Assuming the suits running college football are serious about protecting the health of college athletes when the suit up to play this fall, Dr. Fauci has some advice for them: it’s not going to be easy.
“This is a respiratory virus, so it’s going to be spread by shedding virus. The problem with virus shedding is that if I have it in my nasal pharynx, and it sheds and I wipe my hand against my nose—now it’s on my hand. You see, then I touch my chest or my thigh, then it’s on my chest or my thigh for at least a few hours. Sweat as such won’t transmit it. But if people are in such close contact as football players are on every single play, then that’s the perfect set up for spreading. I would think that if there is an infected football player on the field—a middle linebacker, a tackle, whoever it is it—as soon as they hit the next guy, the chances are that they will be shedding virus all over that person.
“If you really want to be in a situation where you want to be absolutely certain, you’d test all the players before the game. And you say, Those who are infected: Sorry, you’re sidelined. Those who are free: Get in there and play.”
That’s going to require so many tests that imagining it now would either be sheer folly or greedy on the part of a sports league. But Fauci hopes that the coming months bring increased access to tests. He’s also in modified quarantine after contact with a person who tested positive at the White House, where staffers are tested daily, showing how quickly things can change.
“If I test today, and I’m negative, you don’t know if I got exposed tomorrow,” Fauci said. “There’s no guarantee that you’re going to get exposed and be positive the next day. To give you an example, you’re probably reading in the newspapers that there’s an infection in the White House. I was exposed to that person. So I immediately got tested. I am negative. So, I’m negative yesterday. I don’t know if I’m going to be negative Monday. Understand? It’s almost an impossible situation.
“To be 100 percent sure, you’ve got to test every day. But that’s not practical and that’s never going to happen. But you can diminish dramatically by testing everybody Saturday night, Sunday morning, and say OK, only negative players play.”
Again, that doesn’t make it certain. Which makes you wonder what the reaction would be the first time a kid who played in a game contracts the virus.
Get The Picture 
The other problem is accuracy of the test. I read recently that the test most favored results in a false negative about 15% of the time.
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The nasal swab tests are reporting a fairly solid degree of accuracy. The antibody tests, which are more common, are the ones getting the false negatives. Honestly, they’re better for getting a ballpark estimate of who’s been in contact with sick people.
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“Which makes you wonder what the reaction would be the first time a kid who played in a game contracts the virus.”
Well it would make me think that maybe the kid got it somewhere besides the game. There are any number of possibilities. I personally have realized that there is a rational reason to think I may have had the disease in early February so when the antibody tests were offered here in Athens I went and got one. I don’t have the results yet, but I hope it shows that I have had it and survived. The point is that I went nowhere to get exposed and the reasons that I think I might have had it are Rube Goldberg-esque in nature. Even Fauci’s explanation about how you might get it is a little Goldberg-esque but still rational. We need a vaccine, pure and simple. Or, we need to be willing to just say ‘fuck it, we’ll take the risk’.
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Players’ risk; schools’ reward.
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I took his comment about the public in general…not the players, although that is what you are talking about on this blog.
I’m of the opinion we will never be 100% safe from viruses. Vaccines or not. IF the players don’t want to play, that’s fine…if they want to play, test them the best ways we know how and get on with it.
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I actually agree with PTC Dawg on this. First time for everything, I guess.
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I absolutely agree, Senator. With an effective vaccine we might have reasonable control. Without one….not so much.
I can see a situation where the schools go forward (and I don’t think players will complain initially – they want to play and think they are invincible anyway) and it might be a good thing to be a Plaintiff’s attorney in a year or so. I also think that if they go forward UGA should be getting Ron Courson some extra staff. A lot of extra staff.
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Kirby’s totally gonna put them all in the dorm, and treat every night like it’s the night before a game. Hall monitors and checkups…. chains on the door ?
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Obviously, we are all doomed..
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I know we’ve been over this before, and obviously we’re not ALL doomed…but I was just reading that they’re still figuring out how this virus works, and now I’m personally even more determined not to get it, because they think it starts out as respiratory and then moves to attacking the circulatory system–meaning people with high blood pressure (me) or heart conditions at any age (I’m 52 and and in pretty good shape, generally) are especially vulnerable.
