Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
How Did The NFL Prevent The Spread Of Covid? The CDC Wants To Know
The Washington Post: NFL Teams With CDC On A Paper Explaining What It Learned About Containing The Coronavirus
Medical leaders of the NFL and the NFL Players Association teamed with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to release a jointly written scientific paper detailing the lessons from the league’s coronavirus protocols and operations during its nearly completed season that could be applied beyond football. The release of the paper comes after the league completed its 256-game regular season in the standard 17 weeks while operating with daily coronavirus testing of players, coaches and team staff members and strict and ever-tightening protocols. (Maske, 1/25)
CIDRAP: NFL COVID-19 Tracking Yields Lessons For Fine-Tuning Control Measures
As part of the NFL's COVID-19 measures established last July, players and staff wore masks, physically distanced, were frequently tested, and wore proximity devices to assist with contact tracing. Through the end of November, 329 (2.9%) cases were found among about 11,400 players and staff. Through early September, fewer than 10 cases were found per week, but during the last week of September and into October, there were 41 cases, 21 from inter-team transmission linked to a single club, which led to temporary closure of the facility. The increase mirrored the national increase in cases. (1/25)
In other sports and recreation news —
The Wall Street Journal: Budweiser Skips Super Bowl Ad, Promises Vaccine Education Instead
Anheuser-Busch said it won’t devote a Super Bowl commercial to its flagship Budweiser beer brand this year for the first time since 1983, pledging to redirect spending for the airtime to marketing campaigns related to Covid-19 vaccinations instead. Budweiser said it is committing $1 million of ad inventory to vaccine awareness and education work by the Ad Council, a nonprofit that helps make public service campaigns, and to COVID Collaborative, a coalition of experts and institutions in public health and other areas. It will also produce multimillion-dollar vaccine awareness efforts throughout the year, executives said. (Ives, 1/25)
The Washington Post: Arizona Officials Ask MLB To Delay Spring Training Due To Coronavirus Concerns
Government officials from eight Cactus League cities sent a letter to Major League Baseball late last week asking MLB to delay spring training from its scheduled mid-February start because of the high rate of coronavirus infections in Arizona’s Maricopa County. While the municipalities lack the authority to force a delay, the letter underscored the fraught public-health and policy issues MLB faces as it seeks to launch its 2021 season.“[In] view of the current state of the pandemic in Maricopa County — with one of the nation’s highest infection rates — we believe it is wise to delay the start of spring training to allow for the COVID-19 situation to improve here,” said the letter, the existence of which was first reported Monday by Phoenix television station KPNX. (Sheinin, 1/25)
The Washington Post: Will Cruises Require Vaccines? One Line Just Set A Standard
One small cruise line in the United Kingdom has announced it will sail with only vaccinated passengers. Saga Cruises, a two-ship operator for passengers 50 and older, said last week that it was delaying the restart of cruises to give passengers time to get fully vaccinated. That means they would have to get both doses and wait at least 14 days before departing. (Sampson, 1/25)
