Canceling running events, while permitting gatherings in football (soccer) stadiums, bars, restaurants, etc., was a recipe for guaranteed disaster.
Coping With the Coronavirus
March 17, 2020
By Dr. Sidy Diallo
I fully understand all the reactions triggered by the article: The Irrational Bans on Running. I may have been not explicit enough. Therefore, some of those who have indeed read it may have missed what I meant when I wrote: “Organizers and authorities are canceling races, and therefore preventing the healthy marathoners from doing the right thing, while allowing tens of thousands of people of different—and not necessarily healthy—lifestyles to vent their emotions in some European football (soccer) stadiums.” “Therefore, naively or desperately canceling marathons not only can’t stop COVID-19 from spreading, while further aggravating the panic; but that’s also counterproductive, since the highly contagious and non-containable novel coronavirus is showing a strong link between chronic diseases—caused by unhealthy lifestyle—and the lethality of infected patients.”
In other words, canceling marathons or half marathons, while permitting gatherings in football (soccer) stadiums, bars, restaurants and in all other public premises was a recipe for guaranteed disaster.
Of course, I wished I were wrong. Sadly, Europe has become the center of the pandemic. We should have responsibly prevented the virus from crossing our borders. Having failed to close our borders on time, an increasing number of countries, including China but also EU member states, are rightfully closing their borders to us, because when COVID-19 reached our countries, we failed again to apply early enough the best recipe for containment, i.e. local, national or EU-wide social distancing. If at least we could learn the right lessons.
An extremely instructive article of Time Magazine explains on how—despite being on the frontline of the spread of the novel coronavirus—Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong successfully contained the epidemic, while remote countries are seemingly failing.
The following two screen shots show the updated figures for some countries on March 19, 2020, the day a European country’s death toll from the coronavirus overtook China’s.
By Dr. Sidy Diallo
I fully understand all the reactions triggered by the article: The Irrational Bans on Running. I may have been not explicit enough. Therefore, some of those who have indeed read it may have missed what I meant when I wrote: “Organizers and authorities are canceling races, and therefore preventing the healthy marathoners from doing the right thing, while allowing tens of thousands of people of different—and not necessarily healthy—lifestyles to vent their emotions in some European football (soccer) stadiums.” “Therefore, naively or desperately canceling marathons not only can’t stop COVID-19 from spreading, while further aggravating the panic; but that’s also counterproductive, since the highly contagious and non-containable novel coronavirus is showing a strong link between chronic diseases—caused by unhealthy lifestyle—and the lethality of infected patients.”
In other words, canceling marathons or half marathons, while permitting gatherings in football (soccer) stadiums, bars, restaurants and in all other public premises was a recipe for guaranteed disaster.
Of course, I wished I were wrong. Sadly, Europe has become the center of the pandemic. We should have responsibly prevented the virus from crossing our borders. Having failed to close our borders on time, an increasing number of countries, including China but also EU member states, are rightfully closing their borders to us, because when COVID-19 reached our countries, we failed again to apply early enough the best recipe for containment, i.e. local, national or EU-wide social distancing. If at least we could learn the right lessons.
An extremely instructive article of Time Magazine explains on how—despite being on the frontline of the spread of the novel coronavirus—Singapore, Taiwan and Hong Kong successfully contained the epidemic, while remote countries are seemingly failing.
The following two screen shots show the updated figures for some countries on March 19, 2020, the day a European country’s death toll from the coronavirus overtook China’s.
As for the primary human job, it’s, of course, much better and more natural to do it collectively as a tribe. Yet, for those who know that long-distance running is a vital and normal human activity—therefore nothing to brag about—canceling marathons can’t stop us from doing the primary human job, the circumstances permitting. I ran therefore a lonely marathon in Muscat on January 21, 2020.
Less than two months later, on the day the postponed Barcelona Marathon was initially scheduled to take place, I ran another lonely barefoot marathon in our beautiful Little Barcelona neighborhood designed by Barcelona architect Ricardo Bofill. Should we be in strict quarantine, I’ll still find options for physical activities at home.
My book Running Barefoot for Human Survival is available on Amazon in paperback and e-book format (French edition: Courir pieds nus pour sauver les humains).
Less than two months later, on the day the postponed Barcelona Marathon was initially scheduled to take place, I ran another lonely barefoot marathon in our beautiful Little Barcelona neighborhood designed by Barcelona architect Ricardo Bofill. Should we be in strict quarantine, I’ll still find options for physical activities at home.
My book Running Barefoot for Human Survival is available on Amazon in paperback and e-book format (French edition: Courir pieds nus pour sauver les humains).