The St. Albert Soccer Association has decreed that as of Jan. 31, soccer players in that league are no longer allowed to shake hands at the end of their soccer game in order to prevent the ‘potential’ spread of the coronavirus.
Running around, sweating, breathing heavily and bumping into one another for the length of the game is apparently okay, but shaking hands at the end isn’t?
I don't know if all this frenzy is being caused by the media or what ... I'm led to understand that this virus is slightly more contagious than the flu, and that standard hygiene protocols (washing hands, not rubbing one's nose or eyes) eliminates most of the chance of catching this or any other ‘bug'.
Add to this the fact that of China's population of over 1.4 billion people, approximately 430 people have died. Compare this with the U.S. population of just 320 million people, approximately 8,200 people have died from the flu this so far during this flu season. For mortality rates in the U.S. for the entire ‘flu season’, the latest figures from the Centre for Disease Control are from 2017-2018 when 45 million Americans caught the flu and 61,000 of those people died.
Where is 'global health emergency' announcement on the flu, which statistically speaking, is over 48,000% more deadly than the coronavirus? Why is the Canadian government not offering to fly Canadians home from all corners of the globe for fear of catching the flu?
It seems to me that people who spend too much time watching television while snacking on potato chips probably have a riskier lifestyle than those soccer players shaking hands at the end of a game.
Randy Kish, St. Albert
