What COVID-19 Is Doing to NY Athlete’s Bodies

When the Brooklyn Nets announced that 4 of their players tested positive for COVID-19, the coronavirus, it was more evidence as to 1) Just how quickly this disease spreads, but 2) Just how little testing was made available in this time of a health crisis. And when Kevin Durant announced, after showing no symptoms synonymous with the disease, that he was one of those 4, it only will inevitably delay the restart to the 2020 season. By how long? I’m not sure. But I feel like it’ll be closer to May before we see the NBA start up again.

So, let’s take a look at what the research is telling us is doing to these Nets players, as well as those two confirmed Yankee minor leaguers.

This Is NOT Like the Flu

A terrible misinformation campaign surrounded initial reporting of the coronavirus in this country. Without getting overtly political, many were pontificating that the coronavirus (which originated in China) was a political left wing conspiracy to bring down the president. But one that persists today is that the “coronavirus is just a respiratory flu, and that more people die from the flu than the coronavirus.”

According to emerging research, both statements are wrong.

According to National Geographic and backed up by The Atlantic is that COVID-19 has much more in common with SARS than it does with the flu. And that COVID-19 is 23 times more lethal than the common flu.

What COVID-19 is inevitably doing to our New York athletes is puncturing holes in their lungs. While they won’t experience the same collapsed lung that Aaron Judge experienced, it does explain reporting out of China that patients are recovering with 20-30% less lung capacity. And it also explains the scar tissue being discovered in American patients.

Now, unlike normal respiratory infections (which infect either the upper or lower airways) is that this disease, which originated from SARS-CoV-2, infects both upper and lower airways in individuals.

Again, I’m frustrated with just how much of normalcy was taken away from us in response to this pandemic. But medical professionals are just that, professionals. They’re paid to research and understand diseases because they know more about it than the rest of us. Just like athletes who excel at a particular sport are paid to play the game. Trust me, you do NOT want to see me in right field for the Yankees, as I’m a fraction of the player Aaron Judge is, when healthy. The fact that this new information is coming out shows a scary new twist to what was commonly thought about COVID-19 explains a lot of what I was initially discovering about the disease, it puts a new level on my frustrations.

And as always, stay healthy, and stay safe.