Giants’ Coonrod cites his faith, issues with Black Lives Matter for decision not to kneel

Two days into his first regular season as Giants manager, Gabe Kapler might have a sticky situation within his clubhouse.

As the Dodgers and Giants introduced on the foul lines before Thursday’s season opener, San Francisco reliever Sam Coonrod was the only person on either team — managers, players, coaches and staff — who declined to kneel during a moment of silence meant to support Black Lives Matter.

After the 8-1 loss, Coonrod cited his faith for not kneeling, but he also disparaged what he believes to be some tenets of Black Lives Matter, comments that might not be viewed charitably by all in the clubhouse.

“I’m a Christian,” Coonrod said. “I can’t get on board on a couple of things I’ve read about Black Lives Matter, how they lean toward Marxism and said some negative things about the nuclear family.”

He was referring to comments made five years ago by a Black Lives Matter co-founder, acknowledging she was a Marxist, now cited repeatedly now by some conservative commentators.

Thursday’s issue was not the national anthem. Most Giants stood, while Kapler, coaches Justin Viele and Antoan Richardson, and a handful of players took a knee.

At issue was a moment of silence held before the anthem in support of Black Lives Matter, which Major League Baseball officially supports.

Everyone on both sides, including Coonrod, clutched a black ribbon that stretched from beyond first base, around the plate and beyond third base, as a show of solidarity. The 27-year-old Missourian was the only man from either club to remain standing.

He said the event caught him by surprise and he did not have a chance to talk to teammates beforehand. He might have to now, particularly Davis, an African American who has spoken passionately about the discrimination he has encountered.

“I meant no ill will by it,” Coonrod said. “I don’t think I’m better than anybody. I’m just a Christian. I believe I can’t kneel before anything but God, Jesus Christ. I chose not to kneel. I feel if I did kneel I’d be a hypocrite. I don’t want to be a hypocrite.”

Kapler had spoken to the team about respecting one another’s choices, and several players said they bought in. Coonrod said Kapler has told him he will respect their differences.

“The one thing we said is, we’re going to let people express themselves,” Kapler said. “We’re going to give them the choice whether they stand, kneel or do something else. That was a personal decision for Sam.”

The players who joined Kapler and the two coaches kneeling for the anthem were Davis, Mike Yastrzemski, Pablo Sandoval, Hunter Pence, Austin Slater, Trevor Gott and Wandy Peralta. Dodger Mookie Betts also kneeled.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/giants/article/Giants-Coonrod-cites-his-faith-issues-with-15430927.php

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Officials slam ‘egregious’ errors by state’s COVID-19 testing lab, nurses at California prison

Health officials in Lassen County said state contractors testing for COVID-19 in prisons have been using unreliable methods to collect samples, a misstep that officials worry could have exacerbated an outbreak in the rural California county.

In a letter to the state health department this week, Lassen County’s top health official said the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation also has allowed infected nurses to transmit the disease — including to a prison healthcare worker — by not using personal protective equipment properly and monitoring themselves for signs of infection.

Lassen County is home to two state prisons and hundreds of corrections workers who live in Susanville and surrounding areas. An outbreak at California Correctional Center has infected about 500 incarcerated people, according to the state’s latest report. At least 266 inmates have active cases, and at least nine employees there have also contracted the disease.

County officials say the state has repeatedly offloaded inmates from infected prisons into the community before the proper 14-day quarantine period was over, opening yet another door for the virus to find a foothold in the sparsely populated county that for months has prided itself on keeping the virus at bay.

“We find that the actions by the state-run facilities to be egregious,” Barbara Longo, Lassen County’s director of health and social services wrote in her Monday afternoon letter to the California Department of Public Health. “This situation has proven to be incredibly costly to Lassen County Public Health in both time and effort.”

The problems date to a widespread employee testing effort in June, Longo said.

Nurses working for a testing company hired by the state improperly swabbed prison employees’ tongues and cheeks while collecting samples. They also did not change their gloves from one person to the next, the county claims.

Lassen County’s health department dispatched a team to the testing site to observe and “provided immediate correction to the testing procedures,” Longo wrote. Still, “inconsistencies” led to inaccurate results.

In addition to the potential for infected people to have tested negative for the virus because of the less accurate oral swabs, the county also has concerns about samples that were unusable altogether. In one cohort, the testing lab tagged approximately 93 samples it couldn’t test because of improper collection, storage and shipping, Longo wrote.

“We are requesting that CDPH evaluate the efficacy and reliability of the lab and ask that you work with CDCR come up with a more effective, safe testing strategy,” Longo wrote.

The state health department did not reply to The Sacramento Bee’s request for comment.

Longo did not return a request for comment Thursday. Richard Egan, a county spokesman, said they don’t know to what extent the alleged testing problems contributed to the spread of the virus. A conference call with the state was planned for Friday afternoon, and he said he was hopeful they could reconcile the concerns.

Dana Simas, a CDCR spokeswoman, in a statement responding to questions about Lassen County’s letter, defended the $150 million partnership with MiraDx, one of three vendors conducting mandatory tests on prison employees. The Los Angeles-based company has a history of conducting genetic research and has recently transitioned to COVID-19 testing, according to its website.

MiraDx’s employees are “highly trained” in the swab techniques and the company is “very confident in the swab accuracy, said A.J. Weidhaas, a company spokesman. The company does not conduct tongue or cheek swabs in any testing program “and never has.”

“We are very confident that MiraDx is safely and accurately testing CDCR employees,” Weidhaas said.

Simas did not deny Lassen County’s claim that some samples were improperly collected or that the prison system’s testing has led to a discrepancy in the number of COVID-19 cases.

She also did not refute claims that six nurses who traveled to Lassen County and later tested positive for the new coronavirus failed to follow safety protocols and infected a hotel worker and prison healthcare employee — the county said it is still conducting contact tracing to understand who else they might have been exposed.

“CDCR and MiraDx are committed to performing specimen collection in a manner that is consistent with health care and public health guidance,” Simas wrote. “We appreciate our partnership with Lassen County and will continue to work closely with them as we focus on addressing COVID-19 and protecting all those who live and work in our state prisons, and the community at-large.”

https://www.sacbee.com/news/coronavirus/article244447307.html