Dr. Anthony Fauci said it might be challenging for major sports to return in the US this year. “Safety, for the players and for the…
Dr. Anthony Fauci said it might be challenging for major sports to return in the US this year.
“Safety, for the players and for the fans, trumps everything,” he told the New York Times on Tuesday. “If you can’t guarantee safety, then, unfortunately, you’re going to have to bite the bullet and say, ‘We may have to go without this sport for this season.'”
While the option to live-stream events makes eliminating fans easy, there’s no way around the fact that the new coronavirus typically spreads when droplets pass between people in sustained, close proximity. What’s more, experts have discovered that between 25% and 50% of people infected with COVID-19 show no symptoms when they’re infections.
So unless athletes who play football, basketball, baseball, soccer, and hockey — all contact sports, really — and their support staff test negative before competing in games, it’s impossible to eliminate the risk of the virus spreading during sporting events.
And right now, according to Fauci, the US doesn’t have the testing capability to make that a reality.
“I would love to be able to have all sports back,” Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said. “But as a health official and a physician and a scientist, I have to say, right now, when you look at the country, we’re not ready for that yet.”
A cotton swab used in a nasal passage as health care professionals test for COVID-19 at the ProHEALTH testing site in Jericho, New York on March 24,2020.
Steve Pfost/Newsday RM via Getty Images
At the beginning of the US’s outbreak, the lack of available testing ruffled feathers. Celebrities and athletes jumped the testing lines amid harsh criticism. On March 11, the state of Oklahoma used 60% of its testing capacity on NBA players and team staff after a member of the Utah Jazz tested positive, allowing them to bypass the long waits endured by ordinary citizens waiting for tests.
Now, more than 6.5 million Americans have been tested so far for the coronavirus; the US testing-per-capita rate is among the highest in the world. But given the country’s staggering case count and dearth of commensurate tests, still not every American who wants a test can get one.
