Doctor: Marlins, Phillies should be shut down at least five days after virus outbreak

A coronavirus outbreak among members of the Miami Marlins led to MLB canceling a pair of games and has fans around the country questioning if the league conducting a season amid the worsening pandemic is realistic.

One expert believes that MLB should shut two teams down for nearly a week to prevent additional spread of COVID-19 among league personnel.

Epidemiologist Dr. Zachary Binney told The Athletic's Jayson Stark that the Marlins and Philadelphia Phillies, who faced each other over the weekend, shouldn't play for at least five days.

 “At a minimum, you have to shut down for at least five days to see if more cases uncover," Binney said on the "Starkville" podcast.

"And you need to wait because you could have ongoing transmission from cases that are newly discovered tomorrow or the next day. You could still have more come from chains of transmission from those people after that. So there’s no cure but time here, unfortunately."

Binney continued: 

“I don’t think MLB necessarily needs to scrap the season just yet. I think that would be a little bit of an overreaction. But they need to think very seriously about the results of the investigation in Miami and (decide) if this can be fixed, or if this is likely to be a one-off, or if it’s likely to happen again and again.

“I think that if you saw the situation in Miami repeated for another team, that’s when you’d have to think very seriously about suspending the season.”

Monday's games between the Marlins and Baltimore Orioles and the Phillies and Yankees were canceled because of Miami's outbreak. The Orioles returned to Baltimore and won't play in Florida this week. 

It's unknown if the Phillies and Yankees will play on Tuesday.