The USEF released their new rule guide for horse shows going forward. Including daily temp checks for anyone working the show, paid or volunteer., Distancing requirements for stabling and stewards, and mandatory face masks for anyone on the grounds who isn’t on a horse.
Does this change your plans to enter or work at a show?
While I appreciate the temperature monitoring, 1) some people run a “normal” high temp - I have a co-worker who’s "normal temp is in the 99 range would that exempt her from showing and 2) who will be testing the temp? the show EMT or ?
Other than that I think it’s a good start - at least it IS a start.
I like it because it does open the door for people who must lower their risk of exposure to possibly show. It’s a great start. 
However, several nits to pick …
According to these rules, “Anyone who exhibits COVID-19 symptoms …”, rather than "Anyone who tests positive for Covid-19 on the day … ". In my county, only 8% of people with covid symptoms sufficient to get the test, actually test positive for covid. Or in other words, 92% of people with covid symptoms, don’t have covid.
Also, people with active sneezy-coughy allergies can’t show. The symptoms are the same as covid-19.
The temp thing is going to be problematic because nature does not make a standard product. Human normal temperature varies and some people are on the high side and could be excluded, even though they are healthy.
Plus, heat, activity, eating and stress can temporarily elevate a person’s temperature, and horse shows tend to be heavy on all (maybe not eating!). Maybe even when entering the front gate. Even a hot or cold beverage can temporarily influence temperature. However, it would be fair enough to put the burden on the people to be tested to make sure they get to the testing without all of those potential variables.
I’ve heard a solution of having people keep a log of their normal temp for two weeks before the first official measurement.
The limitation on entries and on stabling (which also restricts entries) is definitely understandable, but makes it harder for a show to be financially viable.
BUT – What’s good is that we are moving forward here, and that matters. It’s never perfect on the first try. As long as there is continuing learning and progress on these requirements, this is a good start.
>>> What is not mentioned, and what would be the real answer to all of this, is a covid 15-minute test for everyone that comes through the gate. Testing needs to be the solution above all other solutions.
I agree with O&O (as usual 😉), taking reasonable and sensible precautions is important - with some caveats.
I DO wish the tests were more widely available to asymptotic people!
I didn’t drill down but in the TOC I’m not seeing anything for post-event protocols. I think these events need a mechanism to alert attendees if/when a fellow attendee tests positive within 14 days of the event. Then the other attendees are on notice of possible exposure and can act accordingly. That’s the way to ID and address clusters. The event will have a waiver and indemnity plus whatever limitations on recovery lawmakers are currently working on. So it shouldn’t be avoided as some sort of taboo subject. It should be embraced and instituted to the greatest extent possible to both safeguard attendees/staff/volunteers and help public health officials to ID and control clusters and second wave outbreaks.
Is there a possible HIPPA issue that events or shows might be looking at IF everyone who attends is required to inform the organizer if they definitely get diagnosed with Covid within a few days of attending a show, and then the organizer tells all other participants and volunteers that someone came down with Covid?
The horse world being what it is… the identity of the person who actually did have a Covid will get around sooner or later. If I was an organizer in the midst of something like this… I’d feel worried about being accused of violating someone’s health privacy in a situation like that.
Maybe I am overthinking this. But it seems like there are a few ways this might go terribly wrong if the event organizer somehow needs to contact people later. That seems best handled via the local public health authority responsible for tracking disease outbreaks sbd b particular hotspots? Maybe folks want to have a good understanding of how that process works, but be careful to not have an expectation that an event organizer cross over into that lane… if that makes sense.
Within a month, all states will have geared up with their contact tracing programs. I would think that show organizers would need to coordinate with the health department contact tracing program. It seems that if contact tracing in and of itself violates HIPPA, the contact tracing program will have gotten the suitable waivers.
I would think that by July or August, testing will be sufficiently available that organizers could require entrants and personnel be tested within the two days prior. So showing costs an extra $150 per person per show until there’s a vaccine.IMO this is a great point, because it leads to a larger issue that we have to face up to as a society. And haven’t done yet. That is the privacy of personal health AND the control of gov’t over infected persons. This is a sticky wicket for every pandemic from plague to AIDS.
I’m thinking that the USEF and local/regional horse showing organizations, and perhaps even organizers, will, at some point (now, actually), have to include in their membership or entry form a waiver addressing this. Along with the liability waiver. If you want to show, you are agreed first to report any symptoms occurring within 14 days after the first day of the show to a local authority, and if so you are agreed to testing for covid, and if you are positive, that the local authority will do whatever contact tracing they need to do, even if your covid is outed.
From now on, part of going to a horse show means that you may end up in two weeks quarantine if someone else at the show ends up positive, and you had some level of contact. No matter what PPE you were sporting at the time.
And probably local health authorities are going to need to know about sporting events ahead of time, so that they have people ready to pounce - I mean, ready to be very prompt about the reporting, testing, contact tracing and follow up. Before showers do the cruise-ship thing and launch off into the general population with covid germs scattering in their wake.
Many are doing it now for the horses with Coggins and/or health certificates. Asking for one that is more current than the old standards of one year and one month. I think we can AND SHOULD and MUST do this for people as well.
But we will need covid testing availability - and accessibility. So people can drive through and get it done efficiently, within two days prior.
If we can get that done universally by July or August, I will be thrilled.
In my county there is no such testing availability today. I would have to show up in the parking lot of a clinic, tell big lies about exposure, while pretending to be coughing up a lung, before I could get a covid test. Ridiculous, but so it is.
@OverandOnward - thanks for the thoughtful follow up. You’ve had a number of really good comments and thoughts on this Covid 19 situation on multiple threads, IMO. I’m having a hard time in regular life even talking about it lately with people… Reason, and taking a balanced and moderate approach to a societal challenge with multiple aspects to it… that has gone out the window entirely it seems.
