Many people have already piled on Aaron Rodgers for his selfish and misinformed actions and words regarding Covid 19 vaccinations. I won’t focus so much on him since others have so ably pointed out his many errors. Instead, I’m going to look at what Kylee Zempel is doing in her article for The Federalist where she tries to claim that Rodgers dropped nine “truth bombs”. See Federalist Zempel article.
She frames these “bombs as things “you aren’t allowed to say”. Right wingnuts love to play this card. They like to pretend that others are trying to “cancel” them even as their words get plenty of publicity. Neither Rodgers nor Zempel will go to prison for spewing their misinformation, and The Federalist will not be shut down by the government for publishing their nonsense. Because the truth is not on Aaron Rodgers’ or Kylee Zempel’s side, they deserve to be criticized harshly. Yes, Rodgers and Zempel, you can say all of what you’ve said, no one’s stopping you, but you will deservedly be called a stupid, uninformed person for propagating false information.
I won’t call Rodgers’ claims to be “truth bombs” because they are actually lies and misleading statements. That said, how does Zempel react to Rodgers’ lies. First off, she doesn’t react to most of them, just repeats them, and so provides an excellent example of the copy-and-paste method of op-ed writing.
Lie #1: She simply quotes Rodgers on his claim that calling the unvaccinated “selfish” is media propaganda. Rodgers words are “You’re selfish for making a decision that’s in the best interest of your body”. Zempel and Rodgers show no awareness that his statement blatantly reflects selfishness. Of course, a person does want to make decisions in their own best interest, but if at the same time they are clearly ignoring the impacts of their decisions on others, they are being selfish. Men who disguised themselves as women in order to sneak on to lifeboats as the Titanic was sinking were clearly making decisions “in their own best interest” and thus perhaps survived the tragedy. They were also selfish cowards.
Lie #2: Rodgers claims personal health information should be private. This is something that is true in many cases, but it is not true in this case. Rodgers vaccination status is something that his employers had a right to know. If he had simply reported it to them honestly, his lying would not have been exposed and his personal information would not have hit the news. Contagious diseases don’t care about the privacy of your health information and so society has a right that trumps your desire for privacy.
Lie #3: This is really “lies”, not lie. Rodgers says that it’s a lie to call the pandemic a pandemic of the vaccinated because the vaccinated can still be infected, can still spread the disease, and even still die from it. He also says it must not be safe because the vaccine makers were given immunity from lawsuits. Recent studies show that the incidence of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are multiple times higher among the unvaccinated. Even though vaccinations do not prevent infections in every case, they do reduce transmission because they do prevent some cases and the cases last a shorter time. And the major reduction in hospitalizations and deaths is a huge advantage to getting vaccinated. The vaccination manufacturers got immunity because they needed more incentive to develop a new vaccine as fast as possible. That does not mean the vaccine wasn’t tested. And, significantly, at this point, the vaccines has now been administers to hundreds of millions of people around the world, with no pattern of harm or negative reactions.
Lie #4: Rodgers claims falsely that the left politicized vaccines. He bases this on a willful distortion of what Kamala Harris said. She said she would not take a vaccine if Trump were promoting it because Trump could not be trusted. She would take it if medical experts recommended it. Rodgers misquotes this into saying the left was saying Americans should not take the vaccines.
Lie #5: Here Rodgers brings up the fact that the vaccinated can still be infectious. Rodgers actually has said something true here, shocking, I know. However, he does not acknowledge that the vaccinated are not as infectious as the unvaccinated and he does not acknowledge the better outcomes for those who are vaccinated if they do become infected. He claims, without any evidence, that he must have caught the virus from a vaccinated person. This is a convenient accusation to make. As an unvaccinated person, and presumably also as someone who goes out in public on occasion, there would have been ample opportunities to become infected from other unvaccinated and unmasked individuals who are too numerous in this country.
Lie #6: Rodgers says he is allergic to an ingredient in the mRNA vaccines, and so pushes the idea that health care rules cannot always be applied the same to everyone. The problem here is that the Johnson & Johnson is not an mRNA vaccine, so he could have taken that one. He also does not mention what he is allergic to. Even though he should not have to divulge his allergies to the public, he certainly could have told his team doctor and/or the NFL doctors what his allergic concerns were that justify his not being vaccinated. He then of course should not have claimed to be “immunized”.
Lie #7: On Rodgers claims he will have a more robust immunity by catching Covid 19 rather than by getting a vaccine, Zempel steps into explain more about the Israeli study that seems to support this view. Zempel and Rodgers are like the climate deniers who jump on any study that seems to support their own view and which they claim overturns numerous studies that they don’t like. The Israeli study has in fact been criticized itself as severely flawed. There are studies that have measured the quantities of antibodies in people who were infected versus those who had a vaccine and the numbers were significantly better for the vaccinated. For those with mild Covid cases, the antibodies were very low. But the most important thing to consider is why would you want to risk hospitalization or death by waiting to be infected “naturally” versus getting a shot in the arm? As an athlete, why would you want to risk getting damaged lungs or heart inflammation from a severe case of Covid 19? It’s like Zempel and Rodgers are advocating for a kind of Russian roulette.
Lie #8: Rodgers whines about “cancel” culture, about shaming of those who aren’t vaccinated. Why can’t you shame those who aren’t vaccinated? It’s not like people should be shamed willy nilly. And they aren’t. Exceptions are always made for those who have valid reasons for not getting vaccinated. It’s just that many people aren’t getting vaccinated for invalid reasons, because of the misinformation that people like Rodgers and Zempel are too eager to spew.
Lie #9: Rodgers tries to deflect from the need to be vaccinated by claiming that more focus should be on getting people healthier in general. He emphasizes the comorbidities that put some people at risk. The problem with his whining here is two-fold. First, the government puts a lot of effort into encouraging healthy living. To their efforts you can add those of schools, health care providers, and employers. And note how Michelle Obama was criticized by rightwing people when she tried to promote healthier lunches and reducing obesity in children. Trump’s administration worked to reverse some of her initiatives. Also, even though obesity does seem to lower immune responses in general, not just to Covid, and obesity can interfere with treating breathing difficulties, it’s also been shown recently that the initial view that obesity was a major contributor to Covid hospitalizations and deaths may have been exaggerated. So, when Zempel points out that 78% of people hospitalized with Covid were overweight or obese, she fails to note that 74% of the population is overweight or obese. A lot of people were hospitalized who were overweight/obese because a lot of people in this country are in that category.
That’s a whole lot of lies from Rodgers and The Federalist’s Zempel. They won’t help America get past the pandemic. They will only help selfish, misinformed, easily fooled people hurt others (and sometimes themselves as well).