Timeline
Aug 26, 2021 - Rodgers is asked about vaccinations in a preseason press conference and says he is “immunized." He elaborates further stating: “There’s guys on the team that haven’t been vaccinated," he said. "I think it’s a personal decision, I’m not going to judge those guys.”
Nov. 3 -- Rodgers ends up on the COVID-19 reserve list after a positive test. Reports reveal he is unvaccinated and is set to miss at least 10 days per the league's policies for unvaccinated players.
Nov. 5 -- Rodgers' appearance on the Pat McAfee Show ignites a social media firestorm as the Packers QB rips the fact his "personal health decisions" are no longer private.
NBC Sports, Nov 5/2021
Nov 15 - NFL rules requires that all unvaccinated players must wear a mask while indoors, but because the quarterback refused to wear one, he had to do his post-game press conference on Zoom.
Toronto Sun, Nov 15/2021
Aaron Rodgers lied about being vaccinated. He did not follow NFL protocols for unvaccinated players. Aaron Rodgers associated with his teammates and with the public while not wearing a mask.
You have the right to jeopardize your life, but you have the responsibility to not jeopardize mine.
The scientific consensus is that masks and vaccines work. What anyone does on their own time is their own business but if that person is in public, they have the responsibility to follow the rules. If you don’t wear a mask and you’re not vaccinated, you can’t visit the grocery store, eat in a restaurant, or associate with people in public places. I’m sorry if anybody chooses to not wear a mask or get vaccinated but to lie about it and jeopardize the safety, health, and possibly the lives of others is reprehensible.
Let me run over the significant points of this issue.
Respiratory Droplets
If you don’t understand this, you don’t understand the airborne transmission of infectious diseases. I’ve seen the science; I watched the videos. This is so obvious; how could anyone act otherwise? Masks, social distancing; it’s as plain as the nose on your face. Bingo! The Earth is not flat. Two plus two equals four.
my blog: What the heck is a respiratory droplet? – Nov 7/2021
Why don’t people know about this? If they did, if they truly understood, they couldn’t act otherwise. Who is going to knowingly risk their health or the health of others?
Living in Fear
When I put on oven mitts to take the casserole out of the oven, I don’t do it because I’m afraid of the oven. I understand heat; I understand ovens are hot; and I don’t want to burn myself. That’s not fear; that’s understanding how things work.
The Individual vs the Community
I’ve read personal accounts of people living in the Far East, echoed by the analysis of journalists and sociologists. In the Far East, there seems to be an attitude of putting the good of the community ahead of the individual. In North America, we stress the freedom of the individual over the community.
my blog: Masks: How we hate change. – Sep 28/2021
I was born in 1952 and grew up in an era where smoking was considered a right. Buildings, transit including airplanes, movie theatres, you name it, you could smoke there. And I’m reminded of the old joke: Having a smoking section in a restaurant is like having a peeing section in a pool.
Everybody in my family smoked except my father and I. Years later, when I lived on my own, I’d visit my parents from time to time. When I’d leave, I’d drive a distance with the windows in my car wide open because I absolutely stunk of cigarette smoke. When I got home, I would strip off my clothes, shower, and put on something else. It was the only way to escape the stench of second-hand smoke.
Fast forward to today. I never thought I would live to see the day, but now, smokers no longer have first right. Clean air is the right, and while nobody has stopped anybody from smoking, smoking is not permitted indoors. Ontario first enacted laws in 2005 to ban smoking in all workplaces and now, people have the right to clean, smoke-free air. As I said, you can still smoke but now, I don’t have to inhale second-hand smoke. All right!
Your rights and your responsibilities
During the pandemic, people have talked endlessly about their rights but never about their responsibilities.
You have the right to jeopardize your life, but you have the responsibility to not jeopardize mine.
You have the right to drive anywhere you want. But you have the responsibility to drive responsibly. Follow the speed limit. Stop at all stop signs and red lights. Don’t drink and drive. Don’t text and drive. These measures are not about restricting your freedom; they are about ensuring the safety of all of us. You may have the right to drive anywhere you want but everybody else also has the right to drive anywhere they want.
Anti-science, anti-education, anti-expertise
You’re not going to tell me what to do! Fine. Don’t put on oven mitts when you take your casserole out of the oven!
The problem here is that the issue is about an infectious disease. Don’t wear a mask; don’t social distance; don’t get vaccinated; your behavior has a negative effect on others. Jeopardize your life but don’t jeopardize the lives of others.
Distrust of the government
Ronald Reagan mockingly said, “I’m from the government; I’m here to help.” Republicans stress “small government”. Many have a negative view of government, the authorities, and anybody in any sort of position of power. Are there things wrong? Yes. But now, the attitude of some is that everything is wrong, and there’s no good at all.
If the government says black; people say white. If the authorities say turn left; people turn right. If the regulations say to put on oven mitts; people do whatever the heck they want. There seems to be no analysis of right and wrong, good and bad, just the automatic negative response to any rule.
Aaron Rodgers is a danger
Aaron Rodgers is a danger to me, to you, his teammates, and the public. He claims to have done his research, but I’ve done mine, and I come to completely different conclusions. The pandemic is not a hoax; it’s serious. Respiratory droplets are the key, and the airborne transmission of infectious diseases is a real thing. Aaron Rodgers will listen to Joe Rogan and take ivermectin, but he won’t listen to Dr. Fauci and get vaccinated.
"I am not a doctor. I am a fucking moron... I am not a respected source of information even for me."
-Joe Rogan, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Apr 29, 2021
my blog: Ivermectin: I’m not taking medical advice from Joe Rogan. – Nov 9/2021
Howard Stern thinks Rodgers should be fired
On Stern’s broadcast of November 8, 2021, he said Rodgers should be let go.
