The Wall Street Journal - USA (2020-12-03)

A14| Thursday, December 3, 2020 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

B

ack in February, when

the sports world was

still wondering how se-

vere an outbreak of

something called

Covid-19 might be, a Colombian cy-

clist named Fernando Gaviria was

finding out for himself.

Gaviria was doing his job, racing

bikes in the United Arab Emirates,

when he became one of the first in-

ternational athletes to contract the

coronavirus. The symptoms were

harsh enough to land him in hospi-

tal for two weeks. “Back then we

knew very little about the virus,”

he wrote in an email.

By the time Gaviria was healthy

enough to leave Abu Dhabi, his

world was a more uncertain place.

The sports calendar had been

scrubbed. Entire countries were

shutting down. But Gaviria’s virus

ordeal seemed to come with a per-

sonal silver lining. Prevailing wis-

dom suggested he’d at least be im-

mune for the foreseeable future.

That future lasted barely seven

months. In October, Gaviria tested

positive a second time. His reaction

was sheer disbelief.

“I was completely asymptomatic

and felt OK,” he wrote.

His team ran a slew of backup

tests to be certain—the implica-

tions of his apparent reinfection

were immense. A second case of

Covid-19 wouldn’t just make Ga-

viria a rarity in sports. It would

make him one of the most curious

cases in the world.

That’s because the possibility of

contracting Covid-19 twice remains

one of the pandemic’s great mys-

teries, even after a year and with a

vaccine on the horizon. Research-

ers have confirmed only around 25

cases of reinfection world-wide

with perhaps 500 more suspected,

according to Richard Tillett, the

University of Nevada biostatistician

who described the first U.S. rein-

fection this summer.

What makes Gaviria’s case more

compelling is that he belongs to a

small population with generally ex-

cellent health—and access to fre-

quent testing: professional athletes.

From the time he resumed compe-

tition in late July until his second

positive test on Oct. 19, the 26-

year-old Gaviria underwent more

than a dozen PCR tests, according

to his team. All of them came back

negative.

Those results further point to

reinfection rather than a long-haul

case that has dragged on from Feb-

ruary, according to Tillett. “With

eight months in between and so

many negative tests, it’s plausible.”

That frequency of testing is also

what detected Gaviria’s apparent

second infection. Were he not an

elite athlete, he probably wouldn’t

have sought out a test on his own,

considering he was asymptomatic

and had been previously infected.

But because he was on the pro cy-

cling circuit, the test came to him.

Under the standards laid out by

the Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention, Gaviria is considered

merely a “suspected” case of rein-

fection, not “confirmed.” The CDC

requires a process known as ge-

nomic sequencing for both samples

to prove that they contain different

SEA CHANGES| By Mike Shenk

Across

1 City between

Austin and Dallas

5 Falls away

9 Dirk DeJong’s

nickname in a

Pulitzer-winning

1924 novel

14 Most common

element on Earth

by mass

15 It divides 5-Down

16 Adler who called

Sherlock Holmes

“formidable”

17 Ice box?

19 Baylor in the

Basketball Hall

of Fame

20 Company whose

logo is a trio of

interlocking

tuning forks

21 Memory trigger,

sometimes

23 Bank acct.

addition

24 Team of

eccentrics who

are behind in

the game?

27 Brit. bigwigs

30 Spare part?

31 Québec shares

borders with

quatre of them

32 “Your bran is

strictly brand X,”

maybe?

35 Booty

38 Bow in early

movies

39 Pelvic projection

41 African

wallower

42 Bus driver for

Lisa and

Milhouse

43 Part of a

roughly-made

mattress?

45 “Giant brain”

completed in

1945

49 Got together

50 Uptown

direction in NYC

51 Paramour

decides it’s time

to split?

55 AP competitor

56 Seller of Ektorp

sofas

57 Confident

wordsatthe

table

61 High areas

TheWSJDailyCrossword|Edited by Mike Shenk

1234 5678 910111213

14 15 16

17 18 19

20 21 22 23

24 25 26

27 28 29 30 31

32 33 34 35 36 37

38 39 40 41

42 43 44

45 46 47 48 49 50

51 52 53 54

55 56 57 58 59 60

61 62 63 64

65 66 67

68 69 70

Previous Puzzle’s Solution

s

Solve this puzzle online and discuss it atWSJ.com/Puzzles.

