“News that Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers tested positive for COVID-19, is unvaccinated and will miss this weekend's game against the Chiefs shocked the NFL world on Wednesday – and not just because he said in August that he had already been 'immunized.'
“Since training camp opened in late July, Rodgers had not been publicly observed to be following any of the obvious protocols for unvaccinated NFL players, as agreed upon this summer by the NFL and NFL Players Association. The NFL is currently reviewing the situation with the Packers, per a league statement on Wednesday afternoon.
“So what's the deal here?”
(Kevin Seifert, ESPN Staff Writer. “Aaron Rodgers tests positive for COVID-19: Rules for unvaccinated NFL players, when Packers QB could return, more.” ESPN. November 93, 2021.)
“What's the deal,” indeed.
Friday, Rodgers spoke publicly for the first time since testing positive for COVID-19. He joined "The Pat McAfee Show," saying he's "doing well" after contracting the virus. The QB, who is unvaccinated, said when he stated in August that he was "immunized," he wasn't being deceptive.
Rogers wasn't being deceptive?
According to the famous quarterback …
"First of all, I didn't lie in the initial press conference. During that time, it was a witch hunt that was going on across the league where everybody in the media was so concerned about who was vaccinated and what that meant and who was being selfish and who would talk about it and what it meant if they said it's a personal decision (and) they shouldn't have to disclose their own medical information and whatnot. And at the time, my plan was to say that I've been immunized. It wasn't some sort of ruse or lie, it was the truth."
(Around the NFL Staff. “Aaron Rodgers explains decision to not get COVID-19 vaccination in first comments since positive test.” Around the NFL. Nov 05, 2021.)
According to Rodgers, he didn't lie and his teammates have known of his vaccination status all season. "And at the time, my plan was to say that I have been immunized. It wasn't some sort of ruse or lie. It was the truth, and I'll get into the whole immunization in a second,” Rodgers explained. He went on to say, “But had there been a follow-up to my statement that I've been immunized, I would have responded with this: I would have said, 'Look, I'm not some sort of anti-vax, flat-Earther. I am somebody who's a critical thinker.'"
So the truth is back in August, Rodgers told reporters that he was “immunized.” Those claims led people to believe that he was vaccinated, and at no point did he refute them.
Rodgers has followed masking and other protocols while at the Packers’ facility, according to ESPN. However, he has not worn a mask in the team’s media auditorium, nor on the sidelines during games. He went on to say that there were other Packers players who were not vaccinated and that he was not going to judge them. Other unvaccinated Packers players have done interviews and press conferences via Zoom.
(Max Molski. “Did Aaron Rodgers Lie About His COVID-19 Vaccination Status?” NBC Chicago. November 03, 2021.)
The NFL has said it is interested in a vaccine requirement for all players, but the NFL Players Association has not consented to that. The league mandated vaccinations for coaches and team staffers for them to be permitted to work closely with players. Under the protocols developed by the league and NFLPA, vaccinated players and staffers will be tested weekly this season. Unvaccinated players remain subject to the same daily testing that was in effect last season.
(Mark Maske, Chelsea Janes and Ben Golliver. “How Biden’s new vaccine mandate affects the NFL, MLB and other pro sports leagues.” The Washington Post. September 11, 2021.)
Rodgers' Reasons For Refusing To Vaccinate
Rodgers said, “I believe strongly in bodily autonomy and the ability to make choices for your body, not to have to acquiesce to some woke culture or crazed group of individuals who say you have to do something. Health is not a one-size-fits-all for everybody. And for me, it involved a lot of study in the offseason, much like the study I put into hosting Jeopardy! Or the weekly study I put into playing the game."
The argument about autonomy in courts of law comes down to a balance of the people's liberty against the relevant state interests, i.e., protecting public health. The NFL surely has huge interests, and the league concludes COVID-19 vaccines are safe and efficacious, and its policy reasonably relies on the vaccine to prevent disease and “return to normal functioning. The obstinately defiant of authority or restraint of the few unavoidably impacts the many, In this case, insistence on bodily autonomy seriously endangers the health of others.
Judicial judgment concludes …
“[T]he evidence reasonably shows that [unvaccinated people] aren’t the only ones harmed by refusing to get vaccinated: refusing while also not complying with heightened safety precautions could ‘sicken and even kill many others who did not consent to that tradeoff.
(Klaassen v. Trustee of Indiana University, No. 1:21-cv-238, 2021 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 133300 N.D. Ind. July 18, 2021)
The safety issue was secondary to Rodgers. He claims he believed the immunization effort was a “witch hunt.” (That sounds familiar as it was a favorite “go to” for ex-president Donald Trump, also a COVID denier.) He complained that the policies by the NFL about handling vaccinated vs. unvaccinated players is "shame-based" and has no scientific backing. He said he is required to be tested daily and that he must wear a mask, even when standing up at the podium talking to the press when he is standing farther away from masked media members.
It seems the only “safety” Rodgers was concerned with was his own. He went beyond his views on “bodily autonomy” to explain his denial to vaccinate. On the Pat McAfee Show, Rodgers said he's allergic to an ingredient in mRNA vaccines, which precluded him from getting the Moderna and Pfizer shots. He then cited a temporary pause in April on usage of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for clotting issues as the reason for his dismissal of that treatment.
According to the CDC, the stoppage was a temporary pause and the FDA green-lit the vaccine to be used again. The blood clots were reportedly in adult women younger than 50, and that it occurs only at a rate of about seven per 1 million vaccinated women, and it is even more rare among older women and all men.
(Peter Marks, M.D.,
PhD. Director - Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. U.S.
Food and Drug Administration. April 13, 2021.)
For some reason (Go figure?), Rodgers did not reveal what ingredient he’s allergic to in the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, but studies point to polyethylene glycol (PEG), an inactive portion of the mRNA shots called an “excipient.”
Anaphylaxis – a severe, potentially life-threatening allergic reaction – has occurred in about two to five people per million vaccinated individuals in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Health experts advise people with a known allergy to one of the ingredients in either of the three COVID-19 vaccines to speak with their doctor about which coronavirus shot is safest for them.
“The overall risk of anaphylaxis to an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine remains extremely low and largely comparable to other common health care exposures,” the researchers wrote in their study published in the journal JAMA.
Dr. Niraj Patel of
Atlanta, chair of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and
Immunology's COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force, said that "you're as
likely to get struck by lightning as you are to have an allergic
reaaction to a COVID vaccine."
(Kimberly G. Blumenthal, MD, Msc; Lacey B. Robinson, MD, MPH; et al. “Acute Allergic Reactions to mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine.” JAMA. 2021;325(15):1562-1565.)
So maybe the brainy Jeopardy host should have intelligently investigated the allergy and clotting issues with more vigor and weighed them against risks associated with the disease. Yet, in his defense, Rodgers still claimed he spent time in the offseason researching the vaccines and the virus and met with medical professionals before deciding not to get vaccinated.
How did Rodgers miss the information about the vaccine being green-lit after his thorough investigation? Perhaps his autonomy was to blame.
(Edward Sutela. “Fact-checking Aaron Rodgers' bizarre COVID beliefs and 'woke mob' claim made on Pat McAfee Show.” Sporting News. November 07, 2021.)
Rodgers also cited his refusal his goal to become a father as a reason not to vaccinate. He told McAfee: "To my knowledge, there has been zero long-term studies around sterility or fertility issues around the vaccines, so that definitely was something that I was worried about.
Dr. Jennifer Kawwass, a reproductive endocrinologist and associate professor at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, told NBC News that there is no evidence that the vaccine can impact fertility. The CDC confirmed: “Currently no evidence shows that any vaccines, including COVID-19 vaccines, cause fertility problems (problems trying to get pregnant) in women or men.”
