While seemingly everyone has a take on COVID and the threat some face when it comes to contracting the virus (or any virus for that matter), the list of people that are actually qualified to discuss the matter is small and they can easily be drowned out by the avalanche of commentary.

While Dr. Matt Rhea, Alabama’s Director of Sports Science, may not be an expert on COVID, he has experience discussing the recent hot topic that apparently has college football power brokers nervous when it comes to the upcoming season.

That topic, if you missed it, is myocarditis. This is an issue that affects the heart that can occur after a person contracts a virus, bacteria, parasite or fungi.

While some college administrators have reportedly been concerned with this issue, according to Dr. Rhea says this issue is nothing new.

“One thing that really irritates me about covid paranoia is the apparent thought that we know nothing about how the body responds to viruses. We do. And there’s a lot of people much smarter than me working in this area,” Rhea shared on Sunday evening.

Dr. Rhea then followed that comment up with another: “Now all of a sudden myocarditis is an “unknown” possibility? I eluded to it in a paper I published in 2009 about sudden cardiac death among athletes. It happens after most infections. We watch for warning signs all the time. Screening now is very good. Nothing new here.”

Rhea then offered a follow-up, as he notes he wanted to be as accurate as possible:

“Sorry, got a text from a cardiologist friend of mine suggesting a re-word. Myocarditis may be caused by most viral infections but is extremely rare. Thanks Doug”

Either way, Dr. Rhea would appear to be far more qualified to discuss this matter than most and he doesn’t seem to take issue with any information he has on hand.

It that’s the case, why would some with far fewer qualifications be so worried?