WEBVTT - The Shadow Over College Athletics 0:00:05.240 --> 0:00:10.200 Welcome to Prognosis. I'm Laura Carlson. It's day one fifty 0:00:10.280 --> 0:00:15.680 nine since coronavirus was declared a global pandemic. Today's main story. 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:19.800 Many are still hoping some college sports can move ahead 0:00:19.880 --> 0:00:24.560 in the fall, but amid the controversy about whether that's safe, 0:00:25.200 --> 0:00:29.880 a new threat has merged, a possible COVID nineteen complication 0:00:30.440 --> 0:00:35.720 that can be fatal for young athletes. But first, here's 0:00:35.720 --> 0:00:46.040 what happened in virus news today. COVID nineteen cases in 0:00:46.200 --> 0:00:51.360 US nursing homes surged last month, surpassing the previous peak 0:00:51.479 --> 0:00:54.640 in May. That's according to a new report from the 0:00:54.680 --> 0:00:59.320 American Healthcare Association and the National Center for Assisted Living. 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:04.320 The report shows that nursing home cases are up dramatically 0:01:04.760 --> 0:01:08.840 in the very same places where virus levels have spiked 0:01:09.080 --> 0:01:13.160 in the general population. Seventy eight percent of new nursing 0:01:13.200 --> 0:01:17.199 home cases in July were in Sun belt states, where 0:01:17.200 --> 0:01:23.319 the virus is spreading rapidly. Hong Kong's government extended all 0:01:23.360 --> 0:01:28.360 existing social distancing measures for another week. The measures include 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:32.200 an evening dine in ban at restaurants, a two person 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:38.199 public gathering limit, and mask requirements. A government spokesman said 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:42.920 that the COVID situation was severe and allowed no room 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:47.039 to let up on distancing rules. He also said the 0:01:47.080 --> 0:01:51.240 country should get prepared for a possible winter search or 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:57.520 a fourth wave coinciding with the usual flu season. Finally, 0:01:57.960 --> 0:02:03.120 many people are still opting not to fly. Ryanair Holdings, 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:06.680 Europe's largest discount airline, said it would cut its flight 0:02:06.720 --> 0:02:12.400 capacity by in September and October because so few people 0:02:12.639 --> 0:02:18.040 have booked flights. The company blames continuing uncertainty over recent 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:21.880 COVID case rates in some countries for the weekend bookings 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:31.960 and now for today's main story. As some college athletes 0:02:32.000 --> 0:02:35.040 prepare to get on the field this fall, a dangerous 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:39.680 possible side effect of COVID nineteen as many people worried 0:02:40.680 --> 0:02:44.840 about a dozen student athletes have experienced heart inflammation after 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:48.800 being diagnosed with the disease. The n c a a's 0:02:49.000 --> 0:02:53.800 chief medical officer discussed the cases of myocarditis, a heart 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:57.280 condition that can cause sudden death in young athletes, at 0:02:57.280 --> 0:03:01.360 a briefing last week. His remarks came two days after 0:03:01.400 --> 0:03:04.840 the Big Ten and Pack twelve announced they would postpone 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:09.960 fall sports. I talked to Angelica Levito who reports that 0:03:10.080 --> 0:03:14.080 the new complication is casting a shadow over college athletics 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:18.919 and creating questions about what the disease does to young 0:03:18.960 --> 0:03:28.040 people as some university sports get going for the fall seasons. 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:33.680 How have college athletes been affected by COVID nineteen. We 0:03:33.760 --> 0:03:37.480 have already seen a number of college athletes catch COVID nineteen, 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:40.120 whether that it was at sports camps or just throughout 0:03:40.160 --> 0:03:44.320 the summer. And of those people who have caught COVID nineteen, 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:47.840 about a dozen student athletes have developed a heart condition 0:03:48.240 --> 0:03:52.920 called myocarditis. And this heart inflammation basically makes it more 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:56.040 difficult for someone's heart to pump blood and in some 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:59.640 cases can cause an arrhythmia, which can be deadly. And 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:03.320 that's problematic because when you're an athlete, you're really working 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:06.120 your heart and that can cause pretty much the ideal 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:11.320 conditions for arrhythmia. That is causing some concern among schools. 