(Joint Statement Regarding COVID-19 Vaccine in Men Desiring Fertility from the Society for Male Reproduction and Urology (SMRU) and the Society for the Study of Male Reproduction (SSMR). American Society for Reproductive Medicine.)
But, the fact that male and female reproductive organs have the receptors the Covid virus targets means it’s certainly plausible that the virus could cause fertility issues.
Moreover, the symptoms of Covid – primarily fever higher than 102 degrees Fahrenheit for at least three days – are known to cause fertility issues, especially in men.
According to a recent review paper published in the journal Reproductive Biology, moderate to severe Covid infections have caused decreased sperm count, testicular inflammation, sperm duct inflammation and testicular pain in men of reproductive age. Although not considered common complications of Covid in particular, these effects are often associated with reduced fertility, and are enough to lead scientists to hypothesize that Covid may cause fertility issues in men, warranting further research in this area.
(PremRajak, SumedhaRoy, et. al. “Understanding the cross-talk between mediators of infertility and COVID-19. Reproductive Biology Volume 21, Issue 4, December 2021.)
Since he has now tested positive for COVID-19, Rodgers has to deal with any fertility issues caused by the virus.
Speaking of science, Rodgers said that he felt there was no science behind the policy that made him wear a mask in a facility where everyone had either been fully vaccinated or previously tested negative.
"It was my opinion that that wasn't rooted in science," Rodgers said. "Every other protocol, I've followed to a T."
Denial of science is often rooted in Republican politics. This rejection of science and of expertise have become demonstrations of political loyalty. As president, Donald Trump's repeated denials of the pandemic’s threat, his scorn for COVID mitigation measures, and his ridicule for experts like Fauci got amplified by conservative media outlets, and the conspiracy theories and disinformation spread by bad actors on social media help validate anti-science skepticism.
(Christina Pazzanese. “Why isn’t the right more afraid of COVID-19?” The Harvard Gazette. October 30, 2020.)
Instead of complying, Rodgers says he just wanted the controversy to “go away.” He claims: “Everyone on the squad knew I was not vaccinated, everyone in the organization knew I wasn't vaccinated. I wasn't hiding it from anybody. I was trying to minimize and mitigate this conversation that would go on and on."
Rodgers didn't care about exposing others? What did he do instead of vaccinating? He petitioned the NFL to have a homeopathic treatment he’d received recognized as a formal vaccine. That request was denied.
The players' union, the NFL-NFLPA jointly designated infectious disease consultant and the league agreed that Rodgers' treatment did not provide any documented protection from the coronavirus. Accordingly, Rodgers did not qualify for an exemption, and he remained subject to a variety of restrictions, including daily testing, mask-wearing and high-risk close-contact protocol that would force him to isolate for five days based on interaction with a positive individual, even if he tested negative.
Rodgers said that he went through his own immunization protocols that he developed with his medical team composed of holistic doctors, homeopaths, "Harvard MDs and brilliant people from all over the country." Rodgers said that he is going to keep the details of that treatment "between my doctors and myself, but it was a way to stimulate my immune system to create a defense against COVID." Rodgers did say he was taking monocolonal antibodies, ivermectin, zinc, vitamin C and D, and hydroxychloroquine.
(Around the NFL Staff. “Aaron Rodgers explains decision to not get COVID-19 vaccination in first comments since positive test.” Around the NFL. Nov 05, 2021.)
Most health experts – from the World Health Organisation (WHO), to the US Department of Health and Human Services and Britain’s National Health Service – cite research and express scepticism for homeopathy. They discourage its use as an alternative to conventional medicine for life-threatening diseases, and see it as a harmless placebo at best and a purveyor of potentially lethal concoctions at worst.
Dr. Gregory DeMuri, an infectious disease specialist at University of Wisconsin Health, said homeopathic remedies offer no protection against COVID-19.
