Just four days after Baylor University began in-person classes, two star students who help promote the college, Brooklyn and Bailey McKnight, tested positive for COVID-19, they announced on Instagram.
"As you guys know, Baylor chose to do some in person classes as well as some online classes," the caption reads. "They have taken every precaution, including mandating masks, requiring students to test negative before coming back to school, and many, many more precautions. It is NOT due to in person classes that this happened."
The twins write that they tested negative for COVID-19 before returning to campus, which was required by the university, according to its website, but they believe they caught the virus from their roommates, who were linked to someone who tested positive. "Within a few days 3/4 of us in our house started showing symptoms and immediately went to get tested," the caption reads.
On their Instagram Stories, Bailey says her symptoms were a sore throat, chills, congestion, and headaches, while Brooklyn says hers were extreme headaches and fatigue. Since testing positive, they have been taking vitamin C and sitting outside. According to a Harvard Medical School article, vitamin C has not been proven to help people infected.
As of Aug. 29, Baylor had 456 active cases of COVID-19, according to its dashboard. Baylor's 2019 total enrollment had 18,033 students. Baylor's Phi Gamma Delta fraternity was suspended for an off-campus party, according to Baylor's student newspaper.
In the Dallas Observer's 2019 cover story about the McKnight twins, we learned Baylor pays the twin influencers to promote the university, so it seems like a bit of a shock they would announce being infected on Instagram. Journalist Anne Helen Peterson writes, "Are Brooklyn and Bailey compelled, by [the] administration, to publish this? I’m guessing not. But if they want to continue their brand partnership ... what else would you post? The financial relationship between the two compels them to behave as high profile boosters for the college’s COVID plan, even though these cases would not be proliferating if the university hadn’t brought students back to campus."