Posted on 08/21/2021 1:20:33 PM PDT by lightman
STATE COLLEGE — Penn State won’t require fans at Nittany Lions football games this fall to present proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test in order to gain entrance to Beaver Stadium, vice president of intercollegiate athletics Sandy Barbour said Saturday.
“The required vaccination is not in our plan at this point,” Barbour said over Zoom.
On Friday, Oregon and Oregon State became the first Power Five football programs to announce they will require proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test to attend games at Autzen Stadium and Reser Stadium, respectively, this fall.
Earlier this month, Tulane became the first Football Bowl Subdivision program to announce a similar requirement.
Barbour, though, doesn’t foresee that as a requirement at Penn State, which is still planning on hosting full capacity crowds at 107,000-seat Beaver Stadium. The season opener against Ball State is exactly three weeks from Saturday. The Nittany Lions are scheduled to open the season in exactly two weeks at Wisconsin in front of a capacity crowd at Camp Randall Stadium.
“Our plan is for [full] capacity,” Barbour said. “I remember last spring saying we want to get to a point where everyone who wants and can get a ticket can come in and that’s where we stand right now.”
The university does not have a vaccination mandate for its students, but unvaccinated students will be required to undergo weekly COVID-19 testing.
Earlier this month, Penn State instituted an indoor masking requirement for all individuals on campus regardless of vaccination status. Barbour said that includes the press boxes and suites at Beaver Stadium, but fans in the stands and on the concourses will not be required to wear masks.
“We’re not going to require masking outdoors unless the CDC were to change its guidance,” Barbour said. “We certainly would monitor and review that. But if someone feels that that’s what they want to do from a health and safety standpoint, wear a mask, that certainly is encouraged.”
Still, Barbour acknowledged that given how quickly things have changed at times over the past year — especially with a current nationwide surge of cases because of the Delta variant — there is the chance that Penn State would have to adjust its plans.
Earlier Friday, Hawaii became the first major program to announce it will not host fans at its sporting events to start the season because of a surge in COVID-19 cases.
On Friday, Pennsylvania announced 2,128 new COVID-19 cases and 19 new deaths from the virus. As of Thursday, 80.7% of Pennsylvanians 18 or older had received at least one vaccine dose and 64.7% were fully vaccinated. Nationally, 73% of adults have received at least one dose and 62% are fully vaccinated.
Barbour said the university still has its plans from last year when there was the possibility of playing games in front of limited crowds before the Big Ten ultimately decided to conduct its contests closed to the general public. But the focus remains on having full capacity crowds at Beaver Stadium.
“I think flexibility … is something that certainly has to go along with a public health issue like COVID,” Barbour said. “Again, it’s not the plan at this point. We would have to do see what the advice was from the CDC and our local health authorities and then what the issues are, whether it be yes, capacity, but the local authorities want to go to — suggest we go to mask wearing or if it’s something from a capacity standpoint. But that is not what the plans are at this point in time.”
Barbour said she’s “heartened” by seeing other sporting events, including Major League Baseball games and the Olympics, take place all over the world, and she’s looking forward to the game day environment in State College.
Still, the 2021 college football season is arriving with layers of uncertainty surrounding COVID-19.
“My concerns are the same that we all have for our community and that we be smart and we use good judgment as it relates to the science,” Barbour said. “I’m very hopeful and forward-thinking and forward-looking as it relates to us being back together with our fans that we’ve missed so desperately, and I know they’ve missed our student-athletes.”
Not sure about veracity of this, but passing it along:
https://patriots.win/p/12jwMKnWa6/please-share-this-is-why-99-of-h/c/
Bump
The so-called “victims” came forward as adults and we’re merely greedy money grubbers shaking down penn state. Even the board of trustees was on audio saying they did payoffs to anyone that had a claim
Mike McQueary differs from you. He said (under oath) that he saw Sandusky in the shower with a 10 year old boy and heard the wet sounds of something penetrating an anus. Those were HIS words.
Also Sandusky’s own son sued his father and claimed to have been molested many times in the basement of the house.
Joe Paterno had suspicions about Sandusky going way back to 1998. It’s why Sandusky suddenly retired in 2000 and Joe did not attend the pedophiles retirement party.
Not to mention the “rhythmic slapping sound” coming from the showers.
The “vaccines” are working. They are a cure for Wuhan flu hysteria, not a vaccine for the flu. Hysteria sufferers who get the vaccine overcome their hysteria, drop their precautions and get the flu. The success of the vaccinations is measured by the number of vaccinated who get the flu.
Herd immunity can be delayed but it can’t be denied.
In the US, the unvaxxed are anyone who hasn’t taken 2 total shots. Soon to be those who have only taken two. So our numbers are once again fudged.
It's all about money. Requiring all to be vaccinated will cut down attendance, maybe quite a lot, with a loss of money for the athletic program.
Exactly. University sports depend upon alumni contributions.
False. Mike McQueary’s story changed many times. The only reason he embellished was to take heat off the fact that he may have been exposed sending his own penis photos to penn state girls. He also only mentioned something that made him uncomfortable when he went to Joe to cover his own behind and never ever told him personally that what he saw was sexual (he actually only went to visit Joe that day because he was inquiring about a job. In regards to Jerry’s adopted son, that guy was a thief and a liar for many years. He saw big dollars in throwing him under the bus when it was clear the media has destroyed him. Not one credible rape abuse has surfaced against Sandusky — not even in 1998 when the DA declined to prosecute. The whole thing was a witch-hunt by a salacious media in pre-MeToo era, and an innocent man is now in prison
It’s likely that they didn’t want to keep losing money combined with much of the Pennsylvania population being vaccinated at this point. For a lot of people being vaccinated is the reasonable risk mitigation that draws the line for them.
Can you imagine having to ask everyone who comes through the gates to give out their cards on top of whatever the other security procedures are?
Penn State football underwrites the entire athletic program.
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