MOCO Executive Order No. 087-20 - Effective Date 8/5/2020

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What makes the MoCo health commissioner so much smarter than the Maryland Sports Commission that was put together by the governor? The detailed report of that commission states that soccer is a medium risk sport. In so far as soccer is concerned (not getting into that whole lacrosse argument) why is the county yet again redefining something that the state had classified as medium risk? Where is the science and data that shows Covid transmission in soccer specifically? If someone can show the data and science behind making soccer a high risk sport, I am all ears!

What makes the MD Sports Commission smarter than the NCAA? NCAA considered soccer as high risk.

CDC considers it medium risk. Who is in a better position: NCAA or CDC?

You’re a complete idiot. What does CDC stand for and what does NCAA stand for? Soccer is a sport dummy. The are basing the sport if it’s high, medium or low contact. Key word here is contact. High contact sports lead to high risk to infection.

Their only mistake was calling lacrosse a medium contact sport. If parents want to change soccer’s classification, do it. But don’t compare it to lacrosse otherwise the county will classify both sport as high contact.

Between the two, I’d trust the CDC with respect to matters involving people’s health.

Now if we are talking about who’s more qualified to make tons of money off the backs of free labor, then I’d trust the NCAA all day long.

What makes the NCAA any different than the various soccer leagues and clubs then? Nothing, they all want to make money. But all of you want to do is support these money making soccer leagues/clubs.

From CDC:

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/youth-sports.html

Lowest Risk: Performing skill-building drills or conditioning at home, alone or with family members.
Increasing Risk: Team-based practice.
More Risk: Within-team competition.
Even More Risk: Full competition between teams from the same local geographic area.
Highest Risk: Full competition between teams from different geographic areas.

[Anonymous]

The population that plays soccer is more racially and socioeconomically diverse which may place it at higher risk than lacrosse.

Don’t think MoCo officials would admit that is a factor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What makes the MoCo health commissioner so much smarter than the Maryland Sports Commission that was put together by the governor? The detailed report of that commission states that soccer is a medium risk sport. In so far as soccer is concerned (not getting into that whole lacrosse argument) why is the county yet again redefining something that the state had classified as medium risk? Where is the science and data that shows Covid transmission in soccer specifically? If someone can show the data and science behind making soccer a high risk sport, I am all ears!

You're right about one thing: there is no data and there is no science. We don't have it, and no one does. Not the Maryland Sports Commission; not the NCAA; and, sadly, not even the CDC, which, under different leadership, might have been expected to have assembled the data by now. And that's because this is unprecedented. We haven't been playing sports in the midst of a pandemic in modern times. So we simply don't know. And all we have is guesswork. (For example, "six feet apart," which is not some empirically perfected, magic number -- it's just a reasonable, practical rule-of-thumb we can get most people to stick to.)

Faced with low information, you have two choices: plunge in headlong, assuming it's safe until proven wrong (i.e., with more infections and deaths). Or make reasonable, conservative assumptions and the corresponding sacrifices -- painful though they might be -- to minimize the the risk, even if it turns out to be overkill. Isn't that obvious?

Given what we've seen so far (e.g., the fact that re-opening in June led to sustained and growing rates of infection), reasonable, careful leaders should err on the side of caution. Sometimes that's what leadership requires, even though it might be unpopular. It's one thing to take chances with your own health. Or even your own kid's health. It's a wholly different thing to roll the dice with an entire county's populace.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What makes the MoCo health commissioner so much smarter than the Maryland Sports Commission that was put together by the governor? The detailed report of that commission states that soccer is a medium risk sport. In so far as soccer is concerned (not getting into that whole lacrosse argument) why is the county yet again redefining something that the state had classified as medium risk? Where is the science and data that shows Covid transmission in soccer specifically? If someone can show the data and science behind making soccer a high risk sport, I am all ears!

What makes the MD Sports Commission smarter than the NCAA? NCAA considered soccer as high risk.

CDC considers it medium risk. Who is in a better position: NCAA or CDC?

You’re a complete idiot. What does CDC stand for and what does NCAA stand for? Soccer is a sport dummy. The are basing the sport if it’s high, medium or low contact. Key word here is contact. High contact sports lead to high risk to infection.

