Speaker 1: Welcome to Prognosis. I'm Laura Carlson. It's day one fifty
Speaker 1: nine since coronavirus was declared a global pandemic. Today's main story.
Speaker 1: Many are still hoping some college sports can move ahead
Speaker 1: in the fall, but amid the controversy about whether that's safe,
Speaker 1: a new threat has merged, a possible COVID nineteen complication
Speaker 1: that can be fatal for young athletes. But first, here's
Speaker 1: what happened in virus news today. COVID nineteen cases in
Speaker 1: US nursing homes surged last month, surpassing the previous peak
Speaker 1: in May. That's according to a new report from the
Speaker 1: American Healthcare Association and the National Center for Assisted Living.
Speaker 1: The report shows that nursing home cases are up dramatically
Speaker 1: in the very same places where virus levels have spiked
Speaker 1: in the general population. Seventy eight percent of new nursing
Speaker 1: home cases in July were in Sun belt states, where
Speaker 1: the virus is spreading rapidly. Hong Kong's government extended all
Speaker 1: existing social distancing measures for another week. The measures include
Speaker 1: an evening dine in ban at restaurants, a two person
Speaker 1: public gathering limit, and mask requirements. A government spokesman said
Speaker 1: that the COVID situation was severe and allowed no room
Speaker 1: to let up on distancing rules. He also said the
Speaker 1: country should get prepared for a possible winter search or
Speaker 1: a fourth wave coinciding with the usual flu season. Finally,
Speaker 1: many people are still opting not to fly. Ryanair Holdings,
Speaker 1: Europe's largest discount airline, said it would cut its flight
Speaker 1: capacity by in September and October because so few people
Speaker 1: have booked flights. The company blames continuing uncertainty over recent
Speaker 1: COVID case rates in some countries for the weekend bookings
Speaker 1: and now for today's main story. As some college athletes
Speaker 1: prepare to get on the field this fall, a dangerous
Speaker 1: possible side effect of COVID nineteen as many people worried
Speaker 1: about a dozen student athletes have experienced heart inflammation after
Speaker 1: being diagnosed with the disease. The n c a a's
Speaker 1: chief medical officer discussed the cases of myocarditis, a heart
Speaker 1: condition that can cause sudden death in young athletes, at
Speaker 1: a briefing last week. His remarks came two days after
Speaker 1: the Big Ten and Pack twelve announced they would postpone
Speaker 1: fall sports. I talked to Angelica Levito who reports that
Speaker 1: the new complication is casting a shadow over college athletics
Speaker 1: and creating questions about what the disease does to young
Speaker 1: people as some university sports get going for the fall seasons.
Speaker 1: How have college athletes been affected by COVID nineteen. We
Speaker 1: have already seen a number of college athletes catch COVID nineteen,
Speaker 1: whether that it was at sports camps or just throughout
Speaker 1: the summer. And of those people who have caught COVID nineteen,
Speaker 1: about a dozen student athletes have developed a heart condition
Speaker 1: called myocarditis. And this heart inflammation basically makes it more
Speaker 1: difficult for someone's heart to pump blood and in some
Speaker 1: cases can cause an arrhythmia, which can be deadly. And
Speaker 1: that's problematic because when you're an athlete, you're really working
Speaker 1: your heart and that can cause pretty much the ideal
Speaker 1: conditions for arrhythmia. That is causing some concern among schools.
Speaker 1: Who are, you know, worried about what we know and
Speaker 1: what we don't know about COVID nineteen. Why are we
Speaker 1: seeing this myocarditis or hard inflammation more in athletes than
Speaker 1: in other COVID nineteen patients. I'm really glad you asked
Speaker 1: that and the doctors I talked to you said that
Speaker 1: we need to be careful not to create this association
Speaker 1: between athletes and myocroditis. We're probably hearing about it and
Speaker 1: more in athletes because they are being screened for these
Speaker 1: hard issues because they want to be really really careful
Speaker 1: to not work out. If you are diagnosed with myocarditis,
Speaker 1: you're not supposed to exercise for three to six months.
Speaker 1: So that's why schools leagues are making every effort to
Speaker 1: try and screen people, and some people might not ever
Speaker 1: know they have myocroditis um. Some people might not report
Speaker 1: any symptom um. Therefore, it makes it really difficult for
Speaker 1: us to understand how many people actually have it versus
Speaker 1: how many athletes have it. So there's a potential that
Speaker 1: this is a more common side effect or complication of
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen, and we're just seeing it pop up more
Speaker 1: in athletes than has been necessarily found in others. That's correct.
Speaker 1: So we do know that viruses like influenza cause myocarditis
Speaker 1: in some patients. Again, it's incredibly rare, but we really
Speaker 1: don't know the full scope because there are so many
Speaker 1: patients that might never know they have it, And so
Speaker 1: what are these universities and colleges and sports teams doing
Speaker 1: now that it has been shown to be affecting their athletes.
Speaker 1: That's a good question. And you did see the Big
Speaker 1: Ten and the Pact twelve decided to postpone their fall
Speaker 1: seasons altogether because of the unknowns about the possible long
Speaker 1: term health effects of COVID nineteen. Inter terms of other colleges,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure what their protocols are, but we are
Speaker 1: seeing in in some of the pro sports, for example,
Speaker 1: leagues are including um a heart assessment as part of
Speaker 1: the return to play protocol. And let's talk more broadly
Speaker 1: in terms of implications for college athletes. You mentioned that
Speaker 1: there's quite a long downtime that people should not exercise
Speaker 1: for months if they are found to have myocarditis. I mean,
Speaker 1: what are some of the implications for those who are
Speaker 1: involved in college sports right now? What what perhaps is
Speaker 1: their future? Well, it depends because not everyone who develops
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen develops myocard itis. Again, doctors say that it's
Speaker 1: probably pretty rare. However, you can imagine that if you're
Speaker 1: an athlete and you develop this hard inflammation and you're
Speaker 1: forced to sit out for three to six months, it
Speaker 1: could end your season. For example, of the Boston Red Sox,
Speaker 1: their star pitcher Edward Rodriguez has to sit out the
Speaker 1: rest of the season because he had this condition. So
Speaker 1: if you're an athlete, it can be problematic. So is
Speaker 1: mile cardi does something that we have to worry about
Speaker 1: predominantly with those of college age or even professional athletes,
Speaker 1: or is this something that can affect anyone at any age.
Speaker 1: So I spoke to a number of pediatric cardiologists and
Speaker 1: they both told me that so far, what they've seen
Speaker 1: suggests that this is incredibly rare among children. It's already
Speaker 1: rare among adults, but even more so among children. One
Speaker 1: doctor I spoke to even said he has kids who
Speaker 1: are in elementary school and he will be sending them
Speaker 1: back to competitive sports. And so, so far, what we
Speaker 1: know is that even though this could be a risk
Speaker 1: for older people, whether you're a college student, maybe even
Speaker 1: a high school student, or a professional athlete, there is
Speaker 1: of course a risk, but it does appear that for
Speaker 1: kids there's even less of an already pretty small chance
Speaker 1: of getting this. So overall, all, how common is myocardis?
Speaker 1: How often are we seeing this in COVID nineteen patients
Speaker 1: or just generally. So it's really too early to say
Speaker 1: how many patients who contract COVID nineteen developed this heart inflammation.
Speaker 1: There was a German study that created a lot of
Speaker 1: noise and really brought this into focus. It was a
Speaker 1: small study and it only included about a hundred patients,
Speaker 1: and of those patients, sixty displayed the heart inflammation, which
Speaker 1: raised a lot of alarms. However, it also has had
Speaker 1: sort of some controversy because the median age of the
Speaker 1: people analyzed was forty nine and it's harder to compare
Speaker 1: young athletes versus older people, so that makes it a
Speaker 1: little bit of a doctors call it non apples to
Speaker 1: apples comparison. Whoever, doctors I talked to you said, even
Speaker 1: if it's not a perfect comparison, they should also still
Speaker 1: be mindful that there is still a risk. And what
Speaker 1: has physicians said about how myocardis is a new or
Speaker 1: emerging side effect of COVID nineteen. This is such a
Speaker 1: new virus, and every doctor I spoke to when reporting
Speaker 1: this story said the same thing. There's so much we
Speaker 1: don't know. We've learned a lot in the past eight
Speaker 1: months or so, but they're still just a lot that
Speaker 1: we really aren't sure about and we just need to
Speaker 1: learn more, and that athletes should understand that we don't
Speaker 1: know everything, and so when they're making decisions on whether
Speaker 1: to play or whether to sit out, they need to
Speaker 1: really be aware that there's a lot we don't know yet.
Speaker 1: That was Angelica Levito, and that's it for our show today.
Speaker 1: For coverage of the outbreak from one twenty bureaus around
Speaker 1: the world, visit Bloomberg dot com slash Coronavirus and if
Speaker 1: you like the show, please leave us a review and
Speaker 1: a rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It's the best
Speaker 1: way to help more listeners find our global reporting. The
Speaker 1: Prognosis Daily edition is produced by Topher Foreheads, Jordan Gaspore,
Speaker 1: Magnus Hendrickson, and me Loraa Carlson. Today's main story was
Speaker 1: reported by Angelica Levito. Original music by Leo Sedrin. Our
Speaker 1: editors are Rick Shine and Francesca Levi. Francesca Levi is
Speaker 1: Bloomberg's head of Podcasts. Thanks for listening.