There’s no need for ‘more information’ and the decision is not ‘personal.’
Over the weekend, Green Bay Packers receiver Devin Funchess used a racist slur to describe the way reporters’ eyes narrowed when they smiled while wearing masks.
The condemnation was swift and resounding. Funchess apologized hours later. Packers GM Brian Gutekunst called the remark “very unacceptable” on Sunday.
That’s as it should be. Slurs that play on racial stereotypes are dehumanizing and damaging. We’ve mostly gotten to a place where that’s understood and accepted. It took too long. It’s still not good enough. But, some progress.
We need to reach the same place when it comes to people spreading misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine.
Eighteen months into a global pandemic, too many around sports are unable to call out anti-vaccine rhetoric that has allowed COVID-19 to rage again, threatening to send us toward another fall and winter of uncertainty. Why are sports teams — and we, the journalists who cover them — seemingly unable or unwilling to condemn damaging assertions about the safety and effectiveness of a vaccine that should be saving more lives than it already is?
This would generally be the spot in this column where a list of athletes who’ve expressed reticence about — or outright disdain of — the coronavirus vaccine would appear. But seeing as the whole point of the column is that those people aren’t worth listening to, let’s mostly skip that in favor of deconstructing the nonsense they’ve used to justify their stances.
Cole Beasley has said he needs more information about the vaccine. That does not make any sense. There is no lack of information about the vaccine, nor is there a dearth of data proving it is effective and safe.
Cam Newton has refused to answer questions about it, saying it’s a “personal” choice. Lamar Jackson, who has had coronavirus twice, continues to say the same. But of course getting vaccinated against a virus that spreads from body to body is not personal at all. It very much concerns the public — especially since world-famous athletes have influence. Newton and Jackson are wildly popular in parts of the country where vaccine reticence has allowed the coronavirus to flourish again. They could speak up and actually make a difference.
Getting the COVID-19 vaccine makes a person less likely to get COVID-19. And in the cases where a vaccinated person does get COVID-19, they are much less likely to require hospitalization — thus alleviating the strain on a medical system that has been under siege a year and a half.
Athletes have also taken to claiming they need to do their “own research” on the vaccine. And while it is true that due to their status and wealth they may have access to information the rest of us don’t, it certainly seems like what they are mostly doing is seeking out information that conforms to their own pre-existing opinions or political leanings to justify their decision.
If any of the athletes using their public platform to cast doubt about the vaccine have relevant information to back their opinion, they should share. Otherwise, they should stop pretending that the flotsam they find on social media counts as “research” or forming their “own opinion.”
Teams and leagues also need to stop pretending there’s any gray area here. As my colleague Henry McKenna wrote, the New England Patriots seemed to have purposely erased a discussion of the vaccine from a recent press conference, presumably to keep the conversation from hurting chemistry among the players or something of the sort.
Only, there is no discussion. The vaccine works. Unless they have certain conditions, people should get it. That’s it.
In the past I’ve praised athletes for speaking out about off-the-field (or court) matters, including Newton and LeBron James (who has also been dodgy about his vaccination status.) I continue to believe that. Except when it comes to the COVID-19 vaccine. On that, this much is clear: It is safe, and it works, and it’s our best chance of returning to something resembling normal.
Athletes spend more time than most of us thinking about how their bodies function and what goes into them, so perhaps it’s natural that they would be more reticent about a vaccine. They also spend a lot of time with microphones in their face, so perhaps it’s natural for them to think they usually have something interesting to say. But there’s no more reason to be hesitant, and no valid cause for equivocation.
The NFL, to its credit, gets it (likely because the bottom line depends on it), and has put in place stringent rules meant to pressure players to get vaccinated. But it’s time to go further: Athletes who muddy the vaccine discussion should be ignored (or canceled or deplatformed or whatever the loaded term is this week) because what they’re saying has no basis in fact and is damaging to a country where already cases and deaths have skyrocketed and fall events are being cancelled.
It’s time. Nobody needs more information. This decision isn’t personal. The research has been done by the people who actually conduct research. Anyone who claims otherwise at this juncture is doing real harm, and should be treated that way.
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