NFLPA: Plan is to test players for COVID-19 about three times a week
Posted by Josh Alper on June 15, 2020, 4:41 PM EDT
News on Monday that players from the Cowboys, including running back
Ezekiel Elliott, and Texans have tested positive for COVID-19 brought another reminder of the challenges that teams will face as the NFL moves forward with the 2020 season.
One of the questions that many are waiting to have answered is how often players will be tested once they report for training camp this summer. NFL Players Association medical director Thom Mayer offered an idea about that answer during a call with players and agents on Monday.
Mayer said, via multiple reports, that
players should expect to be tested about three times a week and, per Tom Pelissero of NFL Media, isolating those
who test positive. He also said that he was
90 percent certain that saliva tests will be readily available for that process when teams get to camp in July. Positive tests are expected and Mayer offered a reminder that everyone is going to have to figure out a way to work around that inevitability.
“We can’t figure out how to fit the virus into football, we have to figure out how we’re going to fit
football into the virus,” Mayer said, via Zack Rosenblatt of NJ.com. “This is a bad-ass virus.”
A full set of protocols is expected in the coming weeks with the league looking for camps and the regular season to start on schedule.
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From my previous post (yesterday)in the NBA section regarding their proposed testing protocol. It applies likewise to the NFL's proposed testing protocol.:
The standard deep nasopharyngeal swab COVID tests in themselves are quite inaccurate (if anyone has read my posts in the COVID thread)...........and done properly, they are somewhat uncomfortable. So now it seems that these big strong he-men basketball players through the NBAPA have requested a less invasive more comfortable test since they will have to undergo so many. The shorter nasal swab, tongue swab have all been deemed to be less accurate than the long nasal swab tests. And the saliva test has been purported by some to be just as accurate has never been thoroughly studied and peer-reviewed. And will the Protocol, due to inaccuracies of the testing, follow FDA recommendations that if a negative test is observed, it must be followed by another test to try to validate the results? That's going to be a heck of a lot of testing.
Then, just like the NFL COVID Protocol, there have been no protocol for when there is a positive player test...............how it is handled..........and how those other players exposed are to be handled.
Seems like no one is taking into account the average of 3 days to obtain results. And, if you bring up the "rapid test" now available.................which can give a result in 5 minutes..............be prepared to accept a 50% false negative/accuracy rate. It would be cheaper and just as accurate for each team to train and assign their analytics coordinator to perform an alternate test............an analytic tool that they are familiar with and are already using with significant frequency.: