Here’s the Boston College Eagles celebrating their 24-21 win over the Bobcats in their home opener in Chestnut Hill last night.
WE TURNT pic.twitter.com/tQ1OtP8RGl
— BC Football (@BCFootball) September 27, 2020
Crazy Divers: Men be like...
drivers man be like
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GBH’s Jim Braude talks to
And here’s a video of Boston College’s Jack Dunn on WGBH who saying the university has COVID “under control”
Greg-the football team is under a different testing protocol than the general student population. They test all players 3 times per week and there have been no positive results reported positive results based on recent testing. What is your issue with the video?
@Patrick Foster – are you saying that no one on the football team has any contact with other students or the outside community, and therefore can’t have contracted COVID-19 since the last time they were tested?
And Greg’s not the only person unhappy about this:
OK – my attempt to use HTML to include Councilor Bowman’s tweet about this failed. She wrote: “As an elected official in #NewtonMA where much of the @BostonCollege campus is located, this video upsets me. @BCFootball players do not live in a bubble. #COVID19 is real and deadly but clearly no one here cares about that. @NewtonMAMayor @NewtonHealth”
https://twitter.com/aliciafornewton/status/1310197829655302145
Meredith- no that’s not what I said. I said that the football team is under a different protocol and they get tested three times per week. If they are in contact with someone, and if they contracted it, they would be identified within days. That’s a good thing. In my opinion, it’s actually what we need to do to start living with the reality that this is not going away anytime soon.
Some kind of dogma lives loudly within them!
Patrick:Part of living with the reality that this is not going away soon is to stop engaging in behavior that faciltates instead of impedes the spread. This video depicts ideal conditions for spread — shouting indoors. One infected individual can easily infect the others and spread it into my community before this 3 test per week (rapid test?) detects.
John C-the players in the video have all tested negative, so there is no risk based on what I see in the video. If this were a video of them in a bar in Newton Centre, or in a dorm room with other students, then I agree that would be risky. The fact they are tested 3 times per week makes their risk when they are together in a locker room different than when they are in the general public.
@Patric Foster – all tests have false negatives some of the time, especially when someone is in the incubation stage. And someone can get infected through contact with an infected person right after having taken a test that shows them uninfected.
Equally importantly, it’s up to the adults (coaches, etc.) to remind students to practice safe behavior all the time so it becomes a habit. The more one practices safe behavior, the more automatic it becomes.
Well said @ Meredith. This article in last month’s New England Journal of Medicine suggests that false negatives can be quite high.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2015897 So yes this celebration, inside with people crammed together, shouting and no masks is an issue.
Aside from the wisdom of allowing this, is it legal? Do MA college sports teams have a legal exemption from the Governor’s Emergency Executive order on indoor gatherings?
While I appreciate why people are upset about this incident, please consider that NPS employees are working in school buildings without proper ventilation and no testing of personnel or students. BC is hardly blameless (and anyone who believes Jack Dunn is out of their minds) but there’s something to be said about accepting responsibility for what’s going on, or not going on, in your own back yard.
What Jane Frantz said.
@Jane I am one of the councilors who has pushed for better evaluation of classrooms and for that information to be made public. That was my request at our first meeting with the School Committee and it was verified at our Thursday meeting that the testing has begun and data will be provided on the NPS website for each and every classroom and area that will be occupied. I have also supported testing. I have heard that this has a $2 million price tag.
Why I am worried about BC football? If one of these players has COVID, which could happen with false negatives, in a situation like shown on this video of the BC players they could quickly have many more cases. How many of these players have partners that they aren’t socially distancing from? Do these partners work in Newton at a restaurant or babysit or even student teach? And this all COULD HAVE BEEN AVOIDED by following the now well understood rules of wearing a mask and keeping distance from each other.
Meridit Warsha-I’m well aware of the false positive and false negative aspect of diagnostic testing. As I said above, if these players weren’t being tested three times a week I would have a different opinion on this. The fact that these schools are playing other universities, and they are doing as much testing as they are, and still have no positives is a good thing in my opinion.
Alicia – It will be easy to find groups of teenagers and college students partying in the next few months or year and to vilify them to no good end. I’d prefer that energy go into solving the problem of funding surveillance testing because it’s going to take out of the box thinking to get it done. Unless we do the surveillance testing that Councilor Baker described he’s receiving at Suffolk University, NPS doesn’t stand a chance of staying open.
Jane’s right. Let’s worry about getting our own house (NPS) in order before getting all fired up about how BC handles….density.
