The Covid Story That Sports Media Won’t Tell

City Journal ^ | September 17, 2020 | Steven Malanga

[CheshireTheCat]

....Despite hundreds of thousands of tests, vanishingly few serious cases have been reported among professional athletes. Most players testing positive had apparently few or no symptoms. Considering the fears and uncertainties the leagues have faced, it’s a remarkable story—one that much of the media has strangely seemed uninterested in telling. Why?

There was no shortage of drama and even panic as the sports world confronted Covid earlier this year. A March headline in the New York Times sports section asked ominously, “Does Coronavirus Mean the End of Sports as We Know Them?” The Washington Post warned, “No Sports Until 2021? It’s Possible.” As talk emerged of how and when professional leagues might get restarted, the San Jose Mercury News demanded, “Shut Down Sports During COVID-19 Pandemic.” Some political leaders concurred. At the end of April, French president Emmanuel Macron, not waiting to see how the virus played out in Europe, announced that he was cancelling the already-suspended season of Ligue 1, the country’s top soccer league. Reports added that Macron was lobbying other European nations to follow suit. A week later, when Germany’s top soccer league, the Bundesliga, announced that it would attempt to come back later that month, Macron apparently tried to get German officials to shut it down. Later, when it became clear that authorities in most countries wouldn’t let fans return to games, media critics found yet another reason not to go forward. “Sports without fans will be dreadful, and we all know it,” the Chicago Tribune argued. “Write off the 2020 season.”

.....USA Today devoted a story to NFL legend Joe Montana’s claim in August that he would have opted out of playing because “this thing is killing people everywhere.”...

[CheshireTheCat]

It would be nice to know how many of the athletes who tested positive interacted with people in their families who are 65+ and how many of these family members did or did not get COVID because if they didn't get it (or did happen to test positive but nothing beyond that), well, then....

[nutmeg]

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