NFL doing away with Covid tests for vaccinated players who are not showing symptoms

[Hapless Bills Fan]

2 minutes ago, YoloinOhio said:

The nfl believes the variant is less symptomatic but more infectious. They are not trying to stop the spread because they can’t.

 

They could, actually, but they've made a calculated decision that they're chosing not to.

 

There's some math around the number of serious cases you get from a virus that is more contagious but has lower incidence of severe disease

 

[The Red King]

Two thoughts, this is all about pressuring the non-vaxed, and preventing cancelling/postponing games at this point in the season.

 

Could you imagine the rampage that would happen if Allen was somehow pulled from the upcoming big Bills/Pats divisional game?  Rodgers from a NFC Championship game against TB?  Mahomes in a playoff game?  NFL nightmare scenario.

 

Not arguing any side of the vax arguments, as it's not the issue.  Safety isn't, either.  This is all about keeping the season flowing.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

46 minutes ago, The Red King said:

Two thoughts, this is all about pressuring the non-vaxed, and preventing cancelling/postponing games at this point in the season.

 

Could you imagine the rampage that would happen if Allen was somehow pulled from the upcoming big Bills/Pats divisional game?  Rodgers from a NFC Championship game against TB?  Mahomes in a playoff game?  NFL nightmare scenario.

 

Not arguing any side of the vax arguments, as it's not the issue.  Safety isn't, either.  This is all about keeping the season flowing.

 

I don't think unvaccinated players are being more pressured than they already are.  Maybe I'm missing something.

 

It's definitely about putting a product on the field, albeit players with symptoms will still be tested and potentially removed.   But players are now, practically speaking, incentivized to conceal their symptoms.

 

Florio take:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/dr-allen-sills-e2-80-9czero-indication-e2-80-9d-that-covid-transmits-in-practices-or-games/ar-AARZGXr

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The NFL and the NFL Players Association have thrown in the towel on their 2021 COVID protocol, once principle got in the way of the practicalities of profit and paycheck. With, as one source with knowledge of the negotiations put it, the pandemic now becoming endemic, the time had come to quit worrying about the possibility of vaccinated, asymptomatic players being positive for the virus.

 

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“Maybe it will turn out that vaccinated players with Omicron will transmit the virus in practice or in games,” an unnamed executive told King. “If so, the NFL’s got to change, fast. But so far, there’s zero indication the virus is transmitted on the field. And the vast majority of players aren’t sick at all.”

 

That’s an important point. The league will be monitoring the spread of the current variant and the inevitable evolution of the virus for signs that it’s getting worse. The fact that players, coaches, and staff who are vaccinated will either have no symptoms or will conceal the symptoms they have make it more inevitable that the virus will indeed continue to spread.

 

[mannc]

Under these new protocols, would Dawkins have been able to play vs. Carolina?  Does it mean he's available for NE, unless symptomatic?

[Hapless Bills Fan]

1 hour ago, BuffaloRebound said:

Or they are saying the unvaccinated are now on their own.  If they wanna opt out, they can.  But they don’t get paid and have until today or tomorrow to do so.  

 

I could be wrong, but I think they're only allowing at-risk players to "opt out".  Not sure the details of how "at risk" is defined

 

[Saxum]

1 hour ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

IMHO they should be testing everyone, every day.  I think that was a key part of what made it work last season.

 

IMHO they should with NFL paying for employees and NFLPA paying for players - they are partners* right?

 

* Partners like a ex-wife who cheated on you and is now living with boyfriend and not getting married so she can keep getting illimony. 

[Hapless Bills Fan]

Peter King FMIA column

 

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2021/12/20/nfl-omicron-playoffs-week-15-fmia-peter-king/

 

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Think of the wildfire-like spread of the virus this way. In a 99-day stretch beginning Sept. 3, Rams players had zero positive Covid tests; in the week starting Dec. 11, they had 32 players test positive. Washington had one positive test in the four months between Aug. 2 and Dec. 7. Since then, WFT has 25 positives. In December, the Browns have 26 positives. (All numbers per veteran NFL writer Howard Balzer of All Cardinals.)

 

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Twenty days ago, the United States experienced the first case of Omicron. A week ago, NFL cognoscenti, just beginning to see the Covid testing rate increasing, were still adamant no games would be moved or postponed. Four days after that, three games were moved, culminating a week in which 160 positive tests happened.

“I don’t think we could have foreseen the magnitude of that increase and how rapidly Omicron would really take over and essentially change the entire game plan,” the NFL’s medical director, Allen Sills, told me Saturday night. “There was some anticipation, but it’s a bit like preparing for a hurricane. You take all the preparations you think you can and then you wait, and then you see how it actually is … Out of the first batch that we’ve been able to test, almost all of the positives were Omicron.”

 

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The league and players agreed to do something counterintuitive this week. They’re going to stop regular testing of players, and begin a “targeted” testing program, focused on players and staff who exhibit symptoms or self-report them. At first glance—and second, too—it seems the league doesn’t want to catch people who test positive for Omicron, which purportedly has been milder in nature than other variants. One club executive, defending the league’s move to cut down regular testing, said if testing was done this week, with the wildfire-type growth of the variant across the country, “250 players would test positive and would be out.”
 

“If they are positive,” I asked the executive, “shouldn’t they be out?”

 

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“Maybe it will turn out that vaccinated players with Omicron will transmit the virus in practice or in games,” the exec said. “If so, the NFL’s got to change, fast. But so far, there’s zero indication the virus is transmitted on the field. And the vast majority of players aren’t sick at all. I still think players who aren’t feeling well will self-report. They don’t want to get their teammates sick.”

 

Of course, not testing regularly guarantees that knowledge of whether or not Omicron is being transmitted in practice or in games will be limited; unless the players self-report symptoms and get tested, we won't know whether or not they're sick.  And I'm not quite sure why that exec is so sanguine that a competitive guy who wants to be out there for his team is going to self-report symptoms, especially if they're the sort of symptoms that could be caused by an allergy or "just something I ate".

 

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But there’s so much we don’t know yet about the Omicron variant. If the transmissibility goes wild and sickens people worse than it appears this variant will, the NFL will look like a greedy business that put jamming through the schedule over potential impact on public health. Now that the lack of testing is a done deal, the NFL has to be sure it pivots the moment Omicron gets more dire than it appears now.

 

That's basically where we are.  We have beliefs that Omicron is milder, but not a lot of data from our own populations as yet.   If they're right, they may keep the games on schedule at little cost to player, coach, and safety health and safety.  If they're wrong, see above.

[T master]

3 hours ago, YoloinOhio said:

The goal of the nfl is to not reschedule games. The goal of the union is to ensure players do not lose game checks which is what happens to both teams in the case of a forfeit. The nfl research believes the omicron variant is leading to positive tests but they do not believe it to be as severe in its symptoms and therefore is not as concerned about spread as it is player availability. Plus the vaccine does reduce the symptoms as well as the ability to contract it. Therefore reducing testing to only those with symptoms and no vaccine in addition to enhanced protocols to try to curb spread in general is the approach. 

 

So then your basically saying it's all about the Money ...

[Da webster guy]

The fact that the league allows both sides of the field to go hug each other unmasked and shake hands says all you need to need to know.  Looks to be about 250+ people on the field after every game.

 

There isn't a whole lot of logic involved, they're just trying to keep the season going and the stadiums full with the appearance they're not being negligent.  I dont blame them, just dont look for any logic at this point.