The coronavirus pandemic has been sweeping the world in recent weeks, causing sports, business and essentially life to shut down for the time being.
While other sports were forced to put their respective seasons on hold, the NFL is currently in the offseason so they are going about business as usual with free agency starting up and the draft just around the corner.
Everything is being done remotely though as people are forced to stay at their homes. Many usual team events in the coming months such as OTAs likely will not take place as it will take time for coronavirus to get under control.
Often times with the virus, no symptoms are shown at first, which makes it tough to track how quickly it is spreading. A number of athletes and celebrities have announced that they have contracted it though, which really shows the danger at hand.
One of those athletes may be Las Vegas Raiders linebacker Quentin Poling. After taking a trip to Spain with his family, he believes they have all contracted the virus, but doctors will not allow them to get tested:
Goes to Spain. Comes home. Has fluid in lungs, SOB, sore throat, and dry cough. But because I’m “too healthy” to be hospitalized they refuse to administer me a COVID-19 test and tell me I’m good to go home and fly back to Florida in a couple days! I love it #OhioHealthDepartment
— Quentin Poling (@callmeQQQQQ) March 17, 2020
My doctor told me that he is sure me, my wife, and our two year-old daughter have COVID-19, but that’s the Ohio Health Department wasn’t administering tests because we aren’t high risk. I guess they just don’t want the real number of infected people in the state to be known.
— Quentin Poling (@callmeQQQQQ) March 17, 2020
OR they don’t have nearly as many tests as they pretend they do. Or both.
— Quentin Poling (@callmeQQQQQ) March 17, 2020
Tests should be available to everyone who needs them, so this is obviously unfortunate news. Hopefully, Poling and his family can get the testing they need in the near future so they can get the right treatment and begin the recovery process.
Poling is the first Raiders player to announce he may have coronavirus. While the hope is that he will be the only one, there’s no telling where this virus will take all of us in the coming future.
The Raiders orignally signed to the Raiders’ practice squad last September. He was promoted to the active roster on Nov. 7, but was waived two days later and re-signed to the practice squad before being released on Dec. 4. After spending the rest of the season on the Atlanta Falcons’ practice squad, the Raiders re-signed him at the start of the offseason.
