Braunecker talks COVID-19 | All Access

Business of Football. Still Fast and Furious says it pertains to the Bears of the rest of the National Football League and these unknown times, these challenging time, it's good to have you alongside. Hope your day is going well

everybody and the shelter in place. The virus, all the conversation about sports cancelations and postponents dominating the headlines obviously, but first and foremost, as we said last week, hoping everyone out there is healthy, Helping everybody out there doing okay, and if you have d or family that are are afflicted with this virus, you know, best wishes and get

well soon is the storyline for tonight. Jeff Jonnyac along my broadcast partner from WBBM, Tom Thayer, the former Chicago Bear and Super Bowl champion and Jim Miller from Serious XM NFL Radio moving the chains in a former Bears quarterback of note fellas, how are you guys handling everything personally and professionally? Right now? We'll start a big tim Well, you know, Jeff, The reality of it is is our only concerns are really for the better to men of

what's taking place with the coronavirus. But in our lives, the distraction of what's going on this year in the NFL is kind of unique in its own right. So it's nothing makes anything fun, but it's an interesting distraction to pay attention to. Whether you're looking at other teams around the league, you're looking at teams within the Bears division, or are you looking at the Bears themselves. There's a lot of new faces and numbers and names on this

roster already. That's gonna be in interesting this watch this whole year mold together. Yeah, echo what Tom says. And hope everybody out there is doing well, and hey, these are trying times and business has to change. Teams are adjusting. We're all adjusting individually with what we've got to deal with and what our family's friends, everybody's going through right now. Personally though, Jeff, I can tell you, man, being home with four kids, these guys are wearing my ass out.

I will tell you that right now. So I mean, God bless my wife Leah, and she's done this for a long time. But man, I'm in the front of the storm right now, let's just put it that way. And these guys are crushing me right now. Right there's no there's no eye of the hurricane here, there's no respite. I mean, it's the full fury. And you know I've been hearing that from a lot of friends and and

other people in our business. That a tip of the half to parents and to all the teachers out there who have done a great job teaching how all of our children, because it is not a easy task, no question about. I'm an empty nester right now. Kids are around, but they're not They're in college, so it's it's not like grade school kids are keeping kids occupied and entertained. So best job you can do as a parent is

trying to pull that off. But yes, they do wearry out a little bit in a good way, in a good way, certainly, All right on Tonight's program we got, we got a bunch of stuff coming up. We got Ben Bronicker, the fifth year tight end, going to join the program, unique in that he studied infectious disease at

Harvard Topical. Indeed, I know he's been out of the air here on the score earlier this week, but we'll delve into that with him, and then we'll be joined at a round six thirty by doctor Robert Citronberg, the director of infectious Disease at Advocate Lutheran General and Park Ridge.

That'll be a very interesting conversation. We got a bunch of questions to him regarding the virus, how it affects you and your everyday life, and how it will affect sports moving forward, So we'll get your questions answered about

that as well. News of the day today fellas Tom an offensive lineman with a first round grade on him when he came out of Texas A and m Jermain Effetti, former Seattle seahawk who's played the majority of his grit right tackle but a bunch of snaps at right guard, gets a one year deal reportedly with the Bears and conceivably could be competing for that right guard job. And then the reacquisition of Tyler Bray somebody time you think

highly of. Yeah, I like Tyler Bray. I like the fact that he's been in the system, But I want to give him an opportunity to compete. I know that the interesting story of note of the last couple of days or net last week or so has been Nick Folds and Mitch Dubisky. But I think Tyler Bray's got to come in there with his you know chest hell, you know, is head held up high and his chest sticking out and come in here to compete. And I

just think that adds to it. But you know, when you're talking about offensive line play, and you know, you're talking about bringing a guy that's played a majority of his time at offensive tackle and thinking about moving him as a guard. Six five three and twenty four pound guy been plagued by holding calls. And I think the one thing that is really interesting, when you take a tackle and move into the guard, you lessen the space and you lessen that that outreach of the arms in

terms of the past protection responsibilities that you have. So I do think if they come in here and they want to make some changes and give him some opportunity at right guard. I think that would be the best spot for him right now and time. I want to follow up on that just because because as you know, things happen quicker inside at the at the guard spot, and you mentioned the holding calls. At one point Pete Carroll did bench him, and I think it was last preseason.

