• Infection Control

  Whistles at NBA and WNBA games now have an extra COVID-19 safety measure:

  Posted by Nigel Brown on 28 July 2020 at 1:29 pm

  Whistles at NBA and WNBA games now have an extra COVID-19 safety measure, they are placed in a small black bag to collect any spittle.

  The NBA believes it has considered possible way they can make the restarted season as safe as possible for everyone involved.

  That even included a plan to contain referee spittle.

  Referees at the NBA and WNBA restarts are using the same whistles as they always have — albeit with one subtle but important addition. A small black bag is being slipped onto each whistle, designed to collect any spittle that might emanate from a referee’s mouth and through the device itself when being used during play.

  “Obviously, with health and wellness being in the forefront of everything that we’re doing here in the bubble at Disney, we wanted to make sure that we had something in place for the whistles,” said Monty McCutchen, the former NBA referee who is now a league vice president overseeing the referee program. “In what used to be a normal world, we didn’t worry about what came out of a whistle, spittle or moisture or a mist or any combination of those was not a concern for us. It is now, and it needs to be.”

  Whistles aren’t just whistles, not at this level. They’re high-tech and calibrated to work with Precision Time by using radio technology to communicate between the referee and the scorer’s table to instantly stop the clock when blown.

  The NBA conducted extensive testing to ensure that the baggies, which are washable and reusable , would not impede that system in any way. The baggie attaches with Velcro and works whether a referee wants to wear the whistle on a lanyard or keep it hand-held.

  It is ironic that after decades where infectious diseases such as HIV and AIDS was prevalent, the humble whistle was not considered to be a source of an infection, yet with coronavirus it is now seen as a potential source of infection, will this now become the standard for all sports?

  

  Nigel Brown replied 4 years, 2 months ago 1 Member · 0 Replies
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