"If there was decency in this world, I would throw this guy out of the football league so fast. What he did to his fellow teammates … this (expletive) guy, they should throw him out of the league so fast.
"This (expletive) guy … I know the guy’s a real good football player, that’s why they put up with his (expletive).
"Come on dude, really? That whole (expletive) game, 'Yeah, I have the antibodies.' First of all, I don’t know where these guys get their information from," Stern said. " ... He said he got his information from Joe Rogan. You got doctors who study in medical school. I don’t know what’s happened to this country.
"I don’t know why he’s wasting his time on football. He’s such a great researcher, he should go into the medical field. I say the next time this (expletive) head gets injured on the field, they should bring Joe Rogan in to fix the bones. They should have (Rogan) treat (Rodgers)."
'They should throw him out': Howard Stern, Jimmy Kimmel join in on Aaron Rodgers criticism USA Today, Nov 9/2021
Final Word
I agree with Howard Stern; Aaron Rodgers should be fired. I’m sure that’s not going to happen because he’s a big-time sports figure, but as new rules come into force, employees refusing to be vaccinated are being laid off. The majority rules, and the government elected by the majority have made it mandatory in certain cases to be vaccinated to work. No vaccination, no work.
Government overreach? Authoritarian rule? Dictatorship, even? Do I want to associate with somebody who risks my health with sickness, hospitalization, and possibly death? Aaron Rodgers lied about being vaccinated. I assume the NFL treated him as vaccinated, that is, not following the protocols for non-vaccinated people (regular testing). Rodgers associated with his teammates in social settings and with the public while not wearing a mask. He downplayed the importance of health and safety recommendations, oblivious of the risks he was foisting on other people. As I’ve said, risk your own health but don’t risk mine; we all have rights, but we also have responsibilities.
The NFL has fined Rodgers a paltry fourteen thousand dollars while his four-year contract is worth $134 million. There is no doubt that Rodgers will get out of this with a slap on the wrist because he’s a BFD (Big F**kin’ Deal). However, if he was your average employee, I’m sure a company could terminate him with cause.
What Rodgers does for himself about his safety, his health, and his own life is his business. The important thing is that what he does should not, can not have an affect on my safety, my health, and my life. That is over the line; that is unacceptable. Heck, that is irresponsible, even reckless endangerment. I’d go so far as to call it criminal negligence. Rodgers tested positive for Covid. Has anybody done trace testing? Has Rodgers infected anybody else while he would have been asymptomatic? What if people got sick? What if people were hospitalized? How about died? Is that now a big deal to Rodgers?
It's obvious to me that Rodgers doesn’t understand respiratory droplets and the airborne transmission of infectious diseases. Covid is a mysterious inconvenience, something for others to be concerned about, not him. He gets medical advice from Joe Rogan, a self-declared fucking moron, but ignores the advice of Dr. Fauci, a career epidemiologist to seven presidents. As I said previously: The dinosaurs apparently became extinct because of an asteroid; humanity will become extinct because of stupidity.
References
Wikipedia: Aaron Rodgers
Aaron Charles Rodgers (b 1983) is an American football quarterback for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL). Rodgers began his college football career at Butte College in 2002 before transferring to the University of California, Berkeley to play for the California Golden Bears, where he set several career passing records, including lowest single-season and career interception rates. He was selected in the first round of the 2005 NFL Draft by the Packers.
Following a positive test for COVID-19, Rodgers was placed on the COVID-19 reserve list on November 3, 2021. He missed 10 days per the league's COVID-19 policies for unvaccinated players, including a game against the Kansas City Chiefs. Despite answering "Yeah, I'm immunized" when asked during the preseason if he had been vaccinated against COVID-19, he had not actually received a vaccination. Instead, he had received homeopathic treatment from his personal doctor. While unvaccinated, he committed multiple violations of NFL COVID-19 protocols for unvaccinated players, including attending parties with teammates while not using PPE and appearing unmasked at multiple postgame press conferences. For his behavior, he earned the nicknames "Kaaron Rodgers'" and "Throw Rogan". He was activated off reserve/COVID-19 list on November 13, 2021.
Aaron Rodgers Tells Pat McAfee His Side Of Vaccine Situation
The Pat McAfee Show, Nov 5/2021, YouTube 47:25
Packers players, coach respond to Rodgers Covid-19 comments
TMJ4 News, Nov 5/2021, YouTube 2:28 During press briefings, Packers players and head coach are responding to the latest comments Aaron Rodgers has made regarding Covid-19.
Aaron Rodgers said he did the research on covid vaccines. Here’s how he was wrong, according to experts
The Washington Post, Nov 5/2021
Rodgers, by relying on the advice of a podcaster rather than doctors, will get information in line with what he’s looking for rather than what’s factual, said Tara C. Smith, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Kent State University College of Public Health, who has studied the public perception of the vaccines.
“When people have these ideas in mind, you can go out and find things to support that,” Smith said. “That’s easy enough to do, but that’s not actually doing research. People like Rodgers and others who are publicly doubting vaccines take the opposite tack and just find research that already confirms their preexisting biases. And that’s not how science works.”
The Problem Is Aaron Rodgers Thinks He Has All the Answers
Sports Illustrated, Nov 5/2021
Rodgers told McAfee he is taking ivermectin on the advice of his new friend, podcaster Joe Rogan (the CDC does not consider ivermectin effective in treating or preventing COVID-19), and that the “woke mob” will be disappointed to hear that after 48 hours, he feels great. I am sincerely glad he feels great, but also: So what? I once felt great just 48 hours after eating at Applebee’s. What does that have to do with anything? This is a classic and frankly simple example of using anecdotal evidence to prove a point that can be proved with only statistics; it is the height of intellectual dishonesty, even if Rodgers is gullible enough to believe it himself.
2021-11-18
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