You know, they benched him just too many holding calls and things like that, just to kind of send a message to FORFETI did end up playing and a lot of games that it has played a lot overall. But how things happen quicker, how will it affect him in terms of his hand placement and how fast it happens

in a full booth inside? You know, the one thing about it is you have am media help both both to your right and your left, and there's a lot of instances that you can take away a majority of what that inside guy can do against you because you know where your help is coming from. Whereas in an offensive tackle, there's a certain percentage of the time that you're going on a line of scrimmage and you know

that you're on an island. There's no way that that protection is going to come back and help you or get you a backside protection. So that's the unique thing about playing inside. You always can gain a little bit of an advantage because you know you have a little bit of help from your right to your left. And I will add this, that's a scrambling quarterback in Russell Wilson, and a lot of Ffetti calls have happened on the

scramble drill. You know where really you don't know where the quarterback's going and time maybe you can follow up on this as well. You got to get a feel when you've got a quarterback as mobile as say a Russell Wilson, And certainly we know Mitchell Trubisky's very mobile. I wouldn't say Nick Foles is in that mobile category, but certainly has enough mobility to move out of the pocket.

But that's where it seems like Affetti had the most trouble really getting a field for which way his quarterback was bailing out of the bucket in Seattle. Well, you know that's the one thing about what Russell Wilson. You can have a direction of protection that's built in to benefit the offensive line and all the protectors, but it's

no guarantee Russell Wilson's gonna follow that plan. So if he runs away from the design, that's when you put your backside offensive lineman and jeopardy of those repeated holding calls, All right, one segment in the books. Thanks for our producer tonight, Julio Roso helping a sound spend of the dials and making this show happen. From the Score Studios, This is Bears All Access. Ben Bronnicker joining us next

on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy to Score. Welcome back to Bears All Access, front to you by IGS Energy, a proud partner of the Chicago Bears, providing electricity natural gas in home warranty products to over one million customers across the country. Learn more about IGS Energy at igs dot com. Jeff Joni Actim there, Jim Miller with you on this week's edition. Coming to you on a Wednesday.

Hope everybody's doing okay and handling the State at home prospect and that includes our special guests johnt Us right now, being kind of busy this week doing some interviews and fifty years time end. Ben Bronnicker, Good evening, How you doing, my friend doing our Hi, gentlemen, I'm good, Thanks for having me on. Good they've given you something to do, huh. I the bears just to shoot out on their on their social plan from the resident scientists. Then bronicker. You

like it? You like how that sounds? Yeah, it's pretty interesting. Where more like it? More I can do? Right? Yeah? Yeah, exactly? Well this is I have I have a question for you, Ben this tomp there um. So during your education of this type of interest, do they put these types of scenarios in there and saying, you know what do you start thinking about? Where? Where does your mind go? What

should be step number one? If this thing actually and occurred? Well, I guess a little bit, not something as specifically as

a global pandemic. But I have familiarized myself, or the courses have familiarized me to epidemiological data, which is just how the disease spread through a population, looking at one patient and then seeing how many people he talked to or he or she talked to, and how many people caught the disease after that interaction, and using models just to determine how quickly something can spread through a population. But I haven't seen anything or have been formally educated

on something in this scale. Now, well let me ask you this Ben Jim Miller here, good to talk to you. I hope everybody's oh, well, just getting into molecular biology and cell biology and all the things you studied in infectious disease. One. What steered you in that direction, because you know, much like all of us, we're just you know, that's something that never interested me. But hey, certainly we want to know about coronavirus. What's it about how it

can affect you? And everybody's trying to catch it up. But you, at an early age were steered in that direction, and then it interested you to study stuff like this, you know what, you know what brought that about? What steered you in that direction? Yeah, I think just first off as general fascination with viruses, bacteria, parasites, all sorts of pathogens, but especially viruses, And then too, I thought it was something in the future that is going to

be very useful, very prevalent. And just look at in the past couple of years, hardly a year goes by without some sort of outbreak, not anything on this scale in recent memory, but I think back to Zeka Bowl H one N one. So I just thought it was one something that I just had an inherent fascination with and too that it would be a useful job down the road. Ben Bronnicker, our guest the Bears, veteran tight end who studied infectious disease at Harvard and launched into

his NFL career and a post career. I still have designs on being a doctor, Ben, Is that pretty much the plan? Yeah. I always say that I've spent a lot of time and money on an education. I hope to use that someday. Hey, Ben, an instance like this, do you think it's harder on the educated or the on And I consider myself the uneducated because we're only learning about it from what we read through our phones

