UC Berkeley Releases New SARS Plan, No Enrollment Bans Mentioned

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UC Berkeley Releases New SARS Plan, No Enrollment Bans Mentioned

By Aron Ballard Contributing Writer Friday, August 22, 2003

Hoping to avoid the firestorm that erupted last spring over UC Berkeley's ban on students from SARS-affected regions, university officials released what they hope will be a more palatable plan in the event of another outbreak of SARS.

The new guidelines, made public this week, are a clear break from UC Berkeley's controversial decision in May to limit summer enrollment of students from those regions.

The plan calls for a swift response to any possible SARS cases in the area—actions that university officials said are based on the Centers for Disease Control's recommendations.

"Our assumption is that SARS is going to occur again," said Tomas Aragon, director of UC Berkeley Center for Infectious Disease Preparedness.

The report comes after UC Berkeley faced heavy scrutiny for planning to deny enrollment to more than 600 summer school students from SARS-infected regions, including China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore.

University officials had feared there was too short a time frame to prepare for a possible quarantine and argued that the potential risk at a university was more acute because so many students would be living in close quarters.

But the decision incited outrage from faculty, students and some outside observers who called the ban arbitrary and racist—particularly because the limitations failed to include students from Toronto, another SARS-infected region.

UC Berkeley slowly rolled back its restrictions, finally lifting the enrollment ban entirely last month.

The new plan acknowledges that "a SARS outbreak and the potential for a SARS outbreak poses a real threat to the UC Berkeley community and its mission."

The plan calls on university and city officials to act immediately to prevent contagion of this infectious disease by investigating and isolating any potential cases before SARS could spread. It does not mention any possibility of a future ban on enrollment.

In the case of a larger outbreak, the guidelines indicate the possibility of a quarantine for people who may have been exposed to an infected person—something university officials said was impossible last May.

The plan also calls on city and university officials to provide residents with information about dealing with a potential SARS outbreak.

UC Berkeley officials said the plan is a working draft and that they will continue to revise it with community feedback.

Although the international outbreak of SARS has subsided, a mild respiratory illness that appears to be caused by a SARS-like virus surfaced in two nursing homes near Vancouver, Canada on Wednesday. Most victims have since recovered, according media reports.

UC Berkeley officials said they are not worried about the Vancouver virus.