Aaron Rodgers’ family has wild reaction to his vaccination stance.
Aaron Rodgers #12 of the Green Bay Packers watches action from the sideline during the second half of a game against the Arizona Cardinals on October 28, 2021 in Glendale, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)©
Aaron Rodgers: Scientists react to the quarterback’s comments on Covid-19 vaccines and treatments.
By Theresa Waldrop, CNN
Scientists have worked hard to develop vaccines to end the Covid-19 pandemic, building on decades of vaccine knowledge and developments. And some of them, like Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speak to the public almost daily about the safety and efficacy of the available vaccines.
And then there are people like Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who recently tested positive for the virus and told a radio show host he is not vaccinated, after saying in August that he is “immunized.” He also repeated a number of misconceptions and misinformation about how to deal with an infection.
Rodgers is not just any football player. Last year he was named the National Football League’s most valuable player for the third time. He has hosted “Jeopardy,” and he has 4.5 million followers on Twitter.
“Any very public figure who first of all, is duplicitous, and then makes misstatements certainly is contrary to what we’re trying to achieve from a public health perspective,” said Dr. William Schaffner, professor of medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. “And we would all of us who are in public health, I think I can speak for my colleagues across the country, think that this is very unfortunate.”
Rodgers spoke on the radio show again this week. He said he took “full responsibility” for “anybody who felt misled” by his comments, but Rodgers didn’t try to correct anything he said earlier.
That, CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupte said, was “very irresponsible” because “he gives a lot of voice either intentionally or not to the anti-vaccine movement. At a time when we’re still in the middle of a pandemic, over 1,000 people are still dying of this disease” daily in the United States, Gupte said on CNN this week.
Rodgers repeated some of the most common misinformation about the vaccines and treatments that are circulating around the country, said CNN medical analyst Dr. Leana Wen, calling it a sort of “best hits” of all the bogus claims. “What he’s saying is a synthesis of all the major myths and misinformation, and it’s as if we were writing a guide on combating misinformation,” Wen said.
“These are things that are common myths,” Wen said. “But when it’s repeated by someone with this level of celebrity and influence, it is very dangerous.” Some even ponder whether the media are perpetuating Covid-19 and vaccine misinformation by continuing to write and talk about what Rodgers said.
“Part of the challenge, whether it’s Aaron Rodgers or somebody else, is that the comments on it and coverage of it further amplifies the message,” said Sandra Crouse Quinn, chair of the Department of Family Science at the University of Maryland. Scientists and public health officials don’t have the capacity to reach millions of people, as Rodgers can, Quinn said.
“So it’s like an uneven fight in many ways,” she said, pointing out that Rodgers’ followers follow him because he is a great football player. “Would you go to a shoemaker to, I don’t know, get your tooth pulled, because you really like him and he’s a great shoemaker?”
Survey shows misinformation is widespread
A recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation illustrates the extent of the misinformation. Almost 80% of Americans surveyed said they had heard of at least one of the untruths about Covid that are circulating, and either believed it or are not sure whether it is true.
“Ultimately, this comes down to fear. Many people are scared. They’re scared because of what they’ve heard about the vaccine,” Wen said. “They don’t know what to believe. And if you have someone who is influential, like Aaron Rodgers, says things that are untrue, it might end up validating people’s decisions to remain unvaccinated.”
In Wisconsin, where the Packers are located, just 55.1% of the population has been fully vaccinated. “It’s just disappointing as a Wisconsinite, as a Packers fan, and a doctor,” Dr. Allison Neitzel told CNN affiliate WTMJ-TV. “We are fighting this twin pandemic of coronavirus, but also this misinformation.”
“He’s in a position to really motivate the state of Wisconsin and the nation at large to get vaccinated. Instead of furthering this divide, let’s open doors,” Neitzel said.
Your top questions = answers about Covid-19 & the vaccines
The fact that Rodgers misled people in August by saying he was “immunized” was one of the most striking things about his recent admission that he is unvaccinated, doctors say. “Immunized has a very specific meaning,” Schaffner said. “It’s in the dictionary. It doesn’t mean some nonspecific protection.”
