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Top US doctor says summer sport can only happen behind closed doors

If sport does resume in the summer, it can only do so behind closed doors - that's according to ...



Top US doctor says summer spor...
Other Sports

Top US doctor says summer sport can only happen behind closed doors

If sport does resume in the summer, it can only do so behind closed doors - that's according to Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Dr. Fauci is the director of the United States' National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

In an interview with Snapchat's Peter Hamby, Dr. Fauci was asked about the prospect of sport returning during the summer months.

All sport in the States, and almost worldwide, is on hiatus as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Tentative return dates have been put in place in various countries, with the GAA saying no play will be possible in Ireland until July at the earliest.

However, global sports like football and major US sports like baseball and basketball have been unable to pin down possible return dates.

"There's a way of doing that", Dr. Fauci told Hamby.

"Nobody comes to the stadium. Put [the players] in big hotels, wherever you want to play, keep them very well surveilled.

"Have them tested every single week and make sure they don't wind up infecting each other or their family, and just let them play the season out."

Dr. Fauci can be seen flanking Donald Trump on a near nightly basis as the US President updates and berates the press on the latest attempts to curb the virus in the States.

He's served under six different presidents, starting with Ronald Reagan, and told CNN last week that he faced "a lot of pushback" early in the US outbreak.

The latest figures show that over 26,000 people in America have lost their lives as a result of COVID-19, while in New York 1 out of every 622 people have died.

Major League Baseball have been discussing plans to resume at a central location with no fans present.

"People say you can't play without spectators", Dr. Fauci told Hamby, "well I think you'd probably get enough buy-in from people who are dying to see a baseball game."

On Tuesday's OTB AM, immunologist and Professor of Biochemistry at Trinity College Dublin Luke O'Neill said that antibody testing - however far down the line that may be - could prove vital in how and when sport can resume.

However, Dr. Fauci warns, "First of all the antibody tests that are out there - disturbingly - most of them have nott been validated by the FDA or the NIH, so we're not sure if they're really accurate.

"But let's say they were - the thing we don't know yet is what is the relationship between the level of antibody and the degree of your protection?

"So you may be positive for an antibody, but not enough to protect you, and then have that person put their guard down and wind up getting infected."

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Baseball Coronavirus Covid-19 Donald Trump Dr Anthony Fauci Football GAA MLB