Jeff Welsch Says Fall Football is Toast

[rollo_tumasi]

Buy how many guns do you own?

[NOCOcat2005]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the Trump administrations response to this virus likely cost MSU and possibly all of college football the season! People couldn't/wouldn't even do the little things and wear masks in public places! Wow, cause that's asking so much?? When and if this season gets cancelled you have one person to blame, the jackass in the White House! Maybe next time we have a public health crisis let's not make masks a political issue! Or better yet, next time we have a health crisis, let's pay more attention to health experts and less to politicians who don't really give two ****** about normal Americans! Here's to hoping we can get our ****** together in the next couple weeks and football happens, I'm not holding my breath with the Kool-Aid drinkers listening to Drumph and this pathetic state of USA leadership! Go Cats

[Cat_gld]

This is the most responsible post yet on this thread.

[91catAlum]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the Trump administrations response to this virus likely cost MSU and possibly all of college football the season! People couldn't/wouldn't even do the little things and wear masks in public places! Wow, cause that's asking so much?? When and if this season gets cancelled you have one person to blame, the jackass in the White House! Maybe next time we have a public health crisis let's not make masks a political issue! Or better yet, next time we have a health crisis, let's pay more attention to health experts and less to politicians who don't really give two ****** about normal Americans! Here's to hoping we can get our ****** together in the next couple weeks and football happens, I'm not holding my breath with the Kool-Aid drinkers listening to Drumph and this pathetic state of USA leadership! Go Cats

From what I recall, the country was advised not to wear a mask by Fauci and Birx when this first broke. I understand your disdain for Trump but if we attempt to rewrite history, we won't learn what we should from this.

[NOCOcat2005]

It's not actually disdain for Trump, any person with half a brain would have known he would fail miserably as POTUS! Come on, there are great Republicans and Democrats, he isn't either, he's a clown show! I digress, I love football and the CATS like all of us, but the decisions by leadership across this country bleeped the football season! And much worse, 140,000 Americans won't be here to enjoy any of it! Like i said, if you care about the USA, care about football, care about school kids, do the right thing in the coming months no matter what your political beliefs! I could really careless if u want to continue to support incompetent politicians, that's peoples own parogitive! Wear a mask, social distance, go fly fishing, go hiking and stop spreading this mess! Go Cats

[91catAlum]

It's not actually disdain for Trump, any person with half a brain would have known he would fail miserably as POTUS! Come on, there are great Republicans and Democrats, he isn't either, he's a clown show! I digress, I love football and the CATS like all of us, but the decisions by leadership across this country bleeped the football season! And much worse, 140,000 Americans won't be here to enjoy any of it! Like i said, if you care about the USA, care about football, care about school kids, do the right thing in the coming months no matter what your political beliefs! I could really careless if u want to continue to support incompetent politicians, that's peoples own parogitive! Wear a mask, social distance, go fly fishing, go hiking and stop spreading this mess! Go Cats

I'm not a Trump guy, I think he's an idiot blowhard. I just don't see this as strictly his fault. Bullock shut the state down in March and just 3 days ago put in the mask mandate. If masks were the answer the whole time, why did he wait so long? Doesn't he bear some responsibility too?

[MSU01]

It's not actually disdain for Trump, any person with half a brain would have known he would fail miserably as POTUS! Come on, there are great Republicans and Democrats, he isn't either, he's a clown show! I digress, I love football and the CATS like all of us, but the decisions by leadership across this country bleeped the football season! And much worse, 140,000 Americans won't be here to enjoy any of it! Like i said, if you care about the USA, care about football, care about school kids, do the right thing in the coming months no matter what your political beliefs! I could really careless if u want to continue to support incompetent politicians, that's peoples own parogitive! Wear a mask, social distance, go fly fishing, go hiking and stop spreading this mess! Go Cats

I'm not a Trump guy, I think he's an idiot blowhard. I just don't see this as strictly his fault. Bullock shut the state down in March and just 3 days ago put in the mask mandate. If masks were the answer the whole time, why did he wait so long? Doesn't he bear some responsibility too?

