How Inoculation Can Save Sports From COVID-19

Controversial Process Saved Washington’s Army And It Can Do The Same Here

By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com Sports Blogger

Five months into the coronavirus pandemic, sports are finally getting back to the playing fields, courts, race tracks and golf courses.

But everyone involved is acting as cautiously as if they are skating on very thin ice. They are afraid that the tiniest misstep will cause everyone to go plunging into the deep end and that a big breakout of the virus is just around the hot corner.

It doesn’t have to be that way, for there is a simple, tho controversial, solution. This is the story of how inoculation can save sports from COVID-19.

Inoculation is the process of intentionally exposing healthy people to a disease – ideally mild doses of it – so that the human immune system can build up a tolerance to it and thus be able to fight off the illness now and in the future.

The problem is that more people will get sick and some who are weak or have some type of bad reaction to the virus can die. And anyone dying is bad. I’m not saying otherwise.

But it’s the only realistic solution if we want to have sports in 2020. By inoculating players, coaches and staff members, we are giving protection to those in the games. Otherwise, we’re going to keep having positive cases of one, two, or a dozen or so people, which causes them to have to isolate or worse yet, change plans of the organization or even and entire league. This starting and stopping possibility is like a car that stalls in the pit lane of an auto race.

The fact of the matter is that some people are gong to test positive. We’ve seen that in NFL, Major League Baseball, NASCAR, on the PGA Tour and some college athletic departments, and we’re likely to see more as teams take the field or court. By exposing everybody to it, then we can avoid this start-and-stop, oh-wait-what-do-we-do scenario we are in now.

This, of course, should be a voluntary measure. If someone does not want to get an inoculation then they should not be forced to do so, tho they must be removed from those who do take it.

It has been proven to be effective in the past. In fact, inoculations saved Washington’s army in the Revolutionary War. With his soldiers ravaged by smallpox Washington – who knew from first-hand experience the damage it can do since he had a “mild” case of it as a teenager – ordered inoculations to be performed several times.

It basically saved his army and played a major role in defeating the British.

You can read more about this if you are interested in this History.com article.

Yes, there are dangers and concerns to be considered. But those in sports are low-risk people for having serious cases of coronavirus. Look how quickly Ezekiel Elliott, Jimmy Johnson (he was back racing within a week) and even Sean Peyton recovered after testing positive.

Until a vaccine is developed – and a promising one is expanding testing and might be available by the first of 2021 – then inoculations can indeed save sports for the rest of this year.

Of course, what person or persons in a position of authority is going to be bold enough to suggest and implement it? Probably nobody but it should be on the discussion table.