Editorial: The Moral Responsibility of Athletes in the COVID-19 Pandemic Era
Is it the professional athlete’s job to be educated and highlight the importance of being vaccinated?
“I’m sorry sir but you tested positive for COVID-19.”
I first heard those words on April 5, 2020. I was stuck at home with my family due to the shutdown. I was masked up and keeping my distance from everybody after I had my COVID test done at a local urgent care facility thanks to my doctor who was extremely concerned about my “bad cold.”
The urgent care doctor’s words made me turn pale white. I was not sure what to think but I knew I was screwed. I already have an autoimmune illness and am taking immunosuppressant medications. So, I already knew that I would be dealing with some complications with my health. My family also had the virus, and I was worried for them as much as I worried for myself. We were all dealing with a new deadly virus the likes the world has never seen and it was killing thousands of people including friends and neighbors I have known my whole life. I wasn’t sure of what was going to happen to me by the end of it all. I may survive. I may not. Either way I had to be holed up in my room like I was in a facility and pray that my family and I survive.
I spent the month of April in agonizing pain and misery. I was coughing and sneezing up a storm. I constantly ran to the bathroom due to diarrhea from the virus. I dealt with cold sweats and was feverish. I was pretty much knocked out for most of the time. What kept me sane through it all was watching highlights of the 2012–2013 New York Knicks on MSG and playing Final Fantasy VII Remake when I had a bit of energy. I kept wondering if this was ever going to go away. It was such a painful experience that I did not even want to think what an “extreme case” was since mine was constituted as “mild.”
By the end of April, my symptoms started to dissipate. I stopped sneezing and coughing and was able to walk around a bit. I did not have the runs anymore and had more energy. A month of misery somehow ended with me feeling good by the end of it all. It was a wonder as to how I was able to pull through. My family recovered as well. It felt like a miracle given everything we have been through but somehow, we managed to make it.
When people ask me how it felt to suffer through COVID I often tell them, “It’s bronchitis on steroids.” I informed them of my experiences and often recommend to people to take precautions these days because I did not want anybody to go through what I went through.
I felt like I had a moral responsibility to do so.
That’s an important word right there: moral responsibility.
You would want to ensure that people remain informed of something that could potentially kill them and that they should take precaution to protect not only themselves and their loved ones but other people as well. Somehow this ideal gets lost in the Age of “Excessive” Information where everybody can determine truth and fiction based on whatever contents agree with their own personal beliefs and ideals. So suddenly everybody is an instant expert of waving off the seriousness of COVID-19.
It is frustrating when some random person tells you that your experiences are made up and that you are lying to spread panic and fear. They would say the pandemic is a hoax because they did not get the virus so therefore everybody else who got it must be making it up. This is incredibly reckless and dangerous considering over 2.4 million people have cases and an estimate of 700,000 people have died from the virus in the United States alone. This is not something to be taken lightly.
I am neither a doctor nor a world-renowned scientist but after speaking with my own doctors and other medical professionals who worked during the initial viral outbreak in 2020, I learned about the devastating effects of the virus, how it harms people, and the benefits and consequences of receiving a vaccine to limit the chances of me catching COVID again. I wanted to do my part in protecting myself and other people.
I feel that it is vital that everybody has a moral responsibility to help others as well as themselves when it comes to COVID.
We are now entering a brand-new NBA season and the second one in the era of the COVID-19 Pandemic (“NBA Bubble” not included). While we are hoping that this nightmare ends it does not seem like the circumstances of “returning to normalcy” are happening any time soon. You still see reporters and staff wearing masks and gloves around each other. You are hearing about the Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus and how it is still mutating.
The virus is not going to instantly going to away just because vaccines to combat the virus exist. However, it is believed that it will negate the serious effects of COVID and prevent the virus from further mutating. Not to mention you are preventing the virus from spreading to those who have not received the vaccine. That all sounds good on paper, right?
So why is it that some of the NBA athletes are being the focus of the news about players who have not received the vaccine?
It might slip under your radar but over 90% of contracted NBA players have received the COVID-19 vaccination. That is higher than the general population in the United States even though it does not match the WNBA’s 99% rate of players who received the vaccination. So it is not like most of the NBA players are unaware of the benefits of receiving the vaccine. Both the New York Knicks and the Los Angeles Lakers recently confirmed that the entire team and coaching staff are vaccinated and ready for the NBA season and encourage the fans to get vaccinated as well so that they can return to the games.
“I think it’s a credit to our players, in particular, that they took this thing very seriously and took the responsibility to get that done,” Knicks General Manager Scott Perry said during a media sit-down including him, team president Leon Rose and head coach Tom Thibodeau at the team’s practice facility. “So, we’re very proud of that fact, and we’re gonna move forward.”
While this is good news it does not negate the fact that there are supposedly NBA athletes spreading misinformation about COVID and the nature of the vaccines.
Three weeks ago a Rolling Stone article detailed antivaxxers in the NBA and how they are pushing misinformation among the locker rooms in the league.
The article explained how a few of the NBA players have started to believe in conspiracy theories regarding the virus, ranging from “implanting microchips into your blood” to “connecting all Black people to a master computer to brainwash them.” It varies and there are those that have come to use that as an excuse to not get the vaccine.
Kyrie Irving — superstar point guard for the Brooklyn Nets — is one of the players most noticeable for not being vaccinated. Because of this, he was not allowed to attend media day for training camp due to New York City’s executive mandate, which went into effect on Sept. 13, that anyone over the age of 12 will not be allowed to enter “certain covered premises” inside the city — including major indoor sporting events taking place at the Barclays Center, Madison Square Garden and any other indoor gym or fitness setting — without providing proof of receiving at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, unless there is an approved medical or religious exemption for them not doing so.
