Sports should halt until approved vaccine released

Sports should halt until approved vaccine released

Hailey Christoff | staff writer

With sports occurring this fall, many students and parents speculate on whether they should permit athletes to participate in seasonal sports. As of Sept. 14, the state of Indiana has reached more than 109,000 cases, with only 736 deaths confirmed.

In most sports, a remarkable amount of physical contact occurs. For example, the amount of physical contact in football or the bursts of contact in soccer as players brush up against the other when there is a skirmish for the ball. As for tennis, the home and visiting teams will have to manually touch the scorecards, and they also distribute a pair of tennis balls that will be touched when serving. Cross-country has a large number of athletes packed together before they take off. Volleyball players can barely socially distance each other, only allowing a couple of feet apart while on the court.

The best solution is to only allow non-contact sports, such as golf, to continue with their season. This will decrease the likelihood of a large outbreak within the school, allowing the school to continue in class. As a whole, however, schools should postpone all sports until a vaccine has been tested and approved by the Centers for Disease Control.