Christ they are ganging up on the poor woman that’s head of healthcare for the athletes aren’t they?

Thought Pam was going to cry as they told her she ruined the event for the whole stadium

It’s unedifying. A producer should have stopped them half way through as they just kept asking the same question

Turned over – may not have been communicated well, but they’ve tried to protect athletes from spreading norovirus.

That was hugely biased reporting, nothing impartial about that. Why did they keep on going, and going?

I hope they issue an apology direct to Pam.

Really was playground ganging up. She did amazingly well to deal with it as she did. A novo virus outbreak and someone presenting with the symptoms and they question why he couldn’t run – then Paula Radcliffe wittering on about taking bloods. Bonkers.

Agree, that was wrong of BBC. I also thought it was wrong of the Botswanan team to go up to the media like that. Somewhat of a witch-hunt. With regard to lack of communication, I’m not sure how far the IAAF need to inform the media of an athletes confidential medical history?

Really poor from the BBC. Nothing learned from that remorseless questioning

I thought the lady did well, very composed and dignified. These people are damned if they do, damned if they don’t.

What was all that cr@p about giving the athlete a blood test so that it’ll be easier for him to get over. (I suspect Radcliffe isn’t the sharpest tool in the box!)

Jeez, that should have been stopped. Neutral, impartial?

Paula was a bit off the wall in relation to controlling naturally high levels testosterone in female athletes last night too.

then Paula Radcliffe wittering on about taking bloods.

😯

it was all very Newsnight. the whole 10-10:30 slot in the athletics has just been filler – they finally get something to talk about and all the ex-athletes (and Gabby Logan lol) gang up on poor Pam who I thought did well not to tell them all to f-off. the IAAF really threw her under the bus.

gang up on poor Pam who I thought did well not to tell them all to f-off.

Yep, I thought she did really well to keep her composure and not throw the ‘what would you do in the same situation, being responsible for public health?’ question back at them.

Even if the athlete had taken part surely he would not have done himself justice being ill, so what was the point? The pundits really didn’t get the public health bit did they. Pam several times had to diplomatically say she believed her doctor not title-tattle.

It’s all very well having past stars as pundits but it doesn’t mean they are any good, Michael Johnson sometimes excepted.

I was disappointed with Johnson – he’s an intelligent man who normally provides an honest but balanced view. Not tonight though.

what happened here? summarise please, missed it?

Athlete (potential medalist in mens 400m) was ill. Symptoms suggest noro-virus which is doing the rounds

IAAF prevented him from competing – on grounds of public health (noro-virus contagious via various means)

Athlete turns up at stadium – refused access as pass revoked.

BBC pundits slaughter (poised and dignified) IAAF representative for preventing star from competing.

ta!

That was **** ridiculous. It’s only a dose of the shits not the Black Death. Hands up anyone who would have isolated themselves rather than take part in a career-defining moment.

For the record, the iaaf statement was incompetent and wrong. Norovirus is not notifiable and there is no mandatory 48h quarantine in England. Probably what happened is that some iaaf functionary misinterpreted what the phe advice actually meant. But hey it was just some random african nobody who got **** so who cares.

Sounds like the IAAF care…anyone who is unwell is going to get worse by stressing their body. At the level these athletes are at, that stress will be far higher, so, yes…IAAF cares (although sounds like they went with public safety).

rather than take part in a career-defining moment.

Shitting yourself live on tv? I guess Paula Radcliffe is an expert in this area…

He clearly was not unwell to any significant degree.

And for that matter he’s got his own medical team to look after his own welfare.

He clearly was unwell enough not to take part.

It’s shocking the coverage. the studio discussions are bizarre. DidT see this but sounds very similar to the casta semenya discussion which was just the same hackneyed tripe repeated for half an hour. Johnson rose above that one more.

…Sorry to interrupt we need to cut away as we’ve found an athlete crying to film.

BBC was shocking, truly shocking.
It feels very tabloid at the moment, from the American shot putter who they had on to seemingly attack the judges, to then letting the Botswanan team on to rant, to then attacking the IAAF representative. Very, very poor work I thought.

Why drac? He seemed fine on tv and according to his doctor. No-one has claimed that he was unfit in any way at the time of the race.

Can I the BBC get a refund on the salary paid? Competitors and built to compete by design especially if there is a glimmer of hope for a win at a significant championship.

Why drac? He seemed fine on tv and according to his doctor. No-one has claimed that he was unfit in any way at the time of the race.

He was diagnosed with the Norovirus as were others all were put into quarantine and stopped from competing for 48 hours. He was the only one who ignored this and tried to enter the event anyway. It’s not a case of how he looked on TV or what his Dr said it’s that the IAFF medical advisors said he can’t compete as he was risk of infection.