I've been trying to stay out of this as I'm quite sick and tired of arguing about this issue, but I agree that the blame for the disaster that is the US' response to COVID-19 cannot be pinned solely on one person. IMO, President Trump failed miserably by refusing to take the virus seriously early on, downplaying it and referring to it as a "Democrat hoax" that would magically go away when the weather heated up. The CDC then made a mistake with their mask guidance, and plenty of state governors have since done a pretty horrendous job managing the situation in their individual states - and that includes governors of both political parties. I think Bullock did a pretty good job overall - when he reopened the state we were pretty much down to a handful of new cases per week, with most counties having zero active cases at the time. I agree that the mask mandate should've come a week or two sooner than it did.

From everything I'm reading, I'm wondering if the best strategy all along would have been early emphasis on mask-wearing to reduce the spread of the virus, combined with very targeted lockdowns in places like New York City that had unusually serious outbreaks. Would more people have been willing to wear masks from the beginning if it had meant not shutting everything down? Maybe, maybe not. Would more politicians have been on-board with mask wearing had it not meant closing businesses and schools down for weeks and months? Again, maybe, maybe not. But based on what we know now, all that the closure of schools, restaurants, bars, etc. seems to have done is to shift the trajectory of the virus back by a month or two.

[wbtfg]

Gov was pushing/recommending masks for weeks/months. Unfortunately, for reasons I still don’t understand, masks became (and still are) highly politicized.

[onceacat]

It's not actually disdain for Trump, any person with half a brain would have known he would fail miserably as POTUS! Come on, there are great Republicans and Democrats, he isn't either, he's a clown show! I digress, I love football and the CATS like all of us, but the decisions by leadership across this country bleeped the football season! And much worse, 140,000 Americans won't be here to enjoy any of it! Like i said, if you care about the USA, care about football, care about school kids, do the right thing in the coming months no matter what your political beliefs! I could really careless if u want to continue to support incompetent politicians, that's peoples own parogitive! Wear a mask, social distance, go fly fishing, go hiking and stop spreading this mess! Go Cats

I'm not a Trump guy, I think he's an idiot blowhard. I just don't see this as strictly his fault. Bullock shut the state down in March and just 3 days ago put in the mask mandate. If masks were the answer the whole time, why did he wait so long? Doesn't he bear some responsibility too?

I've been trying to stay out of this as I'm quite sick and tired of arguing about this issue, but I agree that the blame for the disaster that is the US' response to COVID-19 cannot be pinned solely on one person. IMO, President Trump failed miserably by refusing to take the virus seriously early on, downplaying it and referring to it as a "Democrat hoax" that would magically go away when the weather heated up. The CDC then made a mistake with their mask guidance, and plenty of state governors have since done a pretty horrendous job managing the situation in their individual states - and that includes governors of both political parties. I think Bullock did a pretty good job overall - when he reopened the state we were pretty much down to a handful of new cases per week, with most counties having zero active cases at the time. I agree that the mask mandate should've come a week or two sooner than it did.

From everything I'm reading, I'm wondering if the best strategy all along would have been early emphasis on mask-wearing to reduce the spread of the virus, combined with very targeted lockdowns in places like New York City that had unusually serious outbreaks. Would more people have been willing to wear masks from the beginning if it had meant not shutting everything down? Maybe, maybe not. Would more politicians have been on-board with mask wearing had it not meant closing businesses and schools down for weeks and months? Again, maybe, maybe not. But based on what we know now, all that the closure of schools, restaurants, bars, etc. seems to have done is to shift the trajectory of the virus back by a month or two.

You are mostly spot on...except for one thing: The shutdowns were put in place in order to be able to figure out "best practices" for dealing with Covid. They bought us a couple of months in which we should have been ramping up testing capabilities & figuring out how to get back to normal.

Thats what Canada did. And now, the NHL is going to play a Canadian-only season because Canada has the virus under control.

Thats what Europe did. And Europeans are playing soccer again, because they have the virus under control. And their kids are going back to school, BECAUSE the virus is under control.

In the US, we've decided that Covid is 100% a political issue that won't be solved until the elections in November. Doesn't really matter what the science says, its all about the politics. As a result, conferences are cancelling fall sports and even having HS kids in class is up in the air.

People in the US don't get sports because we couldn't follow a couple basic rules. Maybe, best case scenario, we get a "Montana-only" football season. Because a critical mass of people have decided that following best practices for a pandemic is a way of signaling their ideological bona fides.

