Coronavirus Safety Protocol - please read and discuss

[Futureshock]

One coach believes one or more COVID-19 deaths are inevitable

Posted by Mike Florio on August 6, 2020, 5:29 PM EDT

[TheLondonLion]

The orange moron, not content with presiding over the avoidable deaths of tens, possibly hundreds of thousands of Americans will leave the NFL starting a season with the virus rampant all over the country, almost certain to be abandoned.

“It is what it is.”

[TheLondonLion]

More and more talk emerging about the T cell response to coronavirus.

Its looking increasingly like you will be very well protected for a long period of time, which bodes well for a potential vaccine.

https://api.nationalgeographic.com/distribution/public/amp/science/2020/08/antibodies-not-only-key-to-beating-coronavirus-cvd?__twitter_impression=true

[chemiclord]

There was an emergency meeting of the Power 5 Conferences, and apparently the Big Ten presidents are really to cancel all fall sports.

[Futureshock]

Six teams have had no player positive tests

Posted by Darin Gantt on August 10, 2020, 6:05 AM EDT

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NFL teams are taking extraordinary measures, and administering loads of tests, in an effort to keep football going.

And six of them are fortunate enough to not have a positive test yet.

Peter King of NBC’s Football Morning in America detailed the steps the Texans have taken to combat COVID-19, and so far, they’re working.

Through Saturday, the Texans have tested 80 players and 100 staff members who are in contact with players for 11 days without a positive test.

The chances of nearly 2,000 tests coming back negative is a combination of good practices and good luck, especially since the Texans are working in one of the country’s COVID-19 hotspots.

They’re not the only team to keep a clean sheet so far. The Chargers, Cardinals, Panthers, Patriots, and Seahawks haven’t had a player test positive yet (through Saturday), which is obviously good news for those teams.

[Futureshock]

THIS is not a plan...



NFL privately remains very confident full season will be played

Posted by Mike Florio on August 9, 2020, 8:09 AM EDT

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Although the Commissioner has subtly shifted his vow from playing a full season to playing a complete one, the NFL privately has a high degree of confidence that the 2020 season will be played in full, pandemic notwithstanding.

Yes, a hardened bubble in some cities may become necessary, with extended “voluntary” hotel stays by players, coaches, and essential staff (some teams will do it all week, non-stop; some are thinking about a Tuesday-to-Sunday approach), who would remain away from family in order to avoid becoming infected by kids, spouses, or others who may be living with the players, coaches, etc. But it’s believed that, if the spread of the virus can be limited during training camp (there were zero additions to the COVID-19 list on Saturday), it will become easier not harder when the time comes to play games.

The dynamics will adjust soon, once padded practices begin. For teams that aren’t practicing in their stadiums, where multiple locker rooms are available to be used (the Steelers have four at Heinz Field), it will be more difficult to keep players at least six feet apart while inside. (For some teams, locker-room proximity is already an issue.) The league remains confident, however, that transmission of the virus will be much harder to accomplish while practicing or playing, given that these activities will take place outdoors or in well-ventilated domes or facilities with high roofs.

Testing also is improving, with point of care tests recently introduced to supplement off-site testing, which takes longer to generate a result. Although the availability of reagent material could become a factor (especially if the virus continues to spread), the league remains confident that it will be able to conduct as many tests as needed.

Will there be glitches? Yes. Will some players be prevented from playing or practicing despite having no symptoms? Absolutely. Will it be enough to shut down the season or lose games? Today, five weeks from the first Sunday of the season, the league doesn’t believe so.

Others connected to the process feel differently. Some are concerned that the protocols are more about optics than safety, aimed at giving the league office cover in the event that a player, coach, staff member, or one of their family members becomes infected, gets seriously ill, and possibly dies. Right or wrong, the people who run the league remain confident that it will work.

That may hard for many to accept as the fall college football season circles the drain, but pro football has significant and fundamental differences that point to success even if college football can’t pull it off.

Either way, time will tell. In 32 days, the first game will be played, when the Texans visit the Chiefs. In 35 days, a bunch of other games will be played. After the first wave of games, if there’s no spike in positive tests that wipes out rosters or position groups or chunks of coaching staffs, maybe it will work.

