Pandemic

By Sean Anchondo

Old Main Contributor

It’s hard to believe but it has already been two months since the Rudy Golbert incident. A cataclysmic event where everyone is going to remember where they were when it happened type moment.

Where was I? I was in a control room broadcasting a Texas State basketball game. In the control room, each screen is reserved for a camera or reserved for what is to be seen on the broadcast. Sometimes we will have a screen turned on to ESPN or whatever game is going on at the time for entertainment (or to announce a global pandemic). When the chyron appeared during the Dallas Mavericks game saying the NBA season was suspended indefinitely, the whole control room was in total disbelief. We rushed to get a graphic up on our broadcast (even spelling Adrian Wojanowski’s name as ‘Wojarwoski’).

After the game, while helping break down cameras, I joked about this being an elaborate way to promote the new Space Jam movie. The joke bombed, everyone else was thinking about going out for a drink at the Square. Everyone had a feeling this was a big deal, but no one thought this would be a shutdown the whole country moment.

Since that moment, our whole way of life has changed drastically. The unemployment rate is at 14.7 percent with tens of millions of Americans losing their jobs according to the Washington Post. The unemployment rate is the highest it has been since the Great Depression. Americans are lining up at food banks. Small businesses are shuttering and job markets are shrinking every day.

The novel Coronavirus has caused the deaths of over 300 thousand people worldwide and around 90 thousand in the United States. The number of cases in the United States continues to grow. Most of the country has been on lockdown since the outbreak occurred to help prevent hospitals from being overrun.

Today, looking at the numbers from the CDC and from OurWorldInData.org, you are starting to see the curve starting to flatten. In some other countries, you are seeing the case numbers double every 5-10 days, but in the United States, it is around 24 days. The number of new cases peaked on April 6 with 43,438 cases that day, and as of May 13, there were 20,869 new cases according to the CDC.

This is all good news. States like Texas, Georgia, and Colorado are beginning to open back up in increments. Texas, for example, is opening in phases: restaurants are only allowed to open at 25 percent, and large groups are not allowed. Now, Texas is seeing a surge in new cases, but that is to be expected. The surge can be a result of more tests being available. The encouraging news is the case positivity rate right now is around four percent, down from seven percent just a month ago according to the Texas Department of Health Services. This means that over 95 percent of people that test for the disease do not have it. Other states that have opened just like Texas are actually seeing a decline in new cases. Florida had a decrease of new cases by 14 percent and Georgia had a decrease of 12 percent.

I am not going to pretend that I am an expert on the virus, but the data that is out is showing that things are getting better. We are in damage control right now. Are we going to allow the economy to collapse or are we going to try to fix it? The best way to address this situation is to do a risk assessment strategy. The risk is some people are going to die. Yes, that is awful and no one wants that, but who is dying? The people that are dying are mostly older people and people with underlying conditions. The people that are in that vulnerable population should stay home. As for people under 25, dying from this disease is extremely rare. According to the CDC, less than 80 people in that age range in the entire country have died from the disease in the United States. Telling people that are in that age range that they have to stay home does not make any sense. Slowly opening in a safe way seems like the best bet.

We are getting to the point where we start thinking “is the cure worse than the virus ?”. I will bring us back to where we started with college athletics. The other day, Akron University had to cut some of its programs including men’s golf, women’s tennis, and men’s cross country teams. In Austin, St. Edward’s University had to cut some of its programs as well. The NCAA lost hundreds of millions of dollars of potential March Madness profits. The people that are going to suffer the most are the smaller schools, the smaller programs, and the students who have worked hard to earn a scholarship to attend some of these universities.

Do I agree with shutting down the NCAA tournament because of a pandemic back in March? Yes and here is why: we did not know anything about this disease. It makes sense to shut something down to protect your student body. Now that more data is coming out, we should be planning to open up safely.

Editor's Note: This is Sean's first article for Old Main Entertainment. We are super excited to have him tag along and we welcome you to the Old Main Entertainment family, Sean!