Clemson Football: ACC Pushing For 85 Percent Vaccination Rate Ahead of Season

As the 2021 season inches ever so closer, teams are doing what they can to get out in front of any Covid protocols that will be in place.

Clemson offensive lineman Trent Howard recently appeared on The Rick and Bubba Show and said that while there are players on the Clemson team that have yet to be vaccinated, the ACC is pushing for a vaccination rate of 85-percent. However, he is not one of those players, as he got his back in May after a short hospital stay due to the virus.

“There’s just a lot of guys on the team who haven’t gotten their vaccine, and who am I to tell them not to (do that),” Howard said. “I can definitely see both sides. I actually went ahead and got mine in May because I don’t want to hear it. Whatever, I’ll just be done with it.”

Howard said any players that aren’t vaccinated will be required to get tested once per week and those that are will not face any quarantine protocols even if they are exposed. But if a team gets to the 85 percent threshold, the guidelines will be far less strict.

“If you’re not vaccinated, you still have to go up there and test weekly,” Howard said. “The main thing is the 85 percent. They’re really pushing us to get to that. Since I’m vaccinated, if my roommate was to test positive, I don’t have to quarantine.”

“So if we were on the road and tested positive or he tested positive, neither one of us have to quarantine and miss the game. But if you’re not vaccinated, you have to do the quarantine procedure.”

The offensive lineman says no one is being forced to take the vaccination but that the school is pushing hard for players to do so. He said that with the Tigers being a national title contender, the fewer distractions, the better.

“You can’t make (a player) get vaccinated, you can only give them the information that they need,” Howard said. “Our team goal is obviously to win the national championship this year and we didn’t have the vaccine last year. This year we have the vaccine and they’re really pushing us to go ahead and get it so we don’t have to deal with this stuff down the road and in the playoffs and all that.”