or what we see on TV. Or for a guy like yourself that understands the reality of it, because sometimes we're afraid of what we don't know. Is as concerning for someone who knows, like yourself. Well, that's interesting. I'm not exactly sure. I think both sides, the educat and the uneducated, in the dark about, or at least initially, we're in the dark about what exactly this is and how effective it was and how it was spread, symptoms

and why they vary between different people. So I think that both sides are still learning, and there are a lot of unanswered questions still out there, and the brightest minds of the world are now putting their heads together and trying to figure those out. Yeah, and then for me, I'm fascinated by this, you know, and how they talk about it being a new strain and how viruses can mutate and and things like that. And you're more knowledgeable

than me. It's almost like taking us back to Charles Darwin and the strongest survive and just how quickly these viruses can mutate. Maybe if you can education us a little bit on that. Well, sure, every all virus types are different, coronavirus versus flu versus um, you know, the different strains of flu, and so they all have our different rates of mutation. I'm not exactly sure how this new coronavirus does its business. Um, But viruses are basically

just lifeless chunks of protein and and nucleotide matter. I mean, programming that just aimlessly floats around and tries to Its job is just to infect cells and replicate that. It's not alive. It doesn't move on its own. It I mean can't even really survive on its own, so it's existence entirely depends on a host, and in this case

it's it's us our lung cells. So but anytime there's an infection, let's say, with a new virus in a host cell, then there's a chance when the new viral copies are being made, the transcriptional machineries of the selling machinery that makes the genetic material can make a mistake and then voila, You've got a new mutation in a virus. Most of the time this would be harmless. Sometimes it would be bad for the virus. Sometimes it would be bad for us. So it's really just a game of

dice and chance when it comes to mutations. This is Bears All Access on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy of the score please to be joined by Ben Bronicker. There's tied and as he prepares for an offseason of uncertainty right now amid all the issues with the coronavirus and COVID nineteen. You know, whenever I do speaking engagements or people want to talk about, you know, doing this as a career or whatever, I always say, hey, no matter what you do, follow your passion. So it looks like

you have multiple passions. But in a situation like this, you just is it something where you're so passionate about it as well that I love to get under a microscope and take a look at this thing and try and figure it out. Yeah, I mean, I'd love to help out on this stuff. But I realized that kind of invested in this football stuff. So I've got a little bit of training to catch myself up to speed of it. Just not able to do right now because I have a different career, But in due time, we'll

get to that for sure. Hey Ben, what about access to what you need in order to be prepared for your football career? Because you know, uniquely NFL players they need a lot of weight, They need spotters that are educated on how to help the players the most. Do you have access to what you need to get yourself ready for whatever you're going to go through this year? Well, frankly, at this time, no, it's a different challenge this off

season for sure. I think that most players in the NFL right now in their off season don't have access to a gym. I think most of them are closed. So, speaking for myself and maybe a couple of them, we're just trying to get creative with exercise and weightlifting. Really, our strength training is going to suffer a little bit, but that's okay. There'll be time later before the actual NFL season, hopefully to catch our bodies back up and

get them to where we need them to be. But as of right now, it's just trying to manage this as best as possible. To do some strength maintenance stuff, staying in great shape, running a lot. I know that you can keep your muscle mass on your body if you sprint at higher than eighty percent max effort, so you still tit. See. That's why I want to hear that Harvard and Ivy League degree. I should say coming to the table, but I want to hear that. I want to we asked Iggy this last week, your teammate.

I want to hear like a Herschel Walker workout, Like you're doing a thousand push ups, a thousand setups, and you're getting it done. You know what I'm saying, Ben, you gotta stay active. Yeah I'm not. I'm not on Herschel's level, but it sounds kind of barbarica, like picking heavy things up around you that I can find and putting them back down, whether let's furniture, around the house or some pretty good chunk or pretty good sized rocks.

