RPI 2021-22: Picking Up Where We Left Off

[sezenack]

https://dailygazette.com/2021/12/24...gainst-vermont-moved-from-troy-to-burlington/

It will be multiple weeks before the RPI men’s and women’s hockey teams host any more games.

The RPI men’s hockey team is making an unexpected second trip back to Vermont after the school announced Friday that the Engineers’ game next Thursday against the Catamounts had been moved from Houston Field House to Gutterson Fieldhouse in Burlington, Vermont.

Meanwhile, the RPI women’s hockey team’s games against Merrimack Jan. 1-2 at the Field House have been canceled.

Kevin Beattie, RPI’s associate athletic director for communications, cited the current COVID-19 situation as the reason for the changes. The decision to not host the men’s game came Thursday, but was announced Friday after it was determined Vermont could host the contest. That game will start at 2 p.m.

“They could host, and we could not,” Beattie said. “We’re not hosting events at the moment, so instead of canceling the game, they were generous enough to host.”

RPI played at Vermont on Oct. 23. The Engineers won 2-1.

The RPI women’s team wasn’t able to get their games moved to Merrimack.

Classes resume at RPI on Jan. 10, but will start remotely. Beattie said classes are expected to be remote until Jan. 24.

The men’s hockey team’s next scheduled home game is Jan. 21 against Yale, while the women are back at the Field House Jan. 14 against Quinnipiac.

“We don’t have other home games for a while, and that will allow for our students and community to be tested on a regular basis,” Beattie said. “That should not be an issue down the road.”

After canceling all sporting events last season because of the pandemic, RPI has limited fan attendance at athletic events this season. Only students, faculty and staff have been allowed to attend games.

RPI’s announcement comes three days after Union athletics updated its COVID-19 regulations. Fans 12 years and older attending all indoor collegiate sporting events at Messa Rink, Viniar Athletic Center and Alumni Gym Pool will have to bring proof of full COVID-19 vaccination.

The policy goes into effect Thursday, when the women’s basketball team hosts Middlebury. The Union men’s hockey team is hosting UMass Dec. 31 and Jan. 1. The next Union men’s basketball game is Jan. 7 against Skidmore. The men’s and women’s swimming host Hartwick and Springfield Jan. 8. The women’s hockey team returns to Messa Jan. 14 against Princeton.

 

[rpi82]

Now I am getting a bit worried. If we can't host a game on 12/30, with outside fans already excluded and virtually no inside the containment fans on campus, what are the standards for hosting in the future?

As of today Army hasn't made any changes to their admittance policies for the 1/2 game. Proof of vaccination is required and masks are to be worn. Since it is a Sunday on a holiday weekend (one of the major travel days of the year) and the cadets are only due back on campus by 5 that afternoon, attendance will probably not be that high anyway. Hopefully they'll be cautious about imprementing further restrictions.

 

[engineerhockeyfan]

I am cautiously optimistic that we will play out the season, but I don't know if fans will be in the building.
I don't understand why we can't host the Vermont game. The students are not on campus, so there will be very few if any fans at that game. Are the locker rooms not sanitized?
In any case, I am glad to know that we will have at least one more game to enjoy this season.

 

[DrDemento]

We already are under some of the strictest rules and regulations of any school in the country. As RPI82 stated, if we cannot host the Vermont game then when and under what circumstances can we ever host a game? As more and more regulations about testing are put into place, and you have to be tested for virtually every activity, of course we will be finding more positive cases. I am sure if we test everyone in the same fashion for regular flu we would also see an abundance of cases (we do not and have not ever tested like that before). Fully understand the need for testing but if 75% or more of the new cases are of a new mild strain that causes little or no morbidity let alone mortality, we should be focusing not on the number of positive asymptomatic cases, but on the latter (morbidity and mortality) instead. There are a plethora of viruses that circulate year round with season peaks that we do not test for. If this new variant is the cause of the spike in cases, but causes only rare if any significant disease - please tell me why we need all of this?
If we are moving to Vermont for this next game I guess the virus is less contagious in that state?

