US cities with pro sports see more flu deaths

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-06/wvu-ucw061820.php


News Release 18-Jun-2020
West Virginia University

Sports leagues may want to consider calling a timeout on reopening their doors to fans, based on new West Virginia University-led research that links an uptick in seasonal flu deaths to U.S. cities with pro sports teams.

Analyzing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data from 1962 to 2016, WVU economists found that flu deaths increased by between 5 and 24 percent during the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB seasons, with the largest increase for NHL games.

Given that COVID-19 is believed to be more contagious and deadlier, Economics Professor Brad Humphreys has a message for sports leagues until a vaccine is available or herd immunity exists: "Don't let the fans back into the games."

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"We found data that reported flu mortality by city by week dating back to the 1960s," Humphreys said. "We decided the best experiment was to try to look at what happened when a city got a new pro sports team compared to cities that didn't. As it turned out, after a new professional sports team came into a city, that flu season and every flu season afterward had more people dying of the flu.

"It isn't one or two people dying. This is closer to 30 or 40 additional flu deaths over the course of flu season. When you blow it up to a virus that's more fatal like COVID-19, we could be talking about hundreds of additional deaths because of these games."

The study also showed a decline in flu deaths in U.S. cities during season stoppages. That means cities reported fewer flu deaths during the 2011 NBA lockout and the 1982 NFL strike.

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