[Futureshock]

Inside facilities, face shields can’t be used without face masks

Posted by Mike Florio on August 8, 2020, 10:25 PM EDT

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The first week of training camp included images of a couple of coaches who sported a welder’s look, faces behind plastic shields in lieu of a face mask. Friday’s memo regarding changes to the testing protocol included an important note regarding face shields in team facilities: They can’t be used without a face mask.

“Face shields are NOT an acceptable substitute for face masks,” the memo declare in bold print.

It’s another indication of the way that the rules will adjust and evolve throughout training camp and, presumably, into the regular season. Look for more changes to be made as more teams have more experiences with the various safety protocols. That said, don’t look for any more videos of coaches wearing plastic shields and nothing else covering their faces.

[Futureshock]

NFL introduces point of care testing

Posted by Mike Florio on August 7, 2020, 9:24 PM EDT

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The memo generated by the league on Friday to all teams regarding changes to the coronavirus testing protocol contains a new development that could eventually go a long way toward enhancing the testing process: The NFL is now using “point of care” testing along with off-site testing for COVID-19.

Point of care is the technical term for testing that can be done without sending the sample to a lab. It’s the key to expediting the process and, eventually, knowing with sufficient certainty that anyone who enters a team facility or a stadium is negative then and there, without waiting for a result from a laboratory.

PFT has learned that point of care testing is a new addition to the broader testing protocol. The specific point of care testing that the NFL is using apparently has a much higher degree of accuracy than the league believed it had, as of just a week or so ago. Then, the league believed point of care testing had accuracy in the range of 80 to 85 percent. Now, the league believes (based on representations from the vendor) that it is 97-percent accurate.

That’s still not high enough for the league to use point of care testing on its own, but it’s a sign that point of care testing is getting closer and closer to where it can supplant the time-consuming process of collecting a sample and sending it away for so-called PCR analysis, which has an accuracy rate closer to 99 percent or higher.

Point of care testing will be the eventual game changer for the league. If the accuracy rate can approach or match the accuracy rate of off-site testing, teams can be more confident that they know, then and there, whether a player, coach, or essential staff member is positive or negative for the virus.

While that’s a separate issue from keeping players, coaches, and essential staff from catching the virus away from the facility, it’s a significant step in the direction of keeping anyone who has it from spreading it once they show up for work.

It is, ultimately, a tangible sign of the technical advances needed to enhance the chances of 256 regular-season games and 13 postseason games being played without significant interruption by an outbreak. Which means that the arrival of point of care testing is very good news for the prospects for the NFL’s 101st season.

[Futureshock]

Bubble approach working as NHL has gone weeks without a positive test

Posted by Charean Williams on August 10, 2020, 9:45 PM EDT

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The NFL saw only one player — Titans linebacker Josh Smith — placed on reserve/COVID-19 on Monday. In 16 days, 106 players have gone on the list, with 75 activated off it.

The Dolphins (14), Jaguars (12) and Lions (eight) have had the most reserve/COVID-19 cases, Howard Balzer of SI.com reports.

Twenty-one NFL players who have gone on the list have remained on it for a total of 255 days, an average of 12.1 days, according to Balzer.

The NFL, like Major League Baseball, does not have a bubble. The will try to mitigate the virus while players are going about their lives outside the team facility.

The NHL, like the NBA, has a bubble, and it has worked spectacularly. Hockey, entering its third week in the bubble, has not seen a positive COVID-19 test in weeks, ESPN reports.

Of course, it probably helps that the teams are in Canada, with hub zones in Toronto and Edmonton, Alberta.

The first week of testing in Phase 4 of the NHL’s return-to-play protocol produced zero positive tests out of 7,703, according to ESPN. That followed Phase 3 — when teams returned to training camps at their home base — which produced two positive results among 6,874 total tests administered.

“I really think the bubble approach is the best path forward, at least given this point in time during the global pandemic,” Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease expert based in Toronto who consulted for the NHLPA, told ESPN. “Of course we know it’s not going to be perfect. I think we’re all talking about risk mitigation, not risk elimination. With these careful protocols, careful testing, with symptom checks, with good communication, I think we’re starting to see the bubble approach — not only in hockey, but also in basketball and soccer — really be the best approach while these case numbers are this high, globally.”

It’s too late for the NFL to go to a bubble, so it will be up to players to do the right things away from team facilities.

[Futureshock]

Officials will be tested during the week, and at the site of their games

Posted by Mike Florio on August 10, 2020, 7:05 PM EDT

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Players and coaches constantly are with their teams, allowing for testing to happen on a regular basis within the confines of a fairly controlled environment. Officials, on the other hand, will go about their normal lives during the week before showing up for games.

