Through the years sports stars have proven especially keen to champion pseudo-science, even as the claimed benefits turn out to be junk
“I’m somebody who is a critical thinker,” Aaron Rodgers said, completely without irony, during his credibility-immolating interview on The Pat McAfee Show last week after news of his Covid-positive result broke the internet. And who couldn’t take the NFL MVP at his word as he sat on this Zoom call before a shelf full of books that may or may not have featured an anthology of MLK malapropisms.
What’s more, the 37-year-old confessed that his decision to bypass the Covid-19 vaccine for a homeopathy-based immunization protocol didn’t only stem from fears of an allergic reaction to the Pfizer and Moderna shots. It was also informed by medical experts he empaneled himself, and by more than 500 pages of self-guided research on the efficacy of vaccines and mask wearing – not least an Israeli study of 2.5 million people comparing natural immunity to vaccines. Never mind that Rodgers thinks he knows better than the overwhelming majority of scientists who say Covid-19 vaccines are the best way of preventing serious illness and death from the virus. Or that a recent study published in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology found no evidence that polyethylene glycol, the mRNA vaccine ingredient most suspected of causing severe allergic reactions, is a threat. Or that the Israeli study that Rodgers was alluding to found the highest levels of immunity in people who had recovered from Covid after receiving at least one vaccine shot.
