Pro sports has been on hold since the pandemic started, and one of the nation's top infectious disease doctors is talking about whether or not we will have the NFL in the fall.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is leading the White House’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, expressed the sport could rapidly spread the illness.
Fauci told Peter King in his “Football Morning in America” column that the NFL, for one, would have to have widespread testing for its players and that any positive test would have to keep players sidelined.
“Sweat does not do it,” Fauci said. “This is a respiratory virus, so it’s going to be spread by shedding virus. 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. You see, then I touch my chest or my thigh, then it’s on my chest or my thigh for at least a few hours. Sweat as such won’t transmit it. 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.
“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. And you say, Those who are infected: Sorry, you’re sidelined. Those who are free: Get in there and play.”
Read more about what Fauci said HERE, and check out what Fox's Terry Bradshaw said about playing without fans below.