Is a Bubble the Answer?

by with 2 Comments FeaturedSports

For 5 weeks I’ve been living life in the WNBA bubble, also known as the wubble, in Bradenton, Florida at the prestigious IMG Academy. Players and team staff are quarantined, tested daily, and holding social distancing practices as much as possible. We practiced, ate, and gave medical care while getting used to our new normal without being allowed to leave the premises. Well, as much as possible around teens who were on campus for various sports camps and Academy staff who were going home to their families everyday. I guess you could say that we were separated from them as much as we possibly could, although I did find out that Academy staff were being tested every 2-3 days as well. 

I’d be foolish if I said that everything was well-planned and that the logistics were perfect from day one, but through some trial and error, and constant communication, we seem to have hit a bit of a sweet spot. For instance, every person on each team’s travel party had to take 3 coronavirus tests prior to flying out to prove that he/she had not been exposed to the virus. The testing did expose several players prior to leaving and even caused one team to delay departure due to multiple positive results. However, once given the “all clear” we were placed on a commercial flight which, from our city, happened to be a full flight that allowed for no social distancing at all. Thankfully, as a healthcare provider, I was well prepared with an N95 mask, face shield, gloves and enough wipes to sanitize the entire plane. Upon arrival, we then mixed in with the rest of the people in the airport- although by no means full- Florida had just been rated a growing coronavirus hot spot, so even a handful of people warranted suspicion. 

Once we arrived as a team at the IMG premises, we picked up our room or house keys and set out to find our dwellings for the next 4 days where we would be quarantined again. Meals were delivered 3 times a day, and grocery delivery services became fast favorites of everyone. The only time of day that we were allowed to leave was for the daily testing procedure that was scheduled by team so that we did not potentially cross-contaminate one another. After the initial quarantine period practices began for 2 weeks until the season finally kicked off on July 25.

While there have been a small number of true positive tests, most teams have stayed to themselves still, with the occasional moments of mingling at meals or the pool. When a positive result is returned, all team leads are notified, with care to protect the identity of the person to decrease the stigma. The athlete or staff member is immediately isolated in a designated off-campus hotel and tested again for the next 2 days to determine whether or not the result is true or false. In some cases, if there is a roommate or family member present, appropriate care is taken to retest and isolate them if necessary as well. 

The elephant in the room was the noticeable differences between what was shown and exposed about the NBA bubble compared to the wubble. For instance, our testing seemed to be administered using a different procedure almost daily, by different people- some getting good samples and some barely seeming to scratch the surface. The problem is that an insufficient sample is listed as “positive,” causing the individual to be isolated at a remote site and having to wait at least 2 days to obtain consecutive negative results. This has lead to missed games and practices. Instead, the NBA has access to rapid tests to be used in similar cases which can turnaround results within hours and avoid an unnecessary isolation and missed games. Let’s not even talk about how it’s taken the entire 5 weeks to get someone (2 people to be exact) into the wubble to staff the hair salon for a limited 2 week period to do hair for a couple hundred women and the male staff, while the NBA has had multiple barbers on site from the beginning, and they rotate them out every 2 weeks. The WNBA doesn’t know if/when the hairstylists will return after this initial 2 week period. NBA players can also have family members visit and go in and out on designated days, while WNBA players cannot unless they came in on the first day as a caregiver for an accompanying child. 

The disparities in services and accommodations are present and the topic of some conversations, but overall everyone recognizes the real reason we are here- to cut the risk of exposure to, and spread of the coronavirus. It is my opinion and has been for a few months now, that it will be difficult to play any sport without the use of a “bubble” experience. This takes a lot of time and effort to plan and raises multiple medical and logistical challenges. I applaud the medical professionals and team and league representatives who have labored tirelessly to make a season possible, and I believe that the NBA and WNBA have been successful because of it. Is it realistic to put all football (college or professional) or major league baseball teams into the same bubble where they only interact with one another, are tested daily, and don’t have to travel for games? Probably not. For this reason, I side with the college conferences that have decided to forgo all Fall sports. 

