WHO provides encouraging news for the upcoming football season

There has not been a whole lot of positive reported in the news world lately but the WHO on Monday announced some encouraging news.

Teams in the SEC have started to let players return to campus to participate in voluntary workouts. As exciting as that sounds the process did not get off to a great start for all teams. 

Auburn and Alabama both announced that they both had multiple players diagnosed with COVID-19. Even though players would be participating in workouts under strict supervision it was the last thing coaches wanted to see. 

The World Health Organization provided some very positive information on Monday. Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove who is head of WHO's emerging diseases and zoonosis unit said "From the data we have, it still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward to a secondary individual," in a CNBC article. 

Dr. Kerkhove noted later in the article that more research was necessary to truly answer the question of whether COVID-19 can spread widely through asymptomatic carriers, but in the asymptomatic cases they have followed it has been "very rare" for the disease to transmit to a second person. 

If you're Gus Malzahn and Nick Saban this news allows you to take a big sigh of relief as all three Auburn players who contracted the disease were asymptomatic and the Alabama player who was diagnosed was at a team workout the day before being diagnosed but was also announced asymptomatic. 

With College football teams including Georgia returning to campus this week, this is great news to hear. Although the information that the WHO provided is not yet concrete it could potentially be a big step in not only getting players back on the field but also fans back in stadiums this fall. 

If true, it will also remove the concern revolving around the lack of uniform testing across college football. 

There are still a lot of questions surrounding COVID-19 but it also appears that progress is being gained day by day. Only time will tell what the 2020 football season has in store for teams and fans.

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