You probably already know this by now, but Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving is not a fan of vaccine mandates. Yesterday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced that private businesses within the city would no longer require their employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The requirement for city workers to be vaccinated will still remain intact for now. I’m not sure if this set Irving off, but he had something to say in the following tweet.
“If I can work and be unvaccinated, then all of my brothers and sisters who are also unvaccinated should be able to do the same, without being discriminated against, vilified, or fired.
This enforced Vaccine/Pandemic is one the biggest violations of HUMAN RIGHTS in history.”
Last season, Kyrie Irving missed 53 games because he chose to be unvaccinated, and the NBA, a private company, had a vaccine mandate. He would later return in January to play in cities that didn’t have such mandates or had lifted them. Mayor Adams made an exception for athletes and performers back in March, which allowed Irving to play in home games.
While he still feels strongly about this, the question is why did he continuing playing even ask his “unvaccinated brothers and sisters” still had to abide by their mandates or required testing? Wouldn’t sitting out have been a better use of his platform? We are only still understanding the damage COVID-19 has done (and continues to do) to Black communities.
Also, as much as we want to get past it, the pandemic is still occurring. Nearly 400 people are still dying of COVID-19 every single day. Not to mention, we are still learning about who is being impacted by Long COVID. While we have better tools at our disposal, it’s up to people to use them – choice. Vaccine mandates are nowhere near events like slavery, the Holocaust, or the Trail of Tears. People in those situations did not have a choice; it was placed upon them. Irving still gets to be unvaccinated and gets millions of dollars playing in the profession he loves the most.