Over on CNN.com Jacob Lev and Ray Sanchez write about…

Buffalo Bills’ Cole Beasley says he’d rather retire than get Covid-19 vaccine

For those who aren’t into sports, the Buffalo Bills are a professional football team and Cole Beasley, one of their players, has expressed open defiance over the thought that anyone will force him to get vaccinated for COVID.

Now, I’m a HUGE proponent of vaccines. I got my Pfizer shots as soon as I was able. I’m close to some people in the medical fields and have unfortunately heard too many horror stories of people who have contracted the Coronavirus. One such story, resulting in the gentleman’s eventual death, is the type of stuff of horror films.

Having said all that and at the risk of sounding contradictory…

I do not begrudge Mr. Beasley refusing to get a vaccine.

It is ultimately a person’s choice if they want to be uninformed or, to put it bluntly, stupid about what the vaccines are and how they can protect you from this virus. While its true that many will only have mild to moderate symptoms, there is always the possibility you will get it worse, far worse, and might even die from it.

But if you don’t want to get the vaccine, that’s on you.

On the other hand, the NFL, in my opinion, doesn’t have to tolerate this sort of attitude if they don’t want to. If this gentleman doesn’t want to get vaccinated, that’s fine. While he has the right to do so, he doesn’t have the right to be in the locker room or on the field in extremely close proximity to other players who are more responsible than he is.

In other words, the NFL should ban him or force him to retire as he’s threatened to do.

I know I’m coming off as sounding extremist, but if you’re playing football, unlike other human activities, you’re in other peoples’ spaces. Really close spaces. Your sweat, your breath, your spit… it gets all over the place.

If you haven’t been vaccinated and I’m a football player that has, I wouldn’t want you anywhere near me.

To be clear, I feel the same and struggle to understand how anyone in the medical field can feel similar thoughts regarding vaccines… yet I know there are people who do.

Unlike a football player, if you are in the medical field, even if you’re a psychologist or social worker or physical therapist or whatever, you must have come into some contact with or heard some stories of the horrors of getting a serious case of COVID 19. Further, you have to know and see that as the rates of vaccines are going up, the rate of infection from COVID 19 is very obviously going down. I recall reading one study that found that in some city/county it was found of those hospitalized for the virus, not a single one of them had the vaccine.

You must, one would think, therefore know the benefits of getting vaccinated versus not.

Seriously: What more proof does one need to the efficacy of the vaccines?

Still, as far as Mr. Beasley is concerned, I don’t begrudge him not wanting to get the vaccine for whatever stupid reason he feels he shouldn’t. I don’t begrudge others feeling the same.

But if you do choose to go that route, perhaps take a moment to read this article written by Nick Visser and presented on Huffingtonpost.com…

Former FDA Chief Says COVID-19 Variant May Cause Surge In States With Low Vaccination

The article notes that former FDA chief Dr. Scott Gottlieb was on Face the Nation this past Sunday and made these concerns known.

It’s getting easy to see, in my opinion: If you get the vaccine -as many have to date- you’re obviously protected from COVID 19. The proof is in the drop of numbers.

If these states that show great reluctance to get vaccinated start showing the higher rates of infection, it has to prove the vaccine works, no?

So why not get it?

We’ll find out soon enough, I suppose.