"There are no supplements, herbs, tinctures or homeopathic treatments that prevent COVID," he said. "The difference is the vaccine works."
DeMuri said getting vaccinated boosts the body's antibody response, which provides protection against infection from the COVID-19 virus. Other homeopathic remedies only treat symptoms after someone gets sick.
"There's not much you can take to keep yourself from getting COVID if you're going to be exposed other than the vaccine," he said.
(Caroline Dade. “Homeopathic COVID-19 treatments: what are they and do they work?” WKOW. November 03, 2021.)
The Rodgers' situation raises the obvious question of whether other teams have been covering for unvaccinated key players. The Atlantic reports that the NFL and the Packers can’t say they were unaware that Rodgers was endangering other people and skirting the rules. Numerous media reports indicate that both the Packers and the NFL knew that Rodgers wasn’t vaccinated because of his request for homeopathic treatment.
Jemele Hill of The Atlantic says …
“The Packers sure appear complicit in helping their star avoid any questions. By allowing him to go unmasked before the media, the team fed assumptions that Rodgers was vaccinated. If that wasn’t the case, then why did the team’s unvaccinated players—but not Rodgers—have to conduct their media interviews via Zoom? And because the Packers allowed Rodgers to keep up his vaccination ruse, why should anyone trust that they were actually making him follow the rules behind closed doors? …
“Besides deterring players from potentially endangering others, the league has to single out those who deliberately make a mockery of such a serious issue. If the league lets Rodgers and the Packers slide, it will prove the quarterback right. He was smart enough to know that the rules didn’t apply to a star as big as him.”
(Jemele Hill. “Why Aaron Rodgers Felt Free to Mislead People. The Atlantic. November 05, 2021.)
Now that he has tested positive, Rodgers said that he will build up a natural immunity to it, and that studies have found that "if you've gotten COVID and recovered from it, that that's the best boosted immunity you can have."
The CDC found in a recent study that having the vaccine is better protection from possible reinfection compared to natural immunity from having previously contracted the virus.
(Edward Sutela. “Fact-checking Aaron Rodgers' bizarre COVID beliefs and 'woke mob' claim made on Pat McAfee Show.” Sporting News. November 07, 2021.)
To defend his actions, Rodgers has even compared himself with Martin Luther King Jr.
When asked by former teammate A.J. Hawk if there has been communication with the league or the Packers on his not wearing a mask during media availability, Rodgers said:
"I would add this to the mix as an aside. The great [Martin Luther King Jr.] said that you have a moral obligation to object to unjust rules and rules that make no sense. In my opinion, it makes no sense for me. I test every single day. Every single day.”
(Around the NFL Staff. “Aaron Rodgers explains decision to not get COVID-19 vaccination in first comments since positive test.” Around the NFL. Nov 05, 2021.)
Conclusions
Aaron Rodgers’s use of the word “immunized” instead of “vaccinated” should have raised more eyebrows than it did at the time. Other claims he made about his reasons for not getting the vaccine seem highly speculative. In retrospect, his disingenuous comments hint at a specific kind of self-centeredness; he seemed to believe he was smarter than everyone else in the room. In doing so, he believed he could sell his lies.
Rodgers looks selfish as well as dishonest for expecting others to indulge him. At least one of his major sponsors chose not to do so.
Previa Health – a Wisconsin health care organization – ended a nine-year partnership with Rodgers after the quarterback detailed his reasoning for avoiding the three COVID-19 vaccinations endorsed by the NFL.
Previa's statement said the company "remains deeply committed to protecting its patients, staff, providers and communities amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes encouraging and helping all eligible populations to become vaccinated against COVID-19 to prevent the virus from further significantly impacting lives and livelihoods."
(Jordan Williams. “Prevea Health, Aaron Rodgers end partnership after vaccine controversy.” The Hill. November 06, 2021.)
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