I also applaud the NCAA for beginning to look at possible bubble situations for men’s basketball already, and hope that they can identify locations that can adequately support the unique needs of athletic medicine, performance and education of college athletes. I’d be lying if I said that I was 100% confident that the NFL season would start without a hitch. We have seen the challenges that MLB has faced when each team has been allowed to “create” it’s own bubble at the facility. However, trusting athletes to go straight home, not have outside company or even family visit, and the many other scenarios make it very difficult to predict outcomes from day to day. The truth is that America still has way too many people who don’t take the virus and it’s spread seriously, thus the decisions made away from the facility are often based solely on self.

I’m not sure what it will take for us to change our behavior collectively so that we can eradicate this virus, but hopefully, sports can help us unify in ways nothing else has been able to do. 

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You Are NOT Your Ancestors!

by with 5 Comments CultureFeatured

Popular opinion always sides with the right side of history. Hindsight being 20/20, that’s an easy decision to make. It’s real easy to armchair quarterback the Civil Rights Era, boldly proclaiming from 2020 that you would’ve marched arm in arm in 1965. But the reality is, 2020 is not 1965 and we have no idea the danger our elders faced as the walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

The painful truth is that many sat paralyzed in 1965, overwhelmed by the reality that participation then could literally mean death. Truthfully, their paralysis was justified in 1965. Being vocal and/or visible was a death sentence for many, including the greatest icons of that era. In 1965, one had to weigh the fight for justice against the sanctity of their family and home. Four little girls in the 16th Street Baptist Church speak to that tragic reality in a way that many in today’s world could never comprehend.

To say those that did sit out the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s were justified in their terror is an understatement. It was pragmatism at work. It was simply life, where an alleged whistle in the wrong direction could get a child beaten, dismembered, and dragged to the bottom of a river. There’s a painful contradiction in many shunning those that did sit out, when they didn’t live in those times.

The more painful reality is that many today still sit out, while facing far less severe consequences. Many that have boldly proclaimed they would rather die than be enslaved or that they would never take the disrespect that our ancestors braved. That same crowd that boldly wears the, “I’m not my ancestors, you can catch these hands” T-shirts, while marching in safe spaces, 50 plus years late. They are right about one thing, THEY ARE NOT THEIR ANCESTORS. They don’t have the heart to balance life and death by seeking basic dignities in every facet of survival, such as a water fountain or bathroom.

We are currently living in a time where the Chief Executive blatantly espouses prejudice, racism, bigotry and division in a manner that makes Nixon or Reagan seem tame. Yet, the “I’m not my ancestors” crowd isn’t certain of what to do. We are seemingly more concerned with the open marriages of celebrities, foolish people arguing over their “Constitutional right” to not wear masks, or the never-ending quest to prove who is the most conscious in the room.

One must pose the question, what does any of that matter to progress?

To that same crowd of social media warriors, fighting for the newest and boldest cause that is trending on Twitter, the time for hypotheticals has long passed. In reality, it was an illusion and the time for hypotheticals never arrived. Oppression never ended. Freedom was never fully achieved. So what is the wait about? When is the time right? Should we postpone true liberation longer for a more opportune time? Maybe it will be more convenient in 2030. It’s only another decade away…

But you’re right, YOU ARE NOT YOUR ANCESTORS! They fought. They didn’t wait. They survived atrocities that would seem unbearable to many now who complain of not having fully functional A/C or bad WiFi signal. Our ancestors didn’t get comfortable waiting around for a more opportune time. Our ancestors fought, knowing some would likely die. Our ancestors, and many white allies, had far more heart than many of the social justice warriors of today preaching from digital pulpits in their comfortable homes. Our ancestors died for our comfort, while we sit this one out because “we are too busy” or “we should be social distancing,” as if police violence isn’t as big of a threat as COVID-19.

July 17, 2020, marked the death of two Civil Rights Era GIANTS. As we view their collective legacies, both individually and jointly, we must take pause to determine what is next.

We have let our ancestors down in our comfort. Ironically, that comfort was built on the backs of our ancestors’ sacrifice, not our own. Are we willing to sacrifice our comfort and individual “successes” to push the future of our people forward? John Lewis and C.T. Vivian both did. That was their life work. Collectively, many of us have not. Again, we are NOT our ancestors.

