Why not to get upset about T.O. as hub city
It really does make some people uncomfortable when they hear that Toronto might be a hub for 12 teams in the NHL’s returnto-play plan.
Why should athletes get special privileges like crossing the border and getting right to work? How come they won’t have to quarantine? Why put Toronto at any further risk?
These are important questions that deserve answers. I went to Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Toronto. Some of the answers surprised me.
á First, let’s look at the numbers: The 12 teams would represent at least 600 people, including players, coaches, trainers and staff. Add in some league officials and maybe you get to 700 or 750 in an NHL bubble. Four teams, or about 200 people, would be sent home after the first week or so following the best-of-five qualifying round. The bubble gets smaller as the tournament carries on (unless family members are included in later rounds).
Is 750 a lot? Most of them are Canadian (about 43 per cent of the league) so, if hockey wasn’t being played, they’d be here anyway — not isolated in a bubble, but walking among us.
“It’s not a ton of people,” Bogoch said. “All things considered, it sounds like a lot of people but it actually isn’t.”
á Playing politics: Anybody coming into Canada must quarantine for 14 days or, if showing symptoms of COVID-19, selfisolate for 14 days. But the league appears to have gotten the exception it was looking for, a cohort quarantine in which it would keep players separate from the general public.
A federal official told The Canadian Press on Thursday that the government issued an order in council that would allow one of Vancouver, Edmonton or Toronto to serve as a hub city. The order is awaiting the Governor General's signature. The move would allow the NHL to bypass the traditional 14-day quarantine.
á Let’s look at the plan: Those inside the quarantine bubble — the players, coaches, staff and other hangers-on — would not be allowed go outside the bubble. If they did, there’d be pretty much hell to pay. They’d be under a microscope, especially in Toronto. So is there really a risk to the community at large? No, Bogoch says. “The point of the quarantine is not to protect the players, it is to protect everyone else, the citizens, in whatever city they land in,” Bogoch said.
“Whether or not you put one player per room or multiple players per hotel, it’s quite frankly, in my opinion, it’s almost irrelevant.”
Keeping them away from the public is what matters.
How they interact with each other is up to them (and would be based on NHL-imposed guidelines).
The players would be tested frequently. The biggest risk — for the players, anyway — would be hotel cleaning staff, waiters and others that would not be in the bubble.
Crossing the border: On the surface, it certainly sounds like a privilege. But thousands upon thousands are doing it every day.
For the week of June1-7, 26,145 travelled into Canada on planes (6,960 from the United States) and 156,072 travelled into Canada at land-border crossings (98,089 were truck drivers). That’s a lot of people crossing the border at a time when the border is supposedly closed.
And who believes all of those people are quarantining ? Didn’t think so.
NHL players? They wouldn’t be isolated in their own rooms, but they would be quarantined away from the general public, which is really the issue.
á Are the games essential? Playing the games is merely the fulfilment of their contract, their work. Is it “essential” work? The way a doctor, nurse or grocery store clerk is essential? Nope.
But, if the province is opening up, then less-essential work should also be opening up. Pro athletes are part of that.
Then there are the benefits of the distraction for fans — something to do other than go for a walk. There are also economic benefits to the city of Toronto to host the 12 teams, certainly for the hotels and restaurants that will serve the players.
á Would Toronto be at further risk? The curve is flattening but risks remain until a vaccine is found. But, if any group is going to be trusted to stay away from the general public, it’s professional athletes.
“It’s easy to say, ‘Oh, is this special treatment? Oh, why do these guys get to do it? Oh, this is gonna provide such a burden on our health-care system.’
“I don’t think it is. I really don’t. If they can do it safely, and if they can adhere to the right measures, and if you get the green light from public health authorities, it would be wonderful.”