Just doing whatever I can. Hey, I heard Greg Gaines at the La Rams University of Washington a let me lives in Idaho. He cut down a huge tree and put a bunch of padding on it so he can do squats. So there you go. The creativity is kicking in. Have you heard any of your teammates coming up with

anything unique like that? Yeah, it was something similar. A former teammate of mine at Harvard, Kyle Busteck, fullback for the forty nine ers, now was training somewhere in the Northwest like that and cut down a tree and was using it to lunge around in his yard. And he was also pulling his wife on a sled in his snow So whatever works, right. We all saw Rocky three when he went back to the barbaric training in the Siberian snow covered hills, and so every everybody has an

example of that. Yeah, no question about it. Hey, Ben, Let's talk just a little bit of football and knowing what's going on, knowing the uncertainty, is there anything as a current player with obviously safety first, health of entire nation and an entire world first and foremost that you could say to massage the fears of a prolonged delay for football to return for the average fan. I wish

I could say something complete, but I really can't. I'm just kind of in the same boat as all those fans and hoping that the worst part of this outbreak is going to be over by the time September rolls around. But I'm not sure anybody knows that answer right now, unfortunately. Well, what about how you're currently dealing with it, and the workouts and how you're trying to make do and obviously health and training and what you eat and all those things.

How quickly can you flip the switch? You think? What it does return to a normal seat from your standpoint? Then? And you know, like, how long do you think it will take you to get back to where you need to be? Yeah, that's a that's a good question. Um myself, I think maybe a month, month and a half. Obviously there's more tend to better, but for talking minimums, I could probably get there too, pretty good shape to being ready for training camping about four to six weeks really

hard training. Hey, Ben, you know there's a whole new room of coaches up there, and you know, you're kind of a unique guy because you play tight end next of the tackle, you play the U tight end, you play h back, and you play fullback. So what coach do you gravitate towards when you have so many new coaches? I don't even know if you had a chance to meet him and be introduced him in any way. And

so it was a coach Barone that contacted you. His coach Burn's first week at Hollis Hall, I was still in Chicago and I was able to meet him there. I've learned that they've since all they stopped going into house. Also, I haven't had a chance to meet any of the other new guys, but I like coach Broom so far. All right, Ben ben Brouncker, our guest here in Chicago Sports Radio six seventy the Score. We appreciate taking some time.

I know you've been busy y' all week with this kind of topic, but we do appreciate the knowledge and first and foremost best to health to you and your family and stay clear of this thing. Will you absolutely thank you, guys enjoining the opportunity. Ben Brouncker eleven games last season, got that big touchdown pass. Who do you catch at against again Fellas eighteen yard touchdown. It was a heck of a catch during the season, six catches over all fifty nine yards and a very very impactful

special teams player. Our guest here tonight on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy the Score. Let's take a break and we come back. We'll be joined by doctor Robert citron Berg at the bottom of the hour, director of Infact Just Disease, will continue the conversation about COVID nineteen from Advocate Lutheran General in park Ridge. This is Chicago Sports Radio six seventy the Score. Welcome back to Bears All Access. Jeff thom and Jim with you on Chicago Sports Radio

at six seventy the Score. Good to be with you. Coming up, we'll talk to doctor Robert Titchenburg from Advocate Lutheran General and Park Ridge. In the meantime, obviously, Roger Goodell last night making the move to close all NFL headquarters facilities. Just the kicked in six o'clock local time in an effort Jim to even the playing field as teams get ready for what appears to be still the NFL draft starting on April twenty three through the twenty fifth.

I know there are gms that a subcommittee that met trying to convince him to move it because of the inherent difficulties involved with analyzing your college crop and then making some very big important decisions for now in the future. What's your take on all this and how's the league reacting? Yeah, I still still think it is yet to be decided. I know the NFL's kept a firm date that they want to keep the draft as is. We just saw the NHL just move their their draft. They move their

you know OTA's basically essentially and their season. It sounds like could be moved back as well, or their training camp I should say move back. So, you know, I still think it's a fluid situation. Owners did meet, I should say, they have like a group of owners that obviously they meet in a committee and the vote was six one that general managers did want to move the draft just to give them more time to prepare, you know, because like you said, getting medical evaluations is very tough

right now. I mean owners right now in GM they don't even know if they're going to get the medical rechecks from the Indianapolis combine. You know, so normally the players they have the combine, which obviously already happened, then they go back for a medical recheck. If there's any players that are flagged and so obviously travel restricted, you won't be able to get those medical rechecks. And do you trust, say a local doctor who you're not familiar

with to give you those medical rechecks. So I think there's a lot ongoing. It's fluid. Some of those players will probably be taken off the board. Character risk guys probably will be taken off a lot of the draft boards. Small school players that maybe a team would bring that player in for eight an official visit, so to speak. Out of the thirty visits that teams can get, that

is now scraps. So maybe you don't feel, as you know, is convinced about a small school prospect because you don't get to have a face to face with them and really get to know somebody. You still can, though, do video conferencing and all those type of things, but it's limited in terms of the information. You know, it's not as thorough as what it normally would be. Four teams.