Irving had to do his media day session from home over a Zoom call. When reporters asked Irving about his vaccination status and his decision to not get the vaccine, he refused to discuss it publicly, stating that it is a “private matter.”
Andrew Wiggins — shooting guard for the Golden State Warriors — was one of the players who initially refused to get the vaccine and also stated that his reasons were his own and not the public’s.
“Anything that has to do with my status, vaccination, it’s a private matter,” he said to reporters on media day. “So, I’m going to keep it personal and private.”
That is all well and good but here’s the thing: if players want to express their right to their decisions and maintain privacy, then they are to receive the consequences without complaints as well.
Wiggins would lose about $385,000 in pre-tax pay. His annual salary this season, per the website Spotrac.com, is $31,579,390.
Regardless of his beliefs, that is a LOT of money to give up just making a point. Ironically he received the vaccination a few days later after his media day session.
“The only options were to get vaccinated or not play in the NBA,” Wiggins said after the Warriors’ preseason opener. “It was a tough decision. Hopefully, it works out in the long run and in 10 years I’m still healthy.”
I am pretty sure he will be fine.
Here’s the thing and it goes back to my comment about moral responsibility: for whatever reason, the athletes make it seem like it is solely about them. The issues in regards to the vaccination revolve around their world and nobody else’s. That mentality is the reason why the pandemic has not subsided yet. While there are a lot of people vaccinated there are still those who pose as a risk to not only themselves but to others because of their refusal to get the vaccination and spreading misinformation makes the matters even worse.
Here’s the thing and it goes back to my comment about moral responsibility: for whatever reason, the athletes make it seem like it is solely about them. The issues regarding the vaccination revolve around their world and nobody else’s. That mentality is the reason why the pandemic has not subsided yet. While there are a lot of people vaccinated there are still those who pose as a risk to not only themselves but to others because of their refusal to get the vaccination and spreading misinformation makes the matters even worse.
It is — to an extent — understandable. They are premier talents that are recognized around the world. They make more money than most of us will likely see in our lifetime. They also have the status and the cache to think like that. Still, the fact that they feel that they cannot seem to be bothered to not only encourage people to trust science and the medical professionals who fought hard to make this vaccine possible but also take it themselves to showcase that it is vital for us as people to care about one another.
NBA legend Kareem Abdul Jabbar recently commented on the players who refuse to get vaccinated and made his feelings known about how he views them as incredibly selfish.
“They made it impossible for us to understand what they are saying. What’s important here? People dying or the fact that they want to be private about getting vaccinated?” Abdul-Jabbar told Yahoo Sports.
Jabbar later continued, “… This is not just a game that they’re playing. This is important, and people have to understand what’s going on here. The information that you need is not that hard to get. And you’ll see that the vaccines are safe and they’re effective. That’s all you gotta know. Save your life, don’t transmit it to someone in your family that you love and care for and you have to live with the fact that you helped transmit it to that person. We don’t want that to happen. So, let’s get with it.”
I can understand the hesitancy to some extent. I was hesitant as well, but I knew that I had resources (i.e. my doctors who have been taking care of me for over 20 years) to learn a bit about the vaccines and the procedures especially since they were vaccinated. Once I learned about the benefits and some possible side effects, I ultimately decided to get the vaccine especially since I had experienced COVID and did not want to go through something like that again.
Not to mention, people who I knew personally passed away due to the virus and their families are still mourning. I felt like I would be doing them a disservice if I did not get the vaccine so that people like them would not have to suffer their pain of losing a loved one.
Just ask Karl Anthony Towns who’s still reeling over the death of several members of his family including his mother.
“I’ve had a lot of situations this year where things were just too much for me,” Towns told Sports Illustrated. “I just remember [quarantining] in the house, and it was more than just COVID for me. I felt like I was going through a holistic journey.”
So, what’s the NBA players’ excuse of not trusting the medical professionals who have been ensuring that they have been healthy enough to play? Why don’t they ask them about the vaccine? They have the money and the resources. There should be no reason to not ask them rather than seek information online that has no real basis other than aligning with their own cynicism about the vaccine.
ESPN analyst Jeff Van Gundy also criticized NBA players who said that they would “do their own research” when it comes to the vaccine during this past Sunday’s telecast match between the Miami Heat and the Houston Rockets.
“Just in general, you know what drives me crazy? ‘I’m doing my own research,’” Van Gundy said during the fourth quarter of the game. “I would like someone to answer this: What does that look like? You doing your own research? Are you doing studies yourself? Are you in the lab nightly? I don’t understand what that means.”
In the end, it is up to the athletes to understand that they are in the public sphere and that their actions — or lack thereof — are going to be noticed by everybody. If they do not want to be part of the discourse, then they must speak their mind in regard to their perspectives and beliefs. They have that responsibility to do so. If they do not trust the vaccination process or disagree with some of the teams or cities’ mandates of being vaccinated, then they must speak on it. Remaining silent only adds more confusion and negative perception.
If they do not want to get the vaccine that is fine. They also must be willing to accept the consequences of their decision. That includes not being allowed to play or practice for teams that have a mandate of getting the vaccine. You cannot claim that you are being shunned by simply ignoring the responsibilities of being vaccinated and understanding the nature of a deadly disease that has killed more than 700,000 people.
Players must realize it is not about them. It is about everybody else. Nobody wants that responsibility but like everything else in life it is just the way it is.
*additional content from Yahoo Sports, ESPN, Sports Illustrated, Rolling Stone, ABC 7, NBC Sports, Spotrac, Mayo Clinic, CNN
