Pompous Elitist
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You responded to my post with the silly "there are risks everywhere" angle. Since football players risk their bodies playing the game....why shouldn't they risk something like covid. It's a horribly flawed argument.
Furthermore....the long term effects of covid are not yet known. Myocarditis is one of those things that could go undetected in acute cases. So downplaying the potential harm because you haven't heard about hundreds of cases after a few months basically confirms that you had a predisposition against caution in the first place. Which is surprising since, if I remember correctly, you've been pretty middle of the road on the whole covid situation.
So there could be hundreds of cases of athletes with acute signs of myocarditis that go undiagnosed. May not have an immediate impact....but certainly could later on.
Beyond its scientific backing, the notion that a COVID-19 patient might wind up with long-term lung scarring or breathing issues has the ring of truth. After all, we hear the stories, right? The virus can leave survivors explaining how they struggled to breathe, or how it can feel, in the words of actress Alyssa Milano, “like an elephant is sitting on my chest.”
We’ve also known for a while that some COVID-19 patients’ hearts are taking a beating, too—but over the past few weeks, the evidence has strengthened that cardiac damage can happen even among people who have never displayed symptoms of coronavirus infection. And these frightening findings help explain why college and professional sports leagues are proceeding with special caution as they make decisions about whether or not to play.
From an offensive lineman at Indiana University dealing with possible heart issues to a University of Houston player opting out of the season because of “complications with my heart,” the news has been coming fast and furiously. More than a dozen athletes at Power Five conference schools have been identified as having myocardial injury following coronavirus infection, according to ESPN.
Though it often resolves without incident, myocarditis can lead to severe complications such as abnormal heart rhythms, chronic heart failure and even sudden death. Just a few weeks ago, a former Florida State basketball player, Michael Ojo, died of suspected heart complications just after recovering from a bout of COVID-19 in Serbia, where he was playing pro ball.
Here’s the background: Myocarditis appears to result from the direct infection of the virus attacking the heart, or possibly as a consequence of the inflammation triggered by the body’s overly aggressive immune response. And it is not age-specific: In The Lancet, doctors recently reported on an 11-year-old child with multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C)—a rare illness—who died of myocarditis and heart failure. At autopsy, pathologists were able to identify coronavirus particles present in the child’s cardiac tissue, helping to explain the virus’ direct involvement in her death. In fact, researchers are reporting the presence of viral protein in the actual heart muscle, of six deceased patients. Of note is the fact that these patients were documented to have died of lung failure, having had neither clinical signs of heart involvement, nor a prior history of cardiac disease.
COVID-19 Can Wreck Your Heart, Even if You Haven't Had Any Symptoms
A growing body of research is raising concerns about the cardiac consequences of the coronaviruswww.scientificamerican.com
The guys go through a very through workup, far more than the average schmuck out there with a benign mild infection without lasting symptoms. These things are scrutinized very closely by experts in the field. Myocarditis is not new and there isn’t any strong evidence this is worse than that caused by other viral infections.
The (old) article is mostly irresponsible alarmism and fearmongering. There were at least two threads detailing why back in the summer. I‘m not going to rehash why here. The Big Ten decided on a very conservative return to play protocol which is probably overkill and even harmful to some of the kids but it will satiate the highly anxious set and the lawyers.