Their only mistake was calling lacrosse a medium contact sport. If parents want to change soccer’s classification, do it. But don’t compare it to lacrosse otherwise the county will classify both sport as high contact.

Between the two, I’d trust the CDC with respect to matters involving people’s health.

Now if we are talking about who’s more qualified to make tons of money off the backs of free labor, then I’d trust the NCAA all day long.

What makes the NCAA any different than the various soccer leagues and clubs then? Nothing, they all want to make money. But all of you want to do is support these money making soccer leagues/clubs.

From CDC:

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/youth-sports.html

Lowest Risk: Performing skill-building drills or conditioning at home, alone or with family members.
Increasing Risk: Team-based practice.
More Risk: Within-team competition.
Even More Risk: Full competition between teams from the same local geographic area.
Highest Risk: Full competition between teams from different geographic areas.

This does not mean that soccer competition poses the highest possible risk. It is a continuum for sports from lowest risk upward. In addition, if you read the guidance, it also addresses mitigation measures that can be take at each level to reduce risk. The level of risk depends on whether there is shared equipment, social distancing and masking off the field, as well as whether large groups are gathering in one place.

I would think there are less restrictive ways to mitigate risk without shutting down games entirely, whether that is no fans, no tournaments or limiting the numbers on the field for training.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What makes the MoCo health commissioner so much smarter than the Maryland Sports Commission that was put together by the governor? The detailed report of that commission states that soccer is a medium risk sport. In so far as soccer is concerned (not getting into that whole lacrosse argument) why is the county yet again redefining something that the state had classified as medium risk? Where is the science and data that shows Covid transmission in soccer specifically? If someone can show the data and science behind making soccer a high risk sport, I am all ears!

What makes the MD Sports Commission smarter than the NCAA? NCAA considered soccer as high risk.

CDC considers it medium risk. Who is in a better position: NCAA or CDC?

You’re a complete idiot. What does CDC stand for and what does NCAA stand for? Soccer is a sport dummy. The are basing the sport if it’s high, medium or low contact. Key word here is contact. High contact sports lead to high risk to infection.

Their only mistake was calling lacrosse a medium contact sport. If parents want to change soccer’s classification, do it. But don’t compare it to lacrosse otherwise the county will classify both sport as high contact.

Between the two, I’d trust the CDC with respect to matters involving people’s health.

Now if we are talking about who’s more qualified to make tons of money off the backs of free labor, then I’d trust the NCAA all day long.

What makes the NCAA any different than the various soccer leagues and clubs then? Nothing, they all want to make money. But all of you want to do is support these money making soccer leagues/clubs.

From CDC:

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/youth-sports.html

Lowest Risk: Performing skill-building drills or conditioning at home, alone or with family members.
Increasing Risk: Team-based practice.
More Risk: Within-team competition.
Even More Risk: Full competition between teams from the same local geographic area.
Highest Risk: Full competition between teams from different geographic areas.

This does not mean that soccer competition poses the highest possible risk. It is a continuum for sports from lowest risk upward. In addition, if you read the guidance, it also addresses mitigation measures that can be take at each level to reduce risk. The level of risk depends on whether there is shared equipment, social distancing and masking off the field, as well as whether large groups are gathering in one place.

I would think there are less restrictive ways to mitigate risk without shutting down games entirely, whether that is no fans, no tournaments or limiting the numbers on the field for training.

We are talking about games, not practices.

Have you ever seen shared equipment between two teams? How do you social distance during a game? What difference does it make if players wear masks off the field when they are not wearing it while playing with 21 other players on the field (U13 and older)? Games pose a lot of danger for infections.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What makes the MoCo health commissioner so much smarter than the Maryland Sports Commission that was put together by the governor? The detailed report of that commission states that soccer is a medium risk sport. In so far as soccer is concerned (not getting into that whole lacrosse argument) why is the county yet again redefining something that the state had classified as medium risk? Where is the science and data that shows Covid transmission in soccer specifically? If someone can show the data and science behind making soccer a high risk sport, I am all ears!

