Baltimore Ravens’ star quarterback Lamar Jackson has twice suffered COVID-19 infections. Yet despite his abundance of anti-bodies, Jackson is being harassed -- including by Maryland’s GOP governor – to get vaccinated.
Governor Larry Hogan on Tuesday joined with those pressuring Jackson to vax up, quoted via Twitter:
“Lamar’s gotta get (vaccinated). With the rules the NFL put down, I can’t imagine a team wanting to forfeit a game or lose a chance at the playoffs and none of the players getting paid because someone won’t get a vaccine.”
The NFL has instituted harsh rules on COVID-19 this year, including forfeits for teams with outbreaks preventing the playing of games. Players from those teams will not receive game checks either. No games will be re-scheduled due to the coronavirus.
There’s more, too. Unvaccinated players will be fined $14,650 each time they violate COVID-19 safety protocols and restrictions. Players who refuse to undergo COVID tests will be fined $50,000. Tennessee quarterback Ryan Tannehill reluctantly got vaccinated so his life will not be made "miserable" by the NFL.
Jackson tested positive for COVID-19 last season and missed a game in December while recovering. He tested positive again, July 27, and is missing preseason workouts while serving a 10-day quarantine.
If Jackson and/or his attorney want to fight the NFL on this, they’re on solid scientific ground. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis reported that people recovering from mild cases of COVID-19 have immune cells in their body pumping out antibodies against the virus that causes it. Those cells can create antibodies for a lifetime. Their study was published May 24 in the journal Nature. Don’t bother subjecting this finding to further review, NFL.
Canadian researchers found that the Moderna vaccination is 72 percent effective against the Delta variant, leaving vaccinated people still open to some risk.
It appears that a two-time COVID-19 sufferer isn’t likely to be a super-spreader on his team after-all. Or cause an outbreak that results in a forfeit.
Nearly two months ago June, Jackson declined to answer questions about getting vaccinated.
"Well, just like everyone in society, it’s their decision –- keeping that to themselves,” Jackson said in June. "But I feel we do a great job here of taking the vaccine and staying away from COVID-19, following the right preparation for that and staying away from the outside -– the people that are attracting it -– and we’ve just got to keep it going. …”
Jackson also disclosed that he is feeling pressure from several directions. That includes the NFL, “part of the community” and now the governor of his state. A Big Lead sports blog blared “Some People Will Never Learn” and accused the Ravens of having done an end-run around his infections.
