McKenna affair cautionary

WHERE to start with the week poor old Conor McKenna has just had. For any number of reasons it can’t have been an enjoyable week for the 24-year-old Tyrone man. On a very basic level it can’t have been much fun to have tested positive for Covid-19. Even though the mortality rates for people of his age and general health are very low, it’s got to be a very stressful time. The scary thing about Covid-19 is that you can’t say for certain how any one individual will be effected or how severely.

Oddly enough, though, that was probably the least of McKenna’s worries since news of his positive test came to light over the weekend. With news that the Essendon defender had contracted the virus came a whole pile of traditional and social media scrutiny of his supposed actions and behaviour.

Viewed from this side of the world there seemed to very much a valley of the squinting windows aspect to it all. Certainly there was a holier than thou tone to some of the commentary we saw, which isn’t at all helpful or appropriate for somebody who’s going through a potentially serious illness. Even before it emerged on Tuesday that McKenna’s positive test was in fact a false positive, the coverage and the tenor of it raised questions about the right to privacy of a sports person who tests positively for Covid-19.

Is it fair for it to be public knowledge? Is it necessary? Is it decent to hold up somebody to this kind of scrutiny over something like this? We can’t imagine that it is even for a professional sports person. Certainly it’s a cautionary tale for Irish sport as teams and athletes return to training and action. It’s important to test (and test and test), but is it really necessary to make positive tests public on an individualised basis like they have been in the AFL?

That McKenna’s positive proved to be false is a reminder to us to that no test is 100% foolproof. There will always be false positives, and negatives for that matter too. We’ve just got to do what we’re able to and muddle through as best we can.

Leave the judgementalism at the door.