Without a ‘Bubble,’ N.F.L. Season Might Not Happen, Fauci Says

The nation’s leading infectious disease expert said the only way to guarantee safety from the coronavirus would be to play in an enclosed environment.

By Ken Belson
June 18, 2020

The N.F.L. must seal off players, coaches and team staff members in an enclosed community to safely play the 2020 season amid the coronavirus pandemic, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the country’s highest ranking specialist in infectious diseases, said on Thursday.

“Unless players are essentially in a bubble — insulated from the community and they are tested nearly every day — it would be very hard to see how football is able to be played this fall,” Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN.

Dr. Fauci said if a second wave of cases sweeps the country, as many experts fear, “football may not happen this year.”

The N.B.A., Major League Soccer and other leagues have announced plans to create enclosed campuses where their players, coaches and staff members will live and play full time in venues without fans. The N.B.A., for instance, will house teams at the Walt Disney World Resort next month near Orlando, Fla., so it can finish the 2019-20 season.

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