“I’m reminded of the late senator from New York, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who famously at one point said everyone’s entitled to their own opinion but not to their own facts,” Schaffner said. “He said a series of things that were, purely from a scientific point of view, factually incorrect. I mean, this professor marks those answers wrong. Minus 10 on the exam.”
And some of the “treatments” Rodgers talked about could be harmful, Schaffner said. Rodgers got one thing right when told the radio show host that “hate isn’t going to bring us out of this pandemic.”
But there is one thing that we could do: vaccines, scientists say.
Dr. Robert Malone: “This is the Largest Experiment Performed on
Human Beings in the History of the World.” – The New American.
In an exclusive and explosive one-hour interview with Veronika Kyrylenko of The New American, pioneering mRNA scientist Dr. Robert Malone explains the intensely corrupt workings of the government regulatory bodies that have mismanaged the pandemic, discusses the problems with the vaccine program and delves into potentially explosive and game-changing revelations about the shady origins of the Covid-19 pandemic in Wuhan, China.
Who is Dr. Robert Malone? While working at the Salk Institute in 1988, Dr. Malone discovered important findings about in-vivo and in-vitro RNA transfection. He continued his work on the technology a year later at the biopharma start-up Vical where he conducted additional experiments. According to his bio, “The mRNA, constructs, reagents were developed at the Salk institute and Vical by Dr. Malone.” His research has also included important work on DNA vaccines. In addition to his fundamental work developing mRNA and DNA vaccine technology, Malone is also a medical doctor. According to his bio, Dr. Malone “received his medical training at Northwestern University (MD) and Harvard University (Clinical Research Post Graduate) medical school, and in Pathology at UC Davis.”
Few people are as qualified to comment on the course of the COVID pandemic and the mass vaccination campaign as Dr. Malone. In this important interview he shares his unique and deep insights on matters of critical national and international importance.
Why COVID-19 is spiking in highly vaccinated states.
By Herb Scribner
The coronavirus pandemic is still going on. And as we head into the winter months, there are a number of questions about what might happen in states with high vaccination rates and mitigation measures.
Student Sander Albertson, from Minnesota, wears a face mask outdoors/
with his friends at the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles on Monday, May 17, 2021. Some highly vaccinated states have seen massive coronavirus surges as of late, which might be a sign of what’s to come in the pandemic, according to Yahoo! News.© Damian Dovarganes,
Some highly vaccinated states have seen massive coronavirus surges as of late, which might be a sign of what’s to come in the pandemic, according to Yahoo! News. What happens to the infected people in the upcoming days and weeks may be a signal of what to expect this winter and beyond.
“The question now is whether above-average vaccination coverage and continued mitigation measures … can keep rising infections from turning into the kind of tsunami of hospitalizations and deaths that plagued the entire country last holiday season, before vaccines were widely available,” according to Yahoo! News.
“If so, it could signal a new, less dangerous phase of the pandemic, particularly in areas with higher levels of immunity,” per Yahoo! News. “If not, much of America could soon look like Florida over the summer, when more residents were dying of COVID each day than ever before.” So far, hospitalizations and deaths have not shot up as quickly as case numbers have, which might be a welcome sign that severe outcomes are being avoided.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told NPR that his goal for the winter is to keep an eye on hospitalizations and deaths, hoping the U.S. can control the pandemic’s spread.
“We’re looking for a level of control … where the level of infection — due to vaccination predominantly, but also people who may have been infected and have some degree of protection — that doesn’t disrupt society the way the COVID-19 outbreak is currently doing with us,” Fauci said.
“So as we go into the winter months with the challenge of a respiratory infection being worse in the winter months, we can get through this if we really put a lot of effort into getting as many people vaccinated as we possibly can,” Fauci said.
PLEASE NOTE: Brazil, the 6th most populated country but more highly vaccinated has nearly the same C-19 deaths as the US which is the 3rd most populated country & slightly less vaxxed.
1. China 1,397,897,720
2. India 1,339,330,514
3. United States 332,475,723
4. Indonesia 275,122,131
5. Pakistan 238,181,034
Source: Population Clock: World (census.gov)
INDIA, the 2nd most populated country in the world.
Is much less vaccinated & has a much lower death rate.
In India all thanks to Ivermectin.
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