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BERKELEY, California (LifeSiteNews) — The radically left-wing University of California, Berkeley appears to be mandating that people on campus mask up this fall if they haven’t gotten vaccinated — not against COVID-19 this time but against the flu.

On its public-facing website, the home of the Golden Bears states that masks “are strongly recommended, but not required, indoors — regardless of COVID-19 vaccination status.”

The institution further explains that masks will go from being “strongly recommended” to “required during flu season” for anyone “not vaccinated for flu.”

UC Berkeley did not provide scientific backing to support its recommendation that employees and students mask up to guard against seasonal influenza. The college did not immediately respond to LifeSite’s request for comment.

News of the mask mandate for students who haven’t gotten their flu jab came after the University of California system made headlines in late 2020 for mandating flu vaccination for all students and staff, including remote workers. Berkeley mandated the flu shot for students through the 2021-2022 school year.

According to the UC Berkeley website, however, students were only required to vaccinate against the flu through April 2022. Thus, it’s unclear whether Berkeley’s current mask mandate for those who have been vaccinated against the flu is an active requirement or an outdated one that hasn’t been removed from the webpage.

In an August 4 update, the school stated it “is not currently requiring masks but continues to strongly recommend that masks be worn indoors,” providing a link to the page that states facial coverings are mandatory for those unvaccinated for the flu.

Meanwhile, the apparent requirement to mask or vaccinate seems to fly in the face of dozens of studies that discredit the notion that cloth and surgical masks are safe and effective in stopping the spread of contagious viruses like the flu.

RELATED: 47 studies confirm ineffectiveness of masks for COVID and 32 more confirm their negative health effects

In one review conducted in May 2020, researchers with the University of Hong Kong found that after analyzing 10 studies on randomized and controlled trials published between 1946 to 2018, there had been “no significant reduction in influenza transmission with the use of face masks.”

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