So keep whistling past the graveyard, amigo– it’s worked for you so far, it seems.
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I’m 56, healthy, not doing much different…my business is way off though, many folks are scared…the business end of this thing scares me much more than the virus..
Sports, travel and entertainment are a HUGE part of our economy..
Stay safe out there..
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As Cuomo said, paraphrasing…”The cost is death. Losing your job for a time? Certainly bad. Not as bad as death.”
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What has his pay cut been?
NYC is a different animal most of the country.
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Read other view points man. That quote has not gone over well.
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Someone explained to me how the testing was conducted: forcing a swab up your nose until you nearly blackout.
He did it so he could be in the room when his kid was born.
Not sure all these guys are going to be willing to go through that over and over again. Once, maybe.
My supposition is that they’ll do one test before practice starts and then take temps daily. If a guy has a high temperature then they’ll retest.
A big question: if one guys tests positive how long is the team “quarantined” from the schedule or even each other? What if the guy test positive on Monday and played Vandy that past Saturday? What happens at Vandy?
Its a fucking nightmare. One thing about reopening in mid-may we’ll know whether this thing is under or out of control pretty soon.
I think by mid-june we’ll be at risk levels that are seen as broadly acceptable or unacceptable.
Its one big social behavioral experiment that anyone who says they know how it will play out is lying.
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The swab was an early option, and there are others now. Some aren’t that reliable, though.
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That first sentence sounds great. 😦
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Any decent ENT doc has a numbing spray that makes this not nearly as bad as it sounds (I’ve had a camera shoved all the way back there.)
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Not sure if the local anesthetic would affect the test. I am sure it would not be covered by insurance and ENTs don’t work for free. One option is cocaine. Cocaine is a great nasal anesthetic. Snort a little coke and you won’t feel that swab, and if you do, you won’t give a shit.
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I took a drive-up Covid test last Friday. The nasal swab was absolutely no problem. Test was free, no referral necessary, took me about 5 minutes to fill out a simple form, never had to get out of my car.
I live in Floyd County, which has a population of about 100K. I think we’ve had 12 deaths here. We have 2 hospitals with a total of 6 hospitalized patients right now.
Last time I checked, about 13% of all the people tested in the State of GA who were tested actually had the virus. Of those 13%, about 4% died. Many of those deaths were suffered by patients with other, serious health conditions. Now that the tests are free and readily available, and easy to take, I imagine the percentage of positive tests will decrease.
I really don’t understand why everyone doesn’t get tested, and I really think it’s time we all got on with our lives.
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“Someone explained to me how the testing was conducted: forcing a swab up your nose until you nearly blackout.”
Pretty sure they have newer test than your overly dramatic statement.
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I currently test in my pharmacy, it is an antibody test (both IgM and IgG) it is a simple finger stick, results in 15 minutes.
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I really don’t think we’re going to have anything remotely approaching a regular football season. Consider:
1) There will likely be fewer games
2) There will likely be a lack of uniformity in the way different conferences decide to proceed… differing number of regular season games, for instance.
3) Individual schools within conferences may decided to sit the season out while other schools want to play as many games as possible.
4) There won’t be fans allowed at any game, in any conference. Period.
And all that only happens IF there isn’t a horrendous second wave coming within a month, which many experts believe is a very real possibility.
If things are locked down in June, there will be no football season. Drop-dead date is probably July 1st for conferences and schools to say “yay” or “nay” on a season. And they only way they’ll book it is with 1) an amazing vaccine that’s 90+% effective or 2) the disease has mysteriously virtually disappeared in spite of lifting restrictions, with daily deaths down around 100/day or fewer.
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Y’all thought the CBS games took forever before, just wait until every player has to use hand sanitizer after every play.
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Come on now, this deserves likes.
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I definitely would have if I had an account lol
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The game day testing is just not of the players. Everyone from the personnel at the dorms to the practice facility to the buses to the sidelines (including the press) would be in close contact with the players or those in contact with the players. Courson’s crew would need full PPE to be able to do their job.
