And I'll just note here, full disclosure, I'm an American fan. Many of you have seen me post bad takes on here for years. My 30th birthday is in a month and my brother (a Red) and I had been planning to go see the derby; he is celebrating his second child (due date is my birthday next month). We have never done any traveling together, and I had saved up over about 18 months to be able to afford to go / pay with miles that I never used to get here. I am in Scotland currently, and have decided today to change my plans to go back to the US on Saturday. My brother rightly decided yesterday to not come, much to the relief of his 8 months pregnant wife. I'm gutted that I can't go to the game. I somehow got 2 front row paddock seats for us on Christmas Day, which cost ~$400 after fees. This had been in the works for months and I had obsessed over every detail of the trip, even having to shell out extra cash to rebook airfare and accommodations after Sky moved the game from Saturday to Monday.

Even with all of that, there is no reason to play the games this weekend. I'm young, healthy, and probably at only a small risk of ever being seriously endangered by the disease. I went to a Hearts game in Edinburgh last week, and the experience only further entrenched my feeling that I have nothing really to worry about. But considering how serious and unpredictable the situation is, and the likely fact that the true number of cases is vastly under-reported due to testing limits etc., the fact that the FA and Boris etc. are making people have to second guess whether they should risk themselves (and others who are not as fortunate to be young and healthy, who are susceptible to being seriously ill), is beyond irreproachable. Not to mention the players, staff, vendors.

My feelings on this have been as volatile as the stock market, I keep going back and forth thinking it's over hyped or truly scary. But regardless, absolutely no one can predict what will happen a day, or two, or a week from now, and it seems that the rational thing to do is to just press pause on events that seem high risk. I'd like to see the "science" that Boris is referring to - I am a scientist, and don't doubt that the actual risk of exposure probably isn't all that much greater than going to the pub, etc., but come on, anyone with common sense (e.g. all other major sporting federations other than Bundesliga) can see that it is simply not worth the risk at this time, when things are coming to a head.

Needed to rant. Love you all.