‘We’re not ready.’ Pro sports may not be safe to return until after 2020, Fauci says
The probing piers surrounding Oracle Park in San Francisco are used to feeling the weight of San Francisco Giants fans this time of year. Excited fans, bursting with anticipation for the game ahead, usually step off the ferry from Vallejo and onto those piers, making their way into the ballpark under the scenic gaze of cerulean blue water and the city skyline peaking over the park.
But not this year.
Instead, the deafening silence of the silvery fog as it rolls off McCovey Cove is the only invisible weight the pier experiences these days. No laughter. No cheering. No foul balls pinging the glove of a thrilled fan.
With professional sports suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, fans are flustered as they pine for the world that sometimes kept them sane during this time of year. And, unfortunately, it might stay that way for a long time.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious diseases expert, backtracked slightly on his previous take of “sports could return this summer” during a recent interview with The New York Times.
“There’s a way of doing that,” Fauci told Snapchat’s Peter Hamby about the possibility of an MLB season on April 14. “Nobody comes to the stadium. Put [the players] in big hotels, wherever you want to play, keep them very well surveilled. ... Have them tested every single week and make sure they don’t wind up infecting each other or their family, and just let them play the season out.”
But during this recent interview, Fauci said that some leagues may have to “bite the bullet” and cancel their seasons if the safety of their players can’t be guaranteed.
“Safety, for the players and for the fans, trumps everything,” he told The New York Times. “If you can’t guarantee safety, then unfortunately you’re going to have to bite the bullet and say, ‘We may have to go without this sport for this season.’ ”
All pro sports are throwing around ideas of ways to make a return as the world scrambles to flatten the curve of the coronavirus. This week, MLB suggested a plan to start the season in late June or early July and play in home stadiums with a realigned league.
“MLB is considering a three-division, 10-team plan which teams play only within their division — a concept gaining support among owners and executives,” USA Today reported on Tuesday. “It would abolish the traditional American and National Leagues, and realign the divisions based on geography.”
Fauci, who is an avid runner and sports fan, expressed fear of a surge in the virus numbers if we attempt to return to a normal way of life. “If we let our desire to prematurely get back to normal, we can only get ourselves right back in the same hole we were in a few weeks ago,” he told The New York Times.
The doctor highlighted the importance of making quick-result COVID-19 tests for everyone, and if sports leagues were to return, they would be taking tests way from those who need them.
“I would love to be able to have all sports back,” Fauci said, according to The New York Times. “But as a health official and a physician and a scientist, I have to say, right now, when you look at the country, we’re not ready for that yet.”