How do football and tennis rank in terms of risk of contracting COVID-19?

How do football and tennis rank in terms of risk of contracting COVID-19?

The Texas Medical Association has created a list of activities organized by their risk in getting COVID-19, from lowest to highest.  The lowest is tagged with one, and the highest is tagged with ten.  The part in the parentheses is my own comments.

Risk Level 1

Risk Level 2

  • Getting restaurant takeout
  • Pumping gasoline
  • Playing Tennis
  • Going camping
  • Throwing a football around with your kid (my own addition)
  • Pitching and hitting a baseball (my own addition)
  • Tossing a basketball around and shooting hoops, but not doing an actual game where you are doing physical contact. (my own addition)
  • Kicking a soccer ball back and forth, shooting goals, or doing obstacle courses,  but not doing an actual game where there would be physical contact. (my own addition)

Risk Level 3.0

  • Grocery shopping
  • Going for a walk, run, or bike ride with others
  • Playing golf’
  • Going to a strip mall store or the stand-alone store where you are just going in to get what you want and doing your purchase. (my own addition)

Risk Level 3.5

  • Going to a small specialty store in strip mall or by itself where you are “browsing” and taking your time to shop (my own)

Risk Level 4

  • Staying at a hotel for two nights
  • Sitting in the doctor’s waiting room (use an N-95 mask the whole time, because you do not know why the other people are at the doctor’s office)
  • Going to a library or museum (going when less crowed not as dangerous as going when the museum is filled with loud screaming kid school groups or camp groups)
  • Eating in a restaurant (outside)
  • Walking in a busy downtown
  • Spending an hour at the playground (less risk if you go when the playground is less crowded)

Risk Level 5.0

  • Having dinner at someone else’s house (you know the people less risk than strangers, but people don’t wear masks)
  • Attending a backyard barbecue (you know the people less risky than strangers, but people don’t wear masks)

Risk Level 5.5 – Disagreed with the original items in Level 5

  • Going to a beach (I would rank this one higher, a lot of people, people not wearing masks, no social distancing, loud talking, and loud singing)
  • Shopping at a mall (I would personally rank this one higher than eating at someone else’s house because malls are always tagged as having somebody who had COVID-19.  But this would depend on if you do when the mall is busy or the mall is less crowded).

Risk Level 6

  • Sending kids to school, camp, or daycare (people will not wear masks over the whole day, positive is that same group of people every day)
  • Working a week in an office building (people will not wear masks over the whole day, positive is the same group of people every day)
  • Visiting an elderly relative or friend at their home (relatives are high risk, so you are transferring whatever you were exposed to onto the elderly relative)
  • Swimming in a public pool – I would rank this as Risk Level 7 (not wearing masks, exchanging of bodily fluid when water gets into the mouth, loud talking and loud singing, touching; Adults doing an exercise class would be different than children playing in a public pool)

Risk Level 7

  • Going to a hair salon or barber (people not wearing masks, close touching contact)
  • Eating in a restaurant, inside (people not wearing asks, eating and talking, exchanging of touching of objects that are put in the mouth)
  • Attending a wedding or funeral, indoors (people not wearing masks, people hug and kiss relatives and friends they have not seen in a long time, if indoors, air conditioning air recycled)
  • Traveling by plane (air-conditioned recycled air, breathing the same air over several hours, people not wearing masks)
  • Playing basketball (direct physical contact)
  • Playing football (direct physical contact)
  • Hugging or shaking hands when greeting a friend (direct physical contact)

Risk Level 8

  • Eating a buffet (people not wearing masks, different people, dirty utensils touching common food areas)
  • Working out a gym (people not wearing masks, sweat and spit fluids exchanging)
  • Going to an amusement park (large groups, different people, not wearing masks, people screaming, people not wearing masks)
  • Going to a movie theater (indoor with air conditioning, people close together, different groups of people, people not wearing masks)

Risk Level 9

  • Attending a large music concert (large group, people not wearing masks, people screaming and singing, indoors)
  • Going to a sports stadium (large group, people not wearing masks, people screaming and singing, indoors)
  • Attending a religious service with 500+ worshipers (large group, people not wearing masks, people screaming and singing, indoors)
  • Going to a bar (large group, people not wearing masks, people screaming and singing, indoors)

Let’s recap

When deciding the risk of an activity, take the following items into consideration.

  • Is there going to be direct physical contact?  Hugging, kissing, handshaking?  The risk is higher.
  • Is there going to be a lot of talking loudly and singing while in close contact with others?  The risk is higher.
  • Is the activity indoors or outdoors?  Outdoors activities have less risk than indoor activities.  Indoor activities with the windows closed and no air circulation are a higher risk than with the windows open and fans circulating the air.
  • Are the people attending the activity the same regular group of people or is the group constantly changing?  Going to a gym is a high risk, but going to the gym at the same time with the same group of people is less risky.

Summary

COVID-19 is not going to go away any time soon, and keeping the world shut down is not an option.  We have to learn to live with COVID-19, the same as we live with colds, flu, chickenpox, and host of other viruses and bacterial infections.

I wish I could say, “At least we have learned our lesson, and scientists are no longer going to have hobbies of collecting deadly viruses or eating wild unchecked food”, but yesterday China now has cases of bubonic plague and 100 people put into quarantine.  And our own CDC says that N1H1 is current in China’s swine population (pigs).  If the Chinese keep the pigs away from the chickens, it is not a problem, but China still has their open meat markets and they still do not enforce the separation of these two species of animals.