The Shadow Over College Athletics

in May. That's according to a new report from the American Healthcare Association and the National Center for Assisted Living. The report shows that nursing home cases are up dramatically in the very same places where virus levels have spiked in the general population. Seventy eight percent of new nursing home cases in July were in Sun belt states, where the virus is spreading rapidly. Hong Kong's government extended all

existing social distancing measures for another week. The measures include an evening dine in ban at restaurants, a two person public gathering limit, and mask requirements. A government spokesman said that the COVID situation was severe and allowed no room to let up on distancing rules. He also said the country should get prepared for a possible winter search or a fourth wave coinciding with the usual flu season. Finally,

many people are still opting not to fly. Ryanair Holdings, Europe's largest discount airline, said it would cut its flight capacity by in September and October because so few people have booked flights. The company blames continuing uncertainty over recent COVID case rates in some countries for the weekend bookings

and now for today's main story. As some college athletes prepare to get on the field this fall, a dangerous possible side effect of COVID nineteen as many people worried about a dozen student athletes have experienced heart inflammation after being diagnosed with the disease. The n c a a's chief medical officer discussed the cases of myocarditis, a heart condition that can cause sudden death in young athletes, at

a briefing last week. His remarks came two days after the Big Ten and Pack twelve announced they would postpone fall sports. I talked to Angelica Levito who reports that the new complication is casting a shadow over college athletics and creating questions about what the disease does to young people as some university sports get going for the fall seasons.

How have college athletes been affected by COVID nineteen. We have already seen a number of college athletes catch COVID nineteen, whether that it was at sports camps or just throughout the summer. And of those people who have caught COVID nineteen, about a dozen student athletes have developed a heart condition called myocarditis. And this heart inflammation basically makes it more difficult for someone's heart to pump blood and in some

cases can cause an arrhythmia, which can be deadly. And that's problematic because when you're an athlete, you're really working your heart and that can cause pretty much the ideal conditions for arrhythmia. That is causing some concern among schools. Who are, you know, worried about what we know and what we don't know about COVID nineteen. Why are we seeing this myocarditis or hard inflammation more in athletes than

in other COVID nineteen patients. I'm really glad you asked that and the doctors I talked to you said that we need to be careful not to create this association between athletes and myocroditis. We're probably hearing about it and more in athletes because they are being screened for these hard issues because they want to be really really careful to not work out. If you are diagnosed with myocarditis, you're not supposed to exercise for three to six months.

So that's why schools leagues are making every effort to try and screen people, and some people might not ever know they have myocroditis um. Some people might not report any symptom um. Therefore, it makes it really difficult for us to understand how many people actually have it versus how many athletes have it. So there's a potential that this is a more common side effect or complication of COVID nineteen, and we're just seeing it pop up more

in athletes than has been necessarily found in others. That's correct. So we do know that viruses like influenza cause myocarditis in some patients. Again, it's incredibly rare, but we really don't know the full scope because there are so many patients that might never know they have it, And so what are these universities and colleges and sports teams doing now that it has been shown to be affecting their athletes.

That's a good question. And you did see the Big Ten and the Pact twelve decided to postpone their fall seasons altogether because of the unknowns about the possible long term health effects of COVID nineteen. Inter terms of other colleges, I'm not sure what their protocols are, but we are seeing in in some of the pro sports, for example, leagues are including um a heart assessment as part of the return to play protocol. And let's talk more broadly

in terms of implications for college athletes. You mentioned that there's quite a long downtime that people should not exercise for months if they are found to have myocarditis. I mean, what are some of the implications for those who are involved in college sports right now? What what perhaps is their future? Well, it depends because not everyone who develops COVID nineteen develops myocard itis. Again, doctors say that it's

probably pretty rare. However, you can imagine that if you're an athlete and you develop this hard inflammation and you're forced to sit out for three to six months, it could end your season. For example, of the Boston Red Sox, their star pitcher Edward Rodriguez has to sit out the rest of the season because he had this condition. So

if you're an athlete, it can be problematic. So is mile cardi does something that we have to worry about predominantly with those of college age or even professional athletes, or is this something that can affect anyone at any age. So I spoke to a number of pediatric cardiologists and they both told me that so far, what they've seen suggests that this is incredibly rare among children. It's already

rare among adults, but even more so among children. One doctor I spoke to even said he has kids who are in elementary school and he will be sending them back to competitive sports. And so, so far, what we know is that even though this could be a risk for older people, whether you're a college student, maybe even a high school student, or a professional athlete, there is of course a risk, but it does appear that for kids there's even less of an already pretty small chance

of getting this. So overall, all, how common is myocardis? How often are we seeing this in COVID nineteen patients or just generally. So it's really too early to say how many patients who contract COVID nineteen developed this heart inflammation. There was a German study that created a lot of noise and really brought this into focus. It was a small study and it only included about a hundred patients, and of those patients, sixty displayed the heart inflammation, which

raised a lot of alarms. However, it also has had sort of some controversy because the median age of the people analyzed was forty nine and it's harder to compare young athletes versus older people, so that makes it a little bit of a doctors call it non apples to apples comparison. Whoever, doctors I talked to you said, even if it's not a perfect comparison, they should also still be mindful that there is still a risk. And what has physicians said about how myocardis is a new or

emerging side effect of COVID nineteen. This is such a new virus, and every doctor I spoke to when reporting this story said the same thing. There's so much we

don't know. We've learned a lot in the past eight months or so, but they're still just a lot that we really aren't sure about and we just need to learn more, and that athletes should understand that we don't know everything, and so when they're making decisions on whether to play or whether to sit out, they need to really be aware that there's a lot we don't know yet. That was Angelica Levito, and that's it for our show today.

For coverage of the outbreak from one twenty bureaus around the world, visit Bloomberg dot com slash Coronavirus and if you like the show, please leave us a review and a rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It's the best way to help more listeners find our global reporting. The Prognosis Daily edition is produced by Topher Foreheads, Jordan Gaspore, Magnus Hendrickson, and me Loraa Carlson. Today's main story was reported by Angelica Levito. Original music by Leo Sedrin. Our

editors are Rick Shine and Francesca Levi. Francesca Levi is Bloomberg's head of Podcasts. Thanks for listening.