Complete or not? That was the last question when it came to how well people are protected against the coronavirus. Depending on the drug administered, anyone who has received one or two doses is considered fully vaccinated. Whereby “fully vaccinated” does not mean “completely protected”: Even then, a window remains open through which viruses can enter the body. At EHC Red Bull Munich they interpret the question “Complete or not?” Meanwhile different: After the club from the German Ice Hockey League (DEL) announced last Saturday that the game against Nuremberg on Sunday would have to be canceled due to several corona cases in the team as well as in the coaching and support staff, the three-time German champions specified on Monday: A total of 18 people are infected, including 14 players.
On Tuesday the number increased to 22, including 16 players and six people from the close team environment. All those affected are in quarantine by order of the Munich health department. According to the club, there are also five injured professionals. That means: 21 out of 29 licensed players are currently not available to Munich. Ten field players plus one goalkeeper would be the minimum to be considered fit. The top game against Adler Mannheim scheduled for this Wednesday and the game on Friday at promoted Bietigheim have also been canceled, and the game at home against champions Eisbären Berlin on Sunday will be postponed. How is that possible?
“97.5 percent of all players, coaches and supervisors are currently fully or at least simply vaccinated,” the EHC announced on request. According to experts, it is almost impossible for 22 people to become infected separately in their respective personal environment at the same time. “It is much more likely,” says the hygiene expert Florian Kainzinger, that “one or two people were infected in their private environment” and then infected the others – as so-called super spreaders, infected people with a particularly high viral load.
An explosive occurrence of cases such as in Munich is favored by the “prolonged stay of many people in closed rooms,” says Kainzinger, a situation that athletes often experience in poorly ventilated cabins, in the team bus, while eating or during video meetings, for example. Kainzinger, 39, works with the “Task Force Sports Medicine / Special Game Operations in Professional Football”, was in charge of the hygiene concept for the Bundesliga basketball league and also advises the DEL.
You couldn’t be more careful: Munich brought its own “crime scene cleaners” to games
Nevertheless: What does such a massive vaccination breakthrough mean for the coming autumn months? This is also what those responsible in other sports and leagues ask themselves. “Probably no club has done more to ensure compliance with the hygiene rules than their colleagues in Munich,” says Stefan Esch, head of communications at the Augsburg Panthers. The people of Munich even brought their busy hygiene officers with them to away games, referred to as “crime scene cleaners” by the competition, half mockingly, half admiringly. The Munich team had also “informed the league and the other clubs openly and in good time,” emphasized Esch.
Nevertheless, the news of the vaccination breakthrough in Munich “really hit” on Saturday in Augsburg. The EHC last competed there on Friday evening – without nine players. The Munich respondents cited injuries and regenerative reasons as the reason for the many failures. The very short bench still seemed strange to observers. It was suspected that some of the failures could already have been caused by corona. The league said that all test results before the game were negative. “Red Bull Munich has met all the requirements required by the relevant authorities,” said the club on Wednesday. Unfortunately, viruses adhere to official orders rather unreliably.
“The standard for all professional leagues in Germany is that only unvaccinated players are tested,” says Florian Kainzinger. This procedure has been agreed with the employers’ liability insurance association. It is therefore possible that both the unvaccinated and those who tested negative played. It is also possible that people who had been vaccinated could have passed the virus on to others, and only when some players showed symptoms and then all were tested did the full extent of the infection become apparent. Much remains speculation.
After the audience restrictions had only been relaxed last weekend in Bavaria, Augsburg have now “massively increased the test protocol again,” says Stefan Esch. So far there has been no corona case in Augsburg, and the Panther game on Sunday in Krefeld took place as planned. Florian Kainzinger says the likelihood of being infected as an opponent in a game is “very low”, and even lower in outdoor sports such as football. But even in halls, which usually have a very good ventilation system, the risk of infection – also for the spectators – is “many times lower” than among team colleagues in the cabin. That is why Kainzinger continues to advocate the return of spectators to the sports arenas, for a return to a mindful normalcy.
“The pandemic shows us again and again how uncontrollable it is. With strict hygiene concepts and precautionary measures, we can minimize the risk, but never exclude it,” said Mannheim’s manager Jan-Axel Alavaara objectively to the cancellation of the game in Munich. Stefan Esch says: The example of Munich is definitely a “proof of how difficult this autumn can be”. Not just for the German Ice Hockey League.