2020 BNP Paribas Open...ATP 1000...Indian Wells, CA USA

[klacr]

They cancelled all live classes at Stanford University last week and having students work online. Finals will be take home exams. All because of one doctor testing positive. It's weird times indeed.

No doubt this is serious but...here's some perspective.

Corona Virus: 1500 deaths in China in 2 months, worldwide panic, daily messages in the media.
World Hunger: 24,000 deaths every day, of which, 75% are children under 5 years old. 0 press releases or around the clock coverage in the media. Why? Because hunger is not something the rich can die from, that's why it doesn't matter. The world has bigger problems than a bad case of the flu, it's what we choose to focus on as priorities that makes situations worse.
If we need to be reminded as our society to do something that we should all have been taught from an early age which is to wash our hands with soap then something is seriously off.

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Delray beach
SETS Consulting

[klacr]

noticing a common theme here...
1999/2000: Y2K is gonna kills us all
2001: Anthrax is gonna kill us all
2002: West Nile Virus is gonna kill us all
2003: SARS is gonna kill us all
2005: Bird Flu is gonna kill us all
2006: E.Coli is gonna kill us all
2008: The bad economy is gonna kill us all
2009: The swine flu is gonna kill us all
2010: BP Oil spill is gonna kill us all
2012: Mayan "End of the World" Calendar is gonna kill us all
2013: North Korea is gonna kill us all
2014: Ebola is gonna kill us all
2015: Disney measles and ISIS are gonna kill us all
2016 Zika Virus is gonna kill us all
2017: Fake news is gonna kill us all
2018: Migrant caravans are gonna kill us all
2019: measles outbreak is gonna kill us all

Noticing a pattern?
In the words of Elton John..."Don't you know I'm still standing better than I ever did?
Looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kid
And I'm still standing after all this time
Picking up the pieces of my life without you on my mind
I'm still standing"

of course, all hypochondriacs will eventually be vindicated...but not in their lifetime

Kyle LaCroix USPTA
Delray Beach
SETS Consulting

[don_budge]

Haven't seen one interview of an American who has recovered and sharing their story of the illness.

[don_budge]

From ignorance...fear is born. Getting to know you...getting to know all about you. Corona Virus D19.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/coronavirus-ten-reasons-not-to-panic/?fbclid=IwAR1zP3lHC3gIIS2h9yhJG2jbrGp_ZBD7xXx6K82wT_pwiChYDq1HOI2hZdw

[don_budge]

Finally...what seems to be a first hand account.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/coronavirus-patient-says-its-been-easier-than-having-a-cold

[glacierguy]

The media does love to scare us. What annoyed me was the UK Health Secretary giving an interview over a week ago now in which he said they were modelling worst case scenario deaths of 500,000 (in the UK). Now Hubei province has a population of 50million, the virus was running wild for a few weeks before anyone noticed, they have had around 3,000 deaths, and now the rate of new cases is way down. The UK has a population of 60million, we have had ample warning of the virus and we have a pretty decent national health service, so where does he get 500,000 deaths from??? It's insane, and damaging.

For fun I read the 2009 end of year review by the UK Chief Medical Officer. 2009 was the swine flu panic, and the CMO had warned us that there would be 65,000 deaths. There were about 215. He had to resign.

No question this is serious, but I don't need to be scared into taking precautions.

[don_budge]

The media does love to scare us.

Mainstream Media...WMD. Weapon of Mass Deception.

Some demographics of the victims. By the numbers.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/coronavirus-age-sex-demographics/

[jimlosaltos]

It's a tricky one for governing bodies and governments around the world. Hopefully it will all turn out to be what Klacr suggests: overreaction and a big fuss about not a lot. In a place like Indian Wells where great swathes of the population are pottering around on zimmer frames you can understand why the event was cancelled. Some poor sod is going to be carrying the buck if a 3000 pensioners get wiped out.

I have a hacking cough and sore throat as I speak, had it for two weeks. It's bronchitis and nothing more, but I can tell you I have plenty of room around me wherever I go at the moment. One cough and everyone scats.

Exponential growth is lethal in a situation like this. No wonder business men and financiers have been banging on about it all these years. It's the route to owning large sections of the world.

I just wonder whereabouts in the calendar there is scope to reschedule Indian Wells. Just imagine if there is no FO and Wimbledon or US Open? Roger could end up the GOAT yet by default just when it looked like he might get equalled or overtaken. How whacky would that be!

Hope you get better quickly!

One proposal for pro tennis -- which assumes the Asian swing is already unlikely -- is to reschedule Indian Wells and Miami Open in the Asian swing slot. Now, a whole lot would need to happen for this to be done. I'm not sure why pro tennis tournaments should be less likely to be cancelled than music conferences, which are closing left and right.

As for skepticism about the severity, I can understand that. A whole lot of very good people are working to prevent the worst case from happening. But Covid-19 has already zoomed past the total infections and total deaths from SARs, in less time. In particular, the US was largely spared from SARs, while Covid-19 is here, and it may be more contagious, as well as more fatal. It may be spread by people that don't show symptoms (not clear yet). If Covid-19 "merely" turns out to be another flu, even after we have a vaccine, the flu kills 11,000-to-61,000 people a year. Since it spreads exponentially, time to act is now, IMHO.

[stotty]

Hope you get better quickly!

One proposal for pro tennis -- which assumes the Asian swing is already unlikely -- is to reschedule Indian Wells and Miami Open in the Asian swing slot. Now, a whole lot would need to happen for this to be done. I'm not sure why pro tennis tournaments should be less likely to be cancelled than music conferences, which are closing left and right.

As for skepticism about the severity, I can understand that. A whole lot of very good people are working to prevent the worst case from happening. But Covid-19 has already zoomed past the total infections and total deaths from SARs, in less time. In particular, the US was largely spared from SARs, while Covid-19 is here, and it may be more contagious, as well as more fatal. It may be spread by people that don't show symptoms (not clear yet). If Covid-19 "merely" turns out to be another flu, even after we have a vaccine, the flu kills 11,000-to-61,000 people a year. Since it spreads exponentially, time to act is now, IMHO.

I'm getting there. I get the worst coughs imaginable...always have...usually takes me a month to shake one off.

The tennis calendar is so crammed it seems unlikely Indian Wells can be shifted somewhere else, unless it can pull rank over a 500 event. Can a 1000 tournament pull rank over a 500 or 250 event? I wouldn't know.

I agree there is uncertainty about what Convid-19 could wreak. China looks like a good example of how to rein a virus in but I am not sure we can trust China's figures or even whether they have truly managed to halt the virus. It's such a difficult balancing act with crowded populations. Italy has been a strange case because they have a death rate that's running at 6% so far, which is way more than China's. Which begs the question, has China being telling the truth?

One thing in the UK and America's favour is we get to see what is likely to unfold from watching Italy and China. We can then maybe tweak things to get a slightly better result.

Let's hope the whole thing blows over. The scary thing is it gives us insight into what might happen if a really deadly virus should one day surface.

[don_budge]

Getting to the bottom of things isn't so easy. Look how some can make a mess of a simple tennis stroke. But this is complicated stuff. Where did this come from? Ex-President Ahmadinejad of Iran weighs in on some interesting theories. Theories that I read early on in this story. Bio Weapons. Major research projects amid the Big Three at least. Throw Israel in there as well. Was this bug released from a laboratory? Was it an accident or deliberate?

The CIA and other intelligence are always asking themselves..."what if?" What if this or that happens? What are the contingencies upon contingencies? The permutations and combinations. This guy is no dummy. I've read some of his writing and it is impressive...intellectually speaking. Is he a good guy or bad guy? An intelligence operative? Who knows...Donald Trump knows. Thats who knows. Information is boss. Information is Trump. Who has all of the information conceivable? The President of the United States of America. Thats who.

So immediately this disaster was used politically. Then the media piles on. Italy is sequestered. Iran is maybe the worst hit. What is China's role? Dominoes...the intelligence agencies are playing dominoes. The rest of us are just guessing. Hypothesising. Round and round we go...where we end up nobody knows. Be safe. Be cautious. Particularly if you are over sixty and have respiratory problems.

https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2020/03/10/iranian-ex-president-ahmadinejad-demands-who-identify-lab-that-produced-chinese-virus/

Intelligence agency speak:

http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index3151.htm

[stotty]

The FO are currently looking into how they will stage the event, which could mean barring people from various parts of the world where the virus is rampant, and even barring people from various parts of France where the virus is present in regional clusters.

Wimbledon are also looking into all the possibilities but are very noncommittal at the moment. They could, of course have no say in the matter if the government issue a decree to close the tournament down. The question to be considered is can Wimbledon (or the FO) run its event behind closed doors at a profit? With no ball boys or ball girls or linesman? Players might have to walk around and pick up their own tennis balls...imagine that...and call their own lines.

We are talking huge sums of money here and neither the FO or Wimbledon want to lose out if they can possibly avoid it. The problem is the media run the show. If one 98 year-old dies because there weren't lockdowns when there should have been, that will be it. The media will paste these things all over their front pages. Never mind the other 2000 that die every year (some years this figure has topped 10,000 in the UK) from normal flu.

One thing the media certainly lacks is proportionality. They caused Brexit and now they are causing stampedes at supermarkets.

[gzhpcu]

We have panic here in Lugano: supermarkets sacked, tennis clubs closed, schools closed, sport events canceled, restaurants limit guests, border to Italy closed, 2 meters distance between persons, .... 4 dead in Switzerland to date...

[johnyandell]

Phil,

Wow. My wife asked me go buy a bunch of canned food. But SF is still open. They may make the Warriors play in an empty stadium though and a bunch of schools and colleges are closed. The most amazing thing is there is no way yet to get tested if you are concerned. Still waiting to see if I get to go to Miami. I talked to someone in the know and as of now it's a go. But something makes me think that is going to change.

[stotty]

Phil,

Wow. My wife asked me go buy a bunch of canned food. But SF is still open. They may make the Warriors play in an empty stadium though and a bunch of schools and colleges are closed. The most amazing thing is there is no way yet to get tested if you are concerned. Still waiting to see if I get to go to Miami. I talked to someone in the know and as of now it's a go. But something makes me think that is going to change.

Miami will be cancelled. No tournament organiser can risk it. Just one death that can be linked to running an ATP tournament and the media will have a field day. The organiser/committee will be sacked and the governing body kicked to pieces. It's easy to avoid all that by playing safe and canceling the event. It will be a brave man who decides to go ahead with an ATP event over the next month or two.

[johnyandell]

Yeah sure it will be cancelled now--the NBA is suspending it's season--don't think they could go on after that...