OMEN L AMP I NC UR

SONE ODOR MI LNE

HORSESHOE PLOTS

KNOTTED FEE AWE

OPUSES SEALSKIN

SIT ROBERT PENT

HEE NUKE FADES

CATSK I LLS

CORAL ECUA CUP

APED SPRUNG ONA

PIGSTIES GOONIN

ANA ASS PENANCE

BITER TOADSTOOL

LOTTO ELLA ETRE

ENACT REST REND

63 Strongbox

crafted from pale

hardwood?

65 Tag number

66 Lorry part

67 “Happy

Motoring!” brand

68 Fills fully

69 Cheek

70 Supreme leader

Down

1 Tough and lean

2 Britten creation

3 Census Bureau’s

cabinet dept.

4 NBA MVP in

2000

5 Region divided

by 15-Across

6 Le Mystère buy

7 Conducting need

8 Vehicle on

runners

9 Follower of

Romeo

10 Magic, on sports

tickers

11 Is triggered by

12 Bold way to solve

13 Mannerly men

18 “Ageless Body,

Timeless Mind”

author

22 Fourth qtr. start

25 Proceed

cautiously

26 Top story

27 Somewhat, in

scores

28 Shake addition

29 It might include

a Rose Garden

photo op

33 Witchy woman

34 Brunch cocktail

36 Take turns

37 Putting target

40 Deer stalker

41 Straight

44 Ploys

46 Van Gogh

subject

47 “That’s terrible!”

48 Field grippers

51 Mattress

annoyances

52 Britten creation

53 Class for

coasters

54 More

conservative

58 Should that be

the case

59 Therapy period:

Abbr.

60 Winged archer

62 Strong heart

64 Time sheet nos.

BYJOSHUAROBINSON

Weather

Shown are today’s noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.

