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H1N1 And The NHL
by PuckStopsHere on 11/12/09 at 04:50 PM ET
Comments (8)
It isn’t clear how badly the H1N1 flu will affect North America as we enter the traditional winter flu season. Nobody knows how many people will be affected. There is a precedent in hockey for flu causing disruption. In 1919, there was no Stanley Cup winner as both finalists - the Montreal Canadiens and the Seattle Metropolitans - were hit hard by the flu and the finals were cancelled. At a time, the entire Montreal Canadiens team was hospitalized and defenceman Joe Hall died of the flu. This was the famous Spanish influenza epidemic. Returning soldiers from World War I brought back a new strain of the flu and it killed an estimated 50 million people (about 3% of the world’s population). This was the second wave of the Spanish Flu, as World War I had ended in 1918.
Hopefully medicine is better equipped to deal with a major flu pandemic today than it was in 1919, but we never can know for sure. However, with the invention of vaccination, there is a new weapon to fight a flu pandemic.
Hockey teams are a very good breeding ground for the flu. Teams are in tight quarters and often sweating on one another. Should the flu infect a couple players on a team, it is quite likely to infect many. That has led to teams trying to get immunized for H1N1. There has been some controversy in this process as there is not enough vaccine for everyone who wants it in the general public. The biggest controversy so far has come when the Calgary Flames and their families got immunized at the same time the province of Alberta was shutting down vaccination clinics due to a lack of vaccine.
A handful of NHL players have contracted the H1N1 flu, but they have been successfully quarantined from teams to prevent entire teams from being affected at the same time. The QMJHL has been hit hardest by the H1N1 flu so far. They have postponed three games after players on the Shawinigan Cataractes and the Prince Edward Island Rockets contracted the virus. This weekend, the Shawinigan games against Acadie-Bathurst and PEI arepostponed and the PEI games against Baie-Comeau (as well as Shawinigan) are postponed as well. Last week, the Moncton Wildcats games agains Val d’Or and Rouyn Noranda were postponed for similar reasons. The QMJHL is yet to name make up dates for the games.
Postponing of games is one technique to prevent the spread of a flu pandemic. Will the NHL find it necessary to go that route? At this point, the guess (and hope) is that they won’t, but it is not impossible.
There is a precedent for cancelling hockey games due to flu pandemics. The 1919 Spanish flu pandemic is a famous example of when this was necessary. Will it get that bad this year? We hope not, but cannot know for sure.
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Comments
I haven’t been sick in 30 years. This is just more media hype about nothing. People die from the flu every day. It ‘s rare but it has always happened. It’s get the weak and the feeble. Otherwise it’s all hype…if you are really concerned for your health quit smoking and put down the choclate donut
Posted by kevin from conlin on 11/12/09 at 05:22 PM ET
stopping hockey games will stop the spread of the Pandemic
Stopping hockey games prevents the spread of the pandemic between the players in those games ... obviously it will do nothing on a global scale.
Posted by PuckStopsHere on 11/12/09 at 06:18 PM ET
The Q didn’t postpone the games to prevent the spread of the pandemic H1N1/09 virus. They postponed it because the team didn’t have enough healthy players to play. In 1919 the series was also not canceled to prevent the spread of influenza. Virtually all the players were already infected, so it was done out of respect for Joe Hall and to allow for the players to rest and get healthy.
Posted by Muero on 11/12/09 at 10:50 PM ET
The QMJHL games are/were postponed both the prevent the spread of h1N1 to further players and to give already affected players time to recover.
Since a few players from both the Shawinigan Cataractes and P.E.I. Rocket organizations have contracted the virus, we have decided to postpone three games as per outlined in our prevention protocol. These steps have been taken after consulting with our chief physician, Dr. Sylvain Boutet, and both team doctors. Thankfully, none of the players need to be hospitalized. Our goal is to remain proactive in regards to the health and security of our players. We will not take any unnecessary risks. I would like to thank both organizations for their cooperation in this matter
In 1919, there were few healthy players, that was the reason for cancellation.
Posted by PuckStopsHere on 11/13/09 at 12:01 AM ET
The “Spanish Flu” may have actually started in either the Far East or Kansas at a US Army training center with extremely poor sanitary conditions. It is estimated that between 50 to 100 million people died. It is called the Spanish Flu because Spain, a neutral country in WWI had no censorship for news against the disease and, consequently, the most reliable news came from Spain and gave the impression that was the only place with the disease.
Posted by Matt from Vancouver on 11/13/09 at 11:01 AM ET
It seems to be hitting everyone much earlier than normal flu season. So I don’t see it altering the finals in anyway. The media has definitely overhyped the severity of this illness - but - it is spreading like gangbusters, just happens to be milder than normal flu. My entire family just spent the last two weeks with it. It wasn’t a welcomed guest, and we’re happy to see it go.
Posted by Navarath on 11/13/09 at 11:36 AM ET
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what?
stopping hockey games will stop the spread of the Pandemic.. yeah, dream on…nothing will stop the spread of this virus. and whys should they? it’s no worse than regular in terms of death rate, and no where near as deadly as Spanish flu was, not including immunisations and lessening remedys…
yet again you say nothing…i just don’t see the point in you
Posted by Pharazon from England on 11/12/09 at 05:16 PM ET