William Morice, II, M.D., Ph.D., Featured in The Athletic

By Suzanne Ferguson • August 6, 2020

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William Morice, II, M.D., Ph.D., chair of the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology and president of Mayo Clinic Laboratories was recently featured in The Athletic regarding sports teams and how to safely and efficiently bring them back.

Dr. Morice has provided insight and guidance these past few months as testing plays a critical component during the pandemic. The National Hockey League (NHL) remains hopeful that by creating “bubbles,” or clusters of people who are safely interacting with each other, they will effectively be able to limit the spread of COVID-19 and be able to carry out the season. That outlook comes on the heels of announcements from other professional sports leagues that have not been so lucky with their “bubble” approach.   

According to Dr. Morice, "What it really shows that the margin of error with this virus is extraordinarily slim if the goal is to keep from having an outbreak. Because once it's in, it's in. It's so infectious before people are symptomatic that it's very difficult to keep out and get in front of. There's just no way to stop it other than isolating people early.”

Only time will be able to tell how effective this limited community strategy will be for the NHL. In the meantime, Dr. Morice stresses vigilance.

"But you just can't let your guard down once. That's the problem. Same for the whole country. That's exactly why we're seeing this surge of cases in the United States. As soon as you let your guard down, it can spread like a brush fire."

Read the full article.

Suzanne Ferguson

Suzanne Ferguson is a Marketing Channel Manager at Mayo Clinic Laboratories and has worked at Mayo Clinic since 2014. Outside of work, Suzanne can be found traveling, reading and spending time with her family.