So it's only right that a lot of GMS would like to push the NFL draft back, and most teams, as you just mentioned, Jeff granted the NFL and Roger Goodell shut down all facilities for two weeks. Is it shut down further? You know, will teams even be in their facilities come draft time? Those are all the challenges because how you're going to set up a war room.

You're not It's not going to be in Vegas this year, so it's probably going to be at the team facility or at a local hotel where you can you know, at least run out, say a conference room and make like a war room in a hotel, whether it's at the Hyatt Downtown or wherever the Bears choose to make that destination. So I think it is pretty difficult for teams right now, and maybe it's something that Commissioner Roger

Goodell will reevaluate. But it's still going to be broadcast, and there's still a lot going on and a lot of fluidity to it right now. It's what i'd say, lots of hurdles, all right, Jim time now, welcome in doctor Roberts Sitchenberg, director of infectious Health at Advocate Lutheran General and Park Ridge. Thanks for hanging on and the

good doctor. First of all, big thank you to you, every single doctor, nurse, volunteer, hospital, medical employee, you name it, on the front lines at Advocate and just at every hospital and medical medical facility throughout this nation. I imagine it's high stress level and long days and amazing sacrifice going on right now. Well, thank you if that's very kind, and we are all working hard. We have a motto, we go to work for you, you stay home for us.

That's what we're asking everyone to do. You know, I appreciate it to this top there, and I think any of us would. It would be ungrateful if we didn't tell everybody, every one of your co workers, every one of your supports, staff, how thankful we are. My question to you is because I was talking to Ben Bronicker and we were talking about the educated and then the un educated, and I consider myself the non educated, and sometimes you get so much information it creates anxiety and

it's scary. Is social media nowadays an asset or is it a liability in terms of trying to get the information out there. It's so overwhelming right now. I think if you're careful to only look at reputable sources for news. It's fine, but there's so much misinformation, myths, and downright dangerous information that's being sent out on social media. Really, I'm urging people only to get their news from really reliable,

reputable sources. There's a lot of home remedies and things that just don't work and that I think can be dangerous if taking the wrong way. Doc Jim Miller here, and then thanks for joining us, and appreciate all that you're doing. You and all your colleagues. Just get us currently up to date and where this virus is that. I know we talk about flattening the curve at least from the information that we've gotten about this isolation and what we're trying to do to stop the spread of

this virus. But any anything new, anything you can add to where currently this situation is that in this pandemic globally that we're dealing with. Yeah, Jim, that's a great question, little perspective. The first case or case reports were described in China on December thirty first, twenty nineteen. That wasn't even three months ago, and as of today there's almost there's over four hundred and sixty six thousand cases worldwide, over sixty five thousand cases in the US in less

than three months. This was on No one's radar three months ago, and that just tells you it's amazing how fast this virus has spread. We are definitely in full pandemic mode right now. We have seen cases at all the area hospital have ramped up a lot in the last week or so, last week or ten days, we're seeing a huge number of patients who are coming in with this disease. Some of them are not too sick, but some of them are very sick. So we're right

now or we can manage it with our capacity. What we're concerned about is what happens in another week or two weeks, if the cases double or triple. Can our healthcare system hold on? And that's a really big question right now that we don't have the answer to. Doctor Robert Sitchenberg, the director of infectious Disease at Advocate Lutheran General Parkridge, here on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy the

Score and just listening to Mirror Lightfoot this afternoon. Somewhat of a scolding out there for those who are not taking the shelter in place and all of this social distancing seriously and basically suggesting that you know, we will shut down more if you don't oblige. And it sounds simple to just stay at home, and it sounds a tad inconvenient understandable, But is that your biggest concern right now? Is that not everybody takes it seriously in the same vein, oh,

without a doubt. And it's really it is a simple concept, and if you know how the virus is transmitted, you can understand why you need to stay away. You basically need to be within six feet of someone who has the virus to catch it. And why six feet is the magic number is because if you had the virus, you cough, the droplets that come out of your mouth that contain the virus travel up to about six feet

and then they hit the ground. So really, with some rare exceptions, that's really the only way you can get it. You can, of course touch it and infect yourself from your face, but that's basically the main way. Somebody costs in your vicinity and you get it. So that's the purpose of social distancing. Make sure we stay at least six feet away from each other, And it is really important and it's funny because if you do it properly, if everyone does it, it works. It absolutely will work.

