The San Francisco 49ers losing the Super Bowl in February potentially saved lives as the coronavirus started its spread through the US, two California doctors have said.
Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, Dr Bob Wachte, chair of the department of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and Dr Niraj Sehgal, who leads the university’s Covid-19 command centre, mentioned the potential positive impact of a 49ers’ loss.
“It may go down in the annals as being a brutal sports loss, but one that may have saved lives,” Dr Wachter said.
“It would not have taken much spread in early February for the thing to have gotten way out of hand,” he added. “That would’ve been enough to light the fire.”
The 49ers led by 10 points going into the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl, but then the Kansas City Chiefs had a resurgence in their offence and went on to win, to the shock and dismay of San Francisco fans.
But this prevented a large celebration parade in the Bay Area, which in the coming weeks became one of the country’s first hotspots for Covid-19.
“It is certainly hard to imagine a more high-risk situation,” Dr Sehgal told the newspaper when referencing the lack of a parade.
Social distancing was one measure put into place in recent months to stop the spread of the novel virus. But large gatherings, like a parade, would threaten the number of infections.
Health officials in New Orleans, Louisiana, for example, have said Mardi Gras, which happened a few weeks after the Super Bowl, potentially aided in the city becoming such a hotspot for the virus after millions gathered in the dense city.
Although 49ers fans might not see the loss as a blessing, the doctors believe the loss potentially prevented an increased infection rate and death toll in the area.
“This may be one of the lucky breaks that spared us from a much worse fate,” Dr Wacher said.
Coronavirus cases rose in the US to more than 600,000 infected with the virus and 25,239 deaths.
In California, though, the state has significantly flattened its curve through early social distancing measures put in place in areas like San Francisco. The state has over 25,000 infections and 733 deaths.
