Read the jaw-dropping myocarditis report Thursday morning? Turned out it’s incorrect

After the findings of a Penn State doctor about COVID-19, myocarditis and student-athletes went viral, he walked the report back.

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There were reports that surfaced on Thursday morning that made a potential Big Ten return look bleak, as a Penn State athletic doctor, Dr. Wayne Sebastianelli, apparently said that 30-35% of COVID-19-positive student-athletes in the Big Ten had myocarditis — supposedly the catalyst for the conference postponing the season.

However, we’ll walked that report almost all the way back to the beginning.

From Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel:

Did Penn State’s longtime athletic doctor really assert that approximately one-third of all Big Ten athletes who have tested positive for COVID-19 have myocarditis, a potentially damaging, or even deadly, inflammation of the muscles around the heart?

Not exactly.

That very conclusion went viral Thursday after a Centre Daily Times story printed some of Dr. Wayne Sebastianelli’s comments from early this week. On Monday he appeared before the State College (Pennsylvania) Area Board of School Directors, who are debating the safety of high school sports and other activities.

Sebastianelli was brought in for his expertise, especially since Penn State was part of the Big Ten’s decision to cancel fall sports, including football.

Somewhere in the translation between Zoom meeting and social media however, a lot of nuance and perspective was lost and Sebastianelli’s comments became a political football to be batted around.

“When we looked at our COVID-positive athletes, whether they were symptomatic or not, 30 to roughly 35 percent of their heart muscles [are] inflamed,” Sebastianelli said on the Zoom meeting. “And we really just don’t know what to do with it right now. It’s still very early in the infection. Some of that has led to the Pac-12’s and the Big Ten’s decision to sort of put a hiatus on what’s happening.”

OK, well that’s not exactly a full refutation. He further clarified however that there has been no such test of the student-athletes.

Additionally, to Wetzel, Dr. Sebastianelli said that he is more concerned about the long-term affects than doctors at the Mayo Clinic are as of current, but in the initial forum from which the reports surfaced on Thursday, he was clear that this information should not be enough to cancel sports at this juncture, as the studies of the effects of COVID-19 are still relatively preliminary.

“I’m not saying you cancel sports, I’m saying it has to be respected,” Sebastianelli said. “We really want to study this further to understand what is happening with the student athlete.”

University of Michigan cardiologist Dr. Venk Murthy, who had spoken out before, had a number of criticisms about what was released on Thursday before Dr. Sebastianelli walked back his statement.

Now, we’re not saying there can’t be findings like this, but we should wait until there’s a comprehensive study before we jump to conclusions, either way.

For now, we wait and see whether or not the Big Ten picks up the mantle again, especially in the wake of the Pac-12 finding a rapid testing solution for coronavirus on Thursday.

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