Just when you thought it was ok to have a life again, Corona Virus says not so fast! As southern states opened and restarted their economies, sports teams also began to reassemble. Players, and coaches all began to work out together and to prepare for the 2020 seasons ahead. This week saw a jolt to that frame of mind thinking. The NFL players association medical staff paused or halted private workouts and group workouts. Amid the large spikes in Corona Virus, they are trying to be safe. The collegiate area saw an overwhelming response to issues regarding the virus. Kansas St suspended workouts for 2 weeks. LSU has 30 quarantined players. Clemson has 28 players testing positive. UCLA football players have a different problem. They don’t trust their coaches or school to keep them safe, so they are demanding a third-party medical team to oversee the football operations to ensure that their health is a main priority. Additionally, the NHL TB Lightning shut down their training facility and TB Buccaneers had coaches and players test positive. Even a PGA golfer tested positive and had to withdraw from the RBC Heritage tournament on Friday. Wow-what a week of bad Coronavirus news!
Ok now let’s breathe. Remember the ramifications of testing positive. At this point, the person must quarantine themselves for 10 days and pass two tests within 24 hours of each other. If the person can do that, they are allowed back into the activity or sport from which they came! That is a two-week absence from their sport. Since the start of the virus, the medical community has learned so much about it. The reality is that it is more contagious than the flu but much less dangerous. We don’t react to the flu with “hypersensitivity”. We don’t want anyone sick and should do everything we can to avoid it, but we should also not overreact to the news of people, players, or coaches getting the virus. It is inevitable. The virus hasn’t packed its bags and flew south for the winter or just “poofed” itself away. It is here for a while and we must figure out how to comanage existing with it.
At this point, there should be an understanding that players will get the virus. We should also understand that the seriousness of getting the virus should be taken as if they just got the flu. A much more lighthearted thought process should be in order. Unless these are people with underlying conditions, there is no reason to believe we shouldn’t just treat it like they are going on the 10-day injury list. We should expect full recoveries and many of these athletes will not even show or have symptoms (Asymptomatic). The teams should do their due diligence to trace back the infection cause and to disinfect everywhere that may have contributed to the spread. We don’t want more infections. However, they should be instructing and teaching the involved athletes of what happens when infected and how it passes through their bodies so they can understand the level of risk they are taking. For everyone, that risk will be different. According to Dr. Fauci, the virus will be here in the middle of 2021. I would not expect sports to be shut down, nor for it to overreact. We are getting used to a changed way of life.
Maybe you do not agree with my stance. I can’t reasonably suggest that sports stop because you might get sick. Your chance of being really sick and of being hospitalized is extremely low as an athlete so my thoughts are around low risk. However, I get it. We are preventing the elder folks in our communities from getting so sick that they die. That is a very noble cause, I do agree that we should prevent them from harm. I also suggest that we make most of the safety rules and regulations geared towards their wellbeing. I have parents in their 70s and would not like them to get sick. They are now masked when in public and do not get out much as to avoid getting sick. I advise them as much as I can, but I do believe that if you are shuttered away entirely, your body will not have any antibodies to fight off the virus hence, you likely will get very bad sick. It is important to have some sort of balance, so your body has a fighting chance.
Anyway, I believe the hype around the virus news is just that, hype. It is not as big of a deal as being expressed and we should put it all in context before making rash choices and decisions. The fact is that your chance of getting Coronavirus depends on your activity level and cleaning habits. Even if you test positive, your body has built up its immune system and is much better at fighting it. Your chance of being very sick is minuet. Let’s deal with this in a manner that is specific to the situations that arise and not to ones that are heavy enticements for overblown hypersensitive naysayers. We should get back to playing games. We should have live fans in the stands (whether that is 25% or some variation of the capacity) of some sort. A diversion from the real world is not only a needed getaway for most of us, but one could argue it is a necessity! To everyone, please stay safe. Do something to progress your life forward. Help someone who needs it.