Its pretty sad that they are willing to sacrifice a season of college football in order to maintain partisan purity.

[91catAlum]

It's not actually disdain for Trump, any person with half a brain would have known he would fail miserably as POTUS! Come on, there are great Republicans and Democrats, he isn't either, he's a clown show! I digress, I love football and the CATS like all of us, but the decisions by leadership across this country bleeped the football season! And much worse, 140,000 Americans won't be here to enjoy any of it! Like i said, if you care about the USA, care about football, care about school kids, do the right thing in the coming months no matter what your political beliefs! I could really careless if u want to continue to support incompetent politicians, that's peoples own parogitive! Wear a mask, social distance, go fly fishing, go hiking and stop spreading this mess! Go Cats

I'm not a Trump guy, I think he's an idiot blowhard. I just don't see this as strictly his fault. Bullock shut the state down in March and just 3 days ago put in the mask mandate. If masks were the answer the whole time, why did he wait so long? Doesn't he bear some responsibility too?

I've been trying to stay out of this as I'm quite sick and tired of arguing about this issue, but I agree that the blame for the disaster that is the US' response to COVID-19 cannot be pinned solely on one person. IMO, President Trump failed miserably by refusing to take the virus seriously early on, downplaying it and referring to it as a "Democrat hoax" that would magically go away when the weather heated up. The CDC then made a mistake with their mask guidance, and plenty of state governors have since done a pretty horrendous job managing the situation in their individual states - and that includes governors of both political parties. I think Bullock did a pretty good job overall - when he reopened the state we were pretty much down to a handful of new cases per week, with most counties having zero active cases at the time. I agree that the mask mandate should've come a week or two sooner than it did.

From everything I'm reading, I'm wondering if the best strategy all along would have been early emphasis on mask-wearing to reduce the spread of the virus, combined with very targeted lockdowns in places like New York City that had unusually serious outbreaks. Would more people have been willing to wear masks from the beginning if it had meant not shutting everything down? Maybe, maybe not. Would more politicians have been on-board with mask wearing had it not meant closing businesses and schools down for weeks and months? Again, maybe, maybe not. But based on what we know now, all that the closure of schools, restaurants, bars, etc. seems to have done is to shift the trajectory of the virus back by a month or two.

You are mostly spot on...except for one thing: The shutdowns were put in place in order to be able to figure out "best practices" for dealing with Covid. They bought us a couple of months in which we should have been ramping up testing capabilities & figuring out how to get back to normal.

Thats what Canada did. And now, the NHL is going to play a Canadian-only season because Canada has the virus under control.

Thats what Europe did. And Europeans are playing soccer again, because they have the virus under control. And their kids are going back to school, BECAUSE the virus is under control.

In the US, we've decided that Covid is 100% a political issue that won't be solved until the elections in November. Doesn't really matter what the science says, its all about the politics. As a result, conferences are cancelling fall sports and even having HS kids in class is up in the air.

People in the US don't get sports because we couldn't follow a couple basic rules. Maybe, best case scenario, we get a "Montana-only" football season. Because a critical mass of people have decided that following best practices for a pandemic is a way of signaling their ideological bona fides.

Its pretty sad that they are willing to sacrifice a season of college football in order to maintain partisan purity.

I think Europe has it "under control" now because the most vulnerable parts of their population are already dead from it. Google covid deaths per capita and you'll find #1 thru #6 are all European countries. So it's not correct to imply that Europe did this right, or even better, than the US.

[CatBlitz]

It's not actually disdain for Trump, any person with half a brain would have known he would fail miserably as POTUS! Come on, there are great Republicans and Democrats, he isn't either, he's a clown show! I digress, I love football and the CATS like all of us, but the decisions by leadership across this country bleeped the football season! And much worse, 140,000 Americans won't be here to enjoy any of it! Like i said, if you care about the USA, care about football, care about school kids, do the right thing in the coming months no matter what your political beliefs! I could really careless if u want to continue to support incompetent politicians, that's peoples own parogitive! Wear a mask, social distance, go fly fishing, go hiking and stop spreading this mess! Go Cats

I'm not a Trump guy, I think he's an idiot blowhard. I just don't see this as strictly his fault. Bullock shut the state down in March and just 3 days ago put in the mask mandate. If masks were the answer the whole time, why did he wait so long? Doesn't he bear some responsibility too?

I've been trying to stay out of this as I'm quite sick and tired of arguing about this issue, but I agree that the blame for the disaster that is the US' response to COVID-19 cannot be pinned solely on one person. IMO, President Trump failed miserably by refusing to take the virus seriously early on, downplaying it and referring to it as a "Democrat hoax" that would magically go away when the weather heated up. The CDC then made a mistake with their mask guidance, and plenty of state governors have since done a pretty horrendous job managing the situation in their individual states - and that includes governors of both political parties. I think Bullock did a pretty good job overall - when he reopened the state we were pretty much down to a handful of new cases per week, with most counties having zero active cases at the time. I agree that the mask mandate should've come a week or two sooner than it did.

From everything I'm reading, I'm wondering if the best strategy all along would have been early emphasis on mask-wearing to reduce the spread of the virus, combined with very targeted lockdowns in places like New York City that had unusually serious outbreaks. Would more people have been willing to wear masks from the beginning if it had meant not shutting everything down? Maybe, maybe not. Would more politicians have been on-board with mask wearing had it not meant closing businesses and schools down for weeks and months? Again, maybe, maybe not. But based on what we know now, all that the closure of schools, restaurants, bars, etc. seems to have done is to shift the trajectory of the virus back by a month or two.

You are mostly spot on...except for one thing: The shutdowns were put in place in order to be able to figure out "best practices" for dealing with Covid. They bought us a couple of months in which we should have been ramping up testing capabilities & figuring out how to get back to normal.

Thats what Canada did. And now, the NHL is going to play a Canadian-only season because Canada has the virus under control.

Thats what Europe did. And Europeans are playing soccer again, because they have the virus under control. And their kids are going back to school, BECAUSE the virus is under control.

In the US, we've decided that Covid is 100% a political issue that won't be solved until the elections in November. Doesn't really matter what the science says, its all about the politics. As a result, conferences are cancelling fall sports and even having HS kids in class is up in the air.

People in the US don't get sports because we couldn't follow a couple basic rules. Maybe, best case scenario, we get a "Montana-only" football season. Because a critical mass of people have decided that following best practices for a pandemic is a way of signaling their ideological bona fides.

Its pretty sad that they are willing to sacrifice a season of college football in order to maintain partisan purity.

I think Europe has it "under control" now because the most vulnerable parts of their population are already dead from it. Google covid deaths per capita and you'll find #1 thru #6 are all European countries. So it's not correct to imply that Europe did this right, or even better, than the US.

There are over 100 million people in Europe 65+.
Do you actually believe what you type? Stats are fun.

[91catAlum]

It's not actually disdain for Trump, any person with half a brain would have known he would fail miserably as POTUS! Come on, there are great Republicans and Democrats, he isn't either, he's a clown show! I digress, I love football and the CATS like all of us, but the decisions by leadership across this country bleeped the football season! And much worse, 140,000 Americans won't be here to enjoy any of it! Like i said, if you care about the USA, care about football, care about school kids, do the right thing in the coming months no matter what your political beliefs! I could really careless if u want to continue to support incompetent politicians, that's peoples own parogitive! Wear a mask, social distance, go fly fishing, go hiking and stop spreading this mess! Go Cats

I'm not a Trump guy, I think he's an idiot blowhard. I just don't see this as strictly his fault. Bullock shut the state down in March and just 3 days ago put in the mask mandate. If masks were the answer the whole time, why did he wait so long? Doesn't he bear some responsibility too?

I've been trying to stay out of this as I'm quite sick and tired of arguing about this issue, but I agree that the blame for the disaster that is the US' response to COVID-19 cannot be pinned solely on one person. IMO, President Trump failed miserably by refusing to take the virus seriously early on, downplaying it and referring to it as a "Democrat hoax" that would magically go away when the weather heated up. The CDC then made a mistake with their mask guidance, and plenty of state governors have since done a pretty horrendous job managing the situation in their individual states - and that includes governors of both political parties. I think Bullock did a pretty good job overall - when he reopened the state we were pretty much down to a handful of new cases per week, with most counties having zero active cases at the time. I agree that the mask mandate should've come a week or two sooner than it did.

