August 26, 2021 | Open Letter to College and University Leadership for COVID-Safe Sports

Beating the Pandemic Though #CovidSafeZones on Game Day

The United States is at a critical juncture in our efforts to move beyond the Delta wave and the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 170 million Americans – representing 60 percent of the eligible population – have been fully vaccinated, providing substantial protection against illness, reducing deaths, and lessening the burden on hospitals. We are now facing the COVID-19 Delta variant, however, which presents a much greater threat than the strain collegiate sports leagues faced last year.

The simple fact is that increasing vaccination rates is our nation’s most immediate and best hope of reaching population immunity, beating the pandemic, and restoring our national vitality and way of life – including the coming year of the college experience.

It is a particularly critical time for college sports, which will be holding many events that bring communities together – including football games with tailgates and tens of thousands of cheering students and fans. Outbreaks within teams and among fans could be disruptive to the season, sports, and communities. Young people are facing serious illness and hospitalization. Evidence is also accumulating on lasting consequences for many athletes from COVID-19 infections, even mild ones. Fortunately, we have the tools at our disposal to keep these infections, disruptions, and serious consequences to a minimum.

Low vaccination levels are what enable serious Delta-driven outbreaks. Vaccinated people can become infected and spread the virus to others, but they are much less likely to be infected and are generally protected against severe disease, hospitalization, and death from the Delta variant. Consequently, college sports events involving people who are not vaccinated create substantial risks of COVID spread, disruptions, and health impacts. College and university leaders, sports conferences, coaches and student athletes can have a substantial impact on keeping Americans safe, while respecting individual liberties.

Those who remain unvaccinated are diverse. It is crucial to remember that many have legitimate questions and concerns about getting vaccinated that need to be respected and addressed.

The nation’s colleges and universities have demonstrated that they can take thoughtful steps to address these questions and concerns and make their campuses and events safer. Along with professional sports leagues, they’ve also helped us learn a lot about approaches that have proven effective in bringing people together to reopen sports events.

We have come together as public health and science experts, leaders in health, education, and civil society, and former officials from both political parties, to propose that American businesses implement a set of recommendations called #COVIDSafeZones – common sense, achievable, and temporary measures that can be applied by any private sector enterprise with minimal disruption and major benefits for workplaces and the country.

Today we are providing similar common-sense recommendations that can have broad benefits for college athletes, teams, leagues, and the fans and communities across America who support them.

These recommendations are temporary measures until we are reliably back to low COVID rates and the public health threat is behind us. The recommendations can be combined with other steps such as distancing.

We recognize that some states have enacted Executive Orders or laws that restrict your ability to keep a healthy and safe environment. Based on recent U.S. Supreme Court action and responses in some states, we believe you should closely monitor the enforceability and implementation of those restrictions, keeping the focus on safe zones which maximize the safety of your populations. Ultimately, the leagues, universities, and teams must maintain their accountability for the safety of their players and premises.

We also recognize that any protocols create some burden and cost for colleges and universities, their students, student athletes and staff, and college sports fans. Still, these will be relatively modest compared to the significant cost of health impacts on students, student athletes, disrupted games, and college and community outbreaks that result from failure to take reasonable steps to prevent COVID-19 spread.

What college leaders, student athletes, coaches and staff say and do to prevent infections will matter this fall for millions of Americans. You have a critical role to play now to move our country forward together, to support your students and communities, and respect both public safety and individual liberty.