Several Michigan athletes are demonstrating on Monday against the school’s decision to suspend all athletic activities for 14 days after several athletes tested positive for a new COVID-19 “super-distributor strain”.
At least five athletes tested positive for variant B.1.1.7 of the coronavirus, and at least 15 more were considered positive. The strain was introduced to the school by an athlete from the United Kingdom.
All members of the sports department received a quarantine order until February 7. The decision to close was recommended by the Michigan Department of Human Health Services.
Michigan athletes resist shutdown
Michigan senior fighter Myles Amine shared a lengthy statement on Twitter Monday morning from a “student-athlete coalition” asking the school to terminate the closing order.
It is not clear who or how many Wolverine athletes are in this “coalition”.
“Although we, student-athletes at the University of Michigan, understand the seriousness of this virus and take it very seriously, we believe that this MDHHS order is unnecessary and should not only be reconsidered, but overturned,” says the statement. , in part.
The students argued that, instead of turning everything off, the sports department should simply quarantine teams on a case-by-case basis.
“Based on the department’s testing policies, quarantining healthy students is unnecessary and excessive,” said the statement, in part. “Putting all student-athletes in mandatory quarantine, instead of working team by team, is unfair for athletes who followed all the necessary protocols to compete and had no contact with confirmed cases. These student-athletes did everything to earn the right to have a season in the middle of a pandemic ”.
Coronavirus variant B.1.1.7 was first detected in the UK and is believed to have appeared last September. It has since spread around the world and is believed to be approximately 50 percent more transmissible than the standard form of the coronavirus. Some officials even called it a “super spreading strain”.
The variant hit at least 24 states in the United States on Monday night, according to the CDC, and there are currently 13 new cases in Washtenaw County, according to the Detroit Free Press.
While it is understandable that these athletes are frustrated by the decision, a widespread outbreak of variant B.1.1.7 in the Ann Arbor area can quickly wreak havoc on the community and the rest of the state – more than the initial coronavirus strain already has.
By suspending all athletic activities, the sports department and the state are clearly hoping to be able to contain any massive outbreaks of the new variety before it begins. Whether this works or whether they follow that plan is yet to be seen.
More from Yahoo Sports: