Five Myths of COVID-19 for the Team Physician
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RESPONSE TO COVID-19/COMMENTARY
Five Myths of COVID-19 for the Team Physician Angela M. Mercurio, BS
& Arianna
L. Gianakos, DO & Mary K. Mulcahey, MD & Karen M. Sutton, MD
Received: 2 June 2020/Accepted: 16 August 2020/ * Hospital for Special Surgery 2020
Keywords athlete . COVID-19 . return to play . face masks . social distancing . immunity . reconditioning Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has stunned and disrupted the sporting world. Athletes all around the world lost access to their sports due to the cancelation of professional seasons, postponements of major international competitions such as the Olympics, and closures of local sporting facilities [11, 15]. As global stay-at-home orders, enacted to slow the spread of COVID-19, began to be lifted in spring and summer of 2020, athletes gradually began to return to sports, including professional baseball in Taiwan and South Korea, soccer in Germany, and NASCAR in the USA [16, 17, 34]. It is possible that other leagues will
Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s11420-020-09793-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. A. M. Mercurio, BS (*) : K. M. Sutton, MD Hospital for Special Surgery, Women’s Sports Medicine Center, 535 East 70th Street, New York, NY 10021, USA e-mail: [email protected] A. L. Gianakos, DO Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Robert Wood Johnson Barnabas Health, Jersey City Medical Center, 355 Grand Street, Jersey City, NJ 07302, USA M. K. Mulcahey, MD Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Tulane University School of Medicine, 1415 Tulane Ave, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA
follow suit in the coming months. With an abundance of false or misrepresented information, it can be difficult to sort out myth from fact. This paper focuses on five myths that may affect a team’s return-to-sport protocols and considerations based on the available data. As COVID-19 cases continue to rise nationwide, including among athletes, return-to-play protocols and contingency plans are becoming even more important. Amid a changing landscape in summer 2020, we present information that may be useful to the team physician at any sporting level in crafting recommendations and educating athletes, coaches, and allied team staff about some common misconceptions and risks. Myth 1: Using Face Masks While Exercising Will Protect Athletes from COVID-19 A primary mode of transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is through respiratory droplets excreted when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or talks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued guidelines encouraging people to wear face masks or cloth face coverings to prevent viral spread among people in close contact [6]. This is especially relevant due to the prevalence of asymptomatic and presymptomatic carriers, who have been shown to be contagious [2, 23, 48]. Unfortunately, face masks may not be feasible for athletes while training. The efficacy of various types of face masks in limiting v
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