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Rep. Fink: Weekly student athlete COVID testing requirement lacks scientific reasoning
RELEASE|April 14, 2021
Contact: Andrew Fink

State Rep. Andrew Fink, of Adams Township, today urged the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services to remove its rigid COVID-19 testing requirements for student athletes.

Fink said there is no scientific reason to single out student athletes for these tests when no other students are forced to be tested and when scientific data does not support that student athletics have been a source for COVID-19 spread.

“Michiganians are willing to take steps to prevent the spread of Coronavirus, but only when those measures make sense,” said Fink. “What doesn’t make sense is requiring Michigan’s student athletes to be tested for COVID-19 on a weekly basis, even when they have had no symptoms. There’s also a growing number of young people choosing to be vaccinated each day now that anyone over 16 is eligible, further lowering the risk of the virus’ spread through student sports.”

Fink noted that he supports a parent’s right to choose whether to have their children vaccinated.

Schools in Michigan’s neighboring states of Indiana and Ohio have fewer cases of COVID-19 than Michigan yet have resumed normalcy for their student athletes.

“Simply put, student athletes are not at the root of the pandemic and shouldn’t be treated as such,” Fink said. “The governor has already stifled student athletes when she placed a ban on winter sports earlier in the school year, and many of these students lost the last few months of competition last year.”

Fink said he has heard from countless parents and coaches throughout his communities that are frustrated by the misguided orders being placed on student athletes who are now being further inhibited by COVID-19 testing requirements.

“I am calling on the governor’s administration to stop using the lives of student athletes as a political pawn and begin to consider the greater impact these regulations are having on their lives,” Fink said. “Our regulations should be based on scientific data and nothing else.”

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