From everything I'm reading, I'm wondering if the best strategy all along would have been early emphasis on mask-wearing to reduce the spread of the virus, combined with very targeted lockdowns in places like New York City that had unusually serious outbreaks. Would more people have been willing to wear masks from the beginning if it had meant not shutting everything down? Maybe, maybe not. Would more politicians have been on-board with mask wearing had it not meant closing businesses and schools down for weeks and months? Again, maybe, maybe not. But based on what we know now, all that the closure of schools, restaurants, bars, etc. seems to have done is to shift the trajectory of the virus back by a month or two.

You are mostly spot on...except for one thing: The shutdowns were put in place in order to be able to figure out "best practices" for dealing with Covid. They bought us a couple of months in which we should have been ramping up testing capabilities & figuring out how to get back to normal.

Thats what Canada did. And now, the NHL is going to play a Canadian-only season because Canada has the virus under control.

Thats what Europe did. And Europeans are playing soccer again, because they have the virus under control. And their kids are going back to school, BECAUSE the virus is under control.

In the US, we've decided that Covid is 100% a political issue that won't be solved until the elections in November. Doesn't really matter what the science says, its all about the politics. As a result, conferences are cancelling fall sports and even having HS kids in class is up in the air.

People in the US don't get sports because we couldn't follow a couple basic rules. Maybe, best case scenario, we get a "Montana-only" football season. Because a critical mass of people have decided that following best practices for a pandemic is a way of signaling their ideological bona fides.

Its pretty sad that they are willing to sacrifice a season of college football in order to maintain partisan purity.

I think Europe has it "under control" now because the most vulnerable parts of their population are already dead from it. Google covid deaths per capita and you'll find #1 thru #6 are all European countries. So it's not correct to imply that Europe did this right, or even better, than the US.

There are over 100 million people in Europe 65+.
Do you actually believe what you type? Stats are fun.

Why don't you post a link that adjusts those per capita numbers by age and I'll be happy to look at how well Europe has done.

[The Butcher]

Why don't you post a link that adjusts those per capita numbers by age and I'll be happy to look at how well Europe has done.

That was a pretty harsh response.

[ameriCATS]

Where were all you anti-maskers when I was trying to get my anti-seat belt and anti-teeth brushing rallies off the ground??? Some guy in the comments section of an AOL article on a car crash in Indiana has proof that wearing seat belts don't save lives and could actually kill people wearing them and yet the DEEP STATE makes us wear one or live in fear of being pulled over and fined. I will be down at the DMV this weekend to re-start this campaign. Hopefully I can count on you all to join and end the tyranny that the new-socialists are putting on us. And you have your head in the sand if you think a dentist is a real profession or expert on oral "health". Read up on the Dental Industrial Complex and stop feeding into the fallacy that is oral "health". Another socialist central planning experiment to over pay bureaucrats.

[The Butcher]

Where were all you anti-maskers when I was trying to get my anti-seat belt and anti-teeth brushing rallies off the ground??? Some guy in the comments section of an AOL article on a car crash in Indiana has proof that wearing seat belts don't save lives and could actually kill people wearing them and yet the DEEP STATE makes us wear one or live in fear of being pulled over and fined. I will be down at the DMV this weekend to re-start this campaign. Hopefully I can count on you all to join and end the tyranny that the new-socialists are putting on us. And you have your head in the sand if you think a dentist is a real profession or expert on oral "health". Read up on the Dental Industrial Complex and stop feeding into the fallacy that is oral "health". Another socialist central planning experiment to over pay bureaucrats.

DON'T TREAD ON ME "BIG SEAT BELT"!!!
I HAVE RIGHTS!!!

[MSU01]

It's not actually disdain for Trump, any person with half a brain would have known he would fail miserably as POTUS! Come on, there are great Republicans and Democrats, he isn't either, he's a clown show! I digress, I love football and the CATS like all of us, but the decisions by leadership across this country bleeped the football season! And much worse, 140,000 Americans won't be here to enjoy any of it! Like i said, if you care about the USA, care about football, care about school kids, do the right thing in the coming months no matter what your political beliefs! I could really careless if u want to continue to support incompetent politicians, that's peoples own parogitive! Wear a mask, social distance, go fly fishing, go hiking and stop spreading this mess! Go Cats

I'm not a Trump guy, I think he's an idiot blowhard. I just don't see this as strictly his fault. Bullock shut the state down in March and just 3 days ago put in the mask mandate. If masks were the answer the whole time, why did he wait so long? Doesn't he bear some responsibility too?

I've been trying to stay out of this as I'm quite sick and tired of arguing about this issue, but I agree that the blame for the disaster that is the US' response to COVID-19 cannot be pinned solely on one person. IMO, President Trump failed miserably by refusing to take the virus seriously early on, downplaying it and referring to it as a "Democrat hoax" that would magically go away when the weather heated up. The CDC then made a mistake with their mask guidance, and plenty of state governors have since done a pretty horrendous job managing the situation in their individual states - and that includes governors of both political parties. I think Bullock did a pretty good job overall - when he reopened the state we were pretty much down to a handful of new cases per week, with most counties having zero active cases at the time. I agree that the mask mandate should've come a week or two sooner than it did.

From everything I'm reading, I'm wondering if the best strategy all along would have been early emphasis on mask-wearing to reduce the spread of the virus, combined with very targeted lockdowns in places like New York City that had unusually serious outbreaks. Would more people have been willing to wear masks from the beginning if it had meant not shutting everything down? Maybe, maybe not. Would more politicians have been on-board with mask wearing had it not meant closing businesses and schools down for weeks and months? Again, maybe, maybe not. But based on what we know now, all that the closure of schools, restaurants, bars, etc. seems to have done is to shift the trajectory of the virus back by a month or two.

You are mostly spot on...except for one thing: The shutdowns were put in place in order to be able to figure out "best practices" for dealing with Covid. They bought us a couple of months in which we should have been ramping up testing capabilities & figuring out how to get back to normal.

Oh I agree completely, the U.S. basically took the time it had to figure things out and develop a coherent, nationwide plan during the shutdowns and flushed it down the toilet. "Maybe it will go away", shockingly, did not turn out to be the best option for controlling the virus. I just wonder what would've happened had we been wearing masks all along, as more and more evidence comes out that they do in fact work pretty darn well.

[The Butcher]

Oh I agree completely, the U.S. basically took the time it had to figure things out and develop a coherent, nationwide plan during the shutdowns and flushed it down the toilet. "Maybe it will go away", shockingly, did not turn out to be the best option for controlling the virus. I just wonder what would've happened had we been wearing masks all along, as more and more evidence comes out that they do in fact work pretty darn well.

Don't forget about the White House's back to school plan.
Just for all of you not paying attention; it has been 2 weeks Trump told us about this genius plan coming to a school near you. BUT there has been no such plan given to schools, just Trump telling schools to open.

[BobcatDel]

It's not actually disdain for Trump, any person with half a brain would have known he would fail miserably as POTUS! Come on, there are great Republicans and Democrats, he isn't either, he's a clown show! I digress, I love football and the CATS like all of us, but the decisions by leadership across this country bleeped the football season! And much worse, 140,000 Americans won't be here to enjoy any of it! Like i said, if you care about the USA, care about football, care about school kids, do the right thing in the coming months no matter what your political beliefs! I could really careless if u want to continue to support incompetent politicians, that's peoples own parogitive! Wear a mask, social distance, go fly fishing, go hiking and stop spreading this mess! Go Cats

I'm not a Trump guy, I think he's an idiot blowhard. I just don't see this as strictly his fault. Bullock shut the state down in March and just 3 days ago put in the mask mandate. If masks were the answer the whole time, why did he wait so long? Doesn't he bear some responsibility too?

I've been trying to stay out of this as I'm quite sick and tired of arguing about this issue, but I agree that the blame for the disaster that is the US' response to COVID-19 cannot be pinned solely on one person. IMO, President Trump failed miserably by refusing to take the virus seriously early on, downplaying it and referring to it as a "Democrat hoax" that would magically go away when the weather heated up. The CDC then made a mistake with their mask guidance, and plenty of state governors have since done a pretty horrendous job managing the situation in their individual states - and that includes governors of both political parties. I think Bullock did a pretty good job overall - when he reopened the state we were pretty much down to a handful of new cases per week, with most counties having zero active cases at the time. I agree that the mask mandate should've come a week or two sooner than it did.

From everything I'm reading, I'm wondering if the best strategy all along would have been early emphasis on mask-wearing to reduce the spread of the virus, combined with very targeted lockdowns in places like New York City that had unusually serious outbreaks. Would more people have been willing to wear masks from the beginning if it had meant not shutting everything down? Maybe, maybe not. Would more politicians have been on-board with mask wearing had it not meant closing businesses and schools down for weeks and months? Again, maybe, maybe not. But based on what we know now, all that the closure of schools, restaurants, bars, etc. seems to have done is to shift the trajectory of the virus back by a month or two.

Amen on trying to place the blame on one guy. It has kinda been a CF from the start. A little reminder that the D side of the equation was still foaming at the mouth with the impeachment trial when this began blowing up earnestly. The trial was still in progress. Pelosi, Schumer and Biden were chanting all racist epitaphs when Trump shut down travel from China...Pelosi even invited everyone to Chinatown to walk the streets with her...it was all just a Trump racist issue. By golly Cuomo wasn’t going to shut down New York with this little illness and other states were not going to restrict the travel of his folks nor restrict those coming in to do business there.....nope just started putting folks that are sick in nursing homes to the tune of 1000s of elderly deaths. Those were sure conducive actions to unite the country in crisis. Birx and Fauci (who I admire) were selling hard that we needed to shut down the economy and social distance and masks weren’t needed. Louisiana decides to go ahead with Mardi Gras which only blows Louisiana out of the water as well as everyone who has attended. Any governor that hadn’t restocked or heeded advice about preparation from the last pseudo pandemic was blaming Trump for there problems and Trump was clearly blaming them for lack of preparation......kinda a he said she said thing. You can laud Bullock all you want but he made a statement the other day that this sure impacts the elderly...gosh ya think....with only 80% of the deaths at age 65 or older and now we are at 16 deaths from 2 nursing homes in Montana....approaching 50% of the deaths in the state at two elder care facilities....he can’t insure the safety of the most vulnerable of our population but by golly we will get our N95 equivalent bandana and old diaper masks in place....and don’t defend this issue..my mother resides in one and we waited 5 days to get a report of a test (she had a fever) that turned out damaged....she thought she was going to die and was in tears and we were furious because we couldn’t find out anything for a week....but by God we will get our masks in place rather than insure we protect the most vulnerable and focus test immediacy on those especially at risk

Do I think Trump has handled this well? No. But don’t get on here and sing the blame game on one person.

When this crisis is all over, and it will be, I will be very interested in a long look back at what happened and what/how we prepare for the next event that will happen. Can we really pull together a joint non partisan team of experts that prepares us for the next one and energizes the American people to work together in a non-partisan approach?

[coloradocat]

When this crisis is all over, and it will be, I will be very interested in a long look back at what happened and what/how we prepare for the next event that will happen. Can we really pull together a joint non partisan team of experts that prepares us for the next one and energizes the American people to work together in a non-partisan approach?

I propose a national center filled with experts in their field whose sole function is the control of diseases. Crazy idea, I know, but image what would have been different if we had that.

[BobcatDel]

It's not actually disdain for Trump, any person with half a brain would have known he would fail miserably as POTUS! Come on, there are great Republicans and Democrats, he isn't either, he's a clown show! I digress, I love football and the CATS like all of us, but the decisions by leadership across this country bleeped the football season! And much worse, 140,000 Americans won't be here to enjoy any of it! Like i said, if you care about the USA, care about football, care about school kids, do the right thing in the coming months no matter what your political beliefs! I could really careless if u want to continue to support incompetent politicians, that's peoples own parogitive! Wear a mask, social distance, go fly fishing, go hiking and stop spreading this mess! Go Cats

I'm not a Trump guy, I think he's an idiot blowhard. I just don't see this as strictly his fault. Bullock shut the state down in March and just 3 days ago put in the mask mandate. If masks were the answer the whole time, why did he wait so long? Doesn't he bear some responsibility too?

I've been trying to stay out of this as I'm quite sick and tired of arguing about this issue, but I agree that the blame for the disaster that is the US' response to COVID-19 cannot be pinned solely on one person. IMO, President Trump failed miserably by refusing to take the virus seriously early on, downplaying it and referring to it as a "Democrat hoax" that would magically go away when the weather heated up. The CDC then made a mistake with their mask guidance, and plenty of state governors have since done a pretty horrendous job managing the situation in their individual states - and that includes governors of both political parties. I think Bullock did a pretty good job overall - when he reopened the state we were pretty much down to a handful of new cases per week, with most counties having zero active cases at the time. I agree that the mask mandate should've come a week or two sooner than it did.

