To complete their 2020 seasons, an estimated one million coronavirus tests will be used in professional sports in the United States. Once the NFL opens camp later this month, it is estimated roughly one in every 150 U.S. tests will be completed on an asymptomatic athlete or league employee. And that, amid coast-to-coast COVID-19 surges, is problematic to some members of a public dealing with widespread testing delays.
Lines currently wrap around testing facilities at dawn. “Everyone is stressed right now,” says University of Washington pathologist Geoff Baird. The country’s two biggest private labs are returning results to everyday citizens in around a week, rendering the tests borderline useless.