Eliud Kipchoge's training camp has shut down to Covid-19. He explains what he's doing now in isolation at home

In Kenya at the moment there were very few cases only of Corona virus. However, many African Countries had to face the terrible experience of Ebola and AIDS, born in the Continent and exploded when still there was no knowledge about this kind of Viruses.

So, in Kenya there is a shortage of hospitals, a big lack of possibilities of "intensive therapies", but there is the right mentality for facing the problem BEFORE it comes (something our Countries, in particulari US and UK, didn't do, putting the "free individual decision" and the individual freedom at the base of their reaction.

Till less than 2 weeks ago, in these two Countries the most part of people didn't believe that the Virus was so Dangerous, considering it like a flu. Boris Johnson decided that in UK everything had to continue like before, making a speech that was really shocking (all the families need to accept the idea to lose part of the components), thinking it was possible to develop the "mass immunity", ready to sacrify thousands of people, but after 3 days only changed completely idea, starting to close the most part of shops and not indispensable activities in the Country.

The same about Trump : in few days, he moved from the idea of a normal flu, to the reality of a pandemic situation needing different aggressive rules.

So, Kenyan Governemnt ordered to avoid running in big groups, and to close all the training camps, and to prohibit any activity of training on track (all tracks are closed).

About the competitions, already they cancelled every meeting or road race till half of April (but probably there will be an extension).

At this point, I frankly think Olympics can't be organized following the original plan.

In Norway they wait for the peak of the Virus in July and August.

In Europe the moment is the one of maximal spread.

All the activities of training are prohibited (in Italy individual too), and it's not possible to see how teams of soccer, volleyball, basket can train individually.

Maybe Japan can be safe in August, maybe not, but of sure is not possible to organize Olympics without athletes or with athletes and Teams completely out of shape.

I think it would be fun if everyone got out of shape and the Olympics were like the 1896 Games all over again.

Thank you Renato. It's interesting how Kenya's experience of this type of thing has led them to act so swiftly. We in the U.S. didn't have a context in which this could be understood. None of us has a memory of when the word pandemic was associated with our country.

2009-2010. Swine flu with nearly 61 million cases, hundreds of thousands of deaths, no known cure, a ‘strain we’ve never seen before’ and an official pandemic declaration for 1 full year . How quickly memory fades. To be fair, most people don't remember it because we were heading into a horrible economic downturn and folks were worried about keeping their houses and jobs, not a pandemic. Today you cannot look at anything without it being thrown in your face everywhere.

Kenya currently has 7 confirmed cases of Covid-19, all individually imported.

This gives a more balanced view of the situation in the UK. It's not as simple as saying x number will die. What about the long term impact on lives as a result of the economy? People die when the economy fails. Young people, not just old.

no_good_options wrote:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-51979654

This gives a more balanced view of the situation in the UK. It's not as simple as saying x number will die. What about the long term impact on lives as a result of the economy? People die when the economy fails. Young people, not just old.

The economy fails?

People can’t go to bars, casinos, venue events, etc... Yeah it’s the pockets of those involved those things that lose money. However why don’t they get jobs that actually help people? There’s already been a shortage of health care workers, farmers, educators, police officers, production workers in this society. America has focused on meaningless stuff. Now it’s time to focus on what’s important.

What is clear is that is a virus humans have never encountered with a phenomenal growth rate and capacity to hang around for a long time. The economy is wrecked long term if we don’t handle this now.

The only solution is to shut down countries for a period and avoid huge spikes in hospital admissions. This is not only to help folks who get ill from the virus get the care they need, but also for all the chronically ill patients who need hospital care.

I am a microbiologist and this virus is the most frightening event I have ever encountered.

STAY INDOORS, WASH YOUR HANDS.

It is literally that simple. The economy will recover, millions may not survive.

Cool video. Thanks for linking.

Renato Canova wrote:

Till less than 2 weeks ago, in these two Countries the most part of people didn't believe that the Virus was so Dangerous, considering it like a flu. Boris Johnson decided that in UK everything had to continue like before, making a speech that was really shocking (all the families need to accept the idea to lose part of the components), thinking it was possible to develop the "mass immunity", ready to sacrify thousands of people, but after 3 days only changed completely idea, starting to close the most part of shops and not indispensable activities in the Country.

No, the idea was to quarantine the elderly and expose the young and healthy, so that the elderly could return to their normal lives in the summer with the virus under control.

Now, the elderly are still quarantined, but so is everybody else, and likely for at least 18 months, just pretending that the economy and society wont collapse long before then.

I don't know why Boris changed his mind, whether he was genuinely persuaded by the Imperial College report, or whether he simply gave in to pressure.

Renato - maybe you should reserve your hate for the young people in Milan and Florence who had to show what nice people they are on Facebook and Twitter by photographing themselves hugging a Chinese State Party agent infected with their virus? Something that's going to result in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of elderly Italians?

Kenya, of course, is handling this crisis in a much more civilized manner than Britain. Can you imagine what it will be like if thousands start dying over there?

