Titans Test Positive for Covid. Titans-Steelers Game postponed, Titans-Bills in jeopardy

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Psycho_X

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If they cant field a team with healthy players they forfeit it’s really simple. Enough of this bullshit making other teams adjust to suit the Titans. They’re the ones that messed up and broke the rules. Forfeit games and the paychecks that go with them. Also if Vrabel and the team knew and sanctioned these practices the need to face discipline too. Enough coddling rule breakers nfl.

Yeah, if the rumors are true that after the initial covid positives and subsequent quarantine requirements were placed by the NFL that the Titans players all met up and worked out together in spite of the NFL telling them they needed to quarantine then I agree that Tennessee should be punished in some fashion. If forfeiting is the only solution that doesn't punish other teams than so be it.
 

Jorgeh0605

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I personally think they should go the route of forfeiting games. Not really as a punitive measure, but more of an assurance that they contain their bubble. Maybe postpone the first game for a team, like Titans vs Steelers, but require forfeits for any additional games missed. IMO its less about being punitive to teams that contracted it, and more about giving them motivation to contain it.

Something like: If your team gets an outbreak, fine, we'll give you two weeks to contain it, else you start losing games.
 

OldSchool

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I dont know if I agree with that. Its imperative that the teams work in unison, and once forfeits start coming in to play, so will hiding positive tests and circumnavigating the system. Now if the positive tests seemed traced to activity traced to outside of what the guidelines require, thats another story.
I am hopeful that this was the wakeup call the NFL needed, like the wakeup call that hit the Marlins/Cardinals. They got thru it and now they are deep in playoffs.
It's imperative that players follow the rules. The rules clearly state they were not supposed to meet outside the facility that was shut down btw for group practices. We know by their own admissions that they have done this and after that was done more players tested positive.
 

OldSchool

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Yeah, if the rumors are true that after the initial covid positives and subsequent quarantine requirements were placed by the NFL that the Titans players all met up and worked out together in spite of the NFL telling them they needed to quarantine then I agree that Tennessee should be punished in some fashion. If forfeiting is the only solution that doesn't punish other teams than so be it.
We have an expanded practice squad and unlimited and free movement on and off it as well as a covid list to bring other players in after somebody tests positive. This is all on the Titans and their players and other teams shouldn't have to compensate for the screw ups by the players and that organization. One thing I saw suggested was move the game back a day or two. Well that won't work because the Bills play Thursday so what you want to move them to Monday this week then they play Thursday? Just don't work IMO
 

Psycho_X

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We have an expanded practice squad and unlimited and free movement on and off it as well as a covid list to bring other players in after somebody tests positive. This is all on the Titans and their players and other teams shouldn't have to compensate for the screw ups by the players and that organization. One thing I saw suggested was move the game back a day or two. Well that won't work because the Bills play Thursday so what you want to move them to Monday this week then they play Thursday? Just don't work IMO

Last I saw was the NFL was thinking about pushing the Bills Thursday night game to Saturday. /shrug
 

Angry Ram

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I get all that.
I was being a bit tongue in cheek.
The problem of course is it’s a rolling two week window.
So, it never closes.
It’s the tool we all have at this point it is just not that effective.
You know, whatever.

Gotcha.

But why are your posts
Always sound like they are in
Trying for haiku.
 

RamBall

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At some point forfeits are going to have to start happening. I know people say “let the scrubs play” but you don’t know who is infected at any given moment. Then you spread it to next team etc. or they push the super bowl way back and extend season with teams getting multiple bye weeks but not sure on logistics there.


View: https://twitter.com/rapsheet/status/1314193236240498689?s=21


Have any vikings tested positive after playing the titans? I havent heard of any and it has been over 7 days since they were possibly exposed. Covid is not as easily spread as some media outlets want you to believe. This is a virus that is so bad most people need a test to determine if they have it or not. Unlike the flu where when you get it you know it, or so I've been told. There is no doubt Tennessee has had an outbreak, but no vikings players were infected during their game.
 

RamBall

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That's what I mean, so Titans call up 8 practice squad players, or whatever, but they have 2-4 currently infected players that they'll find positives for over the next couple days up to the game. Suddenly practice squad players are infected and the players they play against Sunday. /shrug. There is no way around it aside from entire team and staff being replaced lol.
How many vikings players were infected during their game against the titans?
 
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Psycho_X

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How many vikings players were infected during their game against the titans?

Yep they appear to have been lucky. Irrelevant though as the main point I was making was regarding teams using practice squad players or scrubs to rotate in and out for infected players. Once a team has an outbreak there's not much you can do except wait it out and hope the players are responsible adults. Yes, spreading the virus is harder and less likely in an open, outdoor setting but still possible.
 

RamBall

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Yep they appear to have been lucky. Irrelevant though as the main point I was making was regarding teams using practice squad players or scrubs to rotate in and out for infected players. Once a team has an outbreak there's not much you can do except wait it out and hope the players are responsible adults. Yes, spreading the virus is harder and less likely in an open, outdoor setting but still possible.
If a team and its players cant keep it under control they dont deserve to play, forfeit the next game. Skipping 1 week should be plenty of time, as long as the team is responsible. If they continue to have a problem it is only because they are not taking it seriously, so they deserve having to forfeit games until they do take it serious and stop the spread among their team.
 

Ramhusker

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Titans appear to be the problem child.
 

Jacobarch

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Anything is possible, but it isnt easily spread among members of a household. I had covid and my wife that was quarantined in the same house did not get it. In speaking with Drs and nurses it is not uncommon for 1 member of a household to test positive and the rest of the household test negative. But among people that are in good health the virus isnt dangerous and may be less easily spread due to the body fighting it and keeping the viral load to low to spread easily.
Be careful the nannies waiting to pounce
 

CGI_Ram

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I think forfeiting games is not an option!

How many people are going to be happy if Seattle plays 2 less games than us, because they had teams forfeit to them?
 

dieterbrock

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It's imperative that players follow the rules. The rules clearly state they were not supposed to meet outside the facility that was shut down btw for group practices. We know by their own admissions that they have done this and after that was done more players tested positive.
And the CBA agreed to financial penalties for players who didnt adhere to the guidelines, it didnt contain language of forfeiting games. Once a game is cancelled, so is the game check that goes with it. So 52 guys on a team have to lose a game check because 1 guy broke protocol? Good luck passing that by the Players Union
 

dieterbrock

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" The NFL has deemed a number of gatherings to be “high-risk COVID-19 conduct,” and players can be fined a week’s pay and suspended up to four games for violating protocols. Under the new CBA, players are banned from the following:

— Attending a nightclub with more than 10 people


— Attending a bar with more than 10 people


— Attending a house party with more than 15 people


— Attending an indoor concert


— Attending a professional sporting event with more than 10 people per section


3. Huge penalty for refusing to test, players will wear tracking devices


If players refuse to take a COVID-19 test, they’ll be slapped with a $50,000 fine.

If players don’t wear masks or PPE they can be fined up to $14,650. They can also see this same fine if they don’t maintain social distancing while traveling or if they refuse to wear a tracking device. "
 

OldSchool

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I think forfeiting games is not an option!

How many people are going to be happy if Seattle plays 2 less games than us, because they had teams forfeit to them?
Forfeit is a loss not a vacated game.
 

OldSchool

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You think the owners would pay a game check for a game not played? Forfeit is a cancelled game. Neither team would get paid

In the end don’t care what the owners are ok with. They hire a front office and the front office hires a coach. They build and manage the team. Those people either through negligence or by turning a blind eye allowed players to violate the Covid protocol. They were told they cannot have practices by the league and the players organized them anyways knowing they shouldn’t. In the end the player who organized them is responsible for the bigger mess that this became. The coaches front office and in the end the owners are responsible to make sure the players and organization follow the rules. They failed in this and should face consequences, I’d say the same if it was the Rams.

