Nick Saban questions if SEC quarantine period aligns with science

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Alabama coach Nick Saban on Thursday evening questioned the SEC’s protocol that requires athletes traced as close contacts to COVID-infected people to be quarantined for 14 days.

“Look, the social tracing part of it is the reason these games are being canceled," Saban said during his weekly radio show. "It’s not the number of players that are testing positive. Aight?

"We’ve been ‘round and around on this, even to the point where the people in the federal government, Dr. [Anthony] Fauci and the people who work for him, told us that if you’re gonna get this, you’re gonna get it in seven days. OK? That’s the science. Aight? So you’re probably going to get it within five days, but seven days max.

"So we can test guys out of this in five, six and seven [days] and let them come back in eight days and we’re having them quarantine for 14 days. So you really have to quarantine if you don’t have it -- just because you’re around somebody -- for longer than if you get it. You’re out for longer, and you may not even get sick.

"We should use the science to make sure we keep people safe, but when we have science that verifies what safe is, then we should use that.”

The SEC medical guidance task force’s requirements for COVID-19, last revised Nov. 3, call for a 14-day quarantine period for any athletes who were in prolonged close contact -- defined as within six feet for more than 15 minutes -- of an infected person. The requirements, first published in August, cite “current national guidelines” in enforcing the 14-day quarantine, and add that testing negative does not shorten the quarantine period.

For a confirmed infection of COVID-19, the SEC’s guidelines call for at least a 10-day isolation period from the onset of symptoms or a positive test.

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