Superspreader Sunday? How the National Football League is holding the Super Bowl during a pandemic

A version of this story appeared in the February 5 edition of CNN’s Coronavirus: Fact vs. Fiction newsletter. Sign up here to receive the need-to-know headlines every weekday.

In the year since the last Super Bowl, the coronavirus pandemic has claimed the lives of some 450,000 Americans.

Back in the spring, no one was sure what a National Football League season would look like, let alone whether its championship would go ahead. The virus shuffled schedules and forced players who tested positive to sit out, but not a single game was canceled. Now just one remains: Super Bowl LV.

It comes just as health officials are begging Americans to hunker down to help stop the spread of new strains of the coronavirus. And concerns are growing that Super Bowl parties this Sunday may lead to another spike in infections. In order to avoid a superspreader event, the way the game will be played, attended, presented and watched will look very different.

Around 25,000 fans – including 7,500 healthcare workers – will descend on the Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida to watch the Kansas City Chiefs and Tampa Bay Buccaneers face off this weekend. But instead of foam fingers, they’ll don free PPE upon arrival, including masks. “We want our fans to be safe,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said. “They need to be smart. They need to wear their PPE.”

Delivering a safe halftime show has also been a monumental task for British director Hamish Hamilton, who says the pandemic “has put a very different set of parameters around the production.” This is, after all, an event which has previously involved an array of performers on stage with little social distancing.

But even with the most vigilant rules in place, the coronavirus still has the potential to derail the best-laid plans. The Chiefs had a particularly nerve-wracking Covid-19 scare this week, when it learned that a barber for the team had tested positive. Chiefs backup center Daniel Kilgore was in the chair getting a haircut when the results came in, ESPN reported. A number of Chiefs players, including quarterback Patrick Mahomes, were in line to get cuts on Sunday.

In the Covid-19 monitoring testing results for January 24-30 provided Tuesday by the NFL and the NFL Players Association, there were no new confirmed positive tests among players and one new confirmed positive among other personnel.

YOU ASKED. WE ANSWERED.

Q: Is there anything I can do to prepare for my Covid-19 vaccination?

A: As more people around the world get access to the coronavirus vaccines, many questions remain. Will it work? Will there be side effects? Do I need to rest after I get the vaccine? Can I hang out with my friends and family now?

We spoke with CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen for guidance on how to plan for taking care of ourselves and our loved ones as more people get vaccinated.

Send your questions here. Are you a health care worker fighting Covid-19? Message us on WhatsApp about the challenges you’re facing: +1 347-322-0415.

WHAT’S IMPORTANT TODAY

A new single-dose vaccine could speed up vaccination efforts

Johnson & Johnson on Thursday applied to the US Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization of its single-dose Covid-19 vaccine, setting it on course for potential distribution by March.

The FDA has scheduled a meeting of its independent advisory panel, which will vote on whether the vaccine should be authorized, on February 26, giving the group three weeks to review relevant data.

Last week, Johnson & Johnson released encouraging results from its late-stage clinical trial. The vaccine was shown to be 85% effective overall at preventing hospitalization and death in all three regions where it was tested – the United States, Latin America and South Africa. But the results came with a significant caveat: Its efficacy against moderate and severe disease ranged from 72% in the US to 57% in South Africa, where a highly transmissible variant is driving infections.

If authorized, Johnson & Johnson would provide a third vaccine to the US market. The one-dose delivery, which doesn’t require special handling, would also add flexibility and speed to vaccination efforts.

Vaccine nationalism is leaving a whole continent empty-handed

African nations are being left behind in the race for Covid-19 vaccines as richer countries stockpile doses, prioritizing their own populations and creating an unequal playing field. As of February 3, vaccine rollouts were underway in at least 68 countries and territories globally – only four were in Africa.

Most African countries suffered fewer deaths from the first wave of the virus last year compared to other parts of the world. But case numbers are now surging, particularly in the southern region where a more virulent variant of the coronavirus is driving infections, Eoin McSweeney and Nyasha Shingono write.

In a scramble to secure doses, South Africa, the worst-affected country on the continent, was forced to purchase the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from the Serum Institute of India at nearly double the price paid by other wealthier countries – $5.25 per dose, according to Reuters. The disparity in access and price has caused widespread anger amongst Africa’s leaders, including South Africa’s president and chair of the African Union, Cyril Ramaphosa, who has slammed Western nations for promoting “vaccine nationalism” that is marginalizing countries “most in need.”

These frontline healthcare workers desperately want vaccines. They can’t get them

Dr. Alfonso Velandia starts each hospital shift by counting his troops in the battle against the coronavirus. The 46-year-old emergency specialist manages intensive care units at the Cardiovascular Hospital in Soacha, a working-class suburb of Colombia’s capital Bogotá. Since the pandemic began, he says he has seen the number of healthcare workers under his watch dwindle, even as the hospital expands its ICU to confront a relentless second wave of cases.

Velandia looks with frustration at statistics on vaccine distribution in Europe and North America, where hundreds of thousands of frontline healthcare workers have already been vaccinated against the deadly virus. “I recently had a meeting, and my team was like ‘We can’t hold anymore’… we need the vaccine now!” he told CNN.

But like many countries in the developing world, Colombia is yet to receive a single dose of a vaccine, Radina Gigova and Stefano Pozzebon report.

ON OUR RADAR

TOP TIP

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has released some tips on how to safely navigate Super Bowl Sunday celebrations. Their top piece of advice – not surprisingly – is to watch the game at home with the people you live with. If you insist on having a small watch party, the CDC says you should host it outdoors and make sure everyone has a mask. The guidance recommends limiting alcohol consumption because alcohol may make you less likely to follow Covid-19 safety measures.

Read a rundown of all their advice here.

TODAY’S PODCAST

“I think the biggest thing we learned – which is not shocking to those of us in the medical profession – universal masking works. It’s the most effective strategy that we have.” – NFL Chief Medical Officer Dr. Allen Sills

Super Bowl LV is happening this weekend and it won’t be your regular championship game. The CDC and the NFL teamed up to study not only how the league played through a pandemic, but how the general public could benefit from the lessons they learned. Dr. Sills tells CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta why he thinks the 2020-21 season was worth the risk. Listen now.