Seven months later, what we know about Covid-19 — and the pressing questions that remain

link https://www.statnews.com/2020/08/17/what-we-now-know-about-covid19-and-what-questions-remain-to-be-answered/?fbclid=IwAR3XPSIRhwjuW-wX6EjF96nr29kH4xQDBoTGYQnwpQor0yuQj0UP5QtrKBc

The “before times” seem like a decade ago, don’t they? Those carefree days when hugging friends and shaking hands wasn’t verboten, when we didn’t have to reach for a mask before leaving our homes, or forage for supplies of hand sanitizer. Oh, for the days when social distancing wasn’t part of our vernacular.

In reality, though, it’s only been about seven months since the world learned a new and dangerous coronavirus was in our midst. In the time since Chinese scientists confirmed the rapidly spreading disease in Wuhan was caused by a new coronavirus and posted its genetic sequence on line, an extraordinary amount has been learned about the virus, SARS-CoV-2, the disease it causes, Covid-19, and how they affect us.

Here are some of the things we have learned, and some of the pressing questions we still need answered.

Covid and kids: It’s complicated

Early in the pandemic, it looked like there was a silver lining to the disease cloud sweeping across the world. Children, it seemed, didn’t develop the severe symptoms that were sending adults to hospitals struggling for breath, and they very rarely died. It even seemed that kids didn’t contract the disease at the same rates as adults did.

But everything Covid is complex, and kids are no exception. While deaths among children and teens remain low, they are not invulnerable. And they probably contribute to transmission of SARS-CoV-2, though how much remains unclear.

We’ve learned younger children and teenagers shouldn’t be lumped together when it comes to Covid. Teens seem to shed virus — emit it from their throats and nasal passages — at about the same rates as adults. Kids under 5 have high levels of virus in their respiratory tracts, but it’s still not clear how much they spread it or why they don’t develop symptoms as often as adults do.

A recently published report from a Georgia sleep-away camp shows how quickly the virus can spread among kids. The camp had to be closed within 10 days of starting its orientation for camp staffers, because within days of children arriving, kids and staff started getting sick. (The campers ranged in age from 6 to 19.) The camp did not require campers to wear face masks.

A recent report on Covid infections in children from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that while they remain low, U.S. hospitalization rates for Covid-19 in children have risen since the pandemic started. And one in three children hospitalized with the disease ends up in intensive care. The highest rate of hospitalizations in children was among those under 2 years of age.

Black and Latino children were hospitalized at higher rates than white children. And like adults, children with other health conditions — obesity, chronic lung diseases, or infants who were born premature — are at higher risk than otherwise healthy children.

Perhaps most alarmingly, it’s become clear that a small proportion of children infected with Covid-19 go on to develop a condition where multiple organs come under attack from their own immune system. Called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children or MIS-C, this condition seems to occur about two to four weeks after Covid-19 infection. Most children who develop this syndrome recover.

There are safer settings, and more dangerous settings

Research has coalesced on a few key points about what types of setting increase the risk that an infectious person will pass the virus to others.

Essentially, the closer you are to someone infectious and the longer you’re in contact with them, the more likely you are to contract the virus, which helps explain why so much transmission occurs within households. Being indoors is worse, particularly in rooms without sufficient ventilation; the more air flow, the faster the virus gets diluted. Everyday face coverings reduce the amount of virus projected, but aren’t total blockades.

Loud talking, heavy breathing, singing, and screaming expel more virus, which is why experts point to nightclubs and gyms as risky businesses to be open. (That’s not to say it’s impossible to catch the virus while having a quiet conversation with someone outside — it’s just less likely.)

The reason having prolonged, proximate contact with someone is riskier is in part because there is a threshold level of virus you need to be exposed to to become infected. (More on this later.) Also, one hypothesis for why some people get so sick is that they are exposed to higher “doses” of virus.