Anyone can voluntarily waive HIPPA restrictions wrt discreet information and doing so could become mandatory in order to voluntarily participate in group sporting events, attend private schools, travel, etc. I see no barrier there. As Yankee Duchess said, coordination between public health officials and events organizers is better than gathering whole bunches of people together but having zero responsibility to aid in communicating possible exposure among those people and dumping it all on public health systems. No names need be mentioned at all.
In Singapore my friend’s husband was quarantined for 3 weeks, she and the kids restricted to their home, and their school informed, and no one knows it was them. And that’s a MUCH smaller community. Sure, people are guessing but, again, that’s no reason not to follow robust public health safety protocols.
I don’t see how the mask rule can work if people are using either cloth or disposable masks and using/disposing of them properly.
On a good note, a shout out to Canada! Thank you neighbors, for providing the only hand sanitizer that has been available here since early March. :yes:
There was a shelf (albeit a small one) stocked with little bottles of hand sanitizer, made in Canada, at the grocery store pharmacy today. I bought just one.
In my area, just this past week, it became possible to get either a test for active infection or an antibody test by making an appointment at a testing site. You would need a doctors order for presumptive Covid to have insurance pay for it, but with self pay, you just make the appointment. I think the cost was $100.
People are talking about what USEF recommends and requires. I have a feeling that my state may have its own opinions and requirements that may be more strenuous than the requirements of USEF. At a minimum, I think show management would be required to coordinate with the state and county contact tracers.
Testing is mostly a matter of money. Bezos is building his own in house testing labs with the intention of testing all frontline Amazon employees every two weeks. Most states, certainly mine, are serious about greatly expanding testing capability and seem inclined to make it a prerequisite for permitting additional activities. Of course tests will be reserved for front line workers and those at risk while they are scarce, but it does not seem unrealistic to me that tests would be available, at ballpark $100 a test, by Aug 1.
If a show has 200 participants, at the infection rates expected for July, Aug, September it seems low probability that zero participants turn up positive in the next two weeks. I think participants would prefer paying the $100 up front rather than be asked to quarantine for two weeks afterward. There is also the issue of compliance with the policy of requiring people to self report symptoms and positive tests after the fact. If the requirement is unenforceable, there’s not much point in having it.
I disagree here. There are many things we count on people to do in a community that aren’t enforceable. It doesn’t mean we don’t expect people to do them. Plus, this is a voluntary activity so there is after-the-fact enforcement like not letting you participate if you failed to follow the rules previously. You may not catch many offenders but if even a few were banned from future participation it would increase compliance.
Again, I think we need to plan for good actors and set up rules honest, well-meaning people will follow for the good of their sport and sporting community and worry about the bad actors as they show themselves, not note that there will always be bad actors and therefore do nothing.
If, after a horse show, a participant has a very mild case of fever for 4 days and some cough, but does not remotely require hospitalization, and doesn’t report it to show management or get tested, how would the show management impose “after the fact enforcement”?
Suppose 5 people develop symptoms after the show and 3 are responsible but 2 aren’t?
Nobody is going to die if they can’t go to horse shows for the next 2 or 3 months. I think the responsible thing to do is wait (2-3 months) until participants, grooms, and show staff can be tested a priori.
I would not show if as a competitor I was required to have a negative COVID test within a certain number of days. If things are that serious then we don’t need to be horse showing, period.
I also strongly disagree with punishing bad actors after the fact. If we are devising a system to punish people who are infected and show anyway (remembering that you can not show any symptoms for days) then we also don’t need to be horse showing.
I would not show if as a competitor I was required to have a negative COVID test within a certain number of days. If things are that serious then we don’t need to be horse showing, period. That is a huge extra expense and requirement to get a ribbon and I will be staying home.
I also strongly disagree with banning “offenders” after the fact. You can not show symptoms for days, you could mistake it for allergies or a summer cold. You don’t get fired from your job if you show up for work and end up having COVID. I would also not horse show if I could get “banned” for being sick. Would I show if I felt I had COVID? No. But discussing ways to punish people should instead be a discussion of if we should be showing at all.
With testing…the testing is really not very accurate. It’s only 70% accurate meaning that even with a test…30% of people WITH COVID will test with a negative. While even inaccurate, I do think we really need more testing, its not a gating thing for me…we really need the vaccine. But the reality is…until there is an effective vaccine, if we are to compete, we need to show within social distancing guidelines. That means NOT getting close. Wearing masks. Taking precautions. Events are working on developing touchless scoring. So everything will be remote. No incomplete entries…we can even have people do their own numbers. Dressage scribes on mikes so not sitting with judges. Score sheets all electronic—-dressage tests will be downloaded from an app or emailed. Really a lot done to limit contacts. But what cannot be limited…is if you get hurt. That is why no events can run unless their local and regional hospitals have adequate capacity. Etc. Most events will be limited in how many people can be on the grounds at the same time…so be ready for more limitations depending on locations. And yeah…limiting entries may make it even less cost effective for organizers to run events…
I think there will need to be self certification as to temps and lack of symptoms. It will rely on people being honest. And yes, agreeing to tracking. I know someone in my office was exposed…and it shut my office down. I had no idea until the person told me long after the fact (and the person was someone who I work with closely). Tracing contacts doesn’t mean we will know really anything other than we may have been exposed.
Lots of people who are actively infected with COVID show no symptoms at all. So I agree that it’s not reasonable to punish someone who subsequently tests positive. Or was positive and asymptomatic at a show.
Don’t forget that there are plenty of people with the virus who are symptom free.
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