The NCAA medical advisory group is changing its definition of a fully vaccinated individual as someone who has received the COVID-19 booster shot if eligible, sources report. Illustrated Sports, a significant move that will cause an avalanche of universities to boost their players and staff.
The new definition only applies to previously vaccinated individuals who are eligible for the booster. Athletes are eligible if they are within two months of receiving the single dose of Johnson and Johnson; five months from the last injection from Pfizer; and six months since the last take of Moderna. Athletes who are not eligible for the booster but are vaccinated are still considered fully vaccinated. Those athletes who have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 90 days are also immunized and receive the benefits of a fully vaccinated athlete.
The new protocols are just recommendations or “considerations,” say the NCAA documents. Conferences and schools can choose to follow them or create their own guidelines based on guidance from their local health department. Many conferences, especially at the Power 5 level, have already created their own policies, many of which are in line with the latest CDC guidelines. It is unclear how those leagues will treat athletes eligible for the booster who have not received the booster. Do they consider themselves fully vaccinated or not vaccinated?
The NCAA recommended protocols for those who are fully vaccinated are more relaxed than for those who are not vaccinated. Vaccinated athletes are not required to quarantine themselves as close contacts and are exempt from regular COVID-19 testing. Those deemed unvaccinated are tested regularly and, if deemed to be in close contact, must be quarantined for at least five days. The reasons behind many of the games postponed or canceled during the last month can often be traced back to such problems.
The latest changes are part of the new NCAA medical advisory group resocialization guidelines that are expected to be released in schools on Thursday. The new protocols are a response to the emerging omicron variant, which accounted for 95.4% of new COVID-19 cases in the United States last week, according to the latest estimate. report released by the CDC on Tuesday. The variant is moving across the US as well as into college sports, having forced the cancellation of six petanque games and more than 200 men’s and women’s basketball games.
According to the NCAA’s comments to university administrators, officials, as of now, are not contemplating the cancellation of the winter championships nor are they examining a modification of the qualification exemption for the championships as was the case last year. March Madness is about two months away and the Alabama-Georgia college football national championship game is scheduled for Monday in Indianapolis. Both the Bulldogs and The Tide have publicly confirmed that they are boosted by more than 90%.
Due to the speed at which the omicron is spreading, officials believe that cases will begin to decline dramatically in the next two to three weeks. Doctors still don’t see COVID-19 transmission during games, NCAA Medical Director Brian Hainline told administrators.
With its change regarding the booster, the NCAA medical group is expanding even beyond the CDC, which does not yet require the booster shot to consider people to be fully vaccinated. However, the CDC strongly recommends booster shots for those eligible. Under the new NCAA guidance, those who have received the booster are immediately considered fully vaccinated. There is no immunization period like there was with previous vaccines.
While the new NCAA guidance strengthens the definition of a fully vaccinated person, it reflects the state of the pandemic with a relaxation of some protocols.
For example, those vaccinated or unvaccinated who test positive for COVID-19 can return to athletic activity without a mask, as long as they produce a negative result after their five days of isolation. This is a significant change that can prevent further game cancellations and is a policy that differs from the CDC guidelines.
The CDC recommends that COVID-19 positives be masked for five days after coming out of isolation. Close unvaccinated contacts must be quarantined for five days, but on a new shift, they are eligible to return to athletic activity without the mask with a negative test.
The changes are in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that is getting closer and closer to what is described as an “endemic” disease, usually living among the population, such as the flu. In interviews last month, multiple doctors suggested that college sports medical task forces were exploring ways to relax the guidelines given the state of the pandemic and that the NCAA itself was in communication with the CDC.
“Conversations are ongoing,” said Jeremy Cauwels, a member of the NCAA advisory group and chief physician at Sanford Health in South Dakota. “That’s the hard part: truly understanding when someone is no longer contagious. The CDC does not distinguish between a 70-year-old and a college athlete. That’s part of the work the NCAA is trying to do: Can we say that there is a safety standard that may be shorter for a vaccinated college athlete than the average 70-year-old?
There is another problem. With any COVID-related changes, universities remain at the mercy of their local health departments, some of which are more risk averse and may not approve relaxation protocols.
In its new recommendations, the NCAA leaves the door ajar for some schools and conferences to eliminate surveillance testing entirely if their local community’s COVID-19 rates are at a manageable or low number. But if a team has what is called “sustained transmission,” the team should consider testing all close contacts immediately, even if they are vaccinated and boosted. Sustained transmission is defined as three or more positives in a team of 50 or fewer players, or 5% percent for a team of more than 50.
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Eddie is an Australian news reporter with over 9 years in the industry and has published on Forbes and tech crunch.