It doesn't give the virus a chance. But if not everybody does it, then it won't work. And I think that the mayor was correct to issue that scolding. Especially I'll tell you it seems like a lot of the people that are out in crowds are younger people, and they have this feeling that while they're young, they're not going to get sick from the coronavirus. Well, as it turns out, we now know that in this country right now, forty percent of the people hospitalized with COVID nineteen or

between the ages of twenty nine and fifty four. So it is not just a disease of old people. So anyone is susceptible. Certainly, if you're older, or compromised, or have a lot of chronic medical conditions, you're at higher risk.

But this affects everyone, and that we're trying to get that message out, especially to younger people, that this can affect you, and if it doesn't affect you, it might affect your parents, it might affect your grandparents, and so it's really really important for everyone to stay apart I'm sorry, doctor.

You know, we're kind of in a precurious position here because as the weather it gets nicer, more people are going to want to go outside, and even if they're practicing social distancing, as summer comes upon us, does that like threaten the health of the disease or does that is that out of factor at all in how it can continuously be spread. So it's a question that we don't know the answer to yet. So that's based on

we know that. So this coronavirus is part of a large family of coronaviruses, some of who just cause common colds. In general, that family of viruses is seasonal. They're winter time viruses. They tend to go away after the wintertime. We don't know yet about this virus how it's going to behave. We're hopeful that the change in seasons will help.

Right now, if you look at the world map of coronavirus, the vast majority of cases are in the northern hemisphere, So it seems like there may be some seasonality to it where it's winter time in the northern hemisphere. We just don't know. We're hopeful that the change in seasons will allow us will make it easier to contain the virus or to reduce it spread. We're going to be following that very closely, but we just don't know yet,

but that certainly would be a big help. But to your point, people are going to want to get outside more when the weather gets nice, and we have to be really careful even when the weather is nice to maintain social distance. Yeah, and as we practice this social distancing from the medical field and everything that's been advised. Let me ask you about this. Sounds like the testing has gone better, doctor, from what I read in the

information that I gather. But let's say you are at home, you're you're not feeling well, you know, you know, and you you feel you know this this could be creeping into your family or your personal health. I mean, what do you do? What advice would you give to get the testing that sounds so crucial in dealing with CORED nineteen. Well, the first thing is that the first thing you should do if you're having symptoms you think you might have

the needs to call your doctor. And you know, most of the healthcare systems have online portals where you can even video chat or you can video chat with your doctor, your provider. That way just to get some information. So we got off to a pretty late start with testing in this country and for a variety of reasons, but we just weren't ready, we being our government in public health,

and we weren't ready for this in testing. You know, in South Korea they tested ten thousand people a day from the very beginning, and we have not come anywhere near that. Now, finally we are doing more testing. We're reserving our testing right now though for people who are ill, who are hospitalized, for people who are first responders, because it's real important, we know, but for somebody who has mild illness at home. Most of people do not need

to get tested now. We're just but the most important thing is you've got to call your doctor and you have to stay home if you have an illness that sounds like it might be COVID nineteen Well, doc, let me follow up with this, because it's pretty amazing how resilient the medical field has in terms of the drive up testing and just how fluid and flexible the medical

field has been to adjust to a pandemic like this. Yeah, I know, over the years we've talked about Spanish fluid, German measles, and all that, but just the flexibility of the medical field and how quickly it was able to change gears and adjust to even have drive up testing and things that are available now. Yeah, it's pretty amazing, and it's honestly it's a testament to the hard working people who have put together we had at our hospital.

We've been working on this day and night for the last couple of months, and as have our hospitals and healthcare systems around the country. Nobody even knew what this was two months ago, and now you're right, we've got we've got all these testing stations. We've got not only that, but we've got new drugs that are that appear promising that we're using that we're not even on the radar two weeks ago. So it is it's amazing how much

our knowledge has expanded, even every single day. That's encouraging. Actually we're learning more and more about it, but it is pretty amazing how fast we've been able to get things going. Doctor Robert Citronberg, director of Infectious Disease at Advocate Lutheran General park Ridge, and again, special thanks to Advocate for everything that you're doing out there for all

of us, and if you doubt mayor lightfoot. As of this moment, Chicago police started the block off the Lakefront trail at North Avenue Beach, so she is not messing around, And I think that's the proper way to go about this. A word on football, word on sports, because this is the time of year when you know, we just had Ben Bronick around, Guys are trying to get creative, to stay in shape with an unknown start date and unknown when or if any of these sports from baseball to

basketball to hockey, if and when they do resume. What is your advice as a director of infectious disease to all athletes who are going to have to strike that balance of this is my career, this is where I'm making my money. I'm in the spotlight and these professional sports, and I know I have to follow the rules, But

what advice do you give them? And even for parents who sometimes can be a bit over zealous about pushing their own kids to continue to dedicate a big chunk of their time to get ready for their individual sports, even at the youth level, well that's first and foremost. You know a lot of these can't even get into their training facilities now, so their own training has been compromised.