Side note: despite tonight’s results, the NBA playoffs have been a joy to watch. Grown men, playing a high contact sport for months…and not one positive test.
@alicia Bowman Not only is it a little late in the game to be looking at school ventilation, are we looking to see whether the air circulation is not actually spreading infections? This was the case in many tracing studies. That video is irritating but those kids get tested more than most in newton. The fact that kids are asymptomatic makes them is just as worrisome and we have next to no mitigation strategies. Checking air quality along and wearing masks are the two first things anyone with a bit of common sense would put on the school readiness plan. Yet here we are scrambling…I’d venture to say the rest of the plan is no better. Seriously, what was the SC, the mayor and David doing all these months?
I thought we were done pretending that BC was going to cause the covid driven destruction of Newton?
If people want to worry about BC students, worry about the thousands of them that have been partying throughout the fall and are not getting tested regularly/at all. No matter how badly adults want kids to care about a disease that doesn’t impact them, they simply won’t.
Find another strategy or better yet worry about yourselves.
Totally agree-don’t worry about BC worry about the NPS-
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/09/22/metro/states-emergency-child-care-centers-kept-covid-19-check-heres-how/
Wear a mask and wash your hands.
We as a society need to worry about the failure of the NPS. Now PLEASE-school committee, DF and Mayor Fuller do something and open the schools.
Lainey, I have No idea what they have been doing since March; meetings, sending surveys, ignoring surveys, planning hybrid HS, not following the plan for hybrid in person learning that 85 percent of the people wanted, having more meetings, getting their kids into private schools, discussing that they should start planning, not planning, having more meetings…
@AmyK I think you are right…I had a sneaky suspicion this was going to happen as we have been talking to the schools and SC members since the spring. We have been asking them who they are consulting, what checkpoints there would be in the planning process, how they were going to incorporate stakeholder feedback, communication plan, what would trigger going from hybrid to remote and vice versa, how that transition might look like, etc. We were told the SC had worked hard and ‘a lot of hours’ yet here we are, in October having just finalized the mask protocols and realizing that perhaps ventilation should have been checked earlier in the process. I understand it’s disruptive to change leadership in the middle of a crisis, but I don’t think this is the case with DF and extending his contract by 3 years was a real mistake. Not only does he not help the situation, he is standing in the way of anyone trying to get anything done. He claims to have the answers and solutions to everything but the summer seems like it was a complete wash.
You have to wonder what NPS and the SC have been doing. They were tasked by DESE with coming up with 3 learning plans to cover 3 scenarios . IMO the distinction in determining what plan is the active place should be public health status. Now however we are in a situation where they cannot implement the hybrid plan and per DF it is not due to public health or budget. How are they satisfying DESE’s request when one of the plans they come up with can’t be put into use? Why did they not analyze their 3 plans and then determine what the road blocks were and determine how to tackle those roadblocks? They should have determined the metrics for implementing each plan. This is a failure of leadership. The SC seemed to be surprised both when the original hybrid plan was presented and then when the course was reversed. They need to realize they are DF’s boss and not vice versa. Now we have the building fiasco. Common sense tells you when the issue of ventilation came up they should have released a report that evaluated each building, determining the state of the current ventilation system and indicating what adjustments were made to provide sufficient airflow to reduce the risk of virus spread. Instead they produced a generic document which have no insight into the safety of each building.
Agreed newton highlands plan. I’m afraid your suggestions are way too sophisticated for this group. I thought it was a lack of transparency at first but it’s actually not the main problem. David is not the most sophisticated thinker – you can tell the way he thinks and even his surveys, which I believe constituted parents feedback, were designed like a 5 year old would have done. I’ve noticed that every time anyone tries to get a concrete answer, he gets very crafty with his answers to let you assume something that is in fact not the case. Thé SC doesn’t strike me as being the most rigorous body, i mean, they let him get away with plagiarism (and it made national papers!)
The BC football players are tested constantly…they have one of the best covid records of any sports program in the country (1 positive two months ago). BC student body positive rate in the last two weeks is 0.035…which is significantly lower than Newton or Boston communities. BC did 6800 tests of students and faculty last week alone. We should be looking in the mirror instead of trying to shame the football players. Most of the high schools in the Connecticut and NY suburbs are open for in person or hybrid learning. Newton North is a $200 million showplace with the best of everything, including HVAC and ventilation…why are we still closed with no concrete plan to open?
