The NFL’s giant COVID-19 experiment ends Sunday with the unlikely feat of a timely Super Bowl, capping a season with no games canceled.
Why does it matter: The season suggests that with the right resources, security measures and cooperation – all of which were lacking in the US general response – life can continue during the pandemic without the uncontrolled spread of the virus.
The whole picture: The NFL decided from the beginning that it would not require thousands of players, coaches and other employees to live in a “bubble”, as other sports leagues had done.
- Instead, the league has expanded the basic elements of public health regarding social distancing, testing, contact tracking and isolation in all 32 teams. To prevent the spread, officials were ready to postpone the games or players on the bench.
Jeff Miller, NFL executive vice president of communications, public affairs and politics told Axios: “The approach we took was to appreciate that there is an expectation that individuals will receive COVID – and what we can do to prevent it from spreading. in all our facilities ”.
- “Our protocols were built on this premise – that living in the 32 communities during a pandemic was a risk, but we wanted to make sure that we could prevent the spread of the virus as best we could.
Between the lines: Some of the NFL’s findings have been published by the CDC – including what the league learned about the virus transmission.
- The most important changes the league has had to make over time have been “our evolution of high-risk contact,” Miller said.
The league has discovered that risky contacts with an infected person were not limited to 15-minute interactions within a 6-foot radius. The definition has instead become more complex, taking into account the time, distance, ventilation and wearing of the mask.
- “These four factors all had an interaction within them, which, in our experience, was much more complicated by six feet and 15 minutes,” Miller said.
Bottom line: “I’ve never seen the virus transmitted over the line of scrimmage,” Miller said – even when players who tested positive participated in the game.
- The league was able to confirm that this was the case through genetic sequencing.
Go deeper: Super Bowl preview