Interesting work.

All this hard training lost for a race that will never happen. Without speaking about the expenses.

Let's hope this doesn't mess up his microdoping schedule.

StillRunnin wrote:

2009-2010. Swine flu with nearly 61 million cases, hundreds of thousands of deaths, no known cure, a ‘strain we’ve never seen before’ and an official pandemic declaration for 1 full year . How quickly memory fades. To be fair, most people don't remember it because we were heading into a horrible economic downturn and folks were worried about keeping their houses and jobs, not a pandemic. Today you cannot look at anything without it being thrown in your face everywhere.

So well said! In a couple of years from now Corona is forgotten the same way. Yes! Memory quickly fades .

Coevett, I agree with you about the stupidity and the lack of solidarity many Young Italian showed during the first days of the lockdown.

But don't say stupid things like "Italian showing who nice people they are by photographing themselves hugging a Chinese State Party agent infected with their virus".

The patient number one in Italy was a Chinese coming from Germany, and he was the one starting the infection in Lombardia (Codogno and Lodi).

The number 2 and 3 were two Chinese tourists, immediately brought to the Hospital Spallanzani in Rome, who gave Italian scientists the opportunity to study the evolution of the disease trying new system of therapies (that had success after 4 weeks).

THESE WERE THE ONLY CHINESE POSITIVE IN ALL ITALY.

The action of the Italian (including the MAYOR of Florence) hugging the Chinese was for showing how stupid and racist was the attack against a group of Chinese that happened two days before, from idiot people looking at ALL CHINESE as responsible of the Virus.

I don't know if you are racist or not (also if, looking at your campaign against Kenyan and generally African athletes, I think so), but your narration of what happened in Italy with Chinese is clearly a racist fake news.

And I don't hate British or American or some other people. Simply, I consider stupid who is stupid, maybe white, black or Yellow, like in athletics I consider strong and clean who is strong and clean, maybe white, black or Yellow. And I still have to decide in which category you belong.

Renato Canova wrote:

In Norway they wait for the peak of the Virus in July and August.

Fantastic to see Renato back on the forum, I do hope people will respond reasonably and politely.

Here is document with the latest from Norway's health institute.

The section 'Hva kommer til å skje?' (What will happen?) on page 6 contains the following.

We think this [the present situation] will last some days or a few weeks before the main wave begins for real in some parts of the land. Thereafter the epidemic will reach the whole country and in the course of many weeks reach a top and then decline, perhaps towards the autumn or winter. By then a large proportion of the population will have gone through the illness.

Renato Canova wrote:

I don't know if you are racist or not (also if, looking at your campaign against Kenyan and generally African athletes, I think so).

Ma sei serio?!?!? This is Coevett we're talking about.

Renato, Im a huge fan, but everyone in Europe knows Italians are racists. They are so open about it. I studied with several italians and have been there as a tourist many times, and its one of the det really sad things about Italians. Look at the football games...

Renato Canova wrote:

The action of the Italian (including the MAYOR of Florence) hugging the Chinese was for showing how stupid and racist was the attack against a group of Chinese that happened two days before, from idiot people looking at ALL CHINESE as responsible of the Virus.

I don't know if you are racist or not (also if, looking at your campaign against Kenyan and generally African athletes, I think so), but your narration of what happened in Italy with Chinese is clearly a racist fake news.

And I don't hate British or American or some other people. Simply, I consider stupid who is stupid, maybe white, black or Yellow, like in athletics I consider strong and clean who is strong and clean, maybe white, black or Yellow. And I still have to decide in which category you belong.

It was beyond stupid for the mayor to encourage everybody to hug Chinese people. A level of stupidity even beyond this forum allowing one mod with a Chinese girlfriend to delete all posts that use the correct term 'Chinese virus'.

How on Earth can the authorities possibly tell who the initial spreaders were? All I know is that a young Chinese guy with a bib saying 'I have a coronavirus', was hugged by literally thousands of young (mostly female virtue signalling) Italians, and it was encouraged by the mayor. Every country was continuing to wave in tourists and exchange students from Wuhan even just a few weeks ago. I can't recall the mayor of London, imbecile that he is, even being stupid enough to run a 'hug a Chinese person with coronavirus' virtue signalling campaign.

As far as you 'not being racist', the fact that you chose to move to Kenya and coach predominantly Kenyan athletes shows that you clearly think Kenyans have greater innate talent than Europeans, something no amount of busts or evidence of doping will dissuade you from.

El Keniano wrote:

Renato Canova wrote:

I don't know if you are racist or not (also if, looking at your campaign against Kenyan and generally African athletes, I think so).

Ma sei serio?!?!? This is Coevett we're talking about.

From the man(?) who demands that all foreigners be booted out of Kenya, from Irish swine (imagine Rudisha without brother Colm?) to 'stupid' Nigerians.

Well you've got your wish in part - with travel between Kenya and Europe banned. Lets see how it plays out for Kenya over the next year or two.