people from the teams won't be moving from place to place and spreading it across the nation. If they stay in AZ, so does anything they are carrying.

I see where we are and other teams near the ASB. If we are not contending, I move for best prospect who is hopefully low minors and not due for 40 man. If we are out of it, there will be contending teams who will look at him as a decent upgrade and we should get something of value. If we are in the thick of things, I may not rock the boat. It requires Collins to look passable on defense or Zavala rebounding to at least be a defensively competent backup. If contending you can't have Grandal wear down. I love Yermin as a personality but realistically, he is a possible DH and emergency only catcher.

The flu is a respiratory illness. You don't end up in the bathroom for 9 hours, 2 hours after eating because you have a respiratory illness. That's not how it works.

TBH I'm not sure the media is hyping it enough. Still seeing wayyyyy too many "The flu is worse" articles when just about every doctor in the world has come out and said this is 10x worse than the flu. But I feel you on the WHO thing, in regards to H1N1.

Lane, there's like 1,000,000 tests at most nation wide available for use. Citing a number because we didn't test people isn't exactly a great assessment. If 3 people reportedly have it, way more people actually have it. Not a single case in Chicago has not infected someone else.

I have to work and I am going on vacation next week. I am going to continue to live my life, but I will do it with respect for others by maintaining my cleanliness and etc; as well as not invading peoples personal space. I'm going to Vegas/Arizona next week for 10 days. It's going to be interesting to see how empty it is.

You dont need the media to make up yoir mind for you. There are plenty of sources available to you, including those from reputable health services. I suggest you do your own research and look for those who know what they are talking about.

The Rays also receive extra draft picks and more international bonus pool space.

Probably would attend 81 home games and burn an article of team attire in public until getting permanently banned or arrested.

He’s the face of black baseball. I checked out him on the CC Sabathia podcast on the Undisputed and they were talking about “clubhouse culture”, we need to stop calling it that and calling it what it is. It’s a form of institutionalized, cultural racism, calling it what it is will only help solve the problem. And it’s good to see the White Sox position themselves as that team, the team who’s leading the battle against institutional racism in MLB. Looking at the team, they have a lot of dark skinned players, a lot of whom are from Latin America. So it’s good that they’re celebrating the African American presence and the Latin culture in their locker room.

The virus is starting to make some people wash their hands the way they always should have been in the first place.

I'd be really pissed and still have no idea how to deal with it a month later. I wouldn't be defending them, but I'm not sure what I'd be saying. I'm still to this day trying to figure out how to deal mentally with Pablo Ozuna.

Teams will play a 5 man infield to take away the swinging bunt.