Researchers are also finding that some relatively small proportion of infected people — maybe 10% to 20% — are driving some 80% of new cases, often through “superspreading” events in indoor settings like bars, meat processing plants, and homes. Whether such transmission occurs depends on a host of variables: how many people are in a given place, what the ventilation in the room is like, and, of course, whether someone with infectious Covid-19 is there. Some people might shed more virus than others, and people are more or less likely to spread the virus during different points in their infection. Evidence suggests that contagiousness spikes in the days before people who will go on to show symptoms start feeling sick.

People can test positive for a long time after they recover. It doesn’t matter

There was a lot of angst a few months ago about some people who had seemingly recovered from Covid-19 infections continuing to test positive for the virus for weeks. Were they infectious? Should recommendations be changed for how long infected people should be isolated?

It turns out it is an issue of testing. Most testing is conducted using a platform called PCR — polymerase chain reaction — that looks for tiny fragments of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. But the test can’t tell if those sections of genetic code are part of actual viruses that can infect someone else, or fragments of viruses that are absolutely no threat.

It’s clear now that people who had mild or uncomplicated infections shed active virus for somewhere up to 10 days after their symptoms started. (“Severely ill or immunocompromised patients do shed infectious virus for longer,” said Malik Peiris, a coronavirus expert at Hong Kong University.)

The weeks and weeks of positive tests — like those that prevented this woman in Quebec from cuddling her infant son for 55 days — don’t tell us that these people are still a risk to others. “In fact, we know that they are not infectious for that long,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization’s leading coronavirus expert.

After the storm, there are often lingering effects

Name a body part or system and Covid-19 has left its fingerprints there. We know this: Unusually sticky blood can clog vessels on the way to the heart and inside the brain and lungs of infected people, causing heart attacks, strokes, and deadly pulmonary embolisms. There are growing worries that these and other health effects will be long-lasting.

Heart: The hyperinflammation of an immune response triggered by the virus can weaken heart muscles so much that even young people who had mild infections may be at risk for future heart failure, cardiac MRIs in Germany indicate. More immediately, some people have chest pain or feel like their hearts are racing as they recover from the infection. And college athletes are no exception

Brain: People whose first Covid-19 symptom might have been losing their sense of smell and taste may find their anosmia persists. Headaches and dizziness are common. Mood disorders such as anxiety, depression, and PTSD follow in the wake of infection, and the mental confusion called “Covid fog” leaves people searching for words, struggling with simple math, or simply trying to think.

Peripheral nervous system: In Italy, three Covid-19 patients experienced myasthenia gravis, an autoimmune disorder that results in faulty communication between nerves and muscles. Doctors also worry about demyelination, in which the protective coating of nerve cells is attacked by the immune system, causing weakness, numbness, and tingling. In some cases it can spur psychosis and hallucinations. Some patients have Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare autoimmune disease that interferes with nerve signals, leading to abnormal sensations, weakness, and sometimes paralysis.

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, affects more than just the lungs and airways. Here’s how this virus enters cells and the symptoms that can arise from infecting different parts of the body.

‘Long-haulers’ don’t feel like they’ve recovered

They have a name, a growing social media presence, and a problem. They are the “long-haulers,” people who have survived their Covid-19 infections but feel a long way from normal. We know they’re out there, but we don’t know how many, why their symptoms persist, and what happens next.

In July, a survey conducted by the CDC found that 35% of people who tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 and had symptoms of Covid-19 — cough, fatigue, or shortness of breath — but were not hospitalized had not returned to their previous health two to three weeks later. Among those between 18 and 34 years old who had no previous chronic conditions, 20% felt prolonged signs of illness.

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute has launched an observational study to track the long-term effects of Covid-19, aiming to follow 3,000 patients six months after being discharged from 50 hospitals.

Mount Sinai Health System in New York City opened a Center for Post-Covid Care in May to treat long-haulers. David Putrino, director of rehabilitation innovation there, has suggested dysautonomia — when heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature are disjointed —could be to blame for prolonged and distressing symptoms. Why Covid-19 would cause this isn’t known, nor is the best treatment.