But I think we're also going to rely on some of our professional athletes to be spokesman for especially younger generation, to who encourage them to stay at home. And I think they can have a very strong voice in the community to encourage people to just let them know just how important this is. Not just the mayor talking, it's not just the government talking. But it might be your favorite baseball player, favorite football players giving you the same message.

But it does have real consequences. You know, I'm a huge sports fan, and baseball season is you know, there is a real possibility there will be no baseball this year, and people have to understand that this shelter in place and social distancing, this is not going to end in two weeks. It might be eight weeks, ten weeks, twelve weeks, and then if you look at the calendar, or almost at April first. So if players can't let's say baseball players can't start working out till July first, they I

need another four or six weeks of training. Then you're into August, and are you going to have a baseball season just in August and September. So there's a real big question in my mind, well, whether there will be any baseball this year, especially because when activities start to resume to normal, they're going to start to resume in smaller groups, and the last thing that will resume are

the larger groups like stadium crowds. So I think there's a real possibility that not only will there will be no baseball, but that seems pretty likely that football training camps can be pushed back. The season maybe pushed back. It might even flow down to basketball and hockey. So I think we really have to be in this for the long term and really have to dig in. It's really hard to do, but it's so important, and the risk of re entering too soon is that this epidemic

could essentially explode and overwhelm our healthcare system. So that's why we have to be very cautious about re entering too soon. We're gonna end up aacrificing some of our sports this year, But in the long run, I just hope that we remember twenty twentieth the year that we didn't have a lot of sports, and if that's all we remembered for that's great. All right. We know you

have a lot to do. Your time is valuable and you have no idea how informative this was to our listeners and to us, So we really appreciate you taking the time. Maybe we can have you on again because we don't think this is going away too soon, and doctor really appreciate it. Thank you so much staying up for yourself and your family. Thanks to Advocate Healthcare too, doctor Robert Sitchenberg, director of Infectious Disease at Advocate Lutheran General,

and Park Ridge. A final segment coming up here on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy The Score. This segment of Bears All Access is brought to you by CDWD. People to get it learn more at CW dot com. Thanks as always the video ROSSEO. The producers on this show always have a very challenging job because we're all over the place. Jim's in Michigan, Tom's in a Chicago home, and I'm out in the suburbs. We've done this internationally,

Tom and Maui and they always get it right. So all the different producers at the Score, you guys do an unbelievable job and a lot of credit goes to you guys for making this thing happen. So appreciated. Guys. Just listening to the doctor Sitchenberg, I'm left more nervous I guess about what's ahead than not. Well, you know what, Jeff, if people are naive, then you should be scared. If

people can respect the medical field. And like jim said, how rallying these guys have been to get some of the most intelligent minds in the world together and try to formulate a plan and how to slow it down and then hopefully create a vaccine as the big picture. But my gosh, if how much more pleading does it have to be on every type of media that you have access to to ask people to do the sensible thing.

So if you are willing to do the sensible things, then you know, as much as you know there's concern for the doctors and all and the nurses and the whole support staff of every hospital in the world, there's a whole workforce out there that's putting themselves in jeopardy. So I think if you have to respect every every man and woman that's that's going to work every day trying to keep this thing supported. Yeah, and Jimmy hit it on the head when he said, you know, can't

you can't And this has been the theme. You cannot, you cannot, under any circumstance have them, have the hospital system be overwhelmed, because yeah, and then you know, that's what you you worry about, you know. And you know here in New York or i should say in New York City, a lot of the New Yorkers have dispersed. And let's be honest, that's a that's you know, an epicenter for it. And I know other areas of the country now are a little worried that maybe there's going

to be some more breakouts in other areas. And this is I mean, this is unprecedented. I mean, you're you're trying to put the you know, thread through it through the eye of the needle hole, you know, because it is a balancing net because there's certainly there's a lot of people out there that want to get back to work. They want normalcy and and to get it back to normal as soon as possible, and that's the balancing act. Everybody is working, from state governments to the federal government

and everybody involved. They understand, you know, how you know, how tight of a situation this is, and obviously are trying to take the precautionary route, and everybody is a little uneasy, and for the right reasons, and obviously want everybody to be healthy, but everybody wants to get back to normalcy is as soon as possible. But man, that is the fine line that they are running right now to make this happen. It sounds like some other parts of the world is starting to go a little bit better,