Coaches failed to wear masks as they were supposed to and in the end the team and coaches paid fines. This is a much bigger deal than that and I can’t see how this is any different, in fact it’s worse imo.
 

Mackeyser

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The Titans’ season should be cancelled. Part of the reason guys like A’Shawn aren’t coming back is because of the positive tests. The rest of the NFL has done amazing.


View: https://elemental.medium.com/a-supercomputer-analyzed-covid-19-and-an-interesting-new-theory-has-emerged-31cb8eba9d63

arlier this summer, the Summit supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee set about crunching data on more than 40,000 genes from 17,000 genetic samples in an effort to better understand Covid-19. Summit is the second-fastest computer in the world, but the process — which involved analyzing 2.5 billion genetic combinations — still took more than a week.

When Summit was done, researchers analyzed the results. It was, in the words of Dr. Daniel Jacobson, lead researcher and chief scientist for computational systems biology at Oak Ridge, a “eureka moment.” The computer had revealed a new theory about how Covid-19 impacts the body: the bradykinin hypothesis. The hypothesis provides a model that explains many aspects of Covid-19, including some of its most bizarre symptoms. It also suggests 10-plus potential treatments, many of which are already FDA approved. Jacobson’s group published their results in a paper in the journal eLife in early July.

According to the team’s findings, a Covid-19 infection generally begins when the virus enters the body through ACE2 receptors in the nose, (The receptors, which the virus is known to target, are abundant there.) The virus then proceeds through the body, entering cells in other places where ACE2 is also present: the intestines, kidneys, and heart. This likely accounts for at least some of the disease’s cardiac and GI symptoms.

(Sign up for Your Coronavirus Update, a biweekly newsletter with the latest news, expert advice, and analysis to keep you safe)

But once Covid-19 has established itself in the body, things start to get really interesting. According to Jacobson’s group, the data Summit analyzed shows that Covid-19 isn’t content to simply infect cells that already express lots of ACE2 receptors. Instead, it actively hijacks the body’s own systems, tricking it into upregulating ACE2 receptors in places where they’re usually expressed at low or medium levels, including the lungs.

In this sense, Covid-19 is like a burglar who slips in your unlocked second-floor window and starts to ransack your house. Once inside, though, they don’t just take your stuff — they also throw open all your doors and windows so their accomplices can rush in and help pillage more efficiently.

The renin–angiotensin system (RAS) controls many aspects of the circulatory system, including the body’s levels of a chemical called bradykinin, which normally helps to regulate blood pressure. According to the team’s analysis, when the virus tweaks the RAS, it causes the body’s mechanisms for regulating bradykinin to go haywire. Bradykinin receptors are resensitized, and the body also stops effectively breaking down bradykinin. (ACE normally degrades bradykinin, but when the virus downregulates it, it can’t do this as effectively.)

The end result, the researchers say, is to release a bradykinin storm — a massive, runaway buildup of bradykinin in the body. According to the bradykinin hypothesis, it’s this storm that is ultimately responsible for many of Covid-19’s deadly effects. Jacobson’s team says in their paper that “the pathology of Covid-19 is likely the result of Bradykinin Storms rather than cytokine storms,” which had been previously identified in Covid-19 patients, but that “the two may be intricately linked.” Other papers had previously identified bradykinin storms as a possible cause of Covid-19’s pathologies.

Covid-19 is like a burglar who slips in your unlocked second-floor window and starts to ransack your house.
As bradykinin builds up in the body, it dramatically increases vascular permeability. In short, it makes your blood vessels leaky. This aligns with recent clinical data, which increasingly views Covid-19 primarily as a vascular disease, rather than a respiratory one. But Covid-19 still has a massive effect on the lungs. As blood vessels start to leak due to a bradykinin storm, the researchers say, the lungs can fill with fluid. Immune cells also leak out into the lungs, Jacobson’s team found, causing inflammation.

Coronavirus May Be a Blood Vessel Disease, Which Explains Everything
Many of the infection’s bizarre symptoms have one thing in common
elemental.medium.com

And Covid-19 has another especially insidious trick. Through another pathway, the team’s data shows, it increases production of hyaluronic acid (HLA) in the lungs. HLA is often used in soaps and lotions for its ability to absorb more than 1,000 times its weight in fluid. When it combines with fluid leaking into the lungs, the results are disastrous: It forms a hydrogel, which can fill the lungs in some patients. According to Jacobson, once this happens, “it’s like trying to breathe through Jell-O.”

This may explain why ventilators have proven less effective in treating advanced Covid-19 than doctors originally expected, based on experiences with other viruses. “It reaches a point where regardless of how much oxygen you pump in, it doesn’t matter, because the alveoli in the lungs are filled with this hydrogel,” Jacobson says. “The lungs become like a water balloon.” Patients can suffocate even while receiving full breathing support.

The bradykinin hypothesis also extends to many of Covid-19’s effects on the heart. About one in five hospitalized Covid-19 patients have damage to their hearts, even if they never had cardiac issues before. Some of this is likely due to the virus infecting the heart directly through its ACE2 receptors. But the RAS also controls aspects of cardiac contractions and blood pressure. According to the researchers, bradykinin storms could create arrhythmias and low blood pressure, which are often seen in Covid-19 patients.

The bradykinin hypothesis also accounts for Covid-19’s neurological effects, which are some of the most surprising and concerning elements of the disease. These symptoms (which include dizziness, seizures, delirium, and stroke) are present in as many as half of hospitalized Covid-19 patients. According to Jacobson and his team, MRI studies in France revealed that many Covid-19 patients have evidence of leaky blood vessels in their brains.

Bradykinin — especially at high doses — can also lead to a breakdown of the blood-brain barrier. Under normal circumstances, this barrier acts as a filter between your brain and the rest of your circulatory system. It lets in the nutrients and small molecules that the brain needs to function, while keeping out toxins and pathogens and keeping the brain’s internal environment tightly regulated.

If bradykinin storms cause the blood-brain barrier to break down, this could allow harmful cells and compounds into the brain, leading to inflammation, potential brain damage, and many of the neurological symptoms Covid-19 patients experience. Jacobson told me, “It is a reasonable hypothesis that many of the neurological symptoms in Covid-19 could be due to an excess of bradykinin. It has been reported that bradykinin would indeed be likely to increase the permeability of the blood-brain barrier. In addition, similar neurological symptoms have been observed in other diseases that result from an excess of bradykinin.”

Increased bradykinin levels could also account for other common Covid-19 symptoms. ACE inhibitors — a class of drugs used to treat high blood pressure — have a similar effect on the RAS system as Covid-19, increasing bradykinin levels. In fact, Jacobson and his team note in their paper that “the virus… acts pharmacologically as an ACE inhibitor” — almost directly mirroring the actions of these drugs.

Medium Coronavirus Blog
A real-time resource for Covid-19 news, advice, and commentary.
coronavirus.medium.com

By acting like a natural ACE inhibitor, Covid-19 may be causing the same effects that hypertensive patients sometimes get when they take blood pressure–lowering drugs. ACE inhibitors are known to cause a dry cough and fatigue, two textbook symptoms of Covid-19. And they can potentially increase blood potassium levels, which has also been observed in Covid-19 patients. The similarities between ACE inhibitor side effects and Covid-19 symptoms strengthen the bradykinin hypothesis, the researchers say.

ACE inhibitors are also known to cause a loss of taste and smell. Jacobson stresses, though, that this symptom is more likely due to the virus “affecting the cells surrounding olfactory nerve cells” than the direct effects of bradykinin.

