a new study has found — results which may help inform coronavirus reopening plans.Researchers from the U.S. analyzed the death rates before and after a city received a new team from one of the four major leagues: Major League Baseball (MLB), the National Football League (NFL), the National Basketball Association (NBA) or the National Hockey League (NHL).The experts used statistics from the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on weekly influenza deaths in 122 U.S. cities with populations of more than 100,000 between the years 1962 and 2016.
They found that when an NHL team arrived in a city, it resulted in a 24.6 per cent increase in the local flu mortality rate — or about 20 more flu deaths per city per year.