Doctors: Uncertain hazards at UA games

Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium is shown from the newly-renovated north end zone on Monday, Aug. 27, 2018, in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE — A trio of Little Rock-based pulmonologists who have been working on the front lines during the coronavirus pandemic have mixed feelings about the potential for large gatherings at football games this fall and whether or not they would personally attend games.

“Full capacity I would worry about,” Dr. Clifton Johnson of Pulmonary Associates said. “I think we’ll have to figure it out as sports start and how people do. I certainly worry about people packed in the stands yelling and screaming, even with the masks on, because the problem is always can you ensure 100% compliance. And you can’t. That’s the problem.”

Dr. Jason Holder — who also is a pulmonologist who specializes in lung conditions and diseases of the chest, as well as a critical care physician — said he envisions the fall playing out in one of two scenarios.

“Let’s just assume that we do have classes and we’re going to think about having football games,” Holder said. “I think what you might see — particularly earlier on in the season, when we hope that the prevalence of the coronavirus is low — that we might actually be able to have games with fans present in the stadium.

“But it would seem likely that there’s going to be some decision to reduce capacities of the crowds, so that there could be some effort at social distancing and wearing masks. That being said, this is an emotional sport and fans go to the games to be with other fans and cheer on their teams. It seems like it might be difficult to really enforce those sorts of precautions.

“So while we might start out with some fans in the seats, what happens later as the weather changes and it cools off and the anticipated spike in cases happens? There may be a necessity for games to be played without fans present. I don’t know the answer to that.”

A third pulmonologist, who preferred anonymity so as not to be seen as advocating one way or the other, said, “I think there’s a lot of uncertainty about one, what’s safe; two, who’s at risk; and three, if you were to get it, even how to treat it.

“As we’ve gone through this, from several weeks ago to right now, their opinion on how to treat it has been altered drastically, and there’s been strong opinions one day and the following day people back off of that. So I just think it’s uncertain.”

The University of Arkansas is hoping to play football this season and planning as if the Sept. 5 season opener against Nevada will take place as scheduled.

UA Athletic Director Hunter Yurachek said last week that the school’s athletic department was making plans for 76,000-seat Reynolds Razorback Stadium to be at full capacity but also putting together scenarios for varying levels of capacity.

The UA has taken its cues during the coronavirus crisis from health professionals at the national, state, conference and university levels. Those health agencies have not issued concrete guidance pertaining to crowd sizes for football venues in 2020.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said recently that every college and sport is situational when it comes to coronavirus issues, and whether fans should attend games depends on many factors.

“Wyoming is obviously very different from New Orleans, which is very different from Utah and is very different from Chicago,” Fauci told The Chronicle of Higher Education on May 23. “If there’s very, very little infection in a community, you might have spectators. I don’t think you can have people sitting right next to each other with every seat occupied.”

The Arkansas-based pulmonologists echoed that thought.

“I think about the games I’ve gone to, and you know how fans are, they can get pretty rabid,” said Johnson, a UA and University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences graduate who worked at Emory University in Atlanta and at Alabama-Birmingham before returning to the state in 1996. “The 6-foot issue works for regular discussions, regular talking. Once you start yelling, singing, anything that aerosolizes this thing any more — puts more pressure behind it — it increases that distance. So think of fans yelling, that behavior. So 6 feet in reality is not enough.”

Holder, a member of the Hog Wild Band for Arkansas’ 1994 national championship in men’s basketball, describes himself as a “lifelong Razorback fan” who “bleeds Razorback red and wants the best for the Razorbacks always.”

He didn’t want to say whether there should or shouldn’t be games this summer and fall.

“I think there’s just too much uncertainty and too many unknowns for anyone to say with a great deal of certainty whether or not that should happen,” Holder said. “There’s a lot of time between now and then, and we’re going to have to see how this really plays out.

“We hope that there is a slow burn of this virus through the summer and that the cases will fall, which will allow something such as sporting events to happen later on.”

If football is allowed to be played, Holder mused, how can the safety of players, staff and officials be ensured?

“From what I’ve read from others who are the authorities in the field, such as Dr. Fauci, they had suggested testing every player before every game,” he said. “I think that’s probably a reasonable thing to do. If you’re positive then you’re going to have to sit out.

“I think that’s probably the safest way to go about it, to have enough testing available to ensure that those who are at risk will be protected.”

The anonymous pulmonologist in Little Rock, who self-quarantined early in the crisis to eliminate the risk of infecting family members, said he would probably attend a football game while wearing a mask if the curve flattens properly.

“I would go, probably, but I’m young and I don’t have any health problems,” he said. “Yeah, I would probably go, but I don’t know if that’s the socially responsible answer. I’m a die-hard Razorback fan and emotion probably plays into that, you know?

“I mean, how do you say, ‘No, I’m not going to Notre Dame? I know I’m not going to get sick, but someone else may get sick or I might get someone else sick.’ I don’t know if that’s the right answer. I don’t know.”

Th e R a zo r ba c k s a re scheduled to face Notre Dame for the first time this season on Sept. 12.

Holder said he attends about one Arkansas football game per year.

“I’m going to say I would not be concerned necessarily for my personal health going to a game,” he said. “However, I do have family members in my household with chronic respiratory illnesses that would be at risk of me giving the virus to them.

“Also, I would feel potentially compelled to quarantine myself for two weeks after going to a game if I were to find out that anybody there has the virus. I simply can’t be away from work for two weeks. So, for those reasons, I do not anticipate going to the games myself.”

Johnson said he considers himself a sports fan whose last live sporting event came at a Dallas Cowboys game a couple of years ago.

“I think having a distance would be my biggest issue,” he said. “Certainly I wouldn’t want somebody beside me. I don’t know how much space there is behind. But I worry about 6 feet possibly not being enough. Yes, it is an outdoor stadium and that helps some, but it’s a worry to me.”

Johnson said fomites, which are objects that can transfer infectious agents from one person to another, are a real concern.

“We forget about the fomites, the hands, the eyes and everything,” he said. “So if somebody touches something … [and] I don’t know how they’re going to handle concessions or how they’ll handle restrooms.

“What are they going to do about people walking up and down using the handrails? Those are issues that I don’t know what their plan is for that. But those are my concerns. The question to me would be do I plan to go to a game? I don’t. I just think the risk is too high. Not that the risk is sky high, but the risk is high enough for me to say that is not something I want to do.”

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Holder said testing should be improved in the coming weeks, which might make conditions even safer for players, coaches and game officials.

“I think as the next several months go by there should be an evolution of rapid tests,” he said. “I think by the time the season starts we should have the availability of very rapid testing that could be turned around in less than an hour.”

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