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News Coronavirus and NRL

Perth Red

Post Whore
Messages
69,867
Be interesting to see how the Government and sporting leagues respond though... are we just going to say, oh well the majority are vaccinated let's just keep going? Or are they going to panic and start implementing restrictions again? Surely the whole vax push lately suggests that the former will be the way they will go
You'd think so, though some European countries are trying to get back on top of it by bringing in restrictions again. Not sure anyone really knows whats best tbh!

Whilst it'll be nice for us to open up our borders again in Feb I work in aged care so its back to masks all the time which is horrible for staff and residents, especially with dementia who often rely on reading facial expression for communication. So over it!
 

Nuke

Moderator
Staff member
Messages
5,387
You'd think so, though some European countries are trying to get back on top of it by bringing in restrictions again. Not sure anyone really knows whats best tbh!

Whilst it'll be nice for us to open up our borders again in Feb I work in aged care so its back to masks all the time which is horrible for staff and residents, especially with dementia who often rely on reading facial expression for communication. So over it!
Likewise. Another aged care worker here too. The way I read it though, is that it will only be visitors to the facilities, not staff (unless displaying symptoms of being unwell) who will have to wear masks. As you say, those things are horrible to wear when at the best of times, let alone when dealing with people with hearing loss or dementia. And as an allied health worker, I have concerns they're going to restrict our bus trips or ban them completely.
Last year we went 9 months without them and our residents missed them dearly. Then we had a couple of months where we could only take 2 at a time.

But anyway, this is a football forum!

It's hard to know which way the NRL, or any sporting code, will go about their future seasons when governments don't really know which way they're going as far as restrictions or freedom goes. The UK were hell-bent on returning society back to normal as soon as possible regardless of the covid situation ... but now that this new version's running rampant, they're now considering restrictions again. Just as Australia's starting to open back up. So how long will that last before borders tighten up again and sporting bubbles reappear?
 

Knight76

Juniors
Messages
2,045
Brad Hazzard keeps saying we need to focus on hospitalisations and not infections. News keeps focussing on the sensational of course.

NRL will take steps to minimise disruption to the schedule. If players are getting infected and whole teams need to isolate for 7 days causing scheduling issues and potential forfeits. That will hit the NRL hard due to foxtel and 9 needing the games on their channels.

Surely the NRL have anticipated this scenario and have some sort of plan on how they are going to deal with it.
 

Iamback

Referee
Messages
20,446
Brad Hazzard keeps saying we need to focus on hospitalisations and not infections. News keeps focussing on the sensational of course.

NRL will take steps to minimise disruption to the schedule. If players are getting infected and whole teams need to isolate for 7 days causing scheduling issues and potential forfeits. That will hit the NRL hard due to foxtel and 9 needing the games on their channels.

Surely the NRL have anticipated this scenario and have some sort of plan on how they are going to deal with it.

Hard to say without knowing the Govt rules. As it stands if a players child was to get it that is 7 days Iso regardless of whether said player has it or not.

3 months until kickoff. Hopefully that changes before then
 

Knight76

Juniors
Messages
2,045
Hard to say without knowing the Govt rules. As it stands if a players child was to get it that is 7 days Iso regardless of whether said player has it or not.

3 months until kickoff. Hopefully that changes before then

Yes, hopefully that gives us time to better come to grips with how we deal with an out of control covid situation. Which is what they are referring to when they talk about living with covid.

My understanding of the rules as they are now is that a close contact needs to islolate for 7 days with negative test at start and negative test at the end. Casual contact just needs to isolate until they get a negative test.
 

Valheru

Coach
Messages
19,205
Interesting development from the NFL which may well be the way forward for most sports including NRL

Pertinent part of the article in bold below

In creating the new return-to-play protocols, the NFL and NFLPA focused on a new metric that measures the viral load of a player, known as the "cycle threshold" (CT). In essence, the CT value can measure whether a player is still contagious, even if in some cases he would still test positive on a traditional test.

That testing can begin as soon as one day after the initial positive and could significantly shorten the amount of time a vaccinated player spends away from the team facility.

There are now three ways for a vaccinated player to return under the new protocols:

• Two PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests that are either negative or produce a CT value of 35 or greater.

• One PCR test that is either negative or produces a CT value of 35 or greater, and a negative Mesa test result taken with 24 hours of the PCR test. (Mesa tests usually return results in less than an hour.)

• Two negative Mesa tests.



In other words their new metric is whether the player is contagious as opposed to positive with the virus.
 

flippikat

First Grade
Messages
5,252
Here in NZ we've just had the gap between 2nd shot and boosters (3rd shot) reduced from 6 months to 4 months, which means over 82 per cent of vaccinated Kiwis will be eligible for a booster by the end of February 2022... so we're on track there - plus rollout for kids 5-11 starts mid-Jan. Self-isolation for those arriving from Australia has been pushed back from mid-Jan to late Feb

It's gonna cause a reshuffle for Super Rugby Pacific (as they're due to kickoff in mid feb), but it absolutely vindicates the NRL's decision to keep the Warriors in Australia for at least the early months of the season.

Problem is the whole "Whack a Mole" thing with new Covid strains popping up every few months.. what's the chance that as soon as we have the boosters rolled out for Omicron, some other version will put us back to square one again? :(
 

Knight76

Juniors
Messages
2,045
Omicron hasn't put us back to square 1 though. Our existing vaccine coverage is still effective but we are seeing many now that got vaccinated early, their protection is starting to drop off and need booters.

And even though Omicron appears much more infectious than Delta or previous covid variants, we aren't seeing explosions in hospitalsations and ICU beds being overrun. That is the greatest effect the vaccine can have.

And, those who have caught covid and experience only mild symptoms for a week or so, congratulations you just got some boosted antibodies.

We are transitioning through the pandemic and taking small steps forward. We are going to need to move to a point where infections are not a terrible thing, and in fact help the nation move towards better immunity in addition to boosters. That is the only way we are going to get out of this pandemic. At some point we need to get to a situation where if you have covid, you don't need to isolate unless much like a cold/flu you are too unwell to work.

This will be helped by the anti viral pill just approved in the US.

The vaccination program should remain effective for new variants as long as it isn't immune to the vaccine. That would put us back to square 1.
 
Messages
947
Hopefully the big fella recovers ok, he might want to pick a different imagenary god though, his current one doesn't seem to have his back!

The factual existence of God is irrelevant to the important and beneficial role that religion contributes to our community.

Even I know this and I'm a f**king moron.
 

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