 

[Ralph Baer]

We already are under some of the strictest rules and regulations of any school in the country. As RPI82 stated, if we cannot host the Vermont game then when and under what circumstances can we ever host a game? As more and more regulations about testing are put into place, and you have to be tested for virtually every activity, of course we will be finding more positive cases. I am sure if we test everyone in the same fashion for regular flu we would also see an abundance of cases (we do not and have not ever tested like that before). Fully understand the need for testing but if 75% or more of the new cases are of a new mild strain that causes little or no morbidity let alone mortality, we should be focusing not on the number of positive asymptomatic cases, but on the latter (morbidity and mortality) instead. There are a plethora of viruses that circulate year round with season peaks that we do not test for. If this new variant is the cause of the spike in cases, but causes only rare if any significant disease - please tell me why we need all of this?
If we are moving to Vermont for this next game I guess the virus is less contagious in that state?

Sure, there are fewer people in Vermont, so there are fewer positives, and figuring out percentages is too difficult for politicians. :-D

 

[Sean Pickett]

If we are moving to Vermont for this next game I guess the virus is less contagious in that state?

Well, Vermont is getting federal assistance to fight COVID, so I don't think that's the case.

Sean

 

[DrDemento]

Sure, there are fewer people in Vermont, so there are fewer positives, and figuring out percentages is too difficult for politicians. :-D

You have hit the nail on the head!! They need to know a little bit of mathematics to understand and I suppose they were all political science majors.

Add to that, trying to figure out mortality rate or hospitalization rate from an infectious disease, you must able to come up with the proper denominator in the equation. For something like Omicron, which so far is apparently a very mild infection, how can you possible know how many people actually have it if they exhibit virtually no symptoms and do not therefore present for testing or to a doctor or hospital? Insanity! Actually, perhaps that is what we need to be testing for?

 

[Waite21]

I am cautiously optimistic that we will play out the season, but I don't know if fans will be in the building.
I don't understand why we can't host the Vermont game. The students are not on campus, so there will be very few if any fans at that game. Are the locker rooms not sanitized?
In any case, I am glad to know that we will have at least one more game to enjoy this season.

I would assume that the coach wants the team to return to campus and practice this week before the Vermont game. If they're going to be at the Field House and practicing, then the team and the Field House staff are subject to the same degree of risk during practice sessions as they would be if they played the game at home. As you point out, the number of fans at a game when school is not in session and the general public is excluded would be so small that they should be easily able to establish plenty of social distancing.

Maybe they're doing this out of concern for UVM's team, lest they might get infected if they came to the state of New York.

 

[DrDemento]

I would assume that the coach wants the team to return to campus and practice this week before the Vermont game. If they're going to be at the Field House and practicing, then the team and the Field House staff are subject to the same degree of risk during practice sessions as they would be if they played the game at home. As you point out, the number of fans at a game when school is not in session and the general public is excluded would be so small that they should be easily able to establish plenty of social distancing.

Maybe they're doing this out of concern for UVM's team, lest they might get infected if they came to the state of New York.

Yes- God knows how much exposure they could get if they get off their bus and have to walk a few yards to the field house with virtually no one inside.

 

[Wicked Slappaahs]

We already are under some of the strictest rules and regulations of any school in the country. As RPI82 stated, if we cannot host the Vermont game then when and under what circumstances can we ever host a game? As more and more regulations about testing are put into place, and you have to be tested for virtually every activity, of course we will be finding more positive cases. I am sure if we test everyone in the same fashion for regular flu we would also see an abundance of cases (we do not and have not ever tested like that before). Fully understand the need for testing but if 75% or more of the new cases are of a new mild strain that causes little or no morbidity let alone mortality, we should be focusing not on the number of positive asymptomatic cases, but on the latter (morbidity and mortality) instead. There are a plethora of viruses that circulate year round with season peaks that we do not test for. If this new variant is the cause of the spike in cases, but causes only rare if any significant disease - please tell me why we need all of this?
If we are moving to Vermont for this next game I guess the virus is less contagious in that state?

