Soaring Contest and Coronavirus

Thread drift? If to have contests the country first needs to find a way to live with the virus, then this is a broad thread. If 1918 is any indicator, this thing will be over once nearly everybody has been infected.

For Seniors, there were no confirmed cases within 100 miles. Given what we are now hearing about asymptomatic transfer, it seems likely that there were unconfirmed cases at the WalMart and maybe on the field. Given the quantity and ages of the folks, 'dodging the bullet' seems more that just luck. There might be a lesson there of more general use.

Kudos to Rich and crew for an outstanding job of providing the tools to have a safe contest in what turned out to be a more challenging than expected environment. Even with the spotlight of Monday Morning Quarterback discussion, they did a great job. But I think that is only half the story. Each contestant also thoughtfully chose to be there and chose to use the tools wisely. The story seems a mix of top down rules and bottom up personal responsibility, both thoughtfully applied. To use only a part of the mix is fighting the virus with a hand behind your back. Instead of talking about freedom of choice versus a population based epidemiological response we need to figure out how to use both in concert.

From what I'm seeing here at the big box store, I don't think this will work with the instincts we have in the general public today. Why did it work at Seniors? One difference is that the group has a safety culture that is accustomed to managing risk individually in addition to having it managed for them. Another is that there was good leadership to nudge folks in a safe direction.

Country wide leadership seems in short supply, but locally I'm seeing signs of encouragement in small business folks figuring out how to proceed with their lives while keeping the virus at bay. We need to figure out how encourage this in the general population.