I think the liability insurer’s and lawyers will step in soon too and declare this just isn’t going to be feasible under circumstances as contemplated now.
College football is not likely to be the first out of the blocks for sports, so we’ll have some data on how this goes. I’m of the opinion we won’t have a season…maybe some exhibition games (“Game of the Week”) like UGA vs. Bama in the Dome, but that’s it. We’ll be too busy as a country still trying to rebuild the economy and staying safe to see sports below the professional level (I know, I know…) get fully underway until (and if) there is a vaccine or treatment to reduce the risk and effects.
Sad, but a reality more reasonable than what I’ve seen posted as a way to have a season otherwise.
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I want college football. If I was an AD, I would do the following:
Call every athlete with their family and listen their concerns and willingness to participate in a return to activity. Lay out all the risks and make it clear it is their decision, and no scholarship would be taken away this year. I definitely wouldn’t force participation on the student at this point – still too many unknowns.
I would also screen every player for underlying respiratory, cardiovascular, auto-immune, or chronic conditions (like diabetes). COVID-19 is not just a strong flu. As mentioned above, heart attacks and other cardiovascular events have spiked as a result of exposure, some that are otherwise asymptomatic are getting lesions on their feet, and people with diabetes or other chronic/autoimmune issues are dying even if their heart and lungs were otherwise fine. There are even concerns that the virus can take root in the brain stem and cause long-term issues.
College-aged athletes that are in great physical shape and free of underlying issues would have to be among the least statistically at risk to suffer, even if they test positive from COVID-19. And, let’s face it, pre-COVID football was still a sport with a high number of short and long-term health risks.
If schools have players/families on board, then I think weekly (maybe Thursday night, with the team retreating to a hotel on Friday) and Saturday testing and screening for symptoms would be responsible to have the games played.
Now the fans, that is a whole other ball of wax. Basic screening, if not testing, for students will likely be part of a return to campus anyway so that should be fairly easy, especially if additional game day measure are taken like fever/symptom screening and masks.
The issue with all the non-students, frankly, is that a large portion of the US adult population is glib, narcissistic, and/or gripped by partisan thinking that results in behavior driven by fear or misinformation. Taking “personal responsibility” should mean we all feel personally responsible to do the right thing not only for ourselves, but for our society, and yet it has become merely a fig leaf for selfishness. How crazy is it that employees at establishments have to suffer violence due to the belligerence and hysterical ignorance of others? No employee at Sanford Stadium should be put in a position where they feel unsafe or threatened. So as AD, I would make fans interested in attending games sign up now, and then make them sign off on liability to UGA as well as point by point making them agree to proper social etiquette and protocol for masks, gloves, distancing, or whatever may be the protocol when games start. Maybe the assholes would self-select themselves out, and it would be well worth it to refund their tickets;
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I wouldn’t put it past Saban or Pruitt to knowingly send in an infected player to target a star player of opposing teams just to take them out of the running for the SEC championship.
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By football season we should no more about immunity and reinfection rates.
There are already good IgG antibody tests (high sensitivity and specificity) on the market; although, according to our lab director there are also really garbage tests being used.
My point is a good chunk of players and coaches (and fans) could be immune by the time the season rolls around
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So looking at other sports for reference might be useful. In Europe, they are trying to resume soccer (futbol), so it might be useful to see how that is going.
For reference: https://www.scmp.com/sport/football/article/3083742/spains-la-liga-eyes-june-12-return-despite-five-coronavirus-positive
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/may/09/bundesliga-restart-blow-dynamo-dresden-team-quarantined-covid-19
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Fauci is an anti business pig. Screw him. The only bigger than his ego is dementia Joe’s incompetence. Almost everyone will get the wuhan chinese corona virus. Just get over it and let’s watch and play football. Fauci will not be happy until we all live in caves and hunt with spears and clubs. Like the Eagles sang… Get over it, get over it.
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Aren’t Toni Fauci and the commie doc who said one could become HIV positive by swapping spit while French kissing one and the same?
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Playpen.
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Playpen.
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Cure cure cure is more important.
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Agreed, but until we have one…
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