Tag: cole beasley covid

Bills WR Cole Beasley offers to buy game tickets for unvaccinated fans

Bills WR Cole Beasley is tripling down on his anti-vaccine stance by offering to buy tickets for fans who won’t get COVID vaccinations.

Buffalo Bills receiver Cole Beasley has been perhaps the most outspoken NFL player when it comes to his own anti-vaccine views, and now, he’s made it clear that he’s willing to go above and beyond to support Bills fans who believe the way he does.

Per Jason Wolf of the Buffalo News, Beasley and long-snapper Reid Ferguson have responded to the Bills’ mandate that proof of vaccination is required to attend games at Highmark Stadium, and the fans who refuse to get vaccinated and are thus planning to see the Bills in away games, by offering to make sure those fans have tickets for away games.

At this time, only four teams — the Seahawks, Raiders, Saints, and Bills — require proof of vaccination as a condition for attendance in their home stadiums. Which means that the Bills’ Week 2 game at Miami, as well as road games against the Chiefs, Titans, Jaguars, Jets, Buccaneers, and Patriots would be open season for Bills fans who refuse to protect themselves against COVID-19 in what has been proven to be the most effective method to date.

Beasley responded to one Bills fan who refuses to get the shots thusly:

“I’ve had Covid, so in my opinion, I’ve already got the antibodies,” Hauquitz told the Buffalo News. “I think they’re just as good as the vaccine. The vaccine came out pretty rushed. I don’t really know all the information. In my opinion, there’s so little information out there and it all seems to be one-sided. And then, personally, my religious beliefs. I think God created me for a purpose. He has a plan for my life. And whether I have the vaccine or not, I’m taken care of.”

Hauquitz also said that when he got COVID, it was his decision to “take a chicken pox approach” and pass it along to his entire family, including his children, who range in age from 23 months to 12 years.

Ferguson is in on this, too.

Erie County, New York, where Buffalo is located, reported 1,449 new Covid-19 cases last week, a 10% increase from the previous week, according to health department data.

In July, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the Chief Medical Advisor to the President, revealed that unvaccinated individuals account for virtually all — 97 percent — of the COVID hospitalizations and deaths in the United States. And just three states — Florida, Texas, and Missouri; three states with lower vaccination rates — accounted for 40 percent of all cases nationwide.  For the second week in a row, one in five of all cases occurred in Florida alone.  And within communities, these cases were primarily among unvaccinated people.

Perhaps Beasley has some extra cash lying around due to his professed intent to approve of vaccines if he and his family can profit from them.

Perhaps not. As for the Bills fans looking to see their team this way, thoughts and prayers to them, and everybody they come into contact with.

Cole Beasley now approves of COVID vaccines… if he can profit from them

Bills receiver Cole Beasley, the NFL’s most prominent anti-vaxxer, now says he’ll promote vaccinations if he can profit from them.

Bills receiver Cole Beasley has been rather outspoken, though not generally well-informed, when it comes to his overall opposition to the idea of getting vaccinated to help protect himself and those around him from a virus that has killed over 600,000 people in the United States alone, and is now showing different strains to deal with.

In response to a Pro Football Talk tweet hypothesizing that vaccinated players should get breaks on things like being tested for marijuana, Beasley responded that he would be on board with the idea… if he can profit from it.

In response to the idea that a player earning millions of dollars shouldn’t be doing this, Beasley wrote, “I’m not upset but if I’m pushing something with this platform they shouldn’t get free marketing. They are a business like everything else.”

Well, let’s unpack that. First of all, if Beasley wanted to profit from Pfizer’s vaccine, he could just buy stock. Second, while Pfizer reported a $3.5 billion profit from the vaccine in the first quarter of 2021, and could exceed $26 billion in the fiscal year, the vaccine is free to everybody. It’s not as if Pfizer is somehow exploiting the need for medication, as pharma companies are prone to do. Third, this isn’t an NIL argument. It’s not as if people are going to run and get vaccinated based on Cole Beasley’s word or sponsorship. Finally, it’s uniquely weird and distasteful to go right out there and say that your opinion about the vaccine is for sale.

Beasley has the right to say whatever he wants about the vaccine, but to make it about a personal profit after going all out to insist that the vaccine is just not for him? Not a great look.