Kyrie Irving on Instagram posted a video in which he defended his decision to not get vaccinated.
"You know I had to stop running away from using my voice and using my platform to you know speak on what's true and what's mine . You know nobody is going to hijack my voice. Nobody's going to take the power away from me that I have for speaking on these things you know and don't believe that I am retiring , don't believe that I am going to give up this game for a vaccine mandate or staying unvaccinated , don't believe any of that .
..
.
Like, really be aware of what's being said before I even get a chance to be on the podium and speak for myself, you know what I am saying . All of these people saying things about what's going on with me and it's just not true, pay attention to what's going on out in the real world , you know, people are losing their jobs to these mandates , people are having to make choices with their own lives which I respect , you know, and I don't want to um sit here and play on people's emotions either, just use logic , you know, what would you do and if you felt uncomfortable going into the season when you were promised that you would have exemptions or that you didn't have to be forced to, forced to get the vaccine.
.
.
You know this wasn't an issue before the season started , this wasn't something that wasn't something I foresaw coming or I prepared for and you know I had a uh a chance to, a chance to strategize on what was going to be best for me and my family . I came into the season thinking that I was going to be able to play ball, you know be able to use my talent to continue to you know inspire , influence people in the right way. Like putting this on me is just like why are you putting it on me , you know like this is not part of (moves back and forth like in a basketball game) what's going on in conversations with scientists, physicians, and doctors, you know I am just a hooper right , I am just a person who is being utilized as an example .
.
.
For some odd reason, you know people love to have my name in the mix of some bs , like just hearing the way people speak with so much conviction about what I should do in my life and what my teammates should be feeling about me , what the organization should be feeling about me. "
.
.
This is more of what Kyrie Irving believes and has liked on social media:
that “secret societies” are implanting vaccines in a plot to connect Black people to a master computer for “a plan of Satan.” This Moderna microchip misinformation campaign has spread across
Nets All-Star Kyrie Irving is unvaccinated and will not be able to play in Brooklyn home games because he does not meet a New York City vaccine mandate for many indoor spaces.
Irving — long willing to embrace provably false conspiracy theories such as the earth being flat or that the moon landing was faked — is now liking online posts about the COVID-19 vaccine containing microchips (which, again, is provably false). Matt Sullivan broke it down in an article on NBA anti-vaxxers at Rolling Stone."
www.nytimes.com/...
"Irving falsely claimed his decision to remain unvaccinated does not harm other people. The highly contagious Delta variant has quickly spread in areas with low vaccination rates. And hospitals in those areas have been overrun with unvaccinated patients, leaving few beds and staff members to treat other patients."
Kyrie, you're not the only person who gets to speak about a pandemic that affects all of us. Nobody is hijacking your voice, but everybody else has a right to speak out on the pandemic because it affects all of us. If you say, " I have decided that I am going to drink and drive." , then complaining when other people speak out against that is absurd. When you don't get vaccinated, it does affect everybody else. You're a popular public figure and role model, especially for young African American men. When you like misinformation about the vaccines, then that does affect other people. The more people who are unvaccinated, the easier it will be for the virus to continue to circulate and when it circulates, it will mutate. When it mutates, then ever increasing viral loads will be passed on. That makes the virus more contagious and means more people who are vaccinated will get the virus and it likely makes it pass on stronger cases. Children under the age of 12 and others can't get vaccinated. These people are more at risk, the more people there are who are not vaccinated. Because there are people who can't get vaccinated, we need everybody who can get vaccinated to do so, not only as a good example but also to increase the percentage of Americans who are vaccinated so that we can get back to a relatively normal life.
If people are saying that you're going to give up basketball, then they are wrong. However, that pales in comparison to the damage you are doing by being a bad role model who not only won't get vaccinated, but who pushes misinformation about the vaccines.
