Cal Berkeley football players (99.5% vaccinated) speak out after postponement of Saturday's game against USC due to a COVID-19 outbreak

Cal Berkeley was forced to postpone its game Saturday against USC over what’s being called a major COVID-19 outbreak on the team:

BERKELEY, Calif. — Cal's game against USC was postponed on Tuesday after a series of positive coronavirus tests in the Golden Bears program, the first major college football game called off this season because of COVID-19. https://t.co/A6m6LcBFeW

— Arizona Daily Star (@TucsonStar) November 10, 2021

Berkeley’s AD said in a press conference that the team is 99.5% vaccinated:

We're 99.5% vaccinated. – Knowlton

— Write For California LIVE (@WriteForCalLive) November 10, 2021

But, in spite of this, there were 44 recent lab-confirmed cases among players and staff:

Berkeley Dept. of Public Health says Cal's football program has at least 44 COVID cases. https://t.co/MKCSmX0W40

— SFGATE (@SFGate) November 10, 2021

From SFGATE:

In a statement provided to SFGATE, Berkeley’s Department of Public Health laid out previously unreported details about what is clearly a major COVID-19 outbreak in the Cal football program — including that at least 44 people in the program have tested positive for COVID over the past week or so.

“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 begins. “All of these 44 lab-confirmed cases involve people infected with highly contagious COVID-19, which spreads easily unless public health safeguards are used.”

It would be helpful to have some context on these cases, however, because if the majority of these are asymptomatic then WTF are we even doing and how will things ever get back to normal:

COB releases no-context accusations and data on Cal:

– How many were players
– How many active vs inactive
– How many hospitalizations

Just gives anti-vaxxers more ammo.

Also, I wonder what Cal admins would say about COB process if they spoke as freely. Hmmm https://t.co/XWkaKvGe86

— Jon Wilner (@wilnerhotline) November 10, 2021

UHS told us we could be arrested for refusing to test as vaccinated individuals with no symptoms. If I understand correctly, I can go to San Francisco, steal a bunch of items in a Walgreens, and not be arrested. However, if I refuse a test in Berkeley, I can be… https://t.co/dfCiELikMi

— Luc Bequette (@LucBequette) November 9, 2021

Journo Avinash Junnath says his sources at Cal are “frustrated” because “other programs are likely experiencing COVID outbreaks while failing to play it safe” and they’re being penalized by the City of Berkeley’s much more strict local protocols:

Talking to sources close to Cal football, they're frustrated other programs are likely experiencing COVID outbreaks while failing to play it safe, but skirt past them & play due to more lax local/state health laws than Berkeley.

But rules are rules, and 44 positives is…yikes.

— Avinash Kunnath (@avinashkunnath) November 10, 2021

Kunnath reported earlier that Cal was not enforcing the local protocols, however:

If Cal had subjected themselves to weekly testing, they might have been able to detect positive cases earlier in the season and perhaps proactively combat it. But symptomatic cases the last week triggered the city/university outbreak protocol and the 20+ positives.

— Avinash Kunnath (@avinashkunnath) November 9, 2021

City of Berkeley has their own requirements that are far more strict than the rest of the Pac-12. Why were Cal players not educated about what might happen if there were numerous positive test cases regardless of vaccination status?

Big disconnect between players and university.

— Avinash Kunnath (@avinashkunnath) November 9, 2021

And other games could get canceled as well:

Since it seems as if a number of Cal football players will be stuck in COVID protocol limbo for another 10 days, it isn't out of the realm of possibility that Cal-Stanford gets postponed to December 11. I imagine Stanford would never want to cancel Big Game.

— Avinash Kunnath (@avinashkunnath) November 10, 2021

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