PHILADELPHIA – Anthony Santella, a public health scientist and health services researcher specializing in the prevention and control of infectious diseases, recalled his reaction upon learning of organized sports plans to return to action.
“I thought, ‘We are moving too fast,'” Dr. Santella, who teaches at Hofstra University, said in a telephone interview on Monday. “… It was inevitable that this was going to happen.”
“This” is the Miami Marlins coronavirus outbreak, with four players testing positive for coronavirus on Sunday and seven other players and two coaches on Monday. It quickly caused the postponement of two games: the Marlins against the Orioles at Marlins Park and the Yankees against the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park, where the Marlins played against the Phillies on Sunday even though both teams knew about the first batch of bad news. .
Less than a week after the regular season, Major League Baseball is at a crossroads.
Conversations with four medical experts on Monday produced overlapping sentiments: strong skepticism that MLB can complete its mission of celebrating a regular season of 60 games plus a month-long postseason; confusion about why governing authorities allowed the Marlins-Phillies game to take place on Sunday; and a firm belief that more outbreaks of this type will occur as MLB tries to keep this going.
Baseball is not like soccer or mixed martial arts, where the boys are all together. It’s kind of a socially distant game on the field, “said Dr. Henry Raymond, an epidemiologist at Rurgers,” But you have closed rooms for transportation, in clubs, in shelters. Unfortunately, it only takes one person who may or may not have symptoms to create an “oops!” situation.”
That the “oops!” The situation occurred with a Florida team, where Governor Ron DeSantis was immensely proud to quickly end orders to stay home and has seen that such convenience produces COVID-19 numbers that skyrocketed, not surprising doctors.
“Players are not in a real bubble,” said Dr. David Hirschwerk, an infectious disease expert at Northwell Health in New York. “They are urged not to spend time outside the stadium and clubhouse, but the communities around them are really on fire from the infection.”
Similarly, ID Care’s Dr. Joseph Kim noted that English Premier League soccer players have done very well to avoid outbreaks.
“In some ways, I think professional athletes are cut out of a mold,” Kim wrote in a text message, “but the societies we live in may be different.”
MLB has no intention of pulling its teams out of hot spots like Florida, Texas or Arizona, which means it will continue to rely on its testing protocols, urging team members to distance themselves socially and not socialize, and immense attention to detail. on trips.
“They could look at stricter rules to increase the strength of their bubbles,” suggested Dr. Raymond.
When the teams are at home, their players can do whatever they want. Theoretically, the sport could house team members in the same hotel in their home cities as they do on the road.
To be sure, the doctors largely agreed, sport must be proactive when you encounter a situation like Sunday here in The City of Brotherly Love.
“I would have said that it’s not a good idea to keep playing (upon learning of the Marlins’ test results),” said Dr. Raymond. “… I think anywhere you pick up the virus signal, you probably want to put on the brakes pretty quickly.”
“I don’t want to hesitate, but the results speak for themselves,” said Dr. Hirschwerk. “In hindsight, it would have been better to take time there and make sure that even 24 hours later other players remain negative.”
“I don’t think there is a safe way to do this type of group sports as a team, I would say, at least for the rest of 2020 and probably until there is a vaccine,” said Dr. Santella. “Personally, I think you are compromising people’s health and well-being for a short-term benefit.
“… We are planning to get people back to work, school, sports, and science needs time to catch up. We just aren’t there yet. If I were advising Major League Baseball or any major group thinking of resuming activities, even with the investigation ongoing, I would simply tell them that the time is not right. I don’t think anyone would argue with putting someone’s health and life before sports. I hope not.”
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