So trying to use tips from from over there. The Italian doctors that they've talked to seem to have come up with some great ideas. So we'll see where this goes. But how quickly the medical field has reacted to this as is doctor just talked about I mean three weeks ago, this was just thrown upon everybody, upon everybody, and man, how quickly they've adjusted. Couldn't be more proud and how they've reacted because they have been quick on their feet and quick to adapt and adjust. And I want to

give it shout out to Alan Robinson. Guys, he's got the We've talked to him about it, the Within Reach Foundation helping out Chicago Food Depository. He's teamed up with them and his aar within Reach at Greaterst. Chicago Food Depository and matching donations to the Greatest Chicago Food Depository up to twelve thousand dollars. So if you're gonna be willing to donate, do it today at givebox dot com backslash five one nine, three one two. And already Big

Charles Lenno helping out his teammate. He's in for seventy two hundred bucks, matching his jersey number at seventy two. So but again, Allen Robinson is very much a part of our community and has been since he got here, brought his foundation here to Chicago and helping to get food on the table for Chicago area high school kids and Chicago school kids as well. So I just wanted to give a shout out to a rob as he gets ready for his twenty twenty season. And you're you're

seeing it all over the place big time. Well that's what I was gonna say, jeffre we are you know. The doctor even mentioned that how valuable the time is for these athletes and these movie stars and the singers, and just that they have the millions of popularity of followers on social media that go out and give that message, give it the right way, Tell the generations that you're talking to how important it is to support these workforces

are trying to make this thing happen. So I've seen it by government officials asking the Kardashians to go out there and promote a positive message. And then you even hear a doctor that we had on doctor citroon that Citrinberg. I'm sorry that, you know, spread that message of positive

to make sure everybody gets it. Yeah, I'll tell you what, man, it just it makes me proud that and I know it's all businesses and how every American has really stepped up to do their part to help their their fellow neighbor, but just the sports world in general, from you know, organizations of teams, the players and how they've stepped up and donated to help their fellow man, woman, and child. It really is impressive when things have come to a

kind of a screeching halt. But yeah, everybody is doing their part helping their fellow neighbor to get through a really tough time. And I'm sure we'll be talking about this every week until it's until it's fixed, right, guys, I mean, this is gonna be a topic of the show, and it's it serves as a vehicle for people to to learn a few things and we certainly have. Um before we step away, just one real quick note about about what Ryan Pace has done here in the offseason

so far. You'll you'll look at it. I've cut a nineteen acquisitions unless my math's wrong here, which wouldn't be a surprise. Um, let's see. Let me do that again. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. About fourteen defensive players either resigned or brought in through free agency, and just seven on the offensive side. Again, these are all reported deals, they're not all official yet.

But what's that tell you come draft day? Maybe you're fat Well, you know, they signed an offensive liveman today, so maybe there's a little bit less concern in that second round. And you know, is that safety still out there in the draft that these guys have interested in because they've been successful out of before. Well, to supplement the roster as it's currently built, you got to get some good players. We know, not a lot of draft picks.

So I think they've shored up some of their needs in free agency that they needed to, and they got better, whether it's at quarterback or pass rusher by Ed and Robert Quinn. I do think they're stronger in those two areas that they addressed. All right, boys, stay healthy and stay on top of things. Good to have you guys alongside again. We'll talk to you next week. Jim Miller, I'm serious x MNFL Radio, former Bears quarterback and Tom

Dammer broadcast partner. Thanks again to Ben Bronnicker, the Bears veteran tight end, and doctor Robert Hitchenberg, director of infectious disease advocate, Lutheran General in Park Ridge. I'm Jeff Jonny Ac. You have yourself a great even everybody will talk to you next week. You're on Bears All Access on Chicago Sports Radio six seventy The Score agone. Thanks for listening to this Chicago Bears Network presentation of Bears All Access. Podcasts are available on Chicago Bears dot com and on

iTunes or download the official Bears mobile app. Bears All Access has been brought to you by IGS Energy and sponsored by Miller Litte