Prevent another COVID-19 spike by braking with tradition. Don’t collect to see the football game. You can’t eat, consume and stay masked all at once.

Now that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Kansas City Chiefs have actually finished their stirring victories in the NFC and AFC national championship, the next action is clear: We must do everything we can to keep the Super Bowl LV from ending up being the supreme “superspreader” occasion.

In specific, the NFL, NFL Players Association and all of the game’s corporate sponsors and marketers ought to release an immediate public campaign to persuade people not to host or attend Super Bowl celebrations, and instead to view the game at house with their instant households.

More than 430,000 Americans have died since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and every official national holiday– Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s— has led to a substantial spike in cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

Canceling would conserve most lives

The Super Bowl on Feb. 7 is the next legal holiday, albeit an informal one. If custom holds, at least 100 million individuals in the United States (more than 150 million around the world) will collect, lots of in large groups, to enjoy the game that day. Due to the fact that food and drink are such an important part of Super Bowl celebrations, there is no way those individuals will be using masks throughout the video game.

Last year, the NCAA canceled its ” March Madness” basketball competition on March 12 — when there were seven-day rolling averages of 4,964 new COVID-19 cases and 227 deaths each day worldwide.

Less than 2 weeks later on, on March 24, the International Olympic Committee held off the Summer Games in Tokyo when the worldwide averages were 31,067 new cases and 1,526 deaths daily.

Now, those rolling averages are about 585,000 new cases and over 14,000 deaths daily. Given these numbers, and the countless Super Bowl celebrations that we know inevitably will be held Feb. 7, we need urgent action to avoid even more illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths.

COVID caution: Do not get lulled by COVID-19 vaccine. Stay cautious and maximize health center area for others.

Preferably, the game would be canceled or delayed, since that would conserve the most lives. However it is unrealistic to believe that the NFL, having resisted calls last summer season to abandon the whole season, would now cancel the final contest to crown a champion.( A counterpoint: In the 1919 Stanley Cup Final, after the Seattle Metropolitans and the Montreal Canadiens had actually played five times and the series was tied 2-2 with one tie, the choosing video game was canceled due to a break out of the flu pandemic, and no league champion was crowned.)

One alternative would be to hold off the Super Bowl, as was made with the Olympics, however we do not know when the game might be securely held, and it would be hard for the gamers to try to remain in shape and continue practicing for an undetermined amount of time.

Ask fans to watch the video game in your home

Another alternative is to let the teams play but do not telecast the video game live, and instead show it in the future “taped delay.” Really few individuals will gather with good friends to listen to the game on radio, or to watch it broadcast after the outcome is known. And that is the point– the NFL gets to crown its champion, but without spawning countless mini-superspreader events.

However let’s be sensible. Cash talks, and there is no other way the NFL is going to give up billions of dollars in Super Bowl advertising revenue. Nor will the advertisers want to quit the viewership for their long-planned new Super Bowl commercials.

The Backstory: COVID-19 might eliminate 100,000 more in U.S. in coming month. Will we face this as one country?

That leaves a final feasible choice– a huge effort to encourage sports fans worldwide to enjoy the Super Bowl just with individuals who are currently in their COVID “pods.” That obligation falls squarely on the NFL, every team, the NFL Players Association, transmitting networks and the scores of corporate sponsors and marketers. Beginning right away and continuing up till kickoff, they should operate in concert to transmit public service statements with the stars of the league and other influencers asking everybody to enjoy the video game from house.

If Colin Kaepernick can risk his playing career by taking a knee to protest racial injustice, then certainly those who profit from the Super Bowl can do whatever in their power to save countless lives worldwide.

David Nocenti ( @DavidNocenti) is the executive director of Union Settlement, the earliest and biggest social service provider in East Harlem, where the COVID-19 death rate is more than twice the national average. Courtney Hall, a handling director at Hillcrest Venture Partners, bet the San Diego Chargers for 8 years and was captain of the team that played in Super Bowl XXIX.

Autoplay

Program Thumbnails

Show Captions

Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2021/01/29/ super-bowl-covid-superspreader-football-fans-stay-home-column/4277383001/