Concerned parent: bc our superintendent and mayor are arrogant, lazy, and frankly, idiotic.
We should be congratulating our local colleges-they all have a remarkably low rate of infection. BU .08% since July, Northeastern last week-.06%, MIT .04%, Harvard .04%, BC over the last 3 weeks it went from .47% to.33%, Lasell (since August) .06%, Emerson (last week) .15%, Suffolk (last week) .08, Wellesley only 1 positive mid-August 0 since then, Newton (Last week) .44%. I am far more worried about so many large groups of teens congregating unmasked and close together in Newton than the college campuses-so far.
First, some of us are capable of worrying about more than one thing at once. Yes, I’m very concerned about the NPS situation. That doesn’t mean I can’t also be concerned about BC. And I have a long list of other things I worry about, including ones that have nothing to do with COVID-19.
Second, just because many college and high school students are going to ignore rules doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be concerned – including worrying about the ones who are following restrictions. Not every teen or young adult is an irresponsible party animal. There are college students who are very unhappy about the kids who are ignoring the rules and endangering their classmates.
Jess,
Not that this is an excuse because many teens have been hanging out together unmasked and in close contact, but the NPS Teens are isolated at home. And then they can’t wait to escape and see some peers. I wonder if there were some in person NPS school or clubs would you see as many as you do now?
I haven’t been too concerned seeing teenager’s hanging out. In the coming weeks though, as that hanging out moves indoors, I’ll definitely be a bit more apprehensive.
The good news is that we’re at a good baseline at the moment. I hope we can stay there … or near there, for the foreseeable future.
I guess we missed what happened in the 3 hours prior to the locker room gathering? They played a football game? Our society has no chance when we spend our days jumping all over people saying “I got you!” Life has to move on and we cannot spend time dwelling on past happenings of groups that have taken precautions far greater and tighter than I would imagine most people on this string of comments take. We are kidding ourselves if we think we can isolate one of life’s risks to the detriment of every other risk and still have lives. This started out as a mission to keep healthcare from getting overwhelmed, and then once politicized it became a mission to ensure “no one” gets the virus.
Also, the City of Newton needs to find some other institution to attack rather than BC. They are proud contributors to Newton’s daily life and I imagine they feel under attack for a variety of reasons over the past 3 years.
I picked up Covid and now its gone, just as I had with the measles, the mumps, chicken pox, and survived being a child in the polio era. Now that over zealous political leaders have clamped down on your lives for Covid, where does this end? When’s the next shutdown?
@James Cote:
My sister-in-law “picked up Covid” and now she’s gone. Please don’t diminish the consequences of transmitting this virus.
“I picked up Covid and now its gone, just as I had with the measles, the mumps, chicken pox, and survived being a child in the polio era.”
James, that is one of the most ignorant things I’ve ever seen you post here. That’s called survivorship bias. It’s nonsense, it’s ignorant, and it’s disrespectful to the people who have died, their loved ones, people who are intubated as I type this, and the people dealing with the lingering symptoms of having COVID.
The argument that the BC Football team wasn’t exhibiting risky behavior due to frequent testing ignores that they just played Texas State Univ, with unknown testing protocols, coming from the state (Texas) that currently has the highest number of new COVID cases in the nation over the last 14 days.
Were the BC players tested again on Sunday? Were they quarantined Saturday night after the game? Did the Texas State players quarantine for the duration of their time in MA?
Baker just announced the next phase of reopening, including indoor performance venues. Sanity is prevailing far and wide!
@Mary and @Gail: I’m not diminishing anything at all, it’s just that there are things that you cannot control in the world and there are things that you can. I’m not downplaying anything, my mother was terrified of polio with at the time 4 kids, and I’ll always remember that.
I too know people that have passed on this virus and others, and as a young person I served on burial details for my friends/peers. There is a lot to sort out here, but everyone’s opinion counts because once we get through this period of time decisions will have to be made in the future.
As a parent and advisor, I can tell you many horror stories of lost jos, family break-ups, and financial challenges.
Calling people names because you don’t share their opinion is not helpful to taking the next step and shows we need more open communication on this and other subjects.