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:13.760 Who are, you know, worried about what we know and 0:04:13.760 --> 0:04:17.240 what we don't know about COVID nineteen. Why are we 0:04:17.279 --> 0:04:22.080 seeing this myocarditis or hard inflammation more in athletes than 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:25.640 in other COVID nineteen patients. I'm really glad you asked 0:04:25.640 --> 0:04:27.760 that and the doctors I talked to you said that 0:04:27.800 --> 0:04:31.200 we need to be careful not to create this association 0:04:31.320 --> 0:04:35.200 between athletes and myocroditis. We're probably hearing about it and 0:04:35.200 --> 0:04:38.839 more in athletes because they are being screened for these 0:04:38.839 --> 0:04:41.880 hard issues because they want to be really really careful 0:04:42.200 --> 0:04:45.520 to not work out. If you are diagnosed with myocarditis, 0:04:45.640 --> 0:04:48.440 you're not supposed to exercise for three to six months. 0:04:48.880 --> 0:04:52.400 So that's why schools leagues are making every effort to 0:04:52.480 --> 0:04:55.880 try and screen people, and some people might not ever 0:04:56.000 --> 0:04:59.360 know they have myocroditis um. Some people might not report 0:04:59.400 --> 0:05:02.479 any symptom um. Therefore, it makes it really difficult for 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:06.240 us to understand how many people actually have it versus 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:10.000 how many athletes have it. So there's a potential that 0:05:10.040 --> 0:05:13.520 this is a more common side effect or complication of 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:17.080 COVID nineteen, and we're just seeing it pop up more 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:22.000 in athletes than has been necessarily found in others. That's correct. 0:05:22.240 --> 0:05:26.400 So we do know that viruses like influenza cause myocarditis 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:30.680 in some patients. Again, it's incredibly rare, but we really 0:05:30.720 --> 0:05:33.480 don't know the full scope because there are so many 0:05:33.520 --> 0:05:37.360 patients that might never know they have it, And so 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:42.200 what are these universities and colleges and sports teams doing 0:05:42.279 --> 0:05:45.440 now that it has been shown to be affecting their athletes. 0:05:46.440 --> 0:05:49.200 That's a good question. And you did see the Big 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:52.240 Ten and the Pact twelve decided to postpone their fall 0:05:52.320 --> 0:05:56.720 seasons altogether because of the unknowns about the possible long 0:05:56.839 --> 0:06:01.080 term health effects of COVID nineteen. Inter terms of other colleges, 0:06:01.240 --> 0:06:03.760 I'm not sure what their protocols are, but we are 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:07.040 seeing in in some of the pro sports, for example, 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:10.680 leagues are including um a heart assessment as part of 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:15.000 the return to play protocol. And let's talk more broadly 0:06:15.040 --> 0:06:20.000 in terms of implications for college athletes. You mentioned that 0:06:20.040 --> 0:06:25.000 there's quite a long downtime that people should not exercise 0:06:25.279 --> 0:06:28.760 for months if they are found to have myocarditis. I mean, 0:06:28.800 --> 0:06:31.000 what are some of the implications for those who are 0:06:31.040 --> 0:06:34.760 involved in college sports right now? What what perhaps is 0:06:35.120 --> 0:06:39.880 their future? Well, it depends because not everyone who develops 0:06:39.920 --> 0:06:44.560 COVID nineteen develops myocard itis. Again, doctors say that it's 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:47.960 probably pretty rare. However, you can imagine that if you're 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:51.039 an athlete and you develop this hard inflammation and you're 0:06:51.080 --> 0:06:53.360 forced to sit out for three to six months, it 0:06:53.440 --> 0:06:56.680 could end your season. For example, of the Boston Red Sox, 0:06:56.760 --> 0:07:00.120 their star pitcher Edward Rodriguez has to sit out the 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:02.839 rest of the season because he had this condition. So 0:07:02.920 --> 