What An Infectious Disease Expert Says About Return To Play For College Athletics

The last time Dr. Keith Hamilton and I saw each other, we went to an NBA basketball game a week before Christmas. The arena was sold out with fans excited to see Joel Embiid and the Philadelphia Sixers play the Washington Wizards. We are both sports fans, both former college athletes, so going to a sporting event was a natural. Since then, Hamilton, an infectious disease specialist and associate professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, has been in the trenches fighting the coronavirus.

As March turned to May, and we all started wondering about what college sports might look like in Fall 2020, like many, I’ve thought mostly about the athletes, the coaches, the staff, and of course, the fans. When could they come back to campus? Can fans come to games? Can athletes and coaches really practice social distancing in a contact sport? The typical questions.

When his schedule finally opened up, and he could join my podcast, I wanted to see if he could provide deeper insight into some of those vexing questions currently confronting both athletic programs and universities. But my conversation with Dr. Hamilton helped me to realize I was missing the bigger picture. Here are some key takeaways:

KW: Is it safe for college athletes return to practice this fall?

KH: “I think this needs to be done cautiously while working with public health agencies. They are going to have the best understanding of what each region’s testing capacity is…. a regional approach to this is also important because when we come to the fall or late summer-when camps are starting for college sports, there will be some regions where cases are minimal. There are going to be some places where cases may be going up. And just because one community is ready to start doesn’t mean others are ready to start from an increase in infections standpoint, let alone number of tests.”

KW: Should athletes return June 1 to begin summer workouts?

KH: “We need to stick one toe in the water before we jump in. As we start to do this, at least in my humble opinion, jumping into the water without looking is probably not the right thing to do. There might be some sports, some regions, that would be a little bit more amenable to doing this and we will make mistakes…. Rolling everything out (at the same time), then making a mistake, could have wide reaching consequences….this probably should be done in “pilot settings” where we are able to do this in a controlled fashion.”

Dr. Hamilton talked about using local county public health data to guide decision making on bringing college athletes back to campus. Rather than looking at state wide numbers, consider looking at regional data, like this website covering coronavirus testing data in Pennsylvania. Pay close attention to the amount of test kits available, and in particular, whether bringing athletes back to campus with the expectation of doing regular testing would impact the ability to also provide tests for more vulnerable members of your community.

KW: Aren’t college athletes the healthiest population?

KH: “College student athletes are a unique population. We think of them as the healthiest… they are the ones that are not going to be significantly impacted by this virus if they were to get sick.

“But we also need to think of college athletes as members of larger university communities and larger human communities that we live in. We do need to remember that there are some vulnerable college athletes as well. There are athletes with asthma, high blood pressure, diabetes, and some who have a suppressed immune system that would create a high risk.

“So, when we’re thinking about having college athletes come back, we need to make sure that we’re thinking about them as part of the larger community– because, yes, it’s our responsibility to make sure that our college athletes are safe, but it’s also our responsibility to ensure our entire community at large is safe.”

Our conversation reminded me that all college campuses are part of a community, and that local community members can be harboring their own anxieties about this pandemic in very different ways. Some residents may be very worried about the impact of thousands of new faces returning to campus, and if any of them are bringing the virus with them. Some may be worried that, if there is an outbreak on campus, it could overwhelm their only hospital. And if/when a team goes away on a road trip…well, you get the idea.

Near the end of our conversation, Dr. Hamilton told me something I had not heard: “We have a lot of people working hard on this. And most people, if they get this virus, will be totally fine. What “we” do should not be out of fear (of getting the virus), but out of compassion for protecting others…. If we’re doing the right things, we’ll all be okay as a society.”

On Wednesday, ESPN reported that the NCAA had voted to allow Division I football, men’s and women’s basketball players to return to campus for summer workouts on June 1, breaking the self imposed moratorium on practices. The pilot study Hamilton referred to above will now begin on some campuses. Because of the way NCAA legislation works, this decision was like taking a hammer, rather than a scalpel, to this issue. There are still many portions of the country where colleges are located still operating under “stay at home” orders. This is a perfect reminder of why one size does not fit all.

Just before we left the podcast, I asked him how he was doing. He looked and sounded exhausted. He told me this was the hardest stretch of his career outside of his residency. I can’t imagine what he has witnessed in the last couple of months, and once again, I was reminded of the grace that heroes can hold in our lives.

On behalf of all sports fans, thank you, Dr. Hamilton, for working to save lives. Let’s hope that college leaders, as they soon decide what to do for the fall, remember that each campus has a ripple effect on their communities. The compassion we show to ourselves and each other in the middle of this crisis will go a long way.

Join my weekly podcast “Trustees and Presidents-Managing College Athletics” wherever you listen to your podcasts.