Dr. Anthony Fauci wouldn’t go as fas as saying the 2020 NFL season is in danger of being postponed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the picture he painted for NBCSports.com’s Peter King is not a terribly bright one.
“The virus will make the decision for us,” Fauci said of the decision to start the 2020 season on time. While he does believe the infection numbers will wane between now and Week 1, Fauci referred to football as the “perfect set up” for spreading coronavirus.
“This is a respiratory virus, so it’s going to be spread by shedding virus,” Fauci told King. “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 … 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.”
So even with empty stadiums and social distancing practices in place, preventing a spread among players would be basically impossible. Unless, of course, the league was able to test players extensively throughout the week leading up to a game.
“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,” Fauci said. “And you say, Those who are infected: Sorry, you’re sidelined. Those who are free: Get in there and play.”
Even then, there’s no guarantee that every infected players would be flagged by testing, as Fauci explains:
“If I test today, and I’m negative, you don’t know if I got exposed tomorrow . . . 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.”
So maybe the start of the season isn’t in doubt if the infection numbers do subside over the course of the summer, but it sounds like finishing the season could be tricky … or unrealistic.
If only a handful of infected players slip through the testing cracks, it won’t be long before a significant number of players are exposed to the virus. And with a second wave likely coming in late fall, the number of infected players will only rise throughout the season.
Fauci says that the chances of an NFL season being played to completion is entirely dependent on the country’s response to that second wave. Based on how we’re handling the first wave, it’s hard to be optimistic.
You can read all of Fauci’s interview with King over at NBCSports.com.