Though still an emerging theory, the bradykinin hypothesis explains several other of Covid-19’s seemingly bizarre symptoms. Jacobson and his team speculate that leaky vasculature caused by bradykinin storms could be responsible for “Covid toes,” a condition involving swollen, bruised toes that some Covid-19 patients experience. Bradykinin can also mess with the thyroid gland, which could produce the thyroid symptoms recently observed in some patients.

The bradykinin hypothesis could also explain some of the broader demographic patterns of the disease’s spread. The researchers note that some aspects of the RAS system are sex-linked, with proteins for several receptors (such as one called TMSB4X) located on the X chromosome. This means that “women… would have twice the levels of this protein than men,” a result borne out by the researchers’ data. In their paper, Jacobson’s team concludes that this “could explain the lower incidence of Covid-19 induced mortality in women.” A genetic quirk of the RAS could be giving women extra protection against the disease.

The bradykinin hypothesis provides a model that “contributes to a better understanding of Covid-19” and “adds novelty to the existing literature,” according to scientists Frank van de Veerdonk, Jos WM van der Meer, and Roger Little, who peer-reviewed the team’s paper. It predicts nearly all the disease’s symptoms, even ones (like bruises on the toes) that at first appear random, and further suggests new treatments for the disease.

As Jacobson and team point out, several drugs target aspects of the RAS and are already FDA approved to treat other conditions. They could arguably be applied to treating Covid-19 as well. Several, like danazol, stanozolol, and ecallantide, reduce bradykinin production and could potentially stop a deadly bradykinin storm. Others, like icatibant, reduce bradykinin signaling and could blunt its effects once it’s already in the body.

Interestingly, Jacobson’s team also suggests vitamin D as a potentially useful Covid-19 drug. The vitamin is involved in the RAS system and could prove helpful by reducing levels of another compound, known as REN. Again, this could stop potentially deadly bradykinin storms from forming. The researchers note that vitamin D has already been shown to help those with Covid-19. The vitamin is readily available over the counter, and around 20% of the population is deficient. If indeed the vitamin proves effective at reducing the severity of bradykinin storms, it could be an easy, relatively safe way to reduce the severity of the virus.

Other compounds could treat symptoms associated with bradykinin storms. Hymecromone, for example, could reduce hyaluronic acid levels, potentially stopping deadly hydrogels from forming in the lungs. And timbetasin could mimic the mechanism that the researchers believe protects women from more severe Covid-19 infections. All of these potential treatments are speculative, of course, and would need to be studied in a rigorous, controlled environment before their effectiveness could be determined and they could be used more broadly.

Covid-19 stands out for both the scale of its global impact and the apparent randomness of its many symptoms. Physicians have struggled to understand the disease and come up with a unified theory for how it works. Though as of yet unproven, the bradykinin hypothesis provides such a theory. And like all good hypotheses, it also provides specific, testable predictions — in this case, actual drugs that could provide relief to real patients.

The researchers are quick to point out that “the testing of any of these pharmaceutical interventions should be done in well-designed clinical trials.” As to the next step in the process, Jacobson is clear: “We have to get this message out.” His team’s finding won’t cure Covid-19. But if the treatments it points to pan out in the clinic, interventions guided by the bradykinin hypothesis could greatly reduce patients’ suffering — and potentially save lives.


NOTE: This article is pretty dense. I’m out of the COVID thread but it belongs there as well. I’m happy to answer any questions as best I can or make the appropriate referrals.

If these findings are verified, then it proves WHY athletes who make their living being the best by fractions of a percent are in danger of losing their careers and worse for those with undiagnosed CTE. Even the idea that some player with undiagnosed CTE could get COVID from a careless Titan and have his brain devastated is beyond the pale.

I agree that the Titans should be harshly dealt with up to and including going straight to ownership and letting them know that this is a forced sale level violation if they don’t take every drastic and immediate to get into and stay in compliance with all local, state, federal and league rules.

Wrt COVID19, the NFL needs to be the Not Fuckin-around League.

2020 has sucked enough. We don’t need losing football to be the shit cherry on the top of this giant shit sundae of a year...
 
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