City Hi LoW Hi LoW City Hi Lo W Hi Lo W

Today Tomorrow Today Tomorrow

City Hi LoW Hi LoW

Anchorage 20 7 c 14 6 s

Atlanta 57 44 pc 61 41 r

Austin 57 35 s 60 31 s

Baltimore 54 38 s 53 44 c

Boise 40 20 s 36 20 s

Boston 50 40 s 52 44 c

Burlington 45 36 pc 45 35 c

Charlotte 57 40 s 59 49 r

Chicago 43 30 pc 43 30 s

Cleveland 42 35 pc 43 30 c

Dallas 49 33 c 57 34 pc

Denver 46 27 s 53 28 s

Detroit 43 32 pc 40 28 pc

Honolulu 86 74 s 84 73 pc

Houston 57 40 s 56 35 pc

Indianapolis 45 31 c 46 29 s

Kansas City 43 26 c 48 26 s

Las Vegas 56 33 s 58 36 s

Little Rock 44 34 r 49 32 pc

Los Angeles 72 45 s 72 47 s

Miami 76 68 pc 79 70 pc

Milwaukee 41 32 pc 42 31 pc

Minneapolis 40 27 pc 38 24 s

Nashville 52 42 pc 51 39 r

New Orleans 70 52 t 58 44 s

New York City 51 44 s 50 44 sh

Oklahoma City 39 25 r 52 29 s

Omaha 45 25 pc 49 23 s

Orlando 73 58 pc 78 63 pc

Philadelphia 52 41 s 50 43 sh

Phoenix 67 41 s 66 42 s

Pittsburgh 43 34 pc 43 34 sn

Portland, Maine 44 34 s 48 39 c

Portland, Ore. 48 33 pc 49 36 s

Sacramento 64 35 pc 65 33 s

St. Louis 45 33 sn 49 30 s

Salt Lake City 39 19 s 40 24 s

San Francisco 61 44 pc 65 44 s

Santa Fe 40 18 s 48 21 s

Seattle 49 37 s 50 37 s

Sioux Falls 43 26 pc 46 25 s

Wash., D.C. 53 42 s 53 47 c

Amsterdam 44 40 sh 45 33 sh

Athens 61 55 c 64 52 sh

Baghdad 68 53 pc 68 51 pc

Bangkok 89 72 s 85 68 pc

Beijing 40 17 pc 39 17 pc

Berlin 34 27 pc 40 33 pc

Brussels 43 41 sh 44 33 sh

Buenos Aires 79 61 s 73 58 pc

Dubai 83 73 pc 85 73 pc

Dublin 39 29 sh 42 39 sh

Edinburgh 38 29 sh 43 39 sh

Frankfurt 37 35 pc 41 33 sh

Geneva 40 35 pc 38 31 sh

Havana 80 66 s 83 66 sh

Hong Kong 72 56 s 69 57 s

Istanbul 56 44 pc 60 47 s

Jakarta 88 76 t 89 77 t

Jerusalem 58 45 s 59 44 c

Johannesburg 74 55 pc 79 54 t

London 44 36 sh 40 34 r

Madrid 48 39 pc 46 31 sh

Manila 86 77 t 86 76 pc

Melbourne 75 55 s 75 59 s

Mexico City 74 46 c 73 48 pc

Milan 42 33 pc 39 36 r

Moscow 26 20 c 27 24 c

Mumbai 93 74 pc 92 74 pc

Paris 46 38 r 44 33 c

Rio de Janeiro 90 77 pc 89 76 pc

Riyadh 77 62 pc 79 63 pc

Rome 56 44 sh 60 55 r

San Juan 83 73 sh 83 73 pc

Seoul 39 21 s 40 25 s

Shanghai 53 40 pc 51 41 s

Singapore 87 78 sh 84 77 t

Sydney 7868pc 8668s

Taipei City 68 61 r 68 63 r

Tokyo 5448pc 5346pc

Toronto 4034pc 3828sn

Vancouver 46 38 c 46 38 pc

Warsaw 34 31 c 43 39 pc

Zurich 38 29 pc 38 32 sh

Today Tomorrow

U.S. Forecasts

International

City Hi Lo W Hi Lo W

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t...t’storms; r...rain; sf...snow flurries; sn...snow; i...ice

Today Tomorrow

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Rain

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Snow

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New York

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Nashville

Memphis

Detroit

Kansas

City

El Paso Dallas

Billings

Portland

Miami

San Francisco

Sacramento

Orlando

Atlanta

New Orleans

Houston

San Diego Phoenix

Los Angeles

Las

Vegas

Seattle

Boise

Denver

Mpls./St. Paul

St. Louis

Chicago

Washington D.C.

Boston

Charleston

Milwaukee Hartford

Wichita

Indianapolis

Cleveland

Buffalo

Austin

Helena

Bismarck

Albuquerque

Omaha

Oklahoma City

San Antonio

Des Moines

Sioux Falls

Jackson

Birmingham

Reno Cheyenne Philadelphia

Santa Fe

Colorado

Springs

Pierre

Richmond

Raleigh

Tucson

Albany

Topeka

Columbia

Augusta

Ft. Worth

Eugene

Springfield

Mobile

Toronto

Ottawa Montreal

Winnipeg

Vancouver Calgary

Edmonton

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40s 80s

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WHEN THE NATIONAL FOOTBALL

League’s owners gathered virtually

in October, it was on the heels of a

Covid-19 outbreak inside the Ten-

nessee Titans that derailed the

league’s schedule. They discussed

what would become a principle of

this season’s thorny finish: the

NFL’s long-held obsession with

competitive fairness had to go by

the wayside.

That decision came home to

roost over a surreal week that be-

gan on Thanksgiving with the

postponement of a marquee game;

continued on Sunday with one

team playing without a quarter-

back; and concluded with an un-

usual Wednesday game.

“Health and medical decisions

have and will always take prece-

dence over competitive consider-

ations,” commissioner Roger Good-

ell said Wednesday.

His remarks came just two

hours before the Baltimore Ravens

and Pittsburgh Steelers were set to

kickoff a game that had been post-

poned three times because the Ra-

vens continued to register new

positive tests for more than a

week. The outbreak left the Ravens

to play against the NFL’s last un-

defeated team without MVP quar-

terback Lamar Jackson, their top

two running backs and a host of

other starters.

The Ravens-Steelers game was

supposed to be played on Thanks-

giving night, until the cases forced

a postponement until Sunday, and

then Tuesday and then Wednes-

day. It wasn’t even confirmed that

the game would proceed until

shortly after noon Wednesday, just

hours before kickoff.

