So when did H.S. football become more important than a lung?

Maybe it's time to surrender. Stack the chairs, hang the sheets on the chandeliers and hose down the fire. We have reached a point of human behavior that defies explanation.

This epiphany comes from the bipartisan stance among state legislators to gang up on Gov. Ned Lamont. Imagine: People who normally can't agree that NBA players are tall are singing Kumbaya in this newfound unity over ... wait for it ... high school football.

A bipartisan effort.

Over football.

In a pandemic.

This week's sign of the apocalypse. Yes, this is what's more important than a lung now. High school football in the fall. The fall. A must. The fall. Not the spring. No. The fall. The framers should know their mantra has morphed into "life, liberty and the pursuit of first downs."

House Democrats: "At the very least, we ask that the conversation between DPH and CIAC be continued so that parents, athletes and administrators can be on the same page regarding the rationale for decision making for each of the fall sports."

House Republicans: "As you are aware, Connecticut youth have been playing football along with all other team sports over the past several months and this has not led to a spike in our infection rate."

Maybe we begin here: Politicos know nothing about COVID-19. Nothing. Zero. Know what? Neither do I. I am neither a scientist nor a doctor. And for me — or anyone else — to

presume to know anything more about this disease than how to spell it is the height of ignorance, hubris and entitlement.

Think about it: If you have cancer, do you want opinions and information from Sloan Kettering or Mitch McConnell?

So there was the governor on Tuesday seated next to Dr. Albert Ko, the co-chair of the ReOpenCT Advisory Group and department chair and professor of epidemiology and medicine at Yale. Let's reiterate: Yale. You know. Yale. Epicenter of higher learning. Boola, boola.

Dr. Ko, per Julia Bergman's story in The Day: "Ko said he's hopeful that with the protocols the state has in place, including wide availability of COVID-19 testing — and 'buy in' from residents, who have largely abided by social distancing, mask wearing and other public health recommendations — the state will be 'in containment mode through the winter season rather than in a reactive mode to resurgence.'"

And yet somehow the resistance gains traction. Because what would some doctor from Yale know anyway? We want football! We want our Friday night social time, dammit! We need it! What about my kid's (real or perceived) scholarship? We have our rights!

Undaunted, Senate Republicans, citing the state's low numbers, hospitalizations and deaths, asked DPH commissioner Deidre Gifford via letter last week under what metrics DPH would allow football.

"Obviously, your decision to recommend against playing football certainly is the safest decision and provides for zero risk," said the letter, published by GameTimeCT. "However, it seems that there should be more required of DPH to assess and weigh the risks and provide a more detailed analysis and recommended solutions."

What more do Ms. Gifford and Dr. Ko have to say? Would billboards help? We have low numbers because we are mostly in accordance with mask-wearing and social distancing. Detraction from those practices would send us into the same morass other states are feeling with higher numbers. Duh.

GameTime even quoted a high school player from East Haven as saying, "we want cold, hard facts to support that high school football is high risk."

Appreciate your passion, son. But there aren't enough cold, hard facts available, except these: more than 180,000 people have died from this. Maybe you grow up in a household that rationalizes 180,000 deaths as irrelevant. A miniscule percentage of the overall population.

Know what else that is, son? That's 180,000 funerals and grieving families. To dismiss the significance of even one death suggests alarming self-absorption and a sociopathic lack of compassion. We all want to know more about this virus, kiddo. We just don't yet. We are still learning.

Sometimes, science, patience and faith are all we have.

Gov. Lamont has suggested high school football wait until the spring. Many other states have that plan, moving back the starting date of traditional spring sports to accommodate multiple-sport athletes. The state high school football committee has recommended it. Massachusetts is going forward with it.

But here? Parents are winding up their kids and pushing uninformed politicians into the heedless and irresponsible path of invalidating scientific explanation. The CIAC can't offer coherent comment. And now Gov. Lamont looks like the bad guy for listening to a doctor from Yale.

Gov. Lamont has done an exemplary job of leading us through the pandemic with honesty, transparency and knowing what he doesn't know. So he asks a doctor from Yale. His detractors ask their local politicians.

Whom would you believe?

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro