“As the N.F.L. makes plans to return to stadiums at full capacity this season, researchers published findings that ‘fan attendance at N.F.L. games led to episodic spikes’ in the number of Covid-19 cases,” the far-left New York Times reports. (I don’t link to fake news.)
There is just one teensy-tiny, itty-bitty, little problem with this so-called study…
There’s no hard science to back up the claim. Most importantly, the science is not based on contact tracing. Nevertheless, here’s the Times headline…
“New Study Finds Covid Spikes After N.F.L. Games With Fans.”
Actually, no it doesn’t.
Here are the key parts of the story. Emphasis throughout is mine:
Justin Kurland of the University of Southern Mississippi, used the number of positive cases not just from the counties where the 32 N.F.L. teams play, but also from surrounding counties to track the spread among fans who may have traveled to games from farther away. After adjusting the figures to eliminate potential false positives and days when counties did not report cases, they found surges in infection rates in the second and third weeks following N.F.L. games that were played with more than 5,000 fans in attendance. The study does not prove a causal link between fan attendance and Covid-19 cases, but suggests that there may be a relationship between the two.
And then, way down in paragraph 16 — 16! — we are finally told this:
The authors of the study submitted to The Lancet concede that their research only shows that two events — games with fans and increasing positive Covid-19 rates — coincided. Other events like political rallies, the reopening of colleges or holiday travel may have contributed to an increase in infections, especially in states where preventive measures like the wearing of masks were less widely adopted. Infections may have also increased because fans watched games with their friends in living rooms or at bars, gatherings that were beyond the N.F.L.’s control.
It gets worse…
“[N]ot everyone cooperated with contact tracers’ requests, even people who attended N.F.L. games and tested positive had difficulty determining whether they got infected before, during or after the games,’ the Times admits in paragraph 17.
“Eight residents who tested positive for the virus told contact tracers that they had recently attended Cowboys home games,” we learned in paragraph 18.
Oh, my, a whole eight people out of tens of thousands. Eight!
You cannot prove causation with infections without in-depth contact tracing, which makes this study junk science and a naked act of pro-lockdown hysteria.
Hey, it may very well be that attending football games increases China Virus infections. But maybe, just maybe, before you publish a report announcing that, you should be sure of that. We’re only talking about the economic and personal liberty of more than 300 million Americans here.
But here’s my thought…
If rioting and looting and burning down Democrat-run cities don’t cause coronavirus infections to spread, and if celebrating His Fraudulency Joe Biden’s win doesn’t cause infections to spread, my guess is that neither do NFL games.
Why is it always the stuff normal people do — stuff like celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas, stuff like attending an NFL game — that may cause infections to spike, but whatever the freaks on the left do — rioting, looting, burning, protesting, etc. — is perfectly safe?
Regardless, I will always revert to my overall, bottom-line opinion about all of this…
Everyone knows the risks of the China Virus, which means everyone should be allowed to make their own decisions about how to handle it.
If people choose not to wear masks and not to social distance and not to avoid big crowds, that in no way harms those of us who do choose to do those things.
People should be allowed to take whatever risks they want…
The New York Times and the Lancet should not be publishing junk science just to please lockdown Nazis…
America’s “experts” and their allies in the fake media continue to prove they are useless and corrupt.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
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