Plenty of other athletes/teams have gone along with the quarantine requirements. Hysterical reporting by the BBC.

Did seem to be a discrepancy between what the athlete was alleged to have said when he presented with symptoms.

So which is it drac? You just said he was not well enough to take part only to immediately change your tune. The phe advice may be best practice but has no legal force and nor should it. The guy was only going to run in his own lane, it’s not like he was working in a hospital or nursing home. The low and minor risks could easily have been mitigated with some extra disinfectant if anyone had thought it necessary. Banning him from taking part was a huge and unsupportable over-reaction to a minor issue.

Drac, why? I didn’t see the iaaf interview but I did see the one with the Botswanan medical rep.

The evidence in support of “norovirus” is that he is staying in the same hotel as people who have gastroenteritis (but not a laboratory confirmed norovirus?) AND he was sick ONCE when he got off a bus. The iaaf recorded the time of the sickness wrong, which doesn’t lend much credibility to their story.

The evidence against it being norovirus – all other obs. are normal, he has no other symptoms, he has not been sick again. Nobody who genuinely has nororvirus will be fit enough to jog 400m never mind attempt a medal.

There is a dispute whether the botswanians were told to quarantine him for 48hrs , but certainly if they were the message was not clearly communicated and he has been free to mingle with other officials and competitors at the hotel, and neither the IAAF nor PHE have done anything to “police” that – so he could have exposed others who were then coming into the stadium anyway.

That said, the botswanan interview was a bit of a nonsense too, and clearly the presenters (or their producer?) was loving a bit of scandal without having both sides.

So which is it drac? You just said he was not well enough to take part only to immediately change your tune.

Oh FFS!

I can’t be arsed. The IAFF made the right decision despite your diagnosis by seeing him on TV.

The evidence against it being norovirus – all other obs. are normal, he has no other symptoms, he has not been sick again. Nobody who genuinely has nororvirus will be fit enough to jog 400m never mind attempt a medal.

Due to the nature of my job I’ve had it many times over th years, ranging from not being able to get out of bed to functioning as normal except for puking every now and then. It doesn’t necessarily make you bed ridden.

And did it not cross your mind that a response appropriate to a healthcare worker in their daily life might not be entirely appropriate for an athlete faced with a once in a lifetime opportunity?

The captain – IF it is norovirus, or indeed even very likely to be norovirus then I don’t think the response is disproportionate, in fact I would say it was too little – protecting the stadium is useless if you have exposed others at the hotel who then are undiagnosed and walk in. The dispute seems to centre on whether the IAAF had any clinical basis to make a diagnosis. Now I’ve only seen the botswanan version of that so can’t say if they were right.

Due to the nature of my job I’ve had it many times over th years, ranging from not being able to get out of bed to functioning as normal except for puking every now and then. It doesn’t necessarily make you bed ridden.

how do you know you had norovirus (as opposed to some other gastric bug)?

The botswanan argument seems to be he may just have been travel sick, nervous, etc and wrongly labelled. They might be right. However, the iaaf have probably just ensured that anyone in the future with symptoms that might be an infectious disease keeps quiet…

Denise Lewis is awful, have you contacted the other federations to see if they are happy for him to run??? FFS

Radcliffe also, what was that bloods question about and why did she persist?

All in all I dont think it was overly aggressive the Doctor handled it well and the panel looked like amateurs.

Well it doesn’t seem that deadly as it seems that it’s not got beyond a bunch of athletes all staying at the same place despite the huge number of people going in and out of the hotel and stadium. Yes, the huge over-reaction pretty much guarantees that athletes will not be open about such things in the future, to the detriment of all.

Easy with hindsight Captain

Were they worried he was going to stop for a dump halfway round, Radcliffe could have given him some pointers.

It intensely annoyed me the whole thing. The BBC is a joke frankly and that should never have been allowed to happen.

The Captain,

How do you know it has not spread further? Do you think the PHE reporting systems are good enough to know any information like that in real time? Do you think everyone who gets sick calls the doctor (and of course with an incubation period and the lead time to see a doctor if they do they might be sick but undiagnosed at this point).

With healthy athletes they will almost certainly all make a full recovery quite quickly. The issue is that you can’t stop vulnerable people people getting sick, good hygiene helps but if someone old or immune compromised gets infected norovirus can indirectly lead to life threatening issues. I don’t particularly want people suffering just so that someone can run around in circles for less than a minute, even if he has spent years building up to it. Even the botswanans weren’t suggesting that if he is actually infected / infectious that he should be allowed in.

[whataboutery] I bet that wouldn’t have happened to a British or US athlete [/whataboutery]