Dr. Fauci Says Football Needs a ‘Bubble’ Format to Play in 2020

Looking back into May, Dr. Anthony Fauci mentioned that football is the “perfect setup” to spread the coronavirus, pointing to the close contact that players engage in every play.

This past Wednesday, the NCAA Division I Council went ahead and approved a six-week practice plan for football that will begin in July in hopes of starting the 2020 season on time.

With all of the information available to us now and the second wave of cases occurring following national protests, Dr. Anthony Fauci says football teams would need to copycat the plans made by the NBA and MLS for a “bubble” format. Fauci warns that if this is not done, the league should consider not playing in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Fauci is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He’s a key member of the White House task force on the virus. In an interview with CNN, he said that football players would need to be isolated from others and tested regularly.

“Unless players are essentially in a bubble — insulated from the community and they are tested nearly every day — it would be very hard to see how football is able to be played this fall… If there is a second wave, which is certainly a possibility and which would be complicated by the predictable flu season, football may not happen this year.” – Dr. Fauci

While the NFL has the ability to follow its NBA and MLS counterparts and isolate players to begin the season, it’s a much more difficult challenge to consider how college teams could do the same on university campuses.

ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler was told by a source that the NFL Players Association informed its members that they could be tested every three days on average for COVID-19 and isolated if tested positive.

 

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