“Yeah, that’s discussed,” Clippers star Kawhi Leonard said. “If you do get it, will it affect you to be able to play again? Everyone knows it hits everybody’s body different. But I don’t know. I’m not a doctor. I can’t really say what’s going to happen to players.”
. . . How exactly the coronavirus endangers the heart is not yet known, [Dr. Jonathan Kim, the chief of sports cardiology at Emory University] said. Return-to-play recommendations published in May by the American College of Cardiology’s sports and exercise cardiology council cited research showing that acute cardiac injury had been found in 22% of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 . . .
. . . In the lungs, “the best available data suggests that it’s probably no more than 5% of individuals with COVID will go on to develop scarring or a fibrotic condition,” said James Hull, a sports respiratory specialist in London who has worked with the Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health. “But I’m talking about people who’ve been hospitalized. The signal of people getting long-term fibrotic lung manifestations, and who have not been hospitalized, is going to be very, very low.”
As indicated by Kawhi Leonard, NBA players have looked into this subject intensely. I have to wonder, in some ways are NBA players like essential workers. Here's what I mean: essential workers are often low paid workers and have to take certain risks in order to keep up with every day expenses. Many of us who follow sports and personal finance know that athletes go into bankruptcy soon after their careers end as can been seen via this link. So even with the potential risks, are our sports stars forced to play games even with this risk hanging over them?
The one thing I found interesting is that James Hull believes that "no more than 5% of individuals with COVID will go on to develop scarring or a fibrotic condition" in the lung. That is a very low number; however, that seems contrary to a study that I discussed on Jul 7. In that I quoted from Vox:
A third study from China suggests this is not just for critically ill patients; its authors found that of 58 asymptomatic patients, 95 percent also had evidence of these ground-glass opacities in their lungs. More than a quarter of these individuals went on to develop symptoms within a few days.
That study seems to suggest a much higher rate of lung damage for even those who didn't end up in the hospital. In a Jul 21 blog post, I looked into two studies that implied 10% in one and 50% in the other.
So my posts from July 7th and July 21st indicate that there are much higher risks to the lungs than just 5%.
Based on what is happening in terms of COVID-19 outbreaks in various sports teams, we'll soon get additional research studies on the impact of the virus on extremely healthy individuals.
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