LSU Professor says there should be no football this fall

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Tiger fans and LSU students might be upset at what an LSU professor of epidemiology has to say about football returning to Tiger Stadium.

According to a report in LSU’s student paper, The Reveille, Professor Edward Trapido says if it were up to him college sports should not return to LSU at this time.

“Certainly, if it were to happen now, no. It’s just too big a crowd,” he told the student paper.

Trapido is assisting the university in finding apps that can track and trace positive coronavirus cases through the community.

He and colleague Susanne Straif-Bourgeois cite a possible coronavirus “nightmare” if college football were to return to Death Valley.

“I just don't feel it would be feasible,” Straif-Bourgeois said. “Really a logistical nightmare.”

Straif-Bourgeois is part of the team of epidemiologists advising the state health department and Governor John Bel Edwards on coronavirus guidelines.

She says if football were to return to Tiger Stadium, social distancing will be near impossible and could create another coronavirus outbreak.

“It will be hot. You will be sweaty,” Straif-Bourgeois said. “Again, you will probably, at some point, take the mask off because you want to eat or drink something... You will scream. You will shout, and that actually produces more of this virus to be aerosolized.”

Compliance with coronavirus mitigations is key Staif-Bourgeois says. This comes as just last weekend students gathered at Tigerland bars resulted in over 100 positive cases.

“Looking at the data and the current knowledge, what we see about compliance, wearing masks in the general population of Louisiana, I would assume that most college students are not compliant to that,” Straif-Bourgeois said.

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