Boston – COOPER GENERAL NEWS

Tom Werner, chairman of Boston Red Sox, told CNBC Thursday that he did not expect any coronavirus outbreaks that would materially change the course of the Major League Baseball season.

Werner’s comments on “Squawk Box” came on opening day, the start of the second MLB season to be played during the pandemic following last year’s shortened campaign.

“I’m sure we have gone beyond what we were six months ago. The baseball protocols are very strong. The players heed them,” Werner said. “Sure, I think there might be an outbreak on occasion, but I think it will be a rare occurrence when some games are canceled.”

After Werner’s appearance on CNBC, the competition between the Washington Nationals and the New York Mets, which was scheduled for Thursday evening, was postponed due to Covid concerns. A Nationals player tested positive for the coronavirus earlier this week and some teammates are being quarantined after contact tracing.

Some coronavirus protocols could relax for teams this season once a certain vaccination threshold is reached. While not many MLB players have been vaccinated yet, the league expects that number will rise once the teams are back in their hometowns after spring training, according to The Associated Press.

The 2020 season was delayed by months after the pandemic hit the US, but a 60-game schedule finally began in July. Dozens of games were postponed during the season due to Covid cases, despite making the playoffs as planned, and the Los Angeles Dodgers won the World Series in late October.

Boston Red Sox members watch during a team training session prior to the 2021 opening game on March 31, 2021 at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts.

Billie Weiss | Boston Red Sox | Getty Images

This year the schedule for 162 games is back – as are the fans in the stadiums. Last year regular season games were played in empty stadiums. A limited number of spectators were allowed to take part in some playoff competitions in the fall.

At the start of the season, capacity at the Red Sox’s historic home, Fenway Park, is limited to 12%, which is just over 4,500 fans, according to NBC Boston.

Werner hopes that the number will only increase in the coming months when more Americans are vaccinated against Covid.

“I certainly don’t have a crystal ball, but we hope the vaccine rollout continues to proceed swiftly and I would certainly hope that the stadiums will be at full capacity by the end of the season,” he said.

About 29% of the US population had received at least one dose of Covid vaccine by Wednesday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This includes around 16% of the country’s population who are fully vaccinated.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two doses for complete protection of immunity, while the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is a single shot. These are the only three emergency vaccinations approved in the United States

Moderna’s vaccine, like Pfizer’s, is based on a molecule called messenger RNA, or mRNA, that is injected into the upper arm. Once inside human cells, the mRNA directs the production of a protein called spike, which teaches the immune system to recognize and thwart the coronavirus should it ever enter the body. Each vaccine contains a handful of other ingredients that wrap the fragile mRNA in a protective fat bubble and help keep the prescription stable during transit.

None of the ingredients in any of the vaccines have been identified as common allergens. However, several experts have cautiously pointed to polyethylene glycol or PEG, which appears as a possible culprit in both recipes, albeit in slightly different formulations. PEG is found in a wide variety of pharmaceutical products, including ultrasound gel, laxatives, and injectable steroids, and allergies to it are extremely rare.

Dr. Kuruvilla said it was still possible that something else was responsible and more research was needed to determine the cause of these events.

Dr. Kimberly Blumenthal, an allergist and immunologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, noted that anaphylaxis is sometimes difficult to confirm without blood tests looking for an enzyme called tryptase, which is released in allergic reactions. It is important that logs are in place so that similar cases can be investigated further.

Based on data obtained from late-stage clinical trials, Moderna has not reported any associations between vaccine and anaphylaxis. When products from closely monitored studies become widely available, rare side effects may occur.

The recent allergic reactions related to Pfizer’s very similar vaccine sparked heated discussion during the FDA and CDC panel discussions earlier this month. Experts noted that anaphylaxis was becoming unusually common this soon. (Under normal circumstances, allergic reactions to vaccines are believed to occur at the rate of about one in a million.)

Denise Grady and Noah Weiland contributed to the coverage.