UPDATE! Come to our UC wide virtual town all this Friday 1/28 at 3 pm! It's time to fight back against the ableism and this bullshit austerity narrative that the school just doesn't have the money to invest in online learning. We need to talk about how the UCs have not been putting our students and various campus workers’ health and safety first and we also need to talk about all the work being done to hold them accountable. Speakers from all across campuses will be featured.

Register on Zoom here: https://tinyurl.com/UniversityofCovidTownhall

Or tune in on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/UCStudentAssociation/

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As UC Davis campus community members and those in solidarity, we refute the harmful language and unsupported claims made in the UC Davis Winter Quarter Update: Dec. 30. The update's references to influenza and "living with COVID-19 at an endemic level" make clear that the UC Davis administration is not prioritizing the immunocompromised, the disabled, unvaccinated people, children, those who live with people from any of these groups, or the general health of the public. We also know that COVID-19 has been affecting people with pre-existing social, economic, and physical conditions much more significantly, making them more vulnerable to outbreaks.

Given that:

• Breakthrough COVID infections with the Omicron variant are becoming increasingly more common,
• Although some breakthrough infections may seem mild, the risk of devastating and disabling long haul COVID persists and we do not yet know what long term effects will result from contracting Omicron,
• According to Covid ActNow, a nonprofit providing data analysis on the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., "Yolo County, CA is more vulnerable than 82% of U.S. counties," 
• As of January 2nd, 8 of the 12 ICU beds in Yolo County are filled, impacting the most vulnerable in our community, and there have been multiple times in the last month when there were 0 ICU beds available,
• UC Davis positivity rates have increased drastically, to the highest rates throughout the entire pandemic at 2.8% (for the final week of December 2021), before students and faculty have returned to campus en masse from holiday gatherings, 

We demand that UC Davis administration offer full online accessibility and options alongside in-person ones (often called a hybrid approach) for lectures, discussions, labs, all other forms of instruction, as well as non-teaching staff positions at UCD. This applies to both this quarter and going forward, not only due to the pandemic but also because this constitutes a vital access need for disabled people. Additionally, for Winter Quarter 2022, UC Davis administration must extend online instruction until appropriate safety features are in place to ensure the health and well-being of all UC Davis affiliates, especially those who are particularly vulnerable during this pandemic. It has been very difficult for both teaching and non-teaching staff to switch between on- and offline, so the administration must also provide support for all staff who are spending many hours doing extra labor without sufficient training, supplies, or compensation.