Thoughts On What We Do Now

Well, here we are.  First of all, I appreciate the kind words and positive feedback regarding my COVID 19 post.  As a physician and educator, it is rewarding to know folks found it informative.  Literally within hours of writing the post, MLB announced the cessation of spring training and a delay of the regular season by at least 2 weeks.  I have to tell you, based on incident data I have seen, I do not expect to see any games being played before June at the earliest.  I hope I am wrong about that, but even if social distancing measures work as intended, if we go back to business as usual too soon, we risk a resurgence and having to start all over.

We have a double whammy situation here.  Has anyone tried to find entertaining content to watch on TV lately?  Wow!  Talk about 57 Channels and Nothin' On!  We have DirecTV and it's more like 570 channels and nothin' on!  Without sports to watch, social distancing becomes an even more isolating and boring existence.  OK, I can write more articles for my blog.....oh, never mind.  There are no games to write about.  Well, there's always the minor leagues......oops!  Never mind that too!  OK, there's college baseball and the draft......nope, that's cancelled too!

How has COVID 19 affected you?  I went out to the store this afternoon and a mob of people stocking up on everything you can imagine.  I got what I needed, but a lot of shelves were empty or almost empty.  Absolutely no paper products to be found anywhere.  On top of all that, I probably exposed myself to the virus in the process!

I will try to think of things to write about to help all of us get through, but it's going to be tough.  I'm looking for suggestions.  If you have any, please post them in comments.  This is probably a good time to start a Q/A.  Post your questions and I'll answer them in a subsequent post.  I'll take questions on any topic within reason.  Giants, prospects, draft, fantasy baseball, Giants and baseball history, Coronavirus, other medical topics, whatever you want to talk about.

Stay safe, everybody!  This virus is the real deal.  And for God's sake, stop hoarding toilet paper!

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What an honor to get a comment/question from the family of a minor league player!  BTW, I know who you are from the information you gave, but I'll let readers do their own research and figure it out for themselves.

If it is financially feasible for your son to stay put, that is probably the best bet to stay safe(although nothing is guaranteed).  Mass transportation of any kind is very high on the list of things to avoid if at all possible.  If travel is absolutely necessary, private car is probably safest, again if possible.  I know our instincts are always to get close to family members who fall sick.  Just remember that strict, even draconian, quarantining of the sick, even from family members is the key to stopping the spread of this pandemic.

One more thought:  The Case-Fatality Ratio rises dramatically with age so you are much more likely to become severely or critically ill, or even die from the virus, than your son, if you get it.