Cal COVID crisis: Audio recording of parent meeting reveals frustration with university, Berkeley health officials
The Bears were 99% vaccinated but had two games impacted
By Jon Wilner | Bay Area News Group | Mercury News
November 29, 2021 | UPDATED: November 30, 2021
As the COVID crisis threatened to derail Cal’s season in early November, confusion soared within the football program. Why had a handful of cases prompted mass testing of players and staff? Why had a program with strict safety protocols been called out publicly by the City of Berkeley’s health officials, supposedly causing the players to be shamed on campus? And most of all, why had a program with a 99% vaccination rate become the only team in major college football to have a game rescheduled because of the virus?
Coach Justin Wilcox was measured in his public comments throughout the two-week crisis. But privately, Wilcox and others were deeply frustrated with the handling of the situation by the university, according to a recording of a virtual meeting between team parents, Wilcox and Cal medical officials that was obtained by this news organization.*
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*Editorial Note: It is generally illegal in California to record someone in a non-public situation without permission. This news report does not indicate whether permission was given. Typically, Zoom-type meetings in which a recording is made include an announcement and the recording includes video. The recording in this case is described in the headline as audio. It is unclear whether the "call" included video. But even ordinary phone conversations cannot be legally recorded without permission by participants.
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Midway through the hour-long meeting, the topic turned to the statement issued by Berkeley Public Health, which included previously unpublished case data and criticized the Bears for “ongoing” failures to follow public health protocols. During a tense exchange, Wilcox asked assistant vice chancellor Guy Nicolette, who oversees University Health Services, if the statement constituted a violation of player privacy. Nicolette explained that he disagreed with the tone of the statement — “I did not find that helpful” — but he declined to offer an opinion on the privacy issue, referring the matter to the university’s legal team. Wilcox was not satisfied. “Who’s fighting for us?” Wilcox asked in a passionate but controlled voice, according to the audio recording. “I took the high road,” he continued. “We are taking the high road, as to not get into a public dispute with a city agency. So whose role is that? … Everybody’s wondering.” Indeed, there are many unanswered questions about the crisis that blindsided the Bears for two weeks — all of them rooted in two fundamental but seemingly incongruous facts:
1. Why Cal?
There have been approximately 800 major college football games played this season, but only two are known to have been deeply impacted by COVID: Cal’s visit to Arizona, in which the Bears had a bare-bones roster, and Cal’s subsequent date with USC, which had to be rescheduled for Dec. 4 because so many players were in COVID protocol. It was a striking development for a program that’s 99% vaccinated and, according to Wilcox, adheres to the COVID protocols recommended by Berkeley Public Health and the university. (The health department’s statement accusing the team of breaking protocol cited no specific instances.)
2. How did the crisis happen?
According to information obtained by this news organization, the university tested 172 members of the football program, including players (approximately 100), coaches, staff and volunteers. The results revealed 46 positive cases, of which 31 were symptomatic, according to the university. It is not known how many of those cases — symptomatic or otherwise — were among players, rather than others in the program.
The exchange between Wilcox and Nicolette, the head of University Health Services, underscores the frustration inside the football program over the handling of the situation. Asked days later about the criticisms from Berkeley Public Health, Wilcox told reporters:
“Is everybody perfect in following every protocol? I don’t know that I could say that. We do the best that we can. I have never had a meeting about the egregious non-compliance of our players. I haven’t had that meeting.
“Do we have to remind people from time to time to put their mask on? Have I been told that? Yeah, absolutely. And I would also think maybe there’s folks in the city of Berkeley walking down the street or going to church or dinner or whatever, maybe students on campus, that might fall into the same category.”
He was not nearly as dispassionate during the virtual meeting with university health officials and team parents. According to sources, approximately 100 people were on the call. Most were team parents. Some were football staffers. A few were members of Cal’s medical team. And then there was Steve Etter, who played two roles. Etter is a longtime lecturer in the Haas School of Business and teaches a course on financial management for athletes. (His former students include quarterback Jared Goff, NBA star Jaylen Brown and Olympic swimmer Missy Franklin.) He’s also a former Cal trustee. And he’s the parent of a current player, long-snapper Daniel Etter.
Not only did Etter listen to the virtual meeting, he was an active participant and repeatedly pressed the medical experts for answers. In fact, Etter asked the toughest questions of all — particularly when it came to the lack of public support for the football program. “The question is, who’s advocating for us?” Etter demanded of Nicolette. “Will anyone advocate? Or is that just no, no one’s going to advocate?”
In response to a request for comment by Nicolette, university spokesperson Janet Gilmore offered the following statement:
“Your questions are related to a conversation among (University Health Services) doctors, student-athletes and their parents about the health of the athletes. Consequently, we are not going to discuss the particulars of that meeting.
“Regarding the larger question related to the Berkeley Public Health statement, campus leaders have been and continue to be focused on mitigating the spread of COVID-19 by working in a productive manner with colleagues on and off campus — not engaging in a public back and forth. Further, please keep in mind that the campus is an employer and an educator, not a health department.
“The university cannot comment publicly on the substance of the BPH statement because we are not allowed to comment on information derived from medical records. The university did not have the opportunity to clear the BPH statement before it was released.” ...
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