The Recommended Guidelines by USA Swimming for Safe Practices

Bob Weber

Angie Mac Beth Menasion Jessica Kornblum Moore

Shelby Bayne

Do newer pools use a chlorine system. Thought that went out in the 1990s

James Sweeney it’s getting close, surely ?

A liason? How ridiculous

Even before covid-19, kids are coughing and continually sick due to pool air quality. If that is not addressed, I don’t think this is going to work.

Cathryn Stewart Staudigl

The graphs, as well as the guidelines that are linked from this page, are highly ambiguous. What do the red and black colors represent? It does not take much thinking to come up with many ways in which the social-distancing may be broken because of bottle necks where kids will be close to one another, for instance where the cones don’t separate them by enough space, or where two swimmers are merely separated by a lane line (e.g., 18 swimmer graph opposite directions). One should keep in mind that the most powerful spread happens by aerosol (tiny droplets in breath), according to what we have been told so far.

Amy Bennett Tiedemann

Grace Kroll did you see this?!?

Open USA swimming- enough of social distancing guidelines crap – people are so afraid to be sued etc. it’s the fear factor.

USA SWIMMING WIMPS.
Stop following the politician control freaks.
Get our swimmers back in the water.

I have reviewed the new USA Swimming COVID related guidelines. Here are my questions, comments and concerns:

Based on what specific data were these guidelines created? Does anyone know? Does anyone care? Does it matter? It is after all being suggested that coaches make rather radical changes to how they and the sport itself operate.

Assuming that it is the reported severity of COVID, in particularly the Mortality Rate, that has led to the development of these guidelines, has anyone questioned or challenged the true validity of that risk?

Let’s look at mortality rate since it’s that which is being used to create the fear (and hide the facts) that is forcing these changes.

As of 5/2/2020, the COVID mortality rate in the US is reported as 6%. Mortality rate = number of COVID deaths / number of COVID cases X 100. So ~ 66,000 deaths / 1.1 million confirmed cases X 100 = 6%.

Here’s the problem with the math…

The denominator (number of cases) is only based on the number of “confirmed cases”. It fails to account for those who test positive for COVID antibodies or reasonable extrapolated data that can be drawn from those positive antibody tests.

Those who test positive for having COVID antibodies may have been asymptomatic or had mild (or even more severe) symptoms that they didn’t seek treatment for or failed to receive a confirmed COVID diagnosis for. So although they were clearly infected, they are not included as “confirmed cases” within the denominator of the mortality rate equation.

None the less, the prevalence of positive antibody tests indicate that both hospitalization & mortality rates are SIGNIFICANTLY inflated. Inflated to the extent that an accurate calculation would result in moving the decimal left and showing a true mortality rate of well under 1%.

That’s true even if only 1% of those tested for COVID antibodies test positive for them. As of May 1, NY has tested over 15,000 people for COVID antibodies. The preliminary results show 14.9 percent of the population have COVID-19 antibodies with some areas of the state testing as high as 27% positive. Other tests conducted at both Stanford & USC, as well as others places, have also shown a much greater prevalence than what is being reported and utilized to calculate the COVID mortality rate.

I won’t even bother getting into all the issues with the numerator (number of COVID deaths) aspect of the mortality rate equation. However here is what the Director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, Dr. Ngozi O. Ezike, had to say on the topic:

“If you were in hospice and had already been given a few weeks to live, and then you also were found to have COVID, that would be counted as a COVID death. It means technically even if you died of a clear alternate cause, but you had COVID at the same time, it’s still listed as a COVID death. So, everyone who’s listed as a COVID death doesn’t mean that that was the cause of the death, but they had COVID at the time of the death.” Dr. Ezike outlined.

Wow.

Yet it is these invalid mortality rates that have terrified our society, shutdown our economy, modified our behavior, trampled our liberties, and is now leading to the creation of baseless & ridiculous “guidelines” for every industry + activity under the sun…including USA Swimming!

If it’s truly the math/science that is driving these decisions, then why are these critical factors being ignored?

Then of course there’s the demographics that are being brushed aside when offering guidance. For whatever the reported mortality rates are actually worth, they do clearly indicate that it is the elderly (65+), especially those immunocompromised, who make up over 80% of the mortality figures. This of course isn’t unique to COVID. The flu & pneumonia also pose a high risk to these groups, and an even greater risk to our youth.

Considering this, like during any flu/virus outbreak, it is those individuals who should take the greatest precaution to minimize their exposure. They are the ones who, based on all the data, are primarily at risk.

Fear sells though, and we’re all buying it. Shoot, we’re standing in line to buy it…6 feet apart.

It’s time to put facts before fear.

Swimming in clorinated water is safer than standing in line a walmart.

We dont need guidelines. We need to be normal. This is akin to the flu – no reason peopld cannot swim like normal. This is absurd