About two weeks ago I posted about the implications of playing sports during the COVID pandemic. Even since that time, a lot has changed and sports across the board. Sports certainly face an uncertain future. We have seen the return of professional soccer and baseball with the NBA to soon follow. Some high school and college sports organizations have released tentative plans for fall schedules. It’s almost pointless to post specifics as they will probably be changing weekly.
Tying in to my last post, I did want to highlight an interview on the news with Myron Rolle, MD. Myron Rolle knows a lot about football and medicine. He played for Florida State before being drafted to the Tennessee Titans in 2010. After his NFL career he went onto medical school at Florida State and onto residency in neurosurgery at Mass General/ Harvard. He was also a Rhodes Scholar so quite an impressive resume! Needless to say his comments on the NFL season are thoughtful and insightful. In discussing the limited testing resources that the general public has available to them vs the NFLs frequent testing, he states that the “NFL has a responsibility to the whole country, that …we have to be a part of this whole scheme and this whole push to curb this pandemic as best we can. Maybe doing all these tests is not the most appropriate thing to do at this particular time.” See the whole clip here on CNN:https://cnn.it/2ZQISTH.
He also discusses how some of his friends who are still affiliated with the NFL are concerned about the health of both themselves and their families. Rolle does not think that football should be starting when cases are increasing, PPE is still in short supply, and especially with the close contact of football. He very nicely emphasized that the players and staff are people who are not commodities and that the return is likely going a bit too quick.
This leads into the next topic: what are the implications of COVID for athletes. As we move forward with sports from the youth thru the college level, the increased number of interactions will mean that more athletes will get COVID compared to if we postponed sports. We have already seen athletes who have suffered severe complications and even died. As cases in the US continue to climb and sports continue to open we will likely see even more athletes with severe manifestations.
We know that some people will be asymptomatic and COVID will likely have no short and long term implications. On the opposite end of the spectrum, we know that some people can be critically ill, end up in the ICU, and even die. While respiratory failure is likely the most common severe illness that lands COVID patients in the ICU some have gone on to have multiple organs fail. Some have had to go on a heart- lung bypass machine called ECMO and others have required kidney support via dialysis. All of these interventions are quite invasive and carry with them risk of complications.
Addionally, while we know that young healthy people may be less at risk for severe illness and complications, they are not immune and severe cases do occur. Young COVID patients including children are being hospitalized and requiring critical care. Over the next few days I will be going over the potential complications of different organ systems in terms of how it could apply to those who desire to return to sports and athletic activity.
Red Sox Pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez Confirms He Has Myocarditis:
21 Year- Old Baseball Player Cody Lyster Dies of COVID:
https://people.com/human-interest/21-year-old-college-baseball-player-dies-coronavirus/
30 Year- Old Ex College Baseball Player and Coach: