The proposed Trophy Day title march of Rangers fans is biologically “low risk” despite the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a leading epidemiologist.
Professor Sir Hugh Pennington is the emeritus professor of bacteriology at Aberdeen University and certainly better equipped than politicians, newspapers or rival fans to judge the situation.
Rangers fans have been criticised in the press for arranging a title march this coming Saturday which will see fans travel from Ibrox to George Square amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
A Police Scotland chief superintendent has reminded Rangers fans of current lockdown rules regarding outdoor gatherings where six people can meet from six households [Scottish Sun].
Scottish justice minister Humaz Yousaf also decided to ask Rangers fans to stay away despite continually ignoring other mass gatherings.
Stories in the Daily Record and the BBC – two news outlets which have had continuing issues with Rangers – have also warned fans to stay away and took a negative slant on the weekend’s plans.
The entire barrage appears to have been justified by the Covid-19 situation, but this goes against the science with many fans left feeling patronised by the communications.
Not only that but Gers supporters feel like they’re being treated differently to other groups who’ve gathered for a multitude of reasons.
The likes of Nicola Sturgeon and Jason Leitch have also been out this week discussing a rise in cases in Glasgow.
However, Hugh Pennington is adamant any outdoor gatherings are extremely low risk and has refuted these claims by suggesting the “number of cases in Glasgow is really quite low”.
“You can’t say that it is no-risk,” said Pennington [Glasgow Times]. “But it is very low-risk.
“As long as it’s properly managed and there isn’t a lot of hugging it should be okay.
“The number of cases in Glasgow is really quite low, the risk of transmission is 15 times less than it is inside.
“The risk is what they do before the walk and what they do afterwards, the walk itself will be trivial in terms of infection transmission.
“We should probably just hope for the best and hope that it’s windy because that blows the virus away.
“It’s really when people’s faces get close to other people’s faces that you get the real risk of transmission. But most of them won’t be carrying the virus anyway because the cases are so low.
“I wouldn’t say that it’s dangerous at all. With the virus numbers what they are at the moment, I wouldn’t see this as a high-risk exercise.”
This also backs up a recent report which was included in the New York Times and referenced by leading journalist Andrew Neil this week.
The New York Times report essentially concludes that outdoor transmission of the Covid-19 virus could equate to only 0.1% of coronavirus cases.
So if according to the science the virus doesn’t generally transmit outdoors, then Rangers fans must ask themselves, why isn’t Saturday being responsibly facilitated instead of openly criticised?
Here’s more information on the proposed fan March from Ibrox to George Square.
