|
KAREEM ABDUL-JABBAR: Why LeBron Is Wrong About "Honoring" Vaccination Hesitancy
h/t HotAirI’m a huge fan of LeBron James, both as one of the greatest basketball players ever and as a humanitarian who cares about social injustice. I have written his praises many times in the past and undoubtedly will in the future. I admire him and have affection for him. But this time LeBron is just plain wrong—and his being wrong could be deadly, especially to the Black community. After Golden State Warrior Andrew Wiggins received criticism for refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine for personal reasons, his teammate Draymond Green said the public needs to "honor" that decision: "There is something to be said for people’s concerns about something that’s being pressed so hard," he stated. "Why are you pressing this so hard? You have to honor people’s feelings and their own personal beliefs." To which LeBron responded that he "couldn’t have said it better myself." Actually, it couldn’t have been said worse. On the surface, it appears that Draymond and LeBron are arguing for the American ideal of individual freedom of choice. But they offer no arguments in support of it, nor do they define the limits of when one person’s choice is harmful to the community. They are merely shouting, "I’m for freedom." We’re all for freedom, but not at the expense of others nor if it damages the country. That’s why we mandate seatbelts, motorcycle helmets, car insurance, education for our children. For example, seatbelt compliance is at 88% in the U.S., but that 12% that doesn’t comply results in 47% of car accident fatalities (17,000) and costs U.S. employers $5 billion a year, and those costs are passed on to us. They made the choice, but we survivors are left to deal with the grief and the price tag. The only support for Draymond’s statement is his belief that when people "press hard" there’s something inherently wrong with their opinion. There is no logic to that statement. If I press hard against institutional racism, if I press hard against police brutality, if I press hard against recent laws making it harder for minorities to vote, if I press hard against child porn, if I press hard in support of MeToo am I automatically wrong? On the contrary, the passion of those urging vaccines might suggest there’s some urgency to their opinion. That the situation is serious and we need to take immediate action to protect people. That thousands are dying every day, mostly among the unvaccinated. That the Black community, where vaccine hesitancy is high, are dying at a disproportionately higher rate than whites . That publicly talking about honoring opinions that contribute to their deaths is irresponsible. But it's good self-promotion at low risk - after all, a millionaire professional athlete is unlikely to die of Covid even if not super healthy - the quality of treatment/availability of mAb etc... make a lot of difference Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2021-10-07 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=614565 |