💧️ it's important to remember that one of the reasons COVID is so rarely cited as a reason for athletes dropping out of events or musicians cancelling shows is that COVID is often explicitly an exclusion criteria for insurance coverage. the actuaries know (they always know) but without robust consistent testing many are getting away with simply being silent on the cause of their sudden turn in health because the alternative is a complete financial loss
seriously, if you see a musician cite "summer flu" or whatever as the reason that they cancelled a show — it's COVID, they know it's COVID, they probably tested positive several times, but if they say "COVID" then they are screwed so they need to speak in euphemisms
Yes! This is a very underreported phenomenon. Metallica learned the hard way:
https://www.indybar.org/?pg=YoungLawyersNews&blAction=showEntry&blogEntry=85867
And now every cancelled event will forever pretend it's not COVID, when it all likely is.
Onto athletes...
I know a guy through a friend of a friend situation from the town I grew up in who is currently in his 20's and was a pretty successful NFL starting player for a few years. He came into the league before COVID, was a starter as a rookie, got COVID in 2021, and just statistically speaking you could see the downturn in his young career. By all accounts, within the organization they knew he never came back to pre-COVID levels, but along with him they decided not to say "COVID" out loud hoping that he'd get another contract with another team eventually.
He's out of the league now and still won't say "COVID" because, from what I've heard second hand, he's been told that there's fear across the league of giving millions to someone who doesn't have a clear path back to full health. He's still hopeful that someone will take a flyer on him and he'll get one more contract signed.
In short, you're spot on. The people who control the money aren't spending it if you say "COVID" out loud.
“The people who control the money aren't spending it if you say ‘COVID’ out loud.”
🎯🎯🎯
☝️👉@BE
@novid