SAN JOSE, California – At least one fan challenged his own lung disease to the game. Another insisted on continuing to climb to five in the neighboring seats, handwashing was damned. However, another could not stay away after the recent wave of the local team, despite the apprehensions of his wife.
Hours after Santa Clara County public health officials recommended that large gatherings such as sporting events be canceled in light of the ongoing coronavirus epidemic, the The San Jose Sharks chose to keep the doors open for Thursday night’s game against the Minnesota Wild, and thousands of supporters showed up.
The 14,517 tickets distributed for the Wild’s possible 3-2 victory were more than 2,000 lower than the Sharks’ season average of 16,550 at the SAP Center, which has a capacity of 17,562.
It was still a notable participation given the growing concerns about COVID-19, a disease which has affected nearly 100,000 people worldwide – killing nearly 3,400 – and which is making its presence felt with increasing intensity in the region of San Francisco Bay. Earlier in the day, local authorities announced that the number of cases in the county could reach 20 after six new cases were reported.
That didn’t scare longtime buddies Gerald Pleasant and Tom Canale, who live 35 miles away in Santa Cruz County and watch about 10 games a year. The two retirees are 70 years old and the disease has proven to be the deadliest in the elderly, but they haven’t talked much about it, even though Pleasant needs medication for his respiratory condition.
“I have a chronic lung disease, so I’m concerned about it, but I’m not going to let myself be controlled,” he said.
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By announcing that the game would be played as scheduled, the Sharks said they would assess the circumstances before their Saturday and Sunday home games, and encouraged fans to follow standard handwashing suggestions and avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth.
Several fans have said they already do, including Michele Caban and daughter Meghan Merwin, who both work in the healthcare industry.
Caban, marriage and family therapist for patients with weakened immune systems, said that each year many more people are sick and killed by the flu than by the coronavirus so far.
“I believe they are trying to do their best to keep people safe, but I think it is out of proportion,” she said of public health officials. “We are talking about a death in California, a person who was exposed during a cruise.”
This person, a 71-year-old man from a town near Sacramento, was traveling in February with 62 passengers who continued on another cruise on the same ship, now waiting to find out if he can return to San Francisco as planned. About 35 people aboard the ship have reported flu-like symptoms and almost 100 are being tested.
The news caught the eye of Rosalena Garrett of San Jose, who was reluctant to accompany her husband, Bryan, to Thursday’s game. She finally gave in so he didn’t have to go alone.
“It gives you a break, but it doesn’t stop us from doing anything,” he said, more focused on the Sharks’ recent winning streak than the virus. “They’ve won three in a row. I have to introduce myself.”
Some fans have said that the media has overestimated the news of the epidemic and its potential threat, noting that healthy people who are infected usually endure mild symptoms.
Marilyn Ludwig of San Jose said she would not stop her fan friends or wash her hands afterwards.
“These are b.s media, completely and totally,” she said.
As a government official herself, Loella Haskew may have a better understanding of what goes into decisions that affect public health.
Haskew is the mayor of the town of East Bay, Walnut Creek, about 15 miles northeast of Oakland. Asked about her decision to attend the game with her husband Ralph and two friends despite the warning from Santa Clara officials, Haskew spoke of the trip to Europe that the couple resumed in 2001, the month following the terrorist attacks in the September 11th.
They apply this same fearless state of mind now.
“We don’t stop life,” said Ralph, “not at all.”
Follow USA TODAY reporter Jorge Ortiz on Twitter @jorgelortiz.