James, agreed that we can’t stop living our lives however, there are many things about this virus we don’t know about. One of the more concerning factor are the long term ramifications that are just beginning to surface in the media. I wouldn’t be surprised to see severe effects in 2-3 years. These effects affect all ages, including children. The other thing about this virus is that you can feel completely fine but that doesn’t mean there are no consequences (e.g., college athletes who were asymptomatic or had mild symptoms yet have myocarditis, or athletes having to sit out the season bc their cardiac abilities are completely down). But the important thing is to fully understand the risks – not surprising, but the White House was pressuring the cdc to disproportionately put out data to support their position about opening schools)
Lainey,
Its fine you you to be personally concerned about the virus but its not fine to come here and talk nonsense. The myocarditis scare has been completely debunked and all but three D1 colleges are now playing football. You cannot provide an example of an athlete sitting out the season because of their cardiac abilities (this isn’t even a thing) being down. The athletes, like everybody else below 80 years old, are just fine.
Mass is opening and not a moment too soon.
@Craig,
I might be wrong but I believe Eduardo Rodriguez from the Red Sox had to sit out the season due to cardiac issues relating to Covid….
Craig, debunked?? How do you figure that?? It was shown independently in a study from German that was published in July, and like the whole truth said, Rodriguez had to sit it out for the rest of the season. Your point that those college athletes are doing well only reinforces my point that the damage may be there without you knowing. Beyond the heart issues, there have been multiple reports about damage to other organs including lung fibrosis caused by the excessive immune response and that is not exactly something I would take lightly since it’s not reversible. The decision re College football was made bc the big ten and the pac12 have the resources to test their players every day. But why don’t you tell me how I’m talking nonsense and how it’s been all debunked?
Nope. That wasn’t true the last time you said it and it’s not true now.
Lainey,
I regret responding to your post and won’t do so further. Covid isn’t going away and nobody is persuaded by a single case of a pitcher on the worst team in the league sitting a season out. Every single sport in the US is currently playing or making plans to play. Many/most of the college football players have already had covid, including entire teams.
If the best that you can do is worry about “damage that might there without people even knowing,” I can’t help you.
I’m just deeply sorry that people like you ruining the lives of our kids.
Regarding the herd immunity approach being suggested here:
If the US had New Zealand’s COVID death rate per capita, we’d have 1,700 COVID deaths rather than 206,000.
If MA had New Zealand’s COVID death rate per capita, we’d have 33 COVID deaths rather than 9,423.
If Newton had New Zealand’s COVID death rate per capita, we’d have less than one (statistically, 0.47) COVID death rather than 136.
Thank you trump, and thank you Craig for telling us that COVID isn’t going away and advocating for it not to.
@craig a little dramatic no to imply that I’m ruining the lives of your kids?
first off, I’ve said and maintain that you can make whatever feels right for your family but ideally, we should all be very clear on the risks and the fact that we don’t yet have long term data does not mean there are no risks. If you read any of the scientific papers or talk to people working in the field, what you are seeing in patients and when looking at tissues is not reassuring in the least.
Again, many athletes are playing but they are getting tested constantly and the Titans for example are sitting this week out. The example we gave about Rodriguez is consistent with many reports and as I said, it doesn’t mean that bc you are playing and feeling ok, that you have nothing to be worried about. Rogriguez is actually a pretty good athlete and if you look at football drafts, teams will not sign on any player with a hint of a heart issue whether they manifest themselves physically or not, case in point Mo Hurst. your logic reminds me of the smokers who for a long time maintained there was no danger. The science with anything involving immune deregulation is pretty complex and we honestly know very little about what is happening.
Again, you can do what you want with your family, I’m not stopping you , no need to get triggered.
Nathan, if we had New Zealand’s per capita sheep population you would have 12 in your backyard, and this about as relevant as their covid experience.
Lainey, if you don’t understand how your fanaticism gave the teachers cover to sit out a year then I simply can’t help you. Go research some obscure health conditions.
Craig: “The 136 Newton deaths were inevitable. There is nothing that could’ve been done or can be done. And it’s only the ones over 80 who will die anyway. So, no masks, no distancing, party like it’s 2019!”
Having full information is fanaticism?
Wait, wait, wait, I’ve heard this before…discrediting science and being overly belligerent in face of dissent… Person, man, woman, camera, tv
FYI
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2020/09/29/notre-dames-brian-kelly-coronavirus-outbreak-stemmed-from-team-pregame-meal/24634390/
It’s rituals like this that make it inevitable.
Associating Craig with Trump because he does not have an alarmists view of Covid, is no different than Trump-supporters associating ALL Newtonians with the, “radical left”.
On a related note, BC plays 12th ranked UNC at Alumni Stadium this Sat afternoon. If the Eagles upset the Tar Heels, you can assume some hard partying in Chestnut Hill Sat night will be happening.