I just saw a group of high school boys doing a long run together. Acceptable or Stupidity?

Help me to understand wrote:

How are these healthy runners coming home from a run without having touched anyone or anything all of a sudden turned into virus carrying machines?

Went to store with parents one week ago. Got infected, but no symptoms. Very plausible.

Now, running in a large group - breathing, spitting, snot rockets, coughing, wiping sweat, touching a sign post or each other while stretching, bumping into each other to avoid a hole/branch/person, driving in each other’s cars, grabbing a Gatorade from the store before/after the run, fist bumping goodbye, and many other actives that wouldn’t exist if they ran alone. All plausible.

Someone here has already posted a study about how running near/behind someone can contaminate you.

Safe to say that, if you are willing to break quarantine for a group run, then you are likely breaking other quarantine recommendations.

It’s not an argument. Just follow guidelines and avoid non-essential contact.

Group Runner wrote:

Everybody who drives a car is a murderer also. If the media blasted that for the next 2 weeks, the crazy leftists would be on overpasses throwing bowling balls at cars.

And what does the mainstream media say that has resulted in attacks on individuals or groups in the community? School shootings? Attacks on synagogues? Mass shootings? But we can certainly see that the brain-washing from extreme right-wing websites on the internet have led to such attacks.

So the breathing and spitting may occur, but If I spit down at the ground away from others, how can I infect someone?

The other actions you list seem unrealistic in our current setting. But even if all of that happened wouldn't the runners still need to put the germs they picked up from those activities into their nose, mouth, or eyes? I'm hoping by this point, most people aren't sticking their fingers in their nose or mouth, and aren't rubbing their eyes with a dirty hand!

"Quarantine recommendations" in many states still allow for gatherings of up to 10 people with social distance recommendations.

The media does much to encourage violence but you do not even notice it.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/man-faces-4-years-assault-man-wearing-hat-make-america-n1150166

Epidemiologists say the virus can be transmitted in particles carried in the moisture from your breath for a distance of at least 2 metres. It is like an invisible spray. Someone who runs closer than that to others, such as those that they run with or whom they may pass, can easily transmit the virus. Runners (and cyclists) are therefore frequently not observing social distancing - and especially if they are in groups.

Armstronglivs wrote:

Epidemiologists say the virus can be transmitted in particles carried in the moisture from your breath for a distance of at least 2 metres. It is like an invisible spray. Someone who runs closer than that to others, such as those that they run with or whom they may pass, can easily transmit the virus. Runners (and cyclists) are therefore frequently not observing social distancing - and especially if they are in groups.

I would think if the virus could be transferred from someone's breath while running, that would also be the case while grocery shopping? I would also believe it could be carried through the air way, way further than 2 meters. If this is the case, having a full facial mask, completely covering the eyes, nose, and mouth should be the recommendation. In addition, all clothing worn on that run should be removed prior to entering a vehicle or home not to transfer the viruses that became attached to one's clothing while out running or shopping. I would also think showering should happen as soon as possible to get any viruses out of one's hair and off one's skin before a family member/co worker/etc. has the chance to accidentally touch the person.

38,000 die in car crashes in the US each year and 4 million are injured. The deaths may exceed the Covid numbers and the injuries will far exceed those who will be symptomatic for Covid. Doesn't that make everyone who drives a car a killer or at least a masochist for injuring 4 million? We need to shut down all unnecessary travel. As silly as that sounds, I don't see the difference between that and what we are doing.

flu away wrote:

38,000 die in car crashes in the US each year and 4 million are injured. The deaths may exceed the Covid numbers and the injuries will far exceed those who will be symptomatic for Covid. Doesn't that make everyone who drives a car a killer or at least a masochist for injuring 4 million? We need to shut down all unnecessary travel. As silly as that sounds, I don't see the difference between that and what we are doing.

Great point! But definitely not everyone who drives gets in accidents,and very few of the deaths caused by vehicles were intentional, and a large percent of deaths caused by vehicles are coming from driver error relating to alcohol, drugs, and cell phones...

What is your point? If we outlawed driving, we could save 38,000 lives and eliminate 2 million injuries. What does the rest of that stuff matter? If people took care of themselves, they would not be dying of Covid 19 because almost all are overweight or have other pre-existing condition that was preventable. So the Covid 19 deaths are primarily the fault of the people who are dying while the auto deaths are split between the at fault driver and the vehicle who is not at fault.

Group Runner wrote:

The media does much to encourage violence but you do not even notice it.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/man-faces-4-years-assault-man-wearing-hat-make-america-n1150166

You are seriously dim. Reporting an incident is not advocating or encouraging it.

Group Runner wrote:

What is your point? If we outlawed driving, we could save 38,000 lives and eliminate 2 million injuries. What does the rest of that stuff matter? If people took care of themselves, they would not be dying of Covid 19 because almost all are overweight or have other pre-existing condition that was preventable. So the Covid 19 deaths are primarily the fault of the people who are dying while the auto deaths are split between the at fault driver and the vehicle who is not at fault.