Per a source with knowledge of the situation, the officials will be tested during the week in their home market, and again in the city where the game they are officiating will be played.

Given the 24-hour turnaround for testing, it will require the officials to arrive at the site of the game at least one day before kickoff — and the league will need to be prepared for the possibility that one or more officials will test positive at a given game site. As previously explained, the league is prepared to proceed with as few as five officials on the field per game.

[Futureshock]

Report: Heart condition possibly linked to COVID fueling Power 5 concerns

Posted by Charean Williams on August 10, 2020, 6:24 PM EDT

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The Big Ten announced a conference-only schedule last week. Only a few days later came word the conference was moving toward a cancellation of football for 2020.

So what changed?

ESPN reports that doctors have diagnosed at least five Big Ten athletes — as well as athletes in other conferences — with a rare heart condition that could have a link to COVID-19.

Myocarditis, inflammation of the heart muscle, is usually caused by a viral infection. Left undiagnosed and untreated, it can cause heart damage and cardiac arrest.

The COVID-19 virus has a link with myocarditis at a higher frequency than other viruses, “based on limited studies and anecdotal evidence since the start of the pandemic,” according to ESPN.

The condition has prompted increased concern among Power 5 conference administrators about the viability of college sports this fall.

Debbie Rucker, the mother of Indiana offensive lineman Brady Feeney, had a Facebook post last week about her son’s potential heart problems after COVID-19.

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As I stated before, a person may have small symptoms now, but no matter your age an enlarged heart is forever.

[Futureshock]

The problems with college football’s “the players will still be at risk if we don’t play” argument

Posted by Mike Florio on August 10, 2020, 4:09 PM EDT

Here’s the problem with this argument, beyond the fact that only one of the play-or-don’t-play options allows coaches and others connected to college football to be realize the revenue from a season of college football. Unless each program is as buttoned up as Michigan and/or every NFL team when it comes to limiting the spread of the virus and/or acting properly when someone tests positive, a college football becomes a potentially significant source of potential spread of the virus in its community, with players passing it around to each other and to coaches and staff, and then all of them taking it out of the building and giving it to others.

Then there’s the question of ethics. Even if the kids will put themselves at some degree of risk on their own, does that make it right for the schools to do so instead? Sure, some of the kids will put themselves at even greater risk if they’re not practicing and playing football. But, depending on the quality of the safety programs, they’d still be placed at some degree of risk if they play football.

Finally, let’s not assume that all 18-, 19-, and/or 20-year-olds are knuckleheads. Maybe some aren’t doing reckless, stupid, and/or selfish things that would expose them to the virus. Besides, if/when the COVID hits the fan in the form of a lawsuit, bet your bottom dollar (and some schools could be digging nearly that deep) on any player or family member who sues painting the picture of someone who was engaged in anything but risky behavior away from the program, forcing the colleges into the unseemly position of having to prove that its players were, in reality, even more reckless, stupid, and/or selfish than the average 18-, 19-, and/or 20-year-old.

[Futureshock]

I think some of these college coaches are worried about their million(s) $ salaries.

[Futureshock]

Kemah Siverand’s hotel caper highlights the risks of pro football in a pandemic

Posted by Mike Florio on August 13, 2020, 4:30 PM EDT

[Futureshock]

How many officials will opt out?

Posted by Mike Florio on August 13, 2020, 1:19 PM EDT

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At one point, days before the player opt-out deadline, some in league circles believed the eventual number would land in the single digits. It didn’t, with nearly 70 taking the season off due to the pandemic.

Today, officials must make the decision to stay or go, with a $30,000 non-refundable payment available to any who choose to step aside.

So how many will opt out? One source with knowledge of the inner workings of the officiating industry recently suggested that, eventually, fewer than 10 will opt out, but that the list may include a couple of significant veteran names. However, there has been no talk yet of any of the referees — the leaders of the various crews — opting out.

It surely is a tempting prospect, given that officials usually have other jobs and usually are older and may have health issues that make them susceptible to a bad COVID-19 outcome. Still, some have to be at least somewhat concerned that, despite guaranteed jobs for 2021, they’ll be viewed differently if they ditch their posts, especially in comparison to those who stay.

Either way, we’ll know more (or at least the league will) later today.