Vaccine development can be accelerated. A lot

The world still doesn’t have a vaccine that has been shown to be protective against Covid-19, though China and Russia have issued emergency use licenses for partially tested vaccines.

But an extraordinary amount of progress toward Covid-19 vaccines has been made, in record time. Trials have been compressed and overlapped, with manufacturers running Phase 1/2 trials in some cases and Phase 2/3 trials in others.

Support STAT: If you value our coronavirus coverage, please consider making a one-time contribution to support our journalism.
Meanwhile, they’ve been building out manufacturing capacity to be able to produce hundreds of millions of doses and have started production, even before finding out whether their vaccine candidate actually works. This work is being done with substantial financial support of governments, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and CEPI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.

It’s called “at risk” production — and the term is apt. If some of these vaccines don’t work, that output will have to be junked. But if Phase 3 trials show they do work, deployment could begin as soon as the Food and Drug Administration, or a regulator in another country, approves any of these vaccines.

That means vaccination with fully approved vaccines could begin as soon as about a year after the discovery of the new virus. This constitutes a revolution in vaccine development.

People without symptoms can spread the virus

Discussing asymptomatic cases of Covid-19 automatically raises some headache-inducing semantic issues. Some people are truly asymptomatic throughout their infections, but the word is often also used to describe people who are presymptomatic — those who will show symptoms but haven’t yet. Other people don’t show classic Covid-19 symptoms — fever, cough, loss of smell — but just feel kinda crappy for a day. Where do they fit in?

Whatever group you’re talking about, there are some key implications for the pandemic, and trying to rein it in. One: Some percentage of infected people — roughly 20%, according to one recent review, though other studies have produced higher estimates — do not show symptoms at all. And two: Whether or not someone is asymptomatic or presymptomatic, they can still spread the virus (though whether they spread it as efficiently as people with symptoms is still unknown). That is why public health campaigns have been stressing distancing, masks, and hand hygiene for everyone, not just people who feel sick. Once you do start showing symptoms and try to restrict contact with others, it is too late to prevent spread.

Mutations to the virus haven’t been consequential

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Viruses on surfaces probably aren’t the major transmission route

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People seem to be protected from reinfection, but for how long?

The thinking is that a case of Covid-19, like other infections, will confer some immunity against reinfection for some amount of time. But researchers won’t know exactly how long that protection lasts until people start getting Covid-19 again.

So far, despite some anecdotal reports, scientists have not confirmed any repeat Covid-19 cases.

All that supports the notion that Covid-19 acts like other viral infections, including illnesses caused by other coronaviruses. Researchers are finding that most infected people mount an immune response involving both antibodies and immune cells that clears the virus, and that persists for some amount of time. Reports of waning antibody levels incited some concern that perhaps protection to SARS-CoV-2 might not last very long, with big implications for the frequency of required vaccine boosts. But immunologists have pointed out that antibodies for other viruses wane as well; their levels surge upon re-exposure to the pathogen and they can still halt reinfection.

When a new pathogen causes illness, the immune system creates memories, so its cells can target and kill the invader if it ever comes back again. Here’s how a person becomes develops immunity.

Researchers don’t know for sure what level of antibodies are required to block the virus from gaining a toehold in cells, and what role pathogen-fighting T cells might have in fending off an infection. People who recover from Covid-19 also produce varying levels of antibodies — it’s possible people who generate a weaker initial immune response might not be protected for as long from reinfection.

“We don’t know for how long that immune response lasts,” the WHO’s Van Kerkhove said last week. “We don’t know how strong it is.”

What happens if or when people start having subsequent infections?

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How much virus does it take to get infected?

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How many people have been infected?

There have been 21 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 around the world, and 5.3 million in the United States. Far more people than that have actually had the virus.

Problems with testing, and its limited availability, have contributed to that gap, as has the fact that some people have such mild or no symptoms that they don’t know they’re infected. But researchers don’t know just how big of a gulf they’re dealing with — how much spread they’ve missed.