Great question! From my perspective in trying to understand this Covid 19 virus situation, we have so much conflicting information about how it is actually transmitted and how it can spread.

We have conflicting information about how to reduce the chances of becoming infected and that gets back to this group of high school runners who were supposedly running a long run in a group which some people feel will cause the world to end and others feel it will have zero effect of the spread of the virus. My point is I'm just trying to understand and gain some knowledge without believing things that don't seem to be applied universally. Common sense seems to have been lost by the masses and so many thoughts go unchallenged, and those that do get challenged end with no new knowledge or factual confirmation, just name calling and insults.

There is only conflicting information if you listen to the uninformed and the conspiracy theorists - that includes Trump and his propaganda arm of Fox News. There are medical experts - epidemiologists and others - from all around the world who are regularly interviewed about the crisis on other media. Their messages are consistently the same. If it doesn't come from a scientist, medical expert or health worker on the front-line their view isn't worth much. And if it isn't supported by their peers I would take it with a grain of salt. But no lay person is an expert on this stuff.

Should we wear masks? I was saying 2 months ago that masks would help but the experts said they would not. I said the the death toll would be 50,000 with sociAL distancing but the experts predicted as many as 240,000 with extensive social distancing. But you can say they are correct even though we have numerous examples of them being wrong.

https://www.statista.com/chart/21305/projected-coronavirus-deaths-compared-to-historical-events/

flu away wrote:

Should we wear masks? I was saying 2 months ago that masks would help but the experts said they would not. I said the the death toll would be 50,000 with sociAL distancing but the experts predicted as many as 240,000 with extensive social distancing. But you can say they are correct even though we have numerous examples of them being wrong.

https://www.statista.com/chart/21305/projected-coronavirus-deaths-compared-to-historical-events/

All estimates are guesswork based on how people choose to behave and the actions taken by the Federal and State governments.

Masks are now thought to help reduce asymptomatic spread. But that is a hope, not a finding.

This disease is new. We have seen nothing like it - it is a new virus - so we are still learning about it.

You keep saying that but many of us knew what the death toll would be and we knew that masks would help. The experts knew also but they lied about both. They wanted to conserve masks and they wanted people not to riot about losing jobs and staying home. The decision makers went overboard on the shutdowns to crash the market to first have a selling opportunity followed by a buying opportunity. Most politicians are getting rich as we speak.

flu away wrote:

You keep saying that but many of us knew what the death toll would be and we knew that masks would help. The experts knew also but they lied about both. They wanted to conserve masks and they wanted people not to riot about losing jobs and staying home. The decision makers went overboard on the shutdowns to crash the market to first have a selling opportunity followed by a buying opportunity. Most politicians are getting rich as we speak.

Who is "we"? You knew all this even though you have no medical or epidemiological background, and the disease is a new virus, that we hadn't experienced before? I don't think so. The rest of your comment degenerates into the usual dumb*ass conspiracy theories that are a dime a dozen on the internet, but easily believed by the paranoid and the ignorant.

Have you not kept up with the thousands of posts on this topic? We even made our predictions. Most of the Letsrun community correctly predicted the number of infections and deaths. You are in the minority. Most of us said that it would not equal the number of deaths bybthe flu in the world this year. People like you rejected that and now you deny that we all told you so. You are welcome to go back a month or two ago to read the posts.

flu away wrote:

Have you not kept up with the thousands of posts on this topic? We even made our predictions. Most of the Letsrun community correctly predicted the number of infections and deaths. You are in the minority. Most of us said that it would not equal the number of deaths bybthe flu in the world this year. People like you rejected that and now you deny that we all told you so. You are welcome to go back a month or two ago to read the posts.

You haven't correctly predicted anything - the disease has far from run its course. What the death toll will eventually be depends on how people respond to it. It is far more virulent than the flu - as we are seeing with over 2000 deaths in a single day, even with mitigation measures - and the response to the disease has called for isolation measures never considered necessary for the seasonal flu. Fit healthy young people are dying from this virus. That isn't the flu.

Yes I and many other posters have correctly predicted it regardless of the mitigation measures. Flattening the curve does not eliminate deaths, it just spreads them out. Hospitals may not be as overrun but many more will be infected over a longer period of time which pretty much evens out the total deaths in the scenarios. I don't know why you want healthy people to die from this virus but they don't. 99% of deaths are to the elderly or people with pre-existing conditions. The flu on the other hand, does not discriminate. When this is over, you will see that it is far less contagious than the flu. Without a vaccine, 25% of Americans would get the flu but only about 5% of people would experience symptoms of Covid 19 because so many are essentially immune to it, not technically immune. Many are asymptomatic which is different than the flu.