WHAT DO DOCTORS THINK?

Medical direction in any return-to-play plans should be paramount, and the NHL has ensured that will be the case going forward.

But as we’ve seen during this pandemic, medical advice can swing wildly from physician to physician.

Dr. Andrew Morris, an infectious disease specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, spoke with TSN’s

Rick Westhead last week and implored pro athletes to insist that leagues, in writing, commit to covering the costs of “medical care, including rehabilitation, hospitalization, prescriptions and counselling (patients on ventilators can suffer later from post-traumatic stress disorder, he says) for any players who contract COVID-19 during the course of their employment.” “Young athletes do not think about this stuff because they think they are invincible. But every so often we see young, healthy people get very bad diseases, and this is no different,” Morris told TSN.

“It would be unusual for a healthy young athlete to get really sick with COVID and wind up in the ICU, but, hey, somebody wins the lottery, right?

Added Morris: “They should want their health care and income insured, seeing that they are taking an additional risk, especially if residing in the U.S.”

Speaking to the Winnipeg Sun last week, Manitoba’s chief public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin said that “we need to learn to live with this virus.” “It’s a balance,” he said. Roussin said extra caution is going to be needed on things like screening for symptoms, appropriate testing and hand hygiene, but warned that you will never see zero risk.

“What are people consenting to within that bubble should there be a case that develops?” he said.

It’s something the players must know before signing off on anything.

Scott Billeck