“Serosurveys” — which rely on testing for the level of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in a community — are starting to help fill in some knowledge. A recent CDC study of 10 cities and states estimated that in most places, the true number of infections was some 10 times higher than the number of confirmed cases.

Still, that leaves perhaps 20% of people, even in hard-hit communities, with potential immunity to Covid-19. That means that herd immunity — the point at which so many people are immune that the virus can’t circulate — remains far off even in areas that have suffered severe outbreaks.

It’s not clear why some people get really sick, and some don’t

The sheer range of outcomes for people who get Covid-19 — from a truly asymptomatic case, to mild symptoms, to moderate disease leading to months-long complications, to death — has befuddled infectious disease researchers.

There are some clear factors for who faces higher risks of getting severely ill: older people, as well as people with conditions ranging from cancer to obesity to sickle cell disease.

But scientists have postulated that a host of other underlying factors could help dictate why most healthy 30-year-olds shake off the virus after a couple days and some get severely ill. Researchers are studying genetic differences in patients, while others are looking at blood type.

Recent studies have pointed to another potential player. Perhaps up to half the population has immune-system T cells that were initially generated in response to an infection by one of the common cold-causing coronaviruses but that can recognize SARS-CoV-2 as well. These “cross-reactive” T cells could help give the immune system the boost it needs to stave off serious symptoms, but researchers don’t know for sure what role, if any, they actually play.

Ross Tucker@RossTuckerNFL
Really the most impressive part of this, and maybe a little surprising, is the success NFL has had so far even though they’re not in a bubble.

I’d guess 50% or more living at home vs. team hotel.

Can it continue once training camp grind is over & all living on their own?

==

ProFootballTalk@ProFootballTalk
Per source, the members of the outside advisory committee who will advise @nflcommish on COVID-19 issues are Champ Bailey, Isaac Bruce, Charley Casserly, Tom Coughlin, Marvin Lewis, Troy Polamalu, Bill Polian, and Rick Smith.

=

Here's our story on the outside committee that will advise Roger Goodell on COVID-19 issues https://t.co/TO274hqQlu

— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) August 21, 2020

Lindsey Thiry@LindseyThiry
The Rams are selling fan cutouts to place in end zones for the opener vs. the Cowboys at SoFi Stadium. Proceeds will go to the Rams Foundation & will be used toward social justice issues, the Rams announced.

Prices start at $70.

No official word if fans will be able to attend.

Clarification: Proceeds will go toward social INjustice issues, including poverty, education inequities, food insecurity and homelessness.

Georgia State QB announces he has a heart condition from COVID 19 and won’t play this year https://t.co/aH4CawZdsi

— trey wingo (@wingoz) August 20, 2020

COVID-denier in Northern California threatens to commit domestic terrorism pic.twitter.com/omzDiZzja7

— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) August 20, 2020

Agamemnon wrote:

The Rams always do well with their DBs.

Ain’t that the truth.

McVay was tremendous here.

20 minutes on everything here. His critics, no longer being the belle of the ball, Kevin O'Connell's role in the offense, and he and his fiancee Veronika's wedding planning in a pandemic. https://t.co/uBgCxZnqqb

— Peter Schrager (@PSchrags) August 20, 2020

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Listen Now: @RamsNFL Head Coach Sean McVay joins @PSchrags on an All-New #HardKnocks Podcast – https://t.co/EFrq8eszIi

— Patrick Y. Byrne (@PatrickSportsTV) August 20, 2020

—

https://www.hbo.com/hard-knocks/where-to-find-the-hard-knocks-podcast

InvaderRam wrote:

rams camp live day 2 in pads from 8/19/2020. towards the end. lewis goes 1 on 1 with evans. wow. he looks good. lewis that is.

That starts at 15:59 in for those who are interested.

