BERKELEY, CA – The University of California Berkeley was forced to cancel their upcoming game against the University of Southern California after 44 members of the team tested positive for COVID-19. This happened despite the fact that 99% of the team had been vaccinated.
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“Cal football players are 99% vaccinated, but their football game against USC was just canceled because of covid,” tweeted Fox News personality Clay Travis. “You guys need to realize that the coronabros aren’t ever going to quit. You have to fight them with every ounce of your ability.”
Cal football players are 99% vaccinated, but their football game against USC was just canceled because of covid. You guys need to realize that the coronabros aren’t ever going to quit. You have to fight them with every ounce of your ability.
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) November 9, 2021 [2]
This came after the Berkeley Department of Public Health confirmed to The San Francisco Gate [3] that 44 players had tested positive.
“Berkeley Public Health continues to work closely with University Health Services to help contain and respond to a major COVID-19 outbreak involving the coaches, students, and staff in the Cal Football program,” the statement began. “All of these 44 lab-confirmed cases involve people infected with highly contagious COVID-19, which spreads easily unless public health safeguards are used.”
The statement went on to suggest that officials feel that Cal football players and staff members have not been mindful of typical precautions after exposure to COVID-19.
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“Cases emerged in an environment of ongoing failure to abide by public health measures. People in the program did not: Get tested when sick, stay home when sick, [or wear] masks indoors,” the statement read. “These simple measures keep people safe,” the statement continued. “Failing to do so results not only in individual infections, sickness, and worse, but also threatens the safety of all around them – especially those with compromised immune systems.”
Berkeley health officials then reiterated that their isolation-period guidelines for someone who tests positive for COVID-19 are all of the following: “at least 10 days have passed since symptom onset, at least 24 hours have passed since resolution of fever without the use of fever-reducing medications, and other symptoms have improved.”
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Cal Athletic Director Jim Knowlton said in a press conference this week that he could not confirm how many of those players were asymptomatic or were unaware that they were exhibiting COVID symptoms. However, it’s been reported that none of the players and staffers who have tested positive are seriously ill.
A Berkeley Department of Health spokesman has defended its Cal-OSHA’s workplace safety rules, saying that they “define any workplace environment with 20 cases as a ‘major outbreak.”’ The spokesman then said that UC Berkeley’s football program has more than doubled that standard, so “the City of Berkeley has recommended that Cal test all exposed individuals at the cadence indicated in Cal-OSHA COVID-19 Prevention Emergency Temporary Standards, which includes guidance for ‘major outbreaks.'”