Experience in the pool and the lab
COVID-19 insight: An interview with Tara Kirk Sell: Stanford swimmer, Olympian, doctor.
Tara Kirk Sell left Stanford in 2004 as one of the most decorated swimmers in the school’s rich aquatic history. Now she is competing in the fight against COVID-19 as a public health safety expert at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Kirk Sell, who won 11 NCAA titles and a silver medal in the 400-meter medley relay at the Athens Olympics, moved into public health after retiring from swimming in 2009. She earned a doctorate in 2016 at Johns Hopkins, where she is an assistant professor of Environmental Health and Engineering and a Senior Associate at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
Kirk Sell, 38, focuses on biosecurity and biodefense, public health preparedness, as well as emerging infectious disease.
The mother of a 6-yearold and 4-year-old, Kirk Sell also has been addressing the pros and cons of youth sports during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a 70-minute conversation with the Bay Area News Group, Kirk Sell discussed the hot-button issues around permitting youth and high school sports during a pandemic.
The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Q What needs to be done to provide better scientific explanations when creating public policy for reopening sports?
A The science is hard here because you can never find what you’re not looking for. Cases that you find in a youth athletic situation are confounded by what’s happening in the community. Does someone get COVID because they are doing a sport? Or do they get the virus because they are part of a community that has a high rate of COVID?
Sports are inherently both social and competitive activities. You may be very careful with what is happening in the pool or on the playing field but this needs to extend to what is happening in the parking lot and social circles outside of the athletic arena.
Q What can we say about data telling us it is safe for kids or it is unsafe?
A It’s very clear COVID-19 does not affect young people in the same way as it affects older people. But the part of the story that is not told by the statistics (death rates and case rates) is that we still don’t know how well kids can transmit the disease to others. The science has been very mixed. It is hard to make a clear statement there. That is why there is this concern about doing things that are risky in environments that cannot be controlled with masking or distancing. Especially in situations where people are living in close quarters with others, or maybe multigenerational households that might cause an increase in disease in a community…
I do think that sports that are distanced and occur outside are less of a concern to me than indoor close-contact sports.
Q So many families are asking us about football. They saw many states have high school seasons. They just don’t understand why California is being so cautious.
A Here is the thing about football, Yeah, they are in close quarters on the field. But it is outside. The amount of time they are in contact is not a large amount. The real concern here is what is happening in the weight room, what is happening in team meetings, what is happening when everyone goes out to dinner after the games? All these related activities that we don’t think about when we think of football are where you could have transmission opportunities.
Q College cases tell a different story with COVID. What should we take away from all the cancellations and postponements?
A We can learn lessons from the colleges and realize when you get a case on a team you have to deal with everyone with whom that case has been in contact. It is often many, many people. You might have a plan that is going to work for a bubble but when you have a case and have to track down everyone that person has been in contact with you realize you have to quarantine the whole team and maybe the other team. When people think of their mitigation plans they also have to make sure there are firewalls to stop a case from turning into an outbreak.
Q Are there sports we should hold off on playing until the pandemic is under control?
A That depends on the resources that are put in place to prevent onward transmission when you get a case. If you are trying to do sports without all those measures to identify cases, to stop cases to protect people from transmission in those side activities it is more questionable whether it should be done. Especially in this moment when we don’t know what is happening with this variant. We’re just coming down from this peak. We’re nowhere near where we should be.
Being able to put these controls in place is really the most important thing that can determine whether you could move forward safely. But there are some immovable things in the world we live in and sometimes you can’t do something.
Q Those who want to play say we’re facing a mental health crisis for kids.
A The mental health problem is no small problem. It is certainly a reason why we’ve got to get kids who are used to being active back out and doing activities, with the caveat of being thoughtful about those activities.
We have to acknowledge the social needs of kids and how to satisfy them. It is not something where you can say, “Just be patient.” Things are starting to unravel. And that certainly is something that should be addressed.
Thank goodness I have an indoor treadmill. I don’t know what I would have done. I need to be active. It’s part of the way I am and who I am.