With a lot of professional sports starting back up, I believe it will give us some insight into how school might look in the fall for students across the country who are heading back to classes.
With organizations like the NHL, NBA, and MLB trying to get back to business as usual, there have been stark reminders of why it may be a bit too soon to bring large groups together.
The Miami Marlins are a prime example. The team had a coronavirus outbreak toward the end of July, which forced them to cancel a number of games, and reminded me that anyone can be impacted by the coronavirus.
More than a dozen players and coaches tested positive for COVID-19, even though there is a robust amount of testing and elaborate safety protocols in place.
Even by eliminating crowds and the number of people who have access to the stadiums, there are so many risks involved that it doesn’t really seem worth it to me.
If full-grown adults can’t evade this virus, why do we want to risk sending children back to school? There’s no 100 per cent guarantee to prevent someone from getting sick unless you self-isolate at home and keep your distance from others. So why on earth do we think it’s a good idea to send youngsters back to classrooms when some have been known to sneeze into another person’s eyeball without thinking twice about it?
Even if every single person wore a mask, washed their hands and used hand sanitizer rigorously, and practiced social distancing; they could still get sick. Once they do, they could quickly spread the virus to family and friends without even knowing.
When COVID-19 was at its peak in most areas, the only live sport going was professional wrestling and even the powerhouse that is WWE struggled to contain the virus. Despite having an outbreak on one of their shows, WWE only shut down filming for a couple of days and continued to advertise future shows.
These examples, to me, show companies having a huge disregard for their employees. They’re saying their people don’t matter as much as their bottom line and that they’re willing to put them, as well as their families, at risk if it means they can produce content.
If these multi-million dollar companies can’t control the coronavirus, why do we think that schools can?
The little bit that we know about this virus is it’s very difficult to contain, it can be deadly, and people at large aren’t taking it seriously. Just last week, at the time of writing this column, Alberta was still confirming around 100 cases a day and people are still dying.
With all of these facts, why are we even considering sending kids back to school in less than a month?