Nobody is losing their job to a mandate. President Biden's mandate allows employees to get tested. Even when no exception is allowed (and the exception even if for a rare, valid medical reason doesn't make the other people who work near the person who got the exception any safer) , the person could simply get the safe and effective vaccine and help make the country safe as a result. The mandate doesn't cause anybody to lose their job; their refusal to do something essential to keep other employees safe because they believe conspiracy theories and misinformation is what costs them their jobs. And guess what happens without the mandates? An employee will catch it who isn't vaccinated, they will pass it on to another employee who will either become permanently disabled or dead and the family will successfully sue the employer for not creating a safe working environment when it is known that there is a global pandemic and safe and effective vaccines against it exist. That causes the employer to be uninsurable before this death or disability happens. So, the company has to cover this with their own money. The company loses employees and talent as well because those with impressive academic and professional backgrounds won't accept working at an unsafe firm. The company falls. So, companies have to employ mandates . That's why businesses make the choice for mandates and that's free enterprise and where it resulted from President Biden, the unvaccinated could simply get tested . However, President Biden did this because persuasion stopped making gains because of misinformation, mostly from republican sources. The country needs to make gains because the sooner we get to a very high percentage of the population being vaccinated, the sooner Americans will get to a point of relative safety and the country can return more or less to normal.
There is only emotion and no logic behind the belief that secret societies are implanting vaccines in a plot to connect Black people to a master computer. There is no logic in that. There is no logic in rejecting free, safe and effective vaccines against a pandemic that has cost 700,000 Americans their lives. I doubt anybody promised you that the governor of New York , Governor Hochul or previously Governor Cuomo, would not implement mandates. If you thought that the NBA spoke for the governor of New York, then that is on you. Only the governor of New York and her staff speak for the governor. The mandate isn't coming from the NBA, unfortunately. So, that's your lack of knowledge that bit you on the ass. Regardless, if the choice is between keeping the people of New York safe or placating Kyrie Irving because of his misunderstanding, that's an easy choice. The world does not revolve around Kyrie Irving. It's either keeping 19 million people safe or placating Kyrie Irving. You have to understand how that decision is going to come down.
Strategizing this is simple whether you had a long time to plan it or not , get the vaccine. Even if you are so selfish as to not care about other Americans, I would have hoped that you would have cared about your teammates because your team with you present is likely to win the NBA Finals . Your choices are either get vaccinated or only play in road games or try to get traded or sit out the season. All of the choices except the first hurt both your supposed team that you should back and the country. Is your commitment to false conspiracy theories so important that you will throw away a great chance to win a title and result in you moving ?
.
.
96% of physicians are vaccinated. If the vaccines were dangerous, then would 96% of physicians who are mostly republican by the way be vaccinated? The greater a person's education, the more likely they are to be vaccinated and that holds true across all races and ethnicities. Scientists and physicians and epidemiologists specifically are overwhelmingly likely to be vaccinated. So, when you talk about conversations with scientists and physicians, you need to know that fact. You speak of influencing people in the right way, being a source of misinformation about the vaccines and discouraging people from getting vaccinated when the vaccines can save their lives is not influencing people in the right way. You admit and speak of yourself as a hooper. That should help you to realize that you as a hooper with very limited background knowledge about pandemics and viruses are contradicting the overwhelming consensus of actual experts on thus very topic, people who have spent their entire lives, a decade or more in higher education, and then their entire professional careers studying pandemics and viruses.
.
People are speaking with conviction about your life when they say you should not drink and drive. People will speak with conviction about what you do when it affects their lives. That's the way it works. If you make choices endangering others, others will speak out about your choices. You don't get to hijack the voice of other people. Your teammates may be good with you abandoning them when they have a great and rare opportunity to win a title and the organization may be good with you pushing misinformation about vaccines that can discourage people from getting vaccinated and thereby endanger their lives. Many of us won't understand why they are good with you harming the team and the country, but if they are then that's unfortunate because they are encouraging you in this dangerous misinformation and dangerous stance.
Thursday, Oct 14, 2021 · 12:15:24 PM +00:00
·
Dem
nypost.com/…
As Samanthab posted, the Nets decided Kyrie could not be allowed to play only the road games. They clearly made the right decision. I don't see how he could be effective only playing road games. We will see if he at long last comes to a rational decision and finally gets vaccinated. I am not optimistic .