As COVID cases rise, professional sports federations will reassess their safety protocols: NPR

Over the past three days, nearly 100 NFL players have tested positive for COVID-19.

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Over the past three days, nearly 100 NFL players have tested positive for COVID-19.

Patrick Smith / Getty Images

The next few games at the Calgary Flames will be suspended after 27 players and staff were sidelined due to COVID-19.

The Brooklyn Nets only had eight players for Tuesday night’s game after nearly half the team had to go through the tournament’s COVID protocols – two of them just an hour before the end.

And in the past three days, nearly 100 NFL players and several employees have tested positive — including the starting quarterback and the Cleveland Browns head coach.

Make no mistake: COVID-19 has once again exploded in the US professional sports leagues.

Zach Binney, a sports epidemiologist at Oxford University, Emory University, said: “We are seeing a fairly rapid and sudden increase in multiple markets, many sports and many countries. . “I think people are trying to figure out what’s happening now, what’s driving this?”

With schedules disrupted and stars out of action, sports federations are reviewing safety procedures as experts work to find out if new outbreaks are caused by the effects of the virus. Vaccine effectiveness wanes, easing vigilance around Thanksgiving or the tip of the omicron iceberg – or possibly a combination of all.

In the NFL, dozens of players tested positive on Monday and Tuesday alone. The Washington football team alone reported 15 players disqualified. At the Cleveland Browns, 13 players sit out including star defender Baker Mayfield.

The Browns mostly hold their meetings on Tuesdays, said head coach Kevin Stefanski. (Stefanski, who said on Monday that he had previously received a booster shot, has also now tested positive and may miss Saturday’s game.) Players and staff inside facilities Team members must wear masks regardless of vaccination status and must be checked daily.

With just four weeks to go before the regular season and hopes of the playoffs remain, even the teams that have come out of this week’s outbreak have said they will tighten safety measures.

“We’ve raised the alarm about wearing masks and all we can do there,” Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said Monday. “Everyone is on high alert.”

One concern is the omicron variant, which now accounts for about 3% of cases in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But Binney told NPR that because samples take time to process, CDC variation data is often lagged. “So we’re really looking at the past,” he said.

Initial data on the omicron . proposal it might be easier to transmit compared to previous variants.

“If someone in the organization isn’t lucky enough to get omicrons, then go in and they spend a lot of time discovering people in the house with what we know about omicron transmission – suddenly , you have a huge pile of omicron cases,” Binney said.

According to initial reports, most of the positive cases between sports leagues in the past week were mild or asymptomatic.

Although no major professional sports league in the US requires players to be vaccinated, vaccination rates are still much higher than for the general public.

About 72% of Americans 18 years of age and older are fully immunized, according to the CDC.

Meanwhile, more than 94% of NFL players are vaccinated, the federation said. The NBA has reported vaccination rates to be around 97%. And in the NHL, only four of the nearly 700 players on the team’s roster are not vaccinated, the federation’s commissioner said in October.

All three leagues have different safety procedures for vaccinated and unvaccinated players, allowing those who have been vaccinated to wear masks less, travel more freely. and have dinner together at home.

Now, the unions are looking to strengthen those measures.

In a memo to teams Monday, the NFL said it will require coaches, staff and other team employees to receive a booster shot by December 27, with some cases Exception. It’s worth noting that it doesn’t make the same claim on players, as those rules have to be negotiated with the players’ union.

“We’re currently in negotiations with player and league memberships, looking to update our protocols for the health and safety of our players,” said Brandon Parker, a spokesman for the NFL Players Association. all of our members”.

The NFLPA has urged the league to return to daily testing. (The League currently conducts most tests once a week on every Monday, with further tests being activated if a player tests positive.)

In hockey, the NHL will require stricter protocols for all teams and players through January 7, the league told teams Wednesday. According to the report, that includes more masking, limited indoor eating and more frequent checkups.

And in the NBA, players who qualify for the booster shot must receive one this Friday, or face stricter safety protocols, including game-day testing. , the union announced. About 60% of players received one.

Across the US, reported cases have trended upwards over the past month, with current daily average is 117,364 cases per day.

“I worry that it might – maybe not, but maybe – that these sports league numbers are a canary in the coal mine to the rest of us,” said Binney.

For those watching at home, Binney says fans will do well to follow the lead of the sports leagues – despite recent outbreaks, having been successful in vaccinations and boosters , use rapid testing frequently and follow more stringent safety measures when exposed to COVID, he said.