Superspreader Sunday? How the National Football League is holding the Super Bowl during a pandemic

Superspreader Sunday? How the National Football League is holding the Super Bowl during a pandemic

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In the spring, no one was sure what a National Football League season would be like, much less if the league would go on. The virus shuffled the schedules and forced players with a positive result to stay out, but no games were canceled. Now there is only one: Super Bowl LV.

This is at a time when health officials are begging Americans to calm down to help stop the spread of new strains of the coronavirus. And concerns are growing that the Super Bowl parties this Sunday could lead to another increase in infections. In order to avoid an over-spreading event, the way the game will be played, watched, presented and watched will be very different.
Some 25,000 fans – including 7,500 healthcare professionals – will be attending Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, to watch the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers clash this weekend. But instead of foamy fingers, they wear free PPE on arrival, including masks. “We want our fans to be safe,” said NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. “They need to be smart. They need to use their PPE.”
Presenting a safe show at the break was also a monumental task for British director Hamish Hamilton, who says the pandemic “set a very different set of parameters around production”. After all, it is an event that previously involved a series of performers on stage with little social distance.
But even with the most vigilant rules in place, the coronavirus still has the potential to derail the best-designed plans. The Chiefs had a particularly stressful scare from Covid-19 this week when they learned that a team barber had tested positive. The Chiefs’ support center, Daniel Kilgore, was in the chair getting a haircut when the results arrived, ESPN reported. Several Chiefs players, including quarterback Patrick Mahomes, were in line for cuts on Sunday.

In the results of Covid-19’s January 24-30 January monitoring tests provided on Tuesday by the NFL and the NFL Players Association, there were no new positive tests confirmed among players and a new positive test confirmed among other employees.

YOU ASKED. WE ANSWER.

Q: Is there anything I can do to prepare for Covid-19 vaccination?

AN: As more people around the world have access to coronavirus vaccines, many questions remain. Will it work? Will there be any side effects? Do I need to rest after getting the vaccine? Can I go out with my friends and family now?

We spoke with CNN medical analyst, Dr. Leana Wen, for guidance on how to plan how to care for ourselves and our loved ones as more people get vaccinated.
Submit your questions here. Are you a healthcare professional battling Covid-19? Send us a message on WhatsApp about the challenges you are facing: +1 347-322-0415.

WHAT’S IMPORTANT TODAY

A new single dose vaccine can speed up vaccination efforts

Johnson & Johnson on Thursday requested the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to authorize emergency use of its Covid-19 single dose vaccine, putting it on course for potential distribution in March.

The FDA has scheduled a meeting of its independent advisory panel, which will vote on whether the vaccine should be authorized, on February 26, giving the group three weeks to review the relevant data.

Last week, Johnson & Johnson released encouraging results from its final-stage clinical trial. The vaccine was shown to be 85% effective overall in preventing hospitalization and death in all three regions where it was tested – the United States, Latin America and South Africa. But the results came with a significant caveat: its effectiveness against moderate and severe illnesses it ranged from 72% in the US to 57% in South Africa, where a highly transmissible variant is causing infections.

If authorized, Johnson & Johnson will supply a third vaccine to the US market. The administration of a dose, which does not require special treatment, would also add flexibility and speed to vaccination efforts.

Vaccine nationalism is leaving an entire continent empty-handed

African nations are being left behind in the race for Covid-19 vaccines, as wealthier countries stock up on doses, prioritizing their own populations and creating an uneven playing field. On February 3, vaccine launches were underway in at least 68 countries and territories worldwide – only four were in Africa.

Most African countries suffered fewer deaths from the first wave of the virus last year, compared to other parts of the world. But the number of cases is now increasing, particularly in the southern region, where a more virulent variant of the coronavirus is causing infections, wrote Eoin McSweeney and Nyasha Shingono.

In a fight to secure the doses, South Africa, the most affected country on the continent, was forced to buy the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from the Serum Institute of India for almost double the price paid by other wealthier countries – $ 5, 25 per dose, according to Reuters. The disparity in access and price has caused widespread anger among Africa’s leaders, including South African President and African Union President Cyril Ramaphosa, who criticized Western nations for promoting “vaccine nationalism” that is marginalizing countries “most in need”.

These frontline health professionals desperately want vaccinations. They can’t catch them

Dr. Alfonso Velandia begins each hospital shift by counting his troops in the battle against the coronavirus. The 46-year-old emergency specialist manages intensive care units at Hospital Cardiovascular de Soacha, a working-class suburb of Colombia’s capital Bogotá. Since the beginning of the pandemic, he says he saw the number of health professionals under his supervision decrease, even as the hospital expands its ICU to face a relentless second wave of cases.

Velandia looks with frustration at statistics on vaccine distribution in Europe and North America, where hundreds of thousands of frontline health care workers have already been vaccinated against the deadly virus. “I recently had a meeting and my team said, ‘We can’t take it anymore’ … we need the vaccine now!” he told CNN.

But, like many developing countries, Colombia has not yet received a single dose of the vaccine, report Radina Gigova and Stefano Pozzebon.

ON OUR RADAR

  • An influential model is predicting more than 630,000 Covid-19 deaths in the United States as of June 1.
  • President Joe Biden hopes to revive a Trump administration proposal to send masks to all Americans.
  • Travelers on a so-called “red list” of countries to the United Kingdom will be required to be quarantined for 10 days in a hotel from 15 February.
  • Australia will increase the passenger entry limit, allowing more than 6,300 residents to return to the country each week.
  • A group of 30,000 Facebook members is helping Hong Kong navigate a strict hotel quarantine for 21 days.

BEST TIP

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released some tips on how to safely navigate Sunday’s Super Bowl celebrations. Your main advice – not surprisingly – is to watch the game at home with the people you live with. If you insist on having a small lookout party, the CDC says you should organize it outdoors and make sure everyone has a mask. The guideline recommends limiting alcohol consumption because alcohol can decrease the likelihood that you will follow Covid-19’s safety measures.

Read a summary of all his advice here.

TODAY’S PODCAST

“I think the biggest thing we have learned – which is not shocking for us in the medical profession – universal masking works. It is the most effective strategy we have.” – NFL medical director, Dr. Allen Sills

The Super Bowl LV is taking place this weekend and will not be your regular championship game. The CDC and the NFL came together to study not only how the league played during a pandemic, but how the general public could benefit from the lessons learned. Dr. Sills told CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta why he thinks the 2020-21 season was worth the risk. Listen now.

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