You're right about one thing: there is no data and there is no science. We don't have it, and no one does. Not the Maryland Sports Commission; not the NCAA; and, sadly, not even the CDC, which, under different leadership, might have been expected to have assembled the data by now. And that's because this is unprecedented. We haven't been playing sports in the midst of a pandemic in modern times. So we simply don't know. And all we have is guesswork. (For example, "six feet apart," which is not some empirically perfected, magic number -- it's just a reasonable, practical rule-of-thumb we can get most people to stick to.)

Faced with low information, you have two choices: plunge in headlong, assuming it's safe until proven wrong (i.e., with more infections and deaths). Or make reasonable, conservative assumptions and the corresponding sacrifices -- painful though they might be -- to minimize the the risk, even if it turns out to be overkill. Isn't that obvious?

Given what we've seen so far (e.g., the fact that re-opening in June led to sustained and growing rates of infection), reasonable, careful leaders should err on the side of caution. Sometimes that's what leadership requires, even though it might be unpopular. It's one thing to take chances with your own health. Or even your own kid's health. It's a wholly different thing to roll the dice with an entire county's populace.

Very well articulated post.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Faced with low information, you have two choices: plunge in headlong, assuming it's safe until proven wrong (i.e., with more infections and deaths). Or make reasonable, conservative assumptions and the corresponding sacrifices -- painful though they might be -- to minimize the the risk, even if it turns out to be overkill. Isn't that obvious?

Fortunately many areas are planning to plunge in headlong. Kids have already had everything else taken away. They shouldn't have to be the ones to sacrifice over and over to keep the numbers at just a good enough level to enable adults to do whatever they want. I'm glad our league's games are starting up in September. Heck, scrimmages this month have been a blast. So glad I moved out of Olney three years ago to get away from this nonsense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What makes the MoCo health commissioner so much smarter than the Maryland Sports Commission that was put together by the governor? The detailed report of that commission states that soccer is a medium risk sport. In so far as soccer is concerned (not getting into that whole lacrosse argument) why is the county yet again redefining something that the state had classified as medium risk? Where is the science and data that shows Covid transmission in soccer specifically? If someone can show the data and science behind making soccer a high risk sport, I am all ears!

What makes the MD Sports Commission smarter than the NCAA? NCAA considered soccer as high risk.

CDC considers it medium risk. Who is in a better position: NCAA or CDC?

You’re a complete idiot. What does CDC stand for and what does NCAA stand for? Soccer is a sport dummy. The are basing the sport if it’s high, medium or low contact. Key word here is contact. High contact sports lead to high risk to infection.

Their only mistake was calling lacrosse a medium contact sport. If parents want to change soccer’s classification, do it. But don’t compare it to lacrosse otherwise the county will classify both sport as high contact.

Between the two, I’d trust the CDC with respect to matters involving people’s health.

Now if we are talking about who’s more qualified to make tons of money off the backs of free labor, then I’d trust the NCAA all day long.

What makes the NCAA any different than the various soccer leagues and clubs then? Nothing, they all want to make money. But all of you want to do is support these money making soccer leagues/clubs.

From CDC:

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/youth-sports.html

Lowest Risk: Performing skill-building drills or conditioning at home, alone or with family members.
Increasing Risk: Team-based practice.
More Risk: Within-team competition.
Even More Risk: Full competition between teams from the same local geographic area.
Highest Risk: Full competition between teams from different geographic areas.

This does not mean that soccer competition poses the highest possible risk. It is a continuum for sports from lowest risk upward. In addition, if you read the guidance, it also addresses mitigation measures that can be take at each level to reduce risk. The level of risk depends on whether there is shared equipment, social distancing and masking off the field, as well as whether large groups are gathering in one place.

I would think there are less restrictive ways to mitigate risk without shutting down games entirely, whether that is no fans, no tournaments or limiting the numbers on the field for training.

We are talking about games, not practices.

Have you ever seen shared equipment between two teams? How do you social distance during a game? What difference does it make if players wear masks off the field when they are not wearing it while playing with 21 other players on the field (U13 and older)? Games pose a lot of danger for infections.

