HalftimeAdjustment

So Stevenson is out for NE. Last game he ran 24 times for 78 yds (3.2 ypc). A big part of their offense but maybe replaceable. How is Harris doing, he had 10 carries for 111yds (11.1 ypc)?

Well, that sucks. Recovery from ACL surgery isn't fun in the first place. Adding Covid symptoms to the mix will make it worse. Best wishes to him.

Feliciano may have had Delta - we don't know - and hopefully this treatment has worked well for him. Additionally worth mentioning, in clinical trials the Regeneron treatment reduced hospitalizations/deaths by 70%. That is a really positive result, but it's not 100% effective either in the sense of "knocking it out in 2 days" automatically.

Was losing to the Jaguars #2?

No, other than he hasn't been back in time to practice. So either he is sick or facing a recurring stream of positive tests.

If he weren't quarantining due to Covid, he could use the time off to get a dental implant.

Maybe waiting for Patriots players to test positive Sunday AM?

I have enjoyed it more than not having a season, but not as much as a COVID-free season.

It's going to be Aaron Rodgers. Again.

Well, good to hear he is in good health. Maybe when he returns the ribs and other injuries will be healed as well.

But for longer than 6 months, fortunately.

And the follow up period in that study was not 6 months. What about the Saints? Or the WFT? Or Cleveland?

Is Cody Ford vaccinated?

Currently, that is a sample size of 1, Feliciano who went to the hospital briefly. However Dion Dawkins 1st Covid experience counts (not fully vax'd, hospitalized) as does Tommy Sweeney (pre-vax, got myocarditis, may or may not have been in the hospital). Those are the ones we know of, there could have been other players who visited the hospital and chose not to disclose it. The vaccines have proven to reduce hospitalizations across millions of people. Using a sample size of NFL players is worthless data. So are individual anecdotes. By now everyone probably knows someone who was unvaccinated and had no serious symptoms, or maybe none at all. That has been possible from day 1 and no one disputes it.

Delta is still circulating. Maybe it will be gone in 3 weeks, but it is still out there.

I didn't even know 5th alternate was a thing.

Great answer. He is the QB of the Buffalo Bills. He is not a CDC spokesperson. Let him do his job. I see absolutely no reason for him to comment on another player's health status other than basically copying the coach's line: "We'd like to have them all back healthy as soon as possible." This can apply equally well to Covid or high ankle sprains.

No idea why people are saying it is an asymptomatic case when Cole said in an instagram comment that he has mild symptoms.

In most cases unless they send it for secondary sequencing, it isn't known, and 1% or less of cases are sequenced. With Omicron, there are sometimes distinctive markers in the standard test indicating a probable Omicron case, because it is different enough to stand out.

While I lack your certainty in these figures, I tend to agree it could easily be close to that and that most cases will occur before the playoffs.

Paging Chad Kelly...

I agree with that rationale, and it was effective at increasing vaccination rates. So now that they made changes anyhow in the face of changing circumstances, they might as well change this rule, too. After all those who got vaccinated can't undo it and those who haven't aren't going to. Why not make it easier on themselves, for example by letting unvaxxed players test out with sufficient number of negative tests rather than a fixed 10 day rule? Granted, most of them will not test out much quicker, but at this point the NFL's priorities have shifted to player availability so I think they should lean in.

Good point. The value of 15 represented one speaker's opinion and not any kind of established fact.

There is ALWAYS alarmism in the media with regards to this topic. However, all preliminary data indicates that this variant can out-spread Delta and there appears to be widespread agreement on that subject from scientific and public health authorities, not just from news reports. This appears to be based both on immune escape and pure transmissibility factors.

I agree. I also think players with highly contagious serious diseases should not play (insert sport here) while they are highly contagious. I understand why the NFL has decided to, in my opinion, partially bury its head in the sand and assume that vaccinated asymptomatic players are not contagious, even though the evidence for that is ... ?. What I really don't understand is the "negative tests" criteria. It seems like any asymptomatic player who tests negative a sufficient number of times should be eligible to return to play if the focus is on safety - regardless of vaccination status. Are they basically not trusting the tests? I have heard of false negatives, but isn't that why they repeat them?