Totally agree Doc. Logic and reason left the building a loooooooooong time ago. We're not gonna let UVM play in our building likely due to "safety" concerns ??? so we'll instead will throw our guys on a bus and make them travel and go play a game in a different state inside of a building full of..... .GASP...... humans !

I have ZERO expectations that fans will be inside HFH this season. We'll be lucky if they're allowed to play out the schedule. June 30th cannot get here fast enough.

 

[DrDemento]

Totally agree Doc. Logic and reason left the building a loooooooooong time ago. We're not gonna let UVM play in our building likely due to "safety" concerns ??? so we'll instead will throw our guys on a bus and make them travel and go play a game in a different state inside of a building full of..... .GASP...... humans !

I have ZERO expectations that fans will be inside HFH this season. We'll be lucky if they're allowed to play out the schedule. June 30th cannot get here fast enough.

WS: There needs to be a lot more changes than just SAJ to get RPI and the sports programs back to normal functioning. NY needs a governor elected who makes at least rational decisions. NJ is in that same position. Hypocrisy is rampant. I am still trying to research why an tire country with a population 4 times that of the entire USA, has been reporting new COVID cases less than 1/10 of NY state each day. And I am not referring to China whose statistics I have no faith in.

 

[Ralph Baer]

WS: There needs to be a lot more changes than just SAJ to get RPI and the sports programs back to normal functioning. NY needs a governor elected who makes at least rational decisions. NJ is in that same position. Hypocrisy is rampant. I am still trying to research why an tire country with a population 4 times that of the entire USA, has been reporting new COVID cases less than 1/10 of NY state each day. And I am not referring to China whose statistics I have no faith in.

I assume that you are referring to India. Do you faith in their statistics?

 

[DrDemento]

I assume that you are referring to India. Do you faith in their statistics?

Actually, probably more than ours. There have been several ideas about why the numbers of positive cases and deaths are what they have reported. I know two physicians who practice there (after training here) and they are as befuddled as I am. The vaccination rate there is lower and the medical care in many areas can best be described as inadequate (and that is stretching it). We are seeing this in other places that had rather severe spikes in the past like Brazil. Because the numbers in this country are most definite skewed by weekends and holidays (when less people present for testing) you have to take averages (weekly or even monthly). Nothing from the study of past infectious diseases seems to hold here. Here in NJ today I believe we dropped to roughly 9000 positive tests (roughly half of the number we had seen the last few days) but even at that level, it is more than the entire country totals for one day for those places that have had some of the highest totals overall. Just very odd and even if it somehow makes mathematical sense, it is not striking me as making medical sense.

I sure hope that this next game against Vermont is not the last that we shall see this season. We have mostly ECAC games against Ivy teams and in the past they were the first to shut down.

 

[engineerhockeyfan]

Actually, probably more than ours. There have been several ideas about why the numbers of positive cases and deaths are what they have reported. I know two physicians who practice there (after training here) and they are as befuddled as I am. The vaccination rate there is lower and the medical care in many areas can best be described as inadequate (and that is stretching it). We are seeing this in other places that had rather severe spikes in the past like Brazil. Because the numbers in this country are most definite skewed by weekends and holidays (when less people present for testing) you have to take averages (weekly or even monthly). Nothing from the study of past infectious diseases seems to hold here. Here in NJ today I believe we dropped to roughly 9000 positive tests (roughly half of the number we had seen the last few days) but even at that level, it is more than the entire country totals for one day for those places that have had some of the highest totals overall. Just very odd and even if it somehow makes mathematical sense, it is not striking me as making medical sense.

I sure hope that this next game against Vermont is not the last that we shall see this season. We have mostly ECAC games against Ivy teams and in the past they were the first to shut down.

At this point I am taking it one game at a time. And I am not convinced yet that there will be a game Thursday.

 

[rpi82]

Actually, probably more than ours. There have been several ideas about why the numbers of positive cases and deaths are what they have reported. I know two physicians who practice there (after training here) and they are as befuddled as I am. The vaccination rate there is lower and the medical care in many areas can best be described as inadequate (and that is stretching it). We are seeing this in other places that had rather severe spikes in the past like Brazil. Because the numbers in this country are most definite skewed by weekends and holidays (when less people present for testing) you have to take averages (weekly or even monthly). Nothing from the study of past infectious diseases seems to hold here. Here in NJ today I believe we dropped to roughly 9000 positive tests (roughly half of the number we had seen the last few days) but even at that level, it is more than the entire country totals for one day for those places that have had some of the highest totals overall. Just very odd and even if it somehow makes mathematical sense, it is not striking me as making medical sense.

I sure hope that this next game against Vermont is not the last that we shall see this season. We have mostly ECAC games against Ivy teams and in the past they were the first to shut down.

A few days ago I read an article indicating that the University of Washington biostats team (which has been lauded for accuracy and blasted for inaccuracy at varying points during the pandemic) was forecasting a stunning 140M new domestic cases in the next 3 months due to Omicron's highly contagious nature with an equally amazing 90% of them being asymptomatic. Could we be seeing that pattern? With the increased travel and the holidays being upon us there has been a great rise in testing, regardless of whether the test candidate believes they may have it. Is that driving our numbers with many asymptomatic cases that might otherwise never have been tested now being uncovered? Has anyone seen recent measured data on the asymptomatic percentage?

 

[engineerhockeyfan]

A few days ago I read an article indicating that the University of Washington biostats team (which has been lauded for accuracy and blasted for inaccuracy at varying points during the pandemic) was forecasting a stunning 140M new domestic cases in the next 3 months due to Omicron's highly contagious nature with an equally amazing 90% of them being asymptomatic. Could we be seeing that pattern? With the increased travel and the holidays being upon us there has been a great rise in testing, regardless of whether the test candidate believes they may have it. Is that driving our numbers with many asymptomatic cases that might otherwise never have been tested now being uncovered? Has anyone seen recent measured data on the asymptomatic percentage?

I am no doctor, nor to I pretend to be, but if those numbers are true, can we be working our way to herd immunity?

 

[Wicked Slappaahs]

Actually, probably more than ours. There have been several ideas about why the numbers of positive cases and deaths are what they have reported. I know two physicians who practice there (after training here) and they are as befuddled as I am. The vaccination rate there is lower and the medical care in many areas can best be described as inadequate (and that is stretching it). We are seeing this in other places that had rather severe spikes in the past like Brazil. Because the numbers in this country are most definite skewed by weekends and holidays (when less people present for testing) you have to take averages (weekly or even monthly). Nothing from the study of past infectious diseases seems to hold here. Here in NJ today I believe we dropped to roughly 9000 positive tests (roughly half of the number we had seen the last few days) but even at that level, it is more than the entire country totals for one day for those places that have had some of the highest totals overall. Just very odd and even if it somehow makes mathematical sense, it is not striking me as making medical sense.

I sure hope that this next game against Vermont is not the last that we shall see this season. We have mostly ECAC games against Ivy teams and in the past they were the first to shut down.

I quickly checked a few sites: Cornell's states in a 12/27 update they were requiring proof of vax for all attendees. Harvard does not appear to allow you to select or purchase tickets for any events. Dartmouth updated its policy to ban public attendance at least until Jan. 18th. CCT and SLU appear to be open for business for the 1/14-15 RPI tilts...which I plan on attending.

 

[rpi82]

I quickly checked a few sites: Cornell's states in a 12/27 update they were requiring proof of vax for all attendees. Harvard does not appear to allow you to select or purchase tickets for any events. Dartmouth updated its policy to ban public attendance at least until Jan. 18th. CCT and SLU appear to be open for business for the 1/14-15 RPI tilts...which I plan on attending.

That's definitely a recent change for Harvard. I was considering going to that game and as recently as a week or so ago they were selling individual game tickets and the only non-student section that was completely sold out was in the RPI block.

 

[jericho]

Was this ever posted here, and if so, how did I miss it?

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/timesunion-albany/name/donald-birkmayer-obituary?id=5083332

 

[Ralph Baer]

Was this ever posted here, and if so, how did I miss it?

https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries...ary?id=5083332

I think that it was mentioned on the RPI_Sports mailing list. Also the former statistician at the HFH Dave Messer passed away about the same time.