Euler wrote: ↑Sat Apr 11, 2020 6:59 am
I'd imagine racing will be very conscious of the negative publicity if a jockey or somebody gets injured and has to go to hospital.
I don't think that will be much of a consideration tbh. If they can get medical cover to run meetings they will run racing again. I don't think negative publicity will factor much into the decision making.
The biggest issue I see is getting that medical cover. The only reason the NHS is coping at the moment is due to all the extraordinary measures that have been taken such as cancelling a lot of treatment and surgery and expanding the ICU etc capacity significantly while lowering the patient to staff ratio to below optimal/normal levels.
How we get back to some form of normality on the NHS front which has to happen really before resources are likely to be freed up for "Sports" to take place is going to be a very difficult question to answer. Treatments and operations that are currently being postponed will to a large extent have to start up again at some point though some of that will be reduced due to the fact some of these patients will have now died.
Also resources that have been switched to Covid will have to return to their normal use in time.
As we lift restrictions on the public though infections will carry on and likely rise thus leading to higher demands on the NHS.
Although some months away we are not actually that far away from winter and the added pressures that come on the NHS with that. In recent years we have been very lucky to have a mild winter last year and not a bad flu season for some time. If either of those happen or both added with Covid it will be very demanding on an already stretched NHS.
It is ultimately something that we are going to have to some how learn to live with - it is going to be difficult and a tricky path to negotiate.
How racing fits into that is hard to work out but I think the summer racing will be quite different to normal and winter racing is going to be difficult to stage potentially at all.
Time will tell and hopefully I am wrong but I am yet to hear about any real solutions to the situation.