As noted in California Karen hosts a 200,000-person mass gathering (Super Bowl in Los Angeles), the vaccinated will soon be huddled together in California, land of the closed public school and open marijuana store. They’re be wearing their cloth masks, unless they’re eating or drinking (which will be the entire game?) or holding their breath like Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. From an evolutionary point of view, will this be the perfect place to breed a vaccine-immune mask-immune variant of SARS-CoV-2?
If so, what do we call the variant? “Ramgals”?
Separately, what are readers’ predictions about the final score at this superspreader event? Combining the home field advantage (a whole stadium full of Science-following Californians cheering discreetly through their Science-verified cloth masks) with my total ignorance of football, I expect the Rams to win and predict 28-25 Rams-Bengals.
Related:
- “‘Lay Low And Cool It’: Fauci Warns Against Super Bowl Parties Becoming Superspreaders” (state-sponsored NPR, February 2021)
- “Super Bowl Party or Superspreader Event?” (NYT, 2/4/2021): “don’t plan on shouting or cheering with your friends”
- “COVID-19 can’t stop Los Angeles from partying before Super Bowl LVI” (TMZ, 1/16/2022)
proof of vaccine was required, but the partying began two days before Super Bowl Sunday
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10506079/Jeff-Bezos-girlfriend-Lauren-Sanchez-puts-busty-display-figure-hugging-white-dress.html
All that money and he dumps his wife for a tramp like that. Must be the PED’s he most certainly is taking.
Again, all that money and you go to a Justin Bieber concert? That would be so far down my list…
It is indeed interesting that Bezos’ newspaper disparages “low class” truckers but he appears at a Bieber concert with such a sophisticated companion. Many truckers will have more refined tastes.
Since the prospective new variant will be the fourth major one, I suggest WUHAN-IV as the name.
Because they’re all masked they will be puffing germs sideways at each other.
PhilH: This is a great point! Masked spectators sitting side-by-side might actually do more spreading if lamely masked. That said, however, from the TV coverage of the game I didn’t see any of the spectators wearing masks at any time. (By contrast, the mask rules just got more strict for nearby schoolchildren. See https://ktla.com/news/local-news/lausd-implements-new-covid-face-mask-requirement/ from January 24, 2022)
From another place in the Elsewhere, here’s mine:
“OK here is my once-a-year meaningless Superbowl guess-a-thon prediction:
Bengals, 21-17. Bengals score TD in last 0:30 of regulation play after a sack & fumble by the Rams followed by a 57 yard pickup and a lightning strike pass to one of their offensive linemen, not a receiver. Everyone – including the Bengals – is totally flabbergasted. Fans in the stadium have to look at each other before they know how to cheer.
Commentator: “How did that happen?”
Bengals Defense: “We honestly have no idea.”
Rams Offense: “Neither do we.”
I have absolutely zero evidence, credentials, or knowledge to back this up, but it’s what I do every year. I will be watching the game and I hope everyone has a great time and it’s just a really good game without all the BS, like it should be.
And everyone – no matter who wins or loses: love your SO, tomorrow is Valentine’s Day.”
Demographic note: Superbowl tickets cost ** at least ** $5,000 for the supercheap seats and more than $20,000 from resellers. This is a relatively wealthy crowd of people and it’s going to be interesting to watch the footage from the stadium to see their masking behavior.
What’s the vaccination pass requirement for entry into the stadium? I assume that anyone paying at least $5 grand for a single, nosebleed-section ticket has the means to be fully vaccinated. Is that being enforced? Are people’s double-shot and booster credentials being checked upon entry, or are the authorities leaving it up to the relatively wealthy folks to decide for themselves how to watch the biggest stadium sporting event on the planet?
Masks are for little people (age and/or social class) not our neo-feudal betters. (Cf. AOC or Stacey Abrams)
@Jane: I didn’t see the whole game from end to end but I noticed there wasn’t much close-up coverage of the people in the stands nor to the best of my knowledge did they do a pre-game segment on vaccine card bonafides for people being admitted. One would think they’d have had a big “good example” segment showing folks exchanging their tickets with masks on and duly showing their vaccination cards, but there was almost none of that from what I could tell. So I guess Eric Garcetti just took everyone’s word for it.
@Jane: I mean, I remember (for real!) a time when Pillars of the Community were expected to at least make some token demonstration of their Virtue, and quite often were happy to do so when there was a real emergency that everyone was truly affected by. I didn’t see that tonight watching the coverage of relatively wealthy people in the stands for this game. I got the distinct impression, in fact, that they really don’t want their faces shown.
I watched the game, from home on my 15+ y/o 42″ TV.
Just like every other Super Bowl, this was no different [1]. In 3 1/2 hours, you get to see more commercials and Hollywood celebrities than any other place or show. This is more air time than the game itself! That’s a remarkable achievement that no other sport can beat or come close to.
[1] Except when TB12 is playing. 🙂