2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic will most likely go down in history for the revolutionary wake it left on the medical field, the economy and the entire globe. As we are still in the throes of those landmark decisions, it seems like nothing has been rocked more in the “will they or won’t they” than professional sports.
The NBA and WNBA elected to create what is known as the “NBA Bubble,” an isolation zone or “bubble” that hosts 22 invited teams out of the total 30 NBA teams within the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex with housing at Disney Hotels and games held across a majority of Disney arenas and properties. This provides the NBA and its teams the opportunity to isolate the players from the public in hopes of preventing the spread of COVID-19 and allowing them to compete in a 2020-2021 season.
The MLB and MLBPA jointly created enhanced COVID-19 safety protocols involving contact tracing, mask coverings in areas of contact and involved safety protocols during travel with seclusion in hotel rooms while on the road as they enter their post-season and make-up games.
With the NFL in the midst of their pre-season training camps and the finalization of regular season safety protocols, recent events have brought up some serious concerns. On Aug. 22, daily COVID-19 tests across 11 NFL teams and 77 individuals were discovered to be false positive. Although the NFL investigated these results and retested those individuals while following proper procedures until it was confirmed, it brought up potential glaring errors in judgment that may affect this upcoming season. It now rests on the NFL and NFLPA’s shoulders as to how this false positive will be looked at and affect future decisions. These governing boards have until Sept. 5 to make a decision as to continue with daily testing and/or create a policy for weeding out potential inaccurate test results. As it stands, the protocol involves two additional tests within 24 hours after a positive result is found. If those sequential tests are negative, then the first test is deemed defective.
Therein lies the problem, not only with the NFL, but with all sports and their approaches to COVID-19 in general. How do we really know that the original test was a false positive? There is potential that the individual was in fact infected with the virus and potentially spread it unknowingly, but now, it is left undetected in the sequential tests. We are still at the infantile stages of understanding how this virus operates that we can’t just assume that a positive test result is inaccurate. Under that same thought process, we can’t assume that a false negative isn’t out of the realm of possibility. I think the hardest fact we have to face is that we truly don’t know what’s the right move here. But, in any case, I don’t believe that outright trying to disprove or dismiss a positive test result is the right move either.
This is going to be a difficult path to navigate until we either develop a critical and indisputable understanding of the virus or discover ways to effectively control its spread. However, we aren’t