Sean McVay at the McDonald’s drive thru pic.twitter.com/5cJUu59tKb

— Joey (@JoeyMulinaro) August 19, 2020

10 Observations from the Rams’ second 2020 training camp practice in pads

Stu Jackson

https://www.therams.com/news/10-observations-second-2020-training-camp-practice-pads

After each practice of Rams Training Camp presented by UNIFY Financial Credit Union, Rams staff writer Stu Jackson will share 10 observations from the session. Here are his notes from Wednesday, Aug. 19.

1) The loudest pop of the pads came during 11-on-11 drills, when cornerback Jalen Ramsey collided with running back and fellow Florida State product Cam Akers. Don’t read too much into it, though: It’s merely just one Seminole looking after another by helping him get used to the physicality of the NFL. “I think Jalen cares a lot about Cam, and he’s welcoming him into the NFL, if you will,” Rams head coach Sean McVay said after practice. Ramsey echoed similar sentiments on Twitter afterward, too.

2) The first team offensive line had Joe Noteboom at left guard and Austin Corbett at right guard for the second consecutive day. McVay praised both afterward, saying Noteboom “picked up where he left off” and “looks very comfortable, looks healthy, looks explosive and strong” while complimenting Corbett’s positional versatility.

3) The defensive backs continue to make plays. A couple of near-interceptions, but perhaps most impressive was Troy Hill’s third-down pass breakup covering Cooper Kupp on a goal-line slant.

4) Baptism by fire for rookie offensive lineman Treymane Anchrum Jr., who went one-on-one against outside linebacker Leonard Floyd at left tackle and later Ogbo Okoronkwo. In fairness, Floyd and Okoronkwo’s speed and physicality present a tough test for any offensive lineman, let alone a first-year NFL player.

5) Kickers were put in pressure situations again during team drills, called upon to hypothetical game-winning field goals. Austin MacGinnis and Sam Sloman each converted a pair near the 40-yard line.

6) On days like Wednesday, it is easy to see why offensive coordinator Kevin O’Connell is as confident as he is in John Wolford. Manning the second team offense against the second team defense, Wolford fired back-to-back touchdown passes to wide receiver Nsimba Webster during 11-on-11 work near the goal line.

7) Taylor Rapp did not participate in practice for the second consecutive day, but McVay later said he’s hopeful to get the safety back on the practice field “in the next week or so.” This meant that, for the second consecutive day, rookies Jordan Fuller and Terrell Burgess were afforded more opportunities.

8) Besides that hit against Akers, Ramsey had a nice pass breakup against wide receiver Josh Reynolds in the endzone during one-on-one drills.

9) Cornerback Darious Williams, who had an interception during team drills yesterday, continued his impressive play with a pass breakup against wide receiver Robert Woods in one-on-one drills.

10) Rookie running back Cam Akers had a nice moment against the second team defense, displaying patience and vision on a touchdown run to the right during 11-on-11 goal line work. “He’s got great natural ability as a runner, I think he sees things,” McVay said after practice. “He’s got a great feel and tempo to his game.”

As Rams ramp up training camp, physical play is encouraged — to an extent

Jourdan Rodrigue

https://theathletic.com/2008651/2020/08/19/as-rams-ramp-up-training-camp-physical-play-is-encouraged-to-an-extent/?source=emp_shared_article

THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. — On one hand, some spiciness is encouraged as the ramp-up period continues for the Rams in training camp.

For example, there’s the hit on rookie running back Cam Akers, by fellow Florida State alum and star cornerback Jalen Ramsey, in team drills on Wednesday morning.

Akers carried the ball to the outside and Ramsey had him tracked the whole way. Once Akers got to the flat, Ramsey was there like a wall and Akers hit the grass. Both players popped up smiling and chattering back and forth. Reporters covering practice are not allowed to report comments from players or coaches during practice, but let’s just say Ramsey told him about it.