While we complain from our WiFi soapboxes and boldly proclaim what we would’ve done on social media, our community is still engulfed in a deliberate and subversive form of genocide. While we bicker over what #BlackLivesMatter should mean, our children are dying at the hands of police, systemic racism, and at the hands of other children. Yet, we sit those out to stay comfortable. That same comfort we have not truly earned, but instead inherited. So yes, we are NOT our ancestors. They were better men and women.

To those who hypothesize on what they “would’ve done” during slavery or Jim Crow, you no longer have to hypothesize. The time is now. A bigot occupies the Oval Office. This Administration openly works to roll back the social progress of the last 50 years in an attempt to make America what it was in the “good ole days.” You don’t have to hypothesize on what you would’ve done when facing police dogs, fire hoses, clubs, prison, lifelong persecution, or death. You won’t get your hands dirty engaging in GOOD TROUBLE during a time when the consequences of said action pale in comparison. You would’ve sat out the movement of the 50s and 60s because you’re sitting out now. It’s the same mentality of subjugation by appeasement. To you I say, you’re damn right, YOU ARE NOT YOUR ANCESTORS!

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COVID-19 And Trump, A Modern Day Nero?

by with No Comment CultureFeaturedPolitics

An email was sent to my employer’s special-interest lists the other day: “Does anyone know where I can find some N95 masks? All of the local stores are sold out.” I was stunned. My company is staffed by some of the most logical, reasonable, critically-thinking people I’ve ever known. People at my own company were panicking about the novel Coronavirus, also called COVID-19. Why?

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has been a reliable source of unbiased, evidence-based public health information for decades. But, they have been oddly inconsistent in their messaging concerning the coronavirus outbreak – which has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday (3/11/20), and President Trump is largely responsible.

When the virus first entered the country, the White House squabbled over whether to even share what it knew, and what plans, if any, were being made to keep Americans safe. Meanwhile, experts at the CDC were prevented from communicating with state agencies and providing information to the public. So, state and local governments, airlines, and other companies worked to devise their own plans. Conferences were canceled, airlines put new sanitation policies into play, companies began plans for allowing employees to work from home and to provide financial support to hourly workers. We were standing by until February 25th, as President Trump was preparing to return from New Delhi when he was forced into the reality of the situation. Only then did he signal any intent to address the issue.

Americans look to the president to lead them through crises with a calm demeanor, determination, and decisiveness. Trump did not deliver. Instead, he chose to turn every opportunity to provide assurances into a platform for vilifying the media, blaming the democrats, and aggrandizing himself. What vague reassurances he offered were not intended to calm the public as much as to avoid ruffling the stock market’s feathers. It didn’t work. Trump’s refusal to acknowledge the threat until late in the game may have actually caused the panic on Wall Street. The business-as-usual attitude may have intended to calm fears, but when the rest of the world is rushing to contain and mitigate the spread of the virus, some might see it as sticking one’s head in the sand, waiting for the threat to pass. Not exactly a model of decisive action.

Not surprisingly, Trump’s view of what we’re facing is out of sync with reality. While Democrats worked toward pushing through an emergency economic package to help those forced to stay away from their paying jobs, Trump pushed for a payroll tax break. Not at all useful, because you have to be paid – which means you have to work – in order to get the benefit. He explained his rationale to Republican senators, “… so taxes don’t go back up before voters decide whether to return him to office.” said, President Trump. The stimulus package that the White House is putting together is reportedly going to cost around $700 billion – on par with the Wall Street bailout of 2008 and the Recovery Act of 2009. This package is aimed at corporations, including the hotel industry, which considering that he still profits from his hotels, creates more evidence of his conflict of interest.

The Trump Administration’s anti-science stance is also reflected in its response to the COVID-19 threat. Over the last 3 years, Trump Republicans have gone out of their way to discredit evidence-based science. Budgets for research and public education were slashed, seriously hobbling the CDC in its efforts to create accurate tests and effective solutions. His willful ignorance of how science works was laid out for all to see at his visit to the CDC on Friday. He failed to grasp the simple concept that drugs cannot be created overnight. Getting medicine from the lab to the drug cabinet takes painstaking research, experimentation with consistent results, and clinical trials. All of which require money… money that Trump took away back in 2017.

Exemplified by ​his own tweet​, Trump is fiddling, while all around him the flames get higher.

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