Yet this game wasn’t even the

starkest demonstration of the

NFL’s willingness to plow through

competitive inequity in order to

get in a game. On Sunday, the Den-

ver Broncos played the New Or-

leans Saints without a quarterback

after one of their backups tested

positive and the team’s other quar-

terbacks were removed due to con-

tact tracing. They ended up using

receiver Kendall Hinton at quarter-

back. The Broncos lost 31-3, while

Hinton completed one pass and

threw two interceptions.

Ravens quarterback Robert Griffin III

FROM TOP: LUCA ZENNARO/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK; GENE J. PUSKAR/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Fernando Gaviria during the 5th stage of the 2020 Giro d’Italia. He withdrew after testing positive for Covid-19.

The Cyclist Who Caught

Covid-19 Twice

Eight months after his first bout with the virus, Colombia’s

Fernando Gaviria tested positive again in October

that the one case was him. Again.

His spectacular bad luck came

on the second rest day of the Giro

d’Italia, after 16 stages from Sicily

to the Alps. Gaviria had raced on

40 different days since the season

resumed in July without issue. He

had been cleared repeatedly by

negative tests. But Gaviria, one of

the first pro cyclists in the world to

contract Covid, now seemed to be

thefirsttodoittwice.

“That was a little bit more sur-

prising than if somebody else had

it,” Swart said.

Gaviria was immediately sent

into isolation, where he displayed

no symptoms. Whether or not

that’s typical for reinfection is

hard to say, since experts have yet

to find a common thread in the

handful of confirmed reinfections

they’ve been able to examine.

“I cannot see a pattern between

confirmed cases of reinfection and

what kind of immune response they

had prior to the second exposure,

Iwasaki said. “It’s possible that

people who had reinfections had

low levels of antibodies or T-cells.

We just don’t have enough data.”

The two data points supplied by

Gaviria merely suggest reinfections

could become more widespread, ex-

perts said. But for him, they also

underscore what he had already re-

alized back when he made his way

out of an Abu Dhabi hospital eight

months ago.

“The virus,” he said at the time,

“is turning out to be more serious

than we imagined.”

“They tended to burn themselves

out fast even though we were to-

tally unprepared for them,” Tillett

said. “It was a very short time

frame that we had to study them in

the wild.”

But professional sports this year

turned into pop-up Covid laborato-

ries. Their intense testing regimes

and controlled environments cre-

ated easy-to-monitor populations

with lessons to offer on transmis-

sion, isolation, and sanitary proto-

cols. Those conditions also made

cycling into one of 2020s unlikely

success stories.

Organizers managed to pull off

the Tour de France, the Giro d’Ita-

lia, and the Vuelta a Espana—three-

week stage races around countries

with rising case numbers—by hold-

ing them in roving bubbles after

the season resumed this summer.

Over the nine weeks of competi-

tion, 4,568 tests were carried out,

returning just 14 positives, accord-

ing to cycling’s world governing

body. And whenever a case cropped

up, organizers didn’t panic. They

simply sent the infected individuals

home and retested those who had

been in contact with them without

aborting the race.

“We had a very strict protocol

and for the most part it was very

successful,” said Jeroen Swart, the

head of medicine at Gaviria’s UAE

Team Emirates. “We managed to

navigate the entire [post-hiatus]

season with only one case in a race

scenario.”

The problem for Gaviria was

strains of Covid-19. The problem is

that tracking down Gaviria’s first

positive sample, now eight months

old and taken in the United Arab

Emirates, is no longer possible.

A growing body of evidence,

however, suggests that reinfections

could become more widespread in

the near future.

Recent studies have shown that

the body’s immune response to the

virus—measured in levels of anti-

bodies and T-cells—tends to wane

over time.

“We don’t know how long it

lasts,” said Akiko Iwasaki, professor

of immunobiology at Yale Univer-

sity. “For seasonal coronaviruses,

reinfections do occur within a year.

So I wouldn’t be surprised that the

Covid immunity also doesn’t last

very long when acquired from nat-

ural infections.”

Nonseasonal flavors of coronavi-

rus are much less understood. Re-

searchers have had only fleeting

chances in the past to examine the

large-scale behavior of those simi-

lar to Covid-19, such as severe

acute respiratory syndrome and

Middle East respiratory syndrome.

A body of evidence

suggests that reinfections

could become more

widespread.

BYANDREWBEATON

NFL Opts to

Plow Ahead

With Games

SPORTS