Georgia football coach Kirby Smart says Bulldogs experiencing 'highest spike' of COVID-19

[jalan48]

Georgia football coach Kirby Smart says Bulldogs experiencing 'highest spike' of COVID-19 despite more than 90% being vaccinated


"I'll be honest with you, I'm as concerned as I've ever been, because we have three or four guys out with COVID and we have a couple staff members that have been out with COVID here recently," Smart said. "For us, we're at our highest spike. And people are talking about vaccinations, well these are people that are vaccinated. We're talking about breakthroughs, and so that concerns you not only for the players on your team that are unvaccinated, that are playing and not playing, because we want everybody to be safe. But it concerns me for the players that are vaccinated that we could lose them."

Smart said, last month, that more than 90% of Georgia's players, coaches and other staff members had been vaccinated for COVID-19.

Georgia is not requiring fans to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test to attend games at Sanford Stadium this season. Capacity is 92,746.

"This is the highest we've been since fall camp right now," Smart said. "I think there's this relief that you guys feel like everything's back to normal, well it's really just not for us right now."

https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/32160799/georgia-football-coach-kirby-smart-says-90-vaccination-bulldogs-experiencing-highest-spike-covid-19

[aeromanKC]

1. I am shocked I tell you!! Shocked!!

NOT!! Did you see all those crowds last weekend and not a mask in sight.

[jalan48]

2. Maybe the coach's words will wake a few people up. I did see the crowds and wondered WTF? The

TV broadcasters were glad to "get back to normal" though. Ignorance is bliss.

[House of Roberts]

3. Ignorance means money.

At least the blue voters have been vaxxed if they are in attendance at one of these events.

[SCantiGOP]

4. I would love to see college football have to shut down

That is the only way I can think of to get the average trumpie Southerner to vax and mask.

[Initech]

7. Even then they still wouldn't.

Remember - these are the people who are proud to be jerks, and they still will even if they had their toys taken away.

[BannonsLiver]

8. I wouldn't get your hopes up.

[misanthrope]

9. They wouldn't "shut down" the sport itself

They didn't last year when there was no vaccine so they certainly wouldn't now. The most drastic step they might take would be limiting crowd size and asking attendees to space. Even then, it would be hard to enforce.

[SCantiGOP]

10. The NBA had a meeting

and surprised everyone when they immediately canceled the season. Other spots shut down or significantly curtailed, and some schools simply opted out of the season.
Considering the status of the spread in the Southeast, I think there is a good chance of losing all or part of the season.

[misanthrope]

11. Completely different scenarios

The relationship between professional sports franchises and their players is of a different legal nature than that of scholarship athletes at Football Bowl Subdivision members. Major college football programs fund most of the non-revenue producing athletic programs at the schools. From field hockey to swimming to equestrian, they depend on the money from football and basketball to stay viable.

Also, your statement sounded to me as if you don't fully understand the cultural dynamic at play in the Southeast. Extreme recalcitrance would demand robust pushback to any season-ending move. It would get really ugly, really fast. Not saying it is justified, just what is.

I feel the combination of cultural forces and money would make such a shutdown unlikely.

[SCantiGOP]

12. Don't want to argue, but

I played college sports at an SEC school, so I know a bit about it.
The High School my kids went to has already cancelled 2 of their first three games due to Covid.
I didn’t say I expected it to happen; I said it would be an instant reality blast for the anti-vax crowd.

[misanthrope]

13. Then allow me to say this

After what I have seen and heard in the last week following the start of college football and the resumption of full stadiums, I can say with confidence that people in Alabama would lose their minds if college football season was halted. Daily life here in one of the state's hottest spots for COVID, the common behaviors and widespread opinions, might shock you in the degree of delusion, willful ignorance and belligerence.

[gab13by13]

5. Hey coach,

are you sure them boys were vaccinated? There are a lot of fake ID cards that float around college campuses.

[madville]

6. The last 5 people to get infected at my job are vaccinated

We only take a test at work if we self-report symptoms, I imagine more of us vaccinated folks have gotten it but were asymptomatic so had no reason to test. Vaccinated folks here also are not required to test even if recently working with/exposed to someone that does test positive.