Corona Virus and events

glacial_pace71 wrote: »

The cancellation (or is it just a postponement?) of the Ireland-Italy game does set off some alarm bells.

But the Irish Govt does have form in this regard. Back in 2003 various countries' Special Olympics teams were told that they weren't welcome on account of the SARS panic of that time.

In June 2003 it was eventually conveyed to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region that they'd be tolerated. Have a look at the official WHO figures at the time the decision was made:

https://www.who.int/csr/sars/country/2003_06_06/en/

Going by today's panicked reaction the Irish Govt would have banned the Canadians and Americans.

Granted, world travel has increased massively over the intervening years but, from a European perspective, back in 2003 we had Schengen and we had Ryanair flights etc. (Then again the Ryanair trick of calling something Frankfurt Hahn etc is almost like flying people into areas so remote from their intended destinations, 125+ km in some cases, that it's a bit like a quarantine regime).

For race organisers they're in a completely different position than St Patrick's Day parades/gatherings etc. Race organisers know or ought to know the nationality of a large percentage of their participants. It makes any so-called risk assessment much easier, even before engaging with the health authorities.

The Irish boxing delegation are returning from Italy today. It'd appear that we'll take the medieval-plague-is-upon-us approach at national level but whether it generates any new-found political interest in funding the health service is another matter.

At the end of the day I fear that a number of perfectly safe events in Irelan will be cancelled out of the symbolism of being seen to 'do something', e.g. wear a hi-vis vest and stare mournfully at Shannon flooding whilst nodding seriously every so often etc.

However, I strongly doubt that other countries will hit the 'national panic' button. Sure, it'd play very well as a dog whistle in some countries to be 'keeping out the foreign threat' but braver politicians, better-equipped health systems, and the likelihood of a temperature rise (with consequent drop in viral survival rates outside a host) should all contribute to the situation becoming a properly-assessible risk over the coming weeks.