Bitten By COVID : Career-Stopper

"The back half of the 14-day quarantine Arch wasn't feeling well and got a severe viral infection. He tried to skate a few days, they did a bunch of tests and the tests showed at some point he had contracted COVID."

"He got a bunch of blood work done and he's been diagnosed with the myocarditis. He's having a CT scan and an MRI this week."

"He's out indefinitely until we figure out where we are at."

Dave Tippett, head coach, Edmonton Oilers

Josh Archibald in happier times. Photo by Greg Southam /Postmedia

According to the National Hockey League, 90 to 94 percent of their players by the start of the season on October 12, will have been vaccinated. They anticipate that a few may refuse to be vaccinated. Under NHL rules regarding COVID, should an unvaccinated player test positive for COVID, there will be a suspension incurred, without pay. This situation is not unique to the NHL; other professional sports leagues are involved in how best to proceed under the threat of the highly infectious Delta strain of the mutated SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Canadian basketball star Andrew Wiggins originally refused to be inoculated against the coronavirus, facing the prospect of being excluded from his team's stadium building of the Golden State Warriors in San Francisco. For large indoor events taking place in that jurisdiction, proof of vaccination is required before entry is permitted. He has since seen the light, receiving his COVID-19 vaccine, making him eligible to play in all games.

Things failed to turn out so well for Josh Archibald, forward with the Edmonton Oilers NHL hockey team. He was adamantly against being vaccinated. He had been on social media facing the public to promote anti-vaccination theories, a confirmed COVID-denial adherent. In accord with unvaccinated player protocols he was in a 14-day quarantine after returning from the United States, and began feeling ill. The 28-year-old went for a battery of tests and he was diagnosed with COVID antibodies and myocarditis.

While he was busy over the summer months airing  his anti-COVID beliefs he had contracted     COVID, after which myocarditis resulted as an after-effect of having hosted the virus. Now he has been made aware that myocarditis can lead to cardiac arrest. With the heart rate increasing through exertion, the potential for death is incurred. Following his heart condition diagnosis he faces the reality that his playing days may cease completely. He has a year left on his $1.5-M- contracted salary.

 

This is a man who appeared on social media tweeting COVID denial information, now his career is in jeopardy. How impressive is that? He had no recognizable symptoms after leaving the team following playoffs. It was the testing procedure that revealed the presence of antibodies. "So at some point he got COVID", observed Coach Tippett.

 

It was not for lack of effort on the part of the Edmonton Oilers organization in attempting to persuade their player to relent and accept the necessity to be inoculated; they tried to have him change his opinion of vaccines. Both the general manager and the team's head coach spoke to Archibald prior to training camp, laying out the penalty for refusing vaccination; that he would have to quarantine for two weeks each time he returned from a U.S. road trip. In the event, he could miss 30 or more games as a result of quarantine, affecting his salary.

 

Josh Archibald (15) The Canadian Press, Jason Franson

"Myocarditis related to COVID, related to the virus itself, is said to effect approximately five to 15 per cent of people who have been sick with the virus."

"It's about a one in 100,000 risk of developing myocarditis from the vaccine versus about 10 per cent from the virus."

"That's a 10,000 fold greater risk of getting myocarditis from the virus, we think, than from the vaccine. So absolutely we think that the vaccine will protect people from the virus and getting myocarditis from the virus."

Dr. Ian Paterson, a cardiologist with the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute