The public health game plan behind World Cup matches in Massachusetts

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If you have somehow avoided the text from your high school bestie’s brother’s kid asking if you have a place to crash for a few nights this summer, congratulations. You may be among the lucky few.

Greater Boston is getting ready to host to as many as 2 million visitors for the seven World Cup games being played this June and July in Foxborough. Guests and local soccer fans alike will head to Gillette Stadium, or gather in front of giant screens at dozens of watch parties including a festival on Boston’s City Hall Plaza.

But while you and I might gape at the long-range kick that sails into a goal or the save that ends a penalty shootout, public health and emergency management leaders will be at a command center watching for all the things that could go wrong when people from around the world gather in large crowds for emotionally charged events.

Emergency planning for the World Cup matches started more than a year ago, involving more than 70 local, state and national agencies. They’ve been developing contingency plans for everything from a heat wave or large-scale round of food poisoning to more challenging events like a disease outbreak, fire, building collapse — even a shooting or terrorist attack.

Just last week, hospital staff, public health coordinators and emergency responders from Massachusetts and Rhode Island ran a drill to figure out what they’d do if dozens of people needed urgent transportation from Foxborough to a hospital that can handle the most complex injuries, what’s considered a Level 1 trauma center.

“Some of those people would go to the closest trauma center, which is in Rhode Island,” said Massachusetts Department of Public Health Commissioner Dr. Robbie Goldstein, summarizing one conclusion from the training. “And some may need to come to trauma centers here in Massachusetts.”

Goldstein said traffic and hospital capacity would be among the factors to determine whether to send patients to one of Boston’s Level 1 trauma centers or Worcester, which is a little farther from Foxborough.

On match days, the state will pay for emergency medical “strike teams” to be positioned at Gillette. These are ambulances with staff trained in advanced life-support procedures.

“This gives us a back-up if there’s a huge increase in 911 calls,” said Goldstein. “When you have tens of thousands of new people in an area, they might have emergencies related to the heat, or other medical emergencies.”

To detect a disease outbreak before it spreads, state Department of Public Health staff plan to share surveillance updates with colleagues in all of the New England states, plus New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, which are also hosting World cup matches. Massachusetts health officials are reminding doctors and nurses they may see diseases that aren’t common here – like malaria – but are common in some countries where fans will travel from.

It’s too early to know if excessive heat will be a problem on match days. Three of the games are scheduled to start at 6 p.m. or later, but four begin in the mid or late afternoon. Goldstein said his department is working with the MBTA to add shade as well as water, sunscreen and bug repellant dispensers on train platforms.

“We’re thinking about this from every angle,” he said. “And we’re working individually with watch party hosts as they develop their plans.”

This season’s hosting doesn’t stop at soccer. In Boston, anniversary events marking the country’s 250th birthday are already well underway. And just a few days after the last World Cup match in Foxborough, the Sail25O parade of tall ships will arrive here in July, bringing what organizers expect will be several million more visitors.