From everything I'm reading, I'm wondering if the best strategy all along would have been early emphasis on mask-wearing to reduce the spread of the virus, combined with very targeted lockdowns in places like New York City that had unusually serious outbreaks. Would more people have been willing to wear masks from the beginning if it had meant not shutting everything down? Maybe, maybe not. Would more politicians have been on-board with mask wearing had it not meant closing businesses and schools down for weeks and months? Again, maybe, maybe not. But based on what we know now, all that the closure of schools, restaurants, bars, etc. seems to have done is to shift the trajectory of the virus back by a month or two.

You are mostly spot on...except for one thing: The shutdowns were put in place in order to be able to figure out "best practices" for dealing with Covid. They bought us a couple of months in which we should have been ramping up testing capabilities & figuring out how to get back to normal.

Thats what Canada did. And now, the NHL is going to play a Canadian-only season because Canada has the virus under control.

Thats what Europe did. And Europeans are playing soccer again, because they have the virus under control. And their kids are going back to school, BECAUSE the virus is under control.

In the US, we've decided that Covid is 100% a political issue that won't be solved until the elections in November. Doesn't really matter what the science says, its all about the politics. As a result, conferences are cancelling fall sports and even having HS kids in class is up in the air.

People in the US don't get sports because we couldn't follow a couple basic rules. Maybe, best case scenario, we get a "Montana-only" football season. Because a critical mass of people have decided that following best practices for a pandemic is a way of signaling their ideological bona fides.

Its pretty sad that they are willing to sacrifice a season of college football in order to maintain partisan purity.

Maybe just a different view but the shut down was put in place because of the need to establish social distancing and improve separation and hygiene. It is still the number one recommendation to prevent the spread of the disease from all major health organizations..... And yes it was buying time to get equipment in place, improve treatment protocol and care, etc etc etc.

Since we are social creatures the opening up to Phase 2 has identified our inability to social distance effectively. I joked with my wife (who is a mask supporter) that I saw two ladies in an office setting this week....one had her designer scarf and the other had what looked like an old child’s onesie made into a mask. Although strangers, they struck up a conversation and within 10 minutes were 18” apart sharing photos on their phones....I joked those masks must be N95 equivalent because it surely wasn’t going to prevent the spread in these folks who were contact sharing on their phones.

For any ranch hands or former ranch hands on here, I think the next mandate should be “cattle prods”. The ones with the batteries that can provide a little stimulus to move along. We could probably patent and sell millions of them.....design one with a couple settings....like just a warning “bump” and then a full scale “stimulus” if you get too much inside my social distancing space. Might be able to make a retractable version so it is easy carry in your designer carrying case on your belt or in your purse but could quickly draw out when space invasion occurs. Would the pro-mask folks on here support the prod mandate?

Canada starting the NHL....wonderful! Hasn’t the U.S. started golf and aren’t we starting baseball shortly. Gosh I think so!

Sacrificing a football season is indeed sad. But why sacrifice it. 80% of the fatalities are over the age of 65. I am over 65 and if they tell me I can’t attend this year but they are going to move ahead with games and I will be able to watch on TV and get my seats back next year...I am all for it. I don’t want to shut society down because of my risk factor. Only 37 deaths to Covid in Montana and 16 have been in two elder care facilities....so 21 others have died because of the disease....and you will sacrifice a season for that?? Gosh I could easily see a season where you perhaps allow spaced seating, limited attendance and crowd entrance control without elderly (maybe you ID everyone and they have to prove they are under 65 to get in.....I wonder how many folks would make a fake ID again...like they haven’t had since they were under 21!) And everyone carrying their social spacing prod!!. Just a different view on risk level to some....some view this as the end of the world and some see it as manageable with precautions in place...it doesn’t mean it is political....and of course some in the legal profession might view it as an opportunity to increase revenue with lawsuits should anyone contact Covid at a game or espouse that they did.

And yes I will be wearing my new N95 equivalent mask that my wife made from an old baby diaper that probably hasn’t been washed since last worn by one of the kids.