Has there been an outbreak in Maryland related to youth soccer? I have not and outside of Mont Co teams have been practicing, scrimmaging and playing since June.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What makes the MoCo health commissioner so much smarter than the Maryland Sports Commission that was put together by the governor? The detailed report of that commission states that soccer is a medium risk sport. In so far as soccer is concerned (not getting into that whole lacrosse argument) why is the county yet again redefining something that the state had classified as medium risk? Where is the science and data that shows Covid transmission in soccer specifically? If someone can show the data and science behind making soccer a high risk sport, I am all ears!

You're right about one thing: there is no data and there is no science. We don't have it, and no one does. Not the Maryland Sports Commission; not the NCAA; and, sadly, not even the CDC, which, under different leadership, might have been expected to have assembled the data by now. And that's because this is unprecedented. We haven't been playing sports in the midst of a pandemic in modern times. So we simply don't know. And all we have is guesswork. (For example, "six feet apart," which is not some empirically perfected, magic number -- it's just a reasonable, practical rule-of-thumb we can get most people to stick to.)

Faced with low information, you have two choices: plunge in headlong, assuming it's safe until proven wrong (i.e., with more infections and deaths). Or make reasonable, conservative assumptions and the corresponding sacrifices -- painful though they might be -- to minimize the the risk, even if it turns out to be overkill. Isn't that obvious?

Given what we've seen so far (e.g., the fact that re-opening in June led to sustained and growing rates of infection), reasonable, careful leaders should err on the side of caution. Sometimes that's what leadership requires, even though it might be unpopular. It's one thing to take chances with your own health. Or even your own kid's health. It's a wholly different thing to roll the dice with an entire county's populace.

Very well articulated post.

Agree to disagree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What makes the MoCo health commissioner so much smarter than the Maryland Sports Commission that was put together by the governor? The detailed report of that commission states that soccer is a medium risk sport. In so far as soccer is concerned (not getting into that whole lacrosse argument) why is the county yet again redefining something that the state had classified as medium risk? Where is the science and data that shows Covid transmission in soccer specifically? If someone can show the data and science behind making soccer a high risk sport, I am all ears!

You're right about one thing: there is no data and there is no science. We don't have it, and no one does. Not the Maryland Sports Commission; not the NCAA; and, sadly, not even the CDC, which, under different leadership, might have been expected to have assembled the data by now. And that's because this is unprecedented. We haven't been playing sports in the midst of a pandemic in modern times. So we simply don't know. And all we have is guesswork. (For example, "six feet apart," which is not some empirically perfected, magic number -- it's just a reasonable, practical rule-of-thumb we can get most people to stick to.)

Faced with low information, you have two choices: plunge in headlong, assuming it's safe until proven wrong (i.e., with more infections and deaths). Or make reasonable, conservative assumptions and the corresponding sacrifices -- painful though they might be -- to minimize the the risk, even if it turns out to be overkill. Isn't that obvious?

Given what we've seen so far (e.g., the fact that re-opening in June led to sustained and growing rates of infection), reasonable, careful leaders should err on the side of caution. Sometimes that's what leadership requires, even though it might be unpopular. It's one thing to take chances with your own health. Or even your own kid's health. It's a wholly different thing to roll the dice with an entire county's populace.

Very well articulated post.

Agree to disagree.

You’re very welcomed to disagree.

But please be careful and take care of your and your family’s health. As fellow MoCo residents, we can wholeheartedly disagree with each their but we should still be kind to each other. Too many damn hatred going on already, let’s not add to it because of soccer. Your DC loves & plays soccer the same as mine.

So all of us in this forum have similarities and can agree with this point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What makes the MoCo health commissioner so much smarter than the Maryland Sports Commission that was put together by the governor? The detailed report of that commission states that soccer is a medium risk sport. In so far as soccer is concerned (not getting into that whole lacrosse argument) why is the county yet again redefining something that the state had classified as medium risk? Where is the science and data that shows Covid transmission in soccer specifically? If someone can show the data and science behind making soccer a high risk sport, I am all ears!

What makes the MD Sports Commission smarter than the NCAA? NCAA considered soccer as high risk.