“They’ve been going back and forth, talking about, ‘I’m gonna do this, I’m gonna do that,” defensive tackle Aaron Donald said with a laugh after practice. “(Akers) tried to lower his shoulder on him yesterday … and he came back to do it again and Ramsey put him down. Again, that’s good competition. That’s the type of stuff you love. We’re still protecting each other, but at the end of the day it’s football. The main goal is to play at a high level and get the guys around you better. … It’s going to be physical. There’s going to be punches at times. That’s a part of camp.”

Head coach Sean McVay said he loved to see the contact between Ramsey and Akers, but what he didn’t love was a play near the end of practice, in which backup quarterback John Wolford ran to the edge of the end zone and initiated contact with cornerback Dont’e Deayon.

“That was not smart. We don’t do that,” McVay said. “I told John, and I know it was with the best of intentions, but that’s a really bad place to put a defensive back when you can’t hit the quarterback. You get excited as a competitor around some of those red-zone situations, but we’re going to be smart and we’re not going to ever lower our shoulder on defenders when they have a red jersey, unless (the quarterback) wants to be tackled.”

One kerfuffle, about halfway through the practice during team drills, was quickly stopped by veteran left tackle Andrew Whitworth, whose method was first to bear-hug the would-be fist-swinging player and gently pancake him until tensions simmered down.

“When guys get in a tussle there, it’s a lot of big humans and they’re mad,” Whitworth said with a laugh. “So you gotta get in there and break it up before anything happens or guys get hurt or rolled up on, any of that. I ran in there and just tried to do my best to keep things at peace.

“Most of the time, those guys, they get mad at each other and realize about three minutes later that’s why you don’t fight at practice — because you’re exhausted the rest of the day.”

More notes from an energetic second day in pads:

Safety Taylor Rapp missed practice for a second consecutive day with an unspecified knee injury. McVay did not place a specific timeline on his return, but said he expects Rapp to return in the next week or so.

The Rams have scheduled two SoFi Stadium scrimmages for Aug. 22 and Aug. 29. Both scrimmages will kick off at approximately 5 p.m. PT so that players can get a feel for the 5:20 p.m. start time of their Sept. 13 season opener against Dallas. More details about these scrimmages should be released in the coming days.

Joe Noteboom worked as the first-team left guard for a second consecutive day, and McVay indicated that he liked what he saw from Noteboom, who missed most of the 2019 season with a torn ACL and MCL. This means that Austin Corbett continued to work at right guard and Rob Havenstein stayed at right tackle.

Receiver Nsimba Webster had one of the better days of anybody at camp, catching back-to-back touchdown passes in red-zone drills near the end of practice while working with the twos, including Wolford.

Cornerback Troy Hill rotated between the nickel and outside cornerback positions and impressed coaches on Wednesday, including with a pass breakup on receiver Cooper Kupp (first team) in the red zone. Hill’s play reversed the momentum in the defense’s favor after Webster’s two scores.

Akers rotated between the ones and twos on Wednesday, much like he did Tuesday. The Rams’ running backs continue to work in committee, though it’s notable that Akers at least has the appearance of taking more snaps. The staff feels a little urgency in onboarding Akers quickly, because they believe he will factor into their plans this season. But, readers, proceed with caution — working him in a ton now only indicates that they’re bringing him up to speed and getting him the reps he needs after a very truncated offseason.
It does not necessarily indicate how touches will be dispersed during the season.

UDFA linebacker Christian Rozeboom got a little time with the second team on Wednesday. He’s a notable player to watch as the Rams figure out their depth chart, especially on the inside.

Starting quarterback Jared Goff’s connection with his tight ends appears to be as strong as how it ended last season. He consistently connected with Gerald Everett and Tyler Higbee in Wednesday’s practice, including a touchdown to Everett in red-zone drills in front of the corner where all the defensive backs were gathered and watching.

