‘Last month, several college conferences, the Big Ten and the Pac 12 among them, postponed their sports seasons, including football, citing the risks posed to athletes by the coronavirus. A major factor in those decisions, according to some physicians, was the uncertain implications of a July paper in JAMA Cardiology. In this study of 100 people who had Covid-19, M.R.I.’s showed at least some signs of myocarditis in 60 of them, meaning they had inflammation in the heart muscle, which can weaken the organ and, on rare occasions, lead to sudden cardiac arrest. Another study, published this month in the same journal, looked at 26 Ohio State athletes who experienced Covid-19 with mild or no symptoms and detected evidence of possible myocarditis in five of them and lesser abnormalities in nine more. The condition poses a heightened risk to those whose physical activity puts stress on the heart: Even before the pandemic, myocarditis was a leading cause of death in young, otherwise healthy athletes.’
Read here (New York Times, Sept 23, 2020)