CDC considers it medium risk. Who is in a better position: NCAA or CDC?

You’re a complete idiot. What does CDC stand for and what does NCAA stand for? Soccer is a sport dummy. The are basing the sport if it’s high, medium or low contact. Key word here is contact. High contact sports lead to high risk to infection.

Their only mistake was calling lacrosse a medium contact sport. If parents want to change soccer’s classification, do it. But don’t compare it to lacrosse otherwise the county will classify both sport as high contact.

Between the two, I’d trust the CDC with respect to matters involving people’s health.

Now if we are talking about who’s more qualified to make tons of money off the backs of free labor, then I’d trust the NCAA all day long.

What makes the NCAA any different than the various soccer leagues and clubs then? Nothing, they all want to make money. But all of you want to do is support these money making soccer leagues/clubs.

From CDC:

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/youth-sports.html

Lowest Risk: Performing skill-building drills or conditioning at home, alone or with family members.
Increasing Risk: Team-based practice.
More Risk: Within-team competition.
Even More Risk: Full competition between teams from the same local geographic area.
Highest Risk: Full competition between teams from different geographic areas.

This does not mean that soccer competition poses the highest possible risk. It is a continuum for sports from lowest risk upward. In addition, if you read the guidance, it also addresses mitigation measures that can be take at each level to reduce risk. The level of risk depends on whether there is shared equipment, social distancing and masking off the field, as well as whether large groups are gathering in one place.

I would think there are less restrictive ways to mitigate risk without shutting down games entirely, whether that is no fans, no tournaments or limiting the numbers on the field for training.

We are talking about games, not practices.

Have you ever seen shared equipment between two teams? How do you social distance during a game? What difference does it make if players wear masks off the field when they are not wearing it while playing with 21 other players on the field (U13 and older)? Games pose a lot of danger for infections.

Has there been an outbreak in Maryland related to youth soccer? I have not and outside of Mont Co teams have been practicing, scrimmaging and playing since June.

Not many soccer games/tournaments during July and clubs are very careful with practices (masks & social distance). I don’t even know there were any games/tournaments played in July. There will be lots more tournaments/games in late August and in September.

Expect COVID-19 number to go up everywhere especially in states where in-person public schools are open in conjunction with youth soccer games.

[Anonymous]

Can MoCo teams play outside of the county...or are the leagues shuttering as well?

[Anonymous]

So, here we go, my son’s team that is based in Montgomery county has rescheduled two scrimmages. Both have been relocated: one to Baltimore and the other to Northern Virginia. Can someone explain to me what Montgomery county is trying to accomplish? Unless there is a nationwide ban on the sport, people are going to find a way to play, let’s stop fooling ourselves. If this isn’t politics at its worst, please tell me what is really going on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, here we go, my son’s team that is based in Montgomery county has rescheduled two scrimmages. Both have been relocated: one to Baltimore and the other to Northern Virginia. Can someone explain to me what Montgomery county is trying to accomplish? Unless there is a nationwide ban on the sport, people are going to find a way to play, let’s stop fooling ourselves. If this isn’t politics at its worst, please tell me what is really going on.

Simple. COVID-19. Some states, counties and cities have either a higher or lower risk threshold than others. Similarly with public school openings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, here we go, my son’s team that is based in Montgomery county has rescheduled two scrimmages. Both have been relocated: one to Baltimore and the other to Northern Virginia. Can someone explain to me what Montgomery county is trying to accomplish? Unless there is a nationwide ban on the sport, people are going to find a way to play, let’s stop fooling ourselves. If this isn’t politics at its worst, please tell me what is really going on.

What's really going on? It's a simple matter of pushing the needle in the right direction. Not all or nothing. Of course risk-ratings for indoor volleyball and lacrosse are laughably inconsistent. And some soccer teams or clubs will find workarounds, outside the county. But most won't, especially younger teams and recreational leagues. And those that do will likely conduct fewer practices and play fewer games. Which means fewer contacts. When you scale that up over thousands of kids (and their parents milling about nearby), you're talking about tens of thousands fewer contacts over the course of the fall. Is that guaranteed to suppress infections? No. But it's reasonable to think that it will.