0:07:06.279 if you're an athlete, it can be problematic. So is 0:07:06.360 --> 0:07:08.599 mile cardi does something that we have to worry about 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:12.800 predominantly with those of college age or even professional athletes, 0:07:12.880 --> 0:07:16.000 or is this something that can affect anyone at any age. 0:07:16.840 --> 0:07:20.520 So I spoke to a number of pediatric cardiologists and 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:23.720 they both told me that so far, what they've seen 0:07:23.920 --> 0:07:28.440 suggests that this is incredibly rare among children. It's already 0:07:28.560 --> 0:07:32.480 rare among adults, but even more so among children. One 0:07:32.520 --> 0:07:35.440 doctor I spoke to even said he has kids who 0:07:35.600 --> 0:07:38.720 are in elementary school and he will be sending them 0:07:38.840 --> 0:07:42.280 back to competitive sports. And so, so far, what we 0:07:42.360 --> 0:07:44.640 know is that even though this could be a risk 0:07:44.680 --> 0:07:48.080 for older people, whether you're a college student, maybe even 0:07:48.120 --> 0:07:51.480 a high school student, or a professional athlete, there is 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:53.840 of course a risk, but it does appear that for 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:57.720 kids there's even less of an already pretty small chance 0:07:57.720 --> 0:08:03.040 of getting this. So overall, all, how common is myocardis? 0:08:03.040 --> 0:08:06.520 How often are we seeing this in COVID nineteen patients 0:08:06.640 --> 0:08:09.960 or just generally. So it's really too early to say 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:14.800 how many patients who contract COVID nineteen developed this heart inflammation. 0:08:15.280 --> 0:08:17.560 There was a German study that created a lot of 0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:20.760 noise and really brought this into focus. It was a 0:08:20.800 --> 0:08:23.760 small study and it only included about a hundred patients, 0:08:24.200 --> 0:08:28.120 and of those patients, sixty displayed the heart inflammation, which 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:31.360 raised a lot of alarms. However, it also has had 0:08:32.040 --> 0:08:34.880 sort of some controversy because the median age of the 0:08:34.920 --> 0:08:38.400 people analyzed was forty nine and it's harder to compare 0:08:38.840 --> 0:08:42.600 young athletes versus older people, so that makes it a 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:45.800 little bit of a doctors call it non apples to 0:08:45.800 --> 0:08:49.800 apples comparison. Whoever, doctors I talked to you said, even 0:08:49.840 --> 0:08:53.080 if it's not a perfect comparison, they should also still 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:56.520 be mindful that there is still a risk. And what 0:08:56.679 --> 0:09:01.040 has physicians said about how myocardis is a new or 0:09:01.120 --> 0:09:04.880 emerging side effect of COVID nineteen. This is such a 0:09:04.920 --> 0:09:08.720 new virus, and every doctor I spoke to when reporting 0:09:08.720 --> 0:09:11.240 this story said the same thing. There's so much we 0:09:11.360 --> 0:09:14.200 don't know. We've learned a lot in the past eight 0:09:14.240 --> 0:09:17.280 months or so, but they're still just a lot that 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:19.920 we really aren't sure about and we just need to 0:09:20.000 --> 0:09:23.880 learn more, and that athletes should understand that we don't 0:09:23.880 --> 0:09:26.559 know everything, and so when they're making decisions on whether 0:09:26.600 --> 0:09:29.160 to play or whether to sit out, they need to 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:32.040 really be aware that there's a lot we don't know yet. 0:09:38.440 --> 0:09:41.800 That was Angelica Levito, and that's it for our show today. 0:09:42.280 --> 0:09:45.199 For coverage of the outbreak from one twenty bureaus around 0:09:45.240 --> 0:09:50.040 the world, visit Bloomberg dot com slash Coronavirus and if 0:09:50.040 --> 0:09:52.520 you like the show, please leave us a review and 0:09:52.600 --> 0:09:56.320 a rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It's the best 0:09:56.360 --> 0:10:00.240 way to help more listeners find our global reporting. The 0:10:00.280 --> 0:10:05.000 Prognosis Daily edition is produced by Topher Foreheads, Jordan Gaspore, 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:10.320 Magnus Hendrickson, and me Loraa Carlson. Today's main story was 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:15.120 reported by Angelica Levito. Original music by Leo Sedrin. Our 0:10:15.280 --> 0:10:19.720 editors are Rick Shine and Francesca Levi. Francesca Levi is 0:10:19.760 --> 0:10:23.000 Bloomberg's head of Podcasts. Thanks for listening.