The Rams held a “game winners” situational period for their kickers, as the competition between Lirim Hajrullahu, Sam Sloman and Austin MacGinnis continued. The field-goal unit lined up on the left hash, 20 yards back, for Sloman and MacGinnis to attempt 37-yarders. Both kickers made their attempts. Notably, McVay has decided to rotate situational rep days among the three kickers as the evaluation period begins. He also would not commit to keeping two kickers on the roster, but remember, teams can protect four practice-squad spots this year (meaning other teams can’t sign those players). So it might be prudent to keep a second kicker in that space in case of injury or illness (and also a third quarterback).

The players have Thursday off and will return to the facilities on Friday.

6 takeaways from Rams’ 2nd padded practice of training camp

https://theramswire.usatoday.com/lists/rams-camp-takeaways-notes-news-2020/ 89 shares

The Rams held their second of 14 padded practices on Wednesday, which was also open to members of the media. Information coming out of training camp is limited this year due to team restrictions on what can and can’t be reported, but we can still draw some conclusions from each day of practice.

Here are six takeaways from Day 2 of padded practices, based on reports out of camp and comments made by both players and coaches afterwards in their media sessions.

1 Offensive line taking shape

It seemed at first that Austin Corbett would be the starting left guard with David Edwards at right guard. That’s not the case, however. In back-to-back days, Corbett has been at right guard with Joseph Noteboom at left guard.

Noteboom seems to have pulled ahead of Edwards in the guard pecking order, and he’s more comfortable on the left side than the right, which causes Corbett to flip to Austin Blythe’s right.

Sean McVay said after practice that both Noteboom and Rob Havenstein – who is working with the first-team offense – have both performed well in practice. It’s an encouraging sign because Noteboom and Havenstein a critical pieces of the line.

2 Whitworth plays mediator
Things apparently got heated in practice Wednesday with a minor scuffle breaking out, but Andrew Whitworth was there to break things up. He said on a conference call with reporters that he told his teammates it’s not worth expending so much energy because of the fatigue they’ll feel in practice later on.

Whitworth is 39 years old and has seen it all in the NFL, so he knows a thing or two about making smart decisions on the field. Him playing the role of mediator is no surprise.

3 Rapp still out of practice

Once again, Taylor Rapp missed practice with a knee injury, which McVay suggested wasn’t very serious after Tuesday’s practice. McVay shared an update on Rapp Wednesday, but he isn’t sure when the young safety will be back.

He’s hoping to have more information next week, with Rapp’s return potentially coming soon.

4 Defensive line wins one-on-one sessions

The defensive line is going to be a strength of the Rams this season, even with A’Shawn Robinson missing time due to a cardiovascular condition. Sebastian Joseph-Day and Greg Gaines are capable fill-ins, while there are no concerns about Aaron Donald and Michael Brockers.

In one-on-one pass-rush drills, the defense got the better of Los Angeles’ offensive line. Terrell Lewis beat Bobby Evans twice, Aaron Donald made a rep against Austin Corbett look easy, and even Gaines beat his man with a powerful move up the middle.

5 Wolford throws 2 TDs but draws ire of McVay

Wolford is clearly the favorite to be Jared Goff’s backup this season, and according to those who have watched him in camp, he’s looked pretty good thus far. He continued to play well Wednesday, finding Nsimba Webster twice for touchdowns during team drills.

However, it wasn’t all high-fives and praise for Wolford. After scrambling on one play, he collided with Dont’e Deayon, which McVay wasn’t happy about afterwards. Defenders aren’t supposed to hit ball-carriers, so Wolford initiating contact with Deayon wasn’t something McVay wanted to see.

6 Rams rotating kickers

The kicking competition in L.A. is an important one, and the Rams are taking an unorthodox approach to the battle. With three kickers to evaluate, the team is rotating guys in and out of practice sessions.

According to J.B. Long, today was Lirim Hajrullahu’s turn to sit out, with Austin MacGinnis and Sam Sloman getting all of the opportunities.

MacGinnis went 4-for-6, while Sloman made half of his six attempts on the day.

Rams QB Jared Goff warms up for Day 2 in full pads. pic.twitter.com/9Uc4wBElBx

— Lindsey Thiry (@LindseyThiry) August 19, 2020