Here’s more from Rodgers, picking up right after his “zero long-term studies around sterility or fertility issues around the vaccines” line:
“So that was definitely something I was worried about. And it went through my mind. Obviously, having an allergy to an ingredient took me off the mRNA path anyways. But even if I didn’t have that, that would be something that would give me a little bit of pause. Because we don’t know what the long-term effects of these are. There are still clinical trials going on through 2023.”
“So when people say ‘Just get the jab, just get the jab,’ everybody’s body is different, number one, and second of all, there’s a lot of things we don’t know about this. This is one thing I really wanted to stress. And the organization knew exactly what my status was, my teammates knew exactly what my status was. There was nothing that was hidden.”
“During the time of preseason was the time of the appeal, I thought actually at various times I was going to win the appeal. And people said I didn’t wear a mask during the preseason. But some of the rules, to me, are not based in science at all, they’re based entirely in trying to out and shame people. Like needing to wear a mask at a podium when every person in the room is vaccinated and wearing a mask, it makes no sense to me. If you got vaccinated to, you know, to protect yourself from a virus that I don’t have as an unvaccinated individual, why are you worried about anything that I can give you?”
“And let me get on protocols now, because that’s obviously been out there as well. I have followed every single protocol to a T, minus that one I just mentioned, which makes absolutely no sense to me. But my daily routine is the routine of an unvaccinated person. Which is I have to test early. From the start of the season, vaccinated people test once every two weeks. Unvaccinated, once a day. Which, again, that’s not based in science at all.”
“You can have vaccinated people who actually carry and spread the virus not testing for two weeks. And non-vaccinated people are the safest people in the building, because we’re the ones who are testing every single day and wearing masks the entire time. But instead, we’re being made to think that we’re the dangerous ones, we’re the superspreaders, when in fact, we’re the ones testing our body every single day.”
“But these protocols, we have to go through and test every single day. 5 a.m. on noon games, as well, which I don’t understand. 5 a.m. on noon games. You test in the morning, and before you can go into the facility, you’ve got to wait in your car for 30-40 minutes until they can give you the okay to go in. Vaccinated people test and go right in. So we had someone the other day, vaccinated person, test, goes in, has breakfast, tests positive. And then ‘Oh shit, bummer, he just had breakfast with five people.'”
“So I wait in my car. I mask every day in the facility, I mask every single day in the facility. I’m physically distanced from everyone else. I have major travel restrictions; I can’t leave the hotel, I can’t have dinner with teammates, even though I tested negative that morning to even get on the flight. The only people I see at the hotel are vaccinated people. But I have to wear a mask the entire time, I can’t see anybody, I can’t see anyone after the game.”
“I work out off to the side in the weight room, in a mask. Again, there haven’t been any studies about the efficacy of masks for workouts or the higher levels of CO2 inhaled during workouts and how that affects performance and body function.”
(Note: Yes, there have been those studies. In particular, from the Mayo Clinic Health system, “Yes, it’s safe to wear a mask while exercising. New research has shown that your heart rate, respiratory rate, blood pressure, oxygen level and time of exhaustion are not significantly affected by wearing a mask during moderate to strenuous aerobic physical activity. Learn more.” That link is to a September 2020 study in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Science in Sports. There are other studies as well, including one published in the European Respiratory Journal this February that concluded that exercise capacity did decrease slightly (by 10 percent), but that “the mask posed no danger for participants even during vigorous exercise and their ability to exercise was not greatly changed.”)
Back to Rodgers:
“I’m not allowed to use the sauna or the steam room. I have to wear a yellow wristband at all times, basically shouting to the world ‘I am unclean and unvaxxed!’ And in this situation now, 10 days off for positive test regardless of symptoms. So I’m sitting here two days in, I had symptoms Tuesday night, tested positive Wednesday. I didn’t feel great yesterday, I’ll get into what I’ve been doing. But I feel really good today, this is Friday. But 10 days off regardless, where a vaccinated person just has to have two back-to-back negative tests.”
“When it comes to the science, again, if you’re not vaccinated, it came up last week because Allen Lazard was a close contact to Davante Adams. Allen is not vaxxed. And they tried to cancel him for that. But they also did not bring up the fact that he tested negative every single day. So just because he was a close contact and not vaxxed, this is what the league has done, they’ve made it difficult for people to have a decision. ‘Well, you’re a close contact. That means you’re out for five days.’ Not based on any science, we’re just going to keep this propaganda narrative going that unvaccinated people are the most dangerous people in society.”
