We’re almost 10 weeks into lockdown, it’s fair to say that the people in power haven’t handled the current pandemic in the best way possible.
Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party have quite simply done a dreadful job, with their original herd immunity policy, PPE troubles and unclear advice leading to the UK having the highest death toll in Europe.
Despite the government’s best efforts, things finally seem to be headed in the right direction with the number of casualties falling week by week, but we currently sit in a very precarious position.
The dreaded second wave could be just around the corner if people don’t carry on with the work they’ve been doing thus far, and if another spike occurs, we will be back to square one.
Discussions have been ongoing about the return of football in this country, and while we all would love to see the beautiful game return, it’s quite simply too soon for that to even be thought about.
The first round of testing happened this week with six members of staff out of 748 testing positive.
Those six will now self-isolate, and we will hope that the next round of testing comes back all clear, but even if it does, we can’t be absolutely certain that there’s no risk.
Tests for the virus currently have an accuracy of around 99.8%, and while that looks almost perfect, when 748 players and staff are being tested, it’s highly likely that one of them will be misdiagnosed, and it only takes one wrong call to spread illness amongst the entire league.
Away from the pitch, even though fans can’t get into the stadiums they will still want to celebrate their team’s achievements in whichever way they can.
Stories coming out each and every day of people flocking to beaches and parks, breaking the regulations, and the question has to be asked as to whether or not we can trust fans to not bend the rules.
Now, this shouldn’t be taken as an insult to the people of Leeds or Liverpool, with the Whites and the Reds both on course to achieve accolades they’ve been waiting decades for, it’s hard to imagine that a handful of impassioned fans will meet up with friends they’ve been going to games with year in year out in order to celebrate finally winning the league and finally getting back into the top flight.
Most would probably abide by the rules, but once again, it only takes a few outliers to kickstart a horrible cycle that could lead to someone’s death, and in any right-minded person’s view, finishing a season of football isn’t worth risking somebody’s life for.
Football will be back one day, and when it is we will all rejoice, but with hundreds of people still passing away from this virus each and every day, this is a risk not worth taking, not only for the players but for the fans.