“I just want to say, you know, that that is what the media has been trying to do. They’re trying to shame and out and cancel all of us non-vaccinated people, call us selfish. That’s the propaganda line now too; you’re ‘selfish’ for making a decision that’s in the best interests of your body. And I’ve already spelled out, I shouldn’t have to, but I’ve already spelled out the issues with my own personal body and my own personal health, right, I have issues related to the ingredients in the mRNA vaccines. The J&J got pulled. Not to mention the numerous issues with the J&J vaccine to this day.”
“I went out on my own, and paid, and did research, and did an immunization protocol that’s been used, that’s been around for centuries. And the doctors that I consulted with have been doing this for decades, the same kind of stuff for children and adults that have immunocompromisation, they have pre-existing conditions or reasons that they cannot take traditional vaccines. The league didn’t offer any opportunity for, you know, alternative medicines or treatments, as I’ll get into.”
“I think the thing that is so disappointing is that it was not just that, it was the coercion and the collusion of GMs saying they’re not going to sign non-vaccinated players. And the coercion for player 54 through 90, who thinks ‘If I don’t make this squad I’m on right now in training camp, and I’m not vaxxed, then my career is over.’ So there wasn’t even the opportunity. And workers, workers in those same environments, had no opportunity, workers at the facilities.”
“And it’s happened all over the country. We’re seeing these mandates for firefighters, policemen, government workers, who are saying, ‘No, what about my body, my choice? What about making the best decision for my own circumstance? And again, health is not a one-size-fits-all thing. I think that’s what’s most disappointing.”
“Look at our squad. I’m the second non-vaxxed player to test positive. It’s pretty evident I tested positive being around a vaccinated individual. That’s the majority of the people I spend time with. There’s been dozens of individuals that work at the facility that are vaxxed that tested positive. So this idea that it’s a pandemic of the unvaxxed is just a total lie.”
(Note: It’s not a total lie. Rodgers is conflating totals and rates, something you’d think a quarterback would be aware of. In August, the Packers had 78 of their 89 players vaccinated, 87.6 percent, as per coach Matt LaFleur. Even if we make an incredibly generous assumption that all 11 unvaccinated players made the team or the practice squad, two positive tests out of 11 unvaxxed players would be 18 percent. There are 69 possible total players around that facility, with a 53-man active roster and a 16-man-max practice squad; that assumption would have the other 58 vaccinated. And that’s before we get to the staffers and facility workers, with the NFL estimating near-100 percent vaccination amongst staffers and with Rodgers himself talking about the facility workers being pushed to get vaccinated.
Rodgers doesn’t specify how many vaccinated people in the Packers’ organization have tested positive, only saying “dozens.” That doesn’t seem right for players and staffers, though, and we can track that. As of Thursday, the Packers’ COVID list this season only had seven players and one staffer, DC Joe Barry. (That’s not only the current list, that’s everyone who’s been on that list this season, which also includes close contacts for unvaccinated players who don’t test positive.) If two of those players were unvaccinated, that leaves five vaccinated players (and one coach) testing positive. Five players out of 58 would be 8.6 percent, almost 10 percent below the rate for unvaxxed players.
And the actual rate is going to be even lower. There are people who come and go from any organization’s active and practice roster, so the number of vaccinated players who have spent time with the Packers this season is above 58. As per Lorenzo Reyes at USA Today, NFL teams averaged 76 players from Oct. 3-16, with players moving in and out. Again assuming the Packers have kept all 11 unvaccinated players from August and haven’t added any more (likely, considering Rodgers’ comments about teams not bringing in unvaxxed players), that would make the actual denominator of vaxxed players on the roster in a given period closer to 65, and five positive tests there would be 7.7 percent. So at least when it comes to the Packers’ players, it is a pandemic of the unvaccinated on a rate basis.
And that matters. We don’t claim that, say, Titans’ RB Derrick Henry is a better quarterback than Rodgers because of his 100 percent completion rate this year (on one total passing attempt), so we shouldn’t claim that it’s the unvaccinated Packers’ players who are safer when they’re testing positive at a higher rate than the vaccinated ones, even with only two of them testing positive to date. Rodgers’ reference to “dozens” of positive tests amongst the vaccinated could technically be true if a lot of those came from facility workers, but we have no idea how many facility workers there are and how many positive tests there are, as those aren’t reported on the NFL list. We do know that the rate of positive tests has been significantly lower for vaccinated than unvaccinated Packers’ players, contrary to Rodgers’ claims.)
Read on for Rodgers’ comments on “questions for the woke mob,” his decision to avoid the NFL’s masking protocol for unvaccinated players at press conferences, the advice he’s taken from Joe Rogan, the ivermectin and other substances he’s taking, and more.
