Time for vaccine requirements, tests for football games

[aubiefifty 16,733]

Time for vaccine requirements, tests for football games

By Joseph Goodman | jgoodman@al.com

6-7 minutes

---

There is nothing left to say. Now it’s up to actions to protect the public from itself.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said a lot on Tuesday in his address to fans, begging them to get vaccinated — and he should be commended for that — but we all know the truth already. No one in the Deep South is going to listen who doesn’t want to hear it. That’s the unfortunate fact of it all.

So, here we are, with SEC schools facing more decisions, difficult but obvious.

To protect the South from itself, it’s time for SEC schools to once again lead when others will not and require for entry into all sporting events proof of vaccination or a current negative test for COVID-19. If selfish politicians pass laws preventing that, then schools should just break those laws to protect the public. It’s the right thing to do.

Getting a vaccine is a “personal choice,” and that’s fine, but no one should have the right to attend massive public gatherings and get other people sick with a virus that has already killed hundreds of thousands of Americans.

That’s just selfishness, and it cannot be allowed.

Again, this should all be obvious, but we’ve allowed politics to use science like a tool of cultural warfare against ourselves. Alabama, for example, is last in education and last in vaccines. These things are not coincidences. Unvaccinated people are dying of COVID-19, and no one seems to care. Health care workers are demoralized and defeated, and we’re arguing about masks again.

This time last year, Sankey reminded us, the SEC held out for hope when other conferences were canceling their seasons. It wasn’t hope alone, though. The SEC saved college football by enforcing rules. Alabama required tests for all college students before they returned to campuses. Time for universities to do what’s necessary again.

No vaccine? No negative test? No entry to football games this fall. Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, scheduled for September 2-5 in Manchester, Tennessee, announced a similar plan on Tuesday. Can’t say it any clearer: if you want to attend SEC football games this fall, and do your part to protect your neighbor, then please get vaccinated.

If not, then no hard feelings. Just stay at home and watch TV.

GOODMAN: The municipal golf course where Bobby Bowden was everyone’s friend

The SEC wants to have full stadiums and full campuses on game day this fall — for the record, because I know people will read this and try to twist it, that’s what everyone wants — but allowing unvaccinated and untested individuals into full stadiums is simply a reckless endangerment of our public health. Can’t happen. Games will be super-spreader events, and more people will needlessly die.

Cynical people will say let them, but that is wrong, and that can never be acceptable rhetoric or behavior no matter how frustrating this becomes. In the end, slowing this latest variant of COVID-19, and the others to come, is going to be up to our leaders. It’s on them to protect those who refuse to protect themselves, and, in doing so, protect everyone as best as possible.

Will that mean losing money on college football? Probably so, but choosing cash over consciences cannot be the business of higher education.

In this place, in the Deep South, history has proven time and time again that good people will die by the thousands and thousands before being told what to do. “We dare defend our rights,” is the state motto of Alabama, after all. Why Alabama is that way is complicated, but this is not. The reasons we’re so obstinate about this vaccine, whether it be politics or religion or what was shared on Facebook from the Russian bot farms, doesn’t much matter to a virus.

Give Sankey credit for trying, though. He tried and tried.

First it was at SEC Media Days in Hoover when he unveiled the SEC’s hashtag “#SECBacksTheVax.” People laughed at it, but Sankey persisted. On Tuesday he posted this plea to his personal Twitter account.

GOODMAN: For UAB, the moment of truth is here

“We know nothing is perfect, but the availability & efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines is an incredible product of science, not a political football & we all need to do our part to support a healthy society. Like the @SEC a year ago, will you now try with us to return toward normal?

“State policies limit the @SEC’s ability to establish Conference wide mandates. We need individuals — our fans — to join in accessing the vaccine, reducing COVID-19 spread, limiting the chances for more variants to emerge … and enjoying a full year ahead for college sports!”

It was an important message, but let’s be honest. When Auburn’s football coach refuses to support that stance, then we got problems on top of problems.

School hasn’t even started and our hospitals are already filling up again with COVID-19 patients. Medical professionals are demoralized and burned out. Cases and deaths are spiking again, and it’s only going to get worse until it gets better. That’s just the reality now with so few people getting vaccinated in the South.

For our medical professionals, and for their well being and mental health, the time for words is over. To protect us against the selfish, the time for talking has ended.

After all that we’ve been through, and everything we have sacrificed as a country, and all that has happened since March of 2020, really, we should already know that all the words in the world will not make one bit of difference to a person who refuses to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. It is their “personal choice,” they will say, and it’s their right to refuse the vaccine.

Fine. But when it comes to college football this fall, it will be the duty of our universities to protect the health of everyone.

Joseph Goodman is a columnist for the Alabama Media Group. He’s on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr. His first book, “We Want Bama: A Season of Hope and the Making of Nick Saban’s ‘Ultimate Team’,” debuts in November.

[Quietmaninthecorner 1,945]

you have to provide proof of vaccines against other diseases (measles etc.)when you apply to a  school  covid vacs are no different.  It is a schools right to refuse non vaccinated students.  This is not even debatable .  Schools need to take a stand.   

 

As far as games,  the Olympics  Caused Tokyo to have an explosion of cases.

Edited August 13, 2021 by Quietmaninthecorner

[ken woolley 27]

I question that it is not debatable.

[AuburnTiger4Life 2,225]

No more articles from that guy please 

[AUGunsmith 666]

Oh look, more pandering politics through a "do this right thing" filter to preshape dissenting arguments as "selfish" or not caring about others. 

[nurbis 572]

1 hour ago, Quietmaninthecorner said:

you have to provide proof of vaccines against other diseases (measles etc.)when you apply to a  school  covid vacs are no different.  It is a schools right to refuse non vaccinated students.  This is not even debatable .  Schools need to take a stand.   

 

As far as games,  the Olympics  Caused Tokyo to have an explosion of cases.

Covid vacs are very different from other vaccines. They have had very little testing, they are emergency use approved only and there are legitimate dangerous side effects like blood clots and myocarditis. How many vaccines have been manufactured where the government stepped in to release the manufacturer from all liability? Does a completely safe vaccine need that kind of government protection? There are also many deaths reported on VAERS that are not guaranteed to be vaccine related but could be vaccine related. 

Plus, you brought up the explosion of cases from the Olympics. Everybody there was required to be vaccinated and Japan allowed no foreign attendance. That doesn't exactly speak wonders for the efficacy of these vaccines. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[W.E.D 11,070]

4 minutes ago, nurbis said:

How many vaccines have been manufactured where the government stepped in to release the manufacturer from all liability?

Almost all vaccines have the gov't protecting them of liability.

Here's the supreme court case

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruesewitz_v._Wyeth

[W.E.D 11,070]

1 hour ago, Quietmaninthecorner said:

Schools need to take a stand.   

Seems like we're only getting private schools to take a stand.  There have been laws by some southern states trying to restrict publicly funded schools from allowing it.  Which doesn't really make sense b/c you have to have other vaccines and tests before you can start school.  I had to provide proof of my vaccines.  Shouldn't really be different, but here we are.

[W.E.D 11,070]

I probably wasn't going to a game to begin with b/c of an infant son, but irrespective of that there's about a 0% chance I'd go to a game this fall.  Alabama's vaccination rate is about 35%.  I'd imagine JHS would probably be hovering around 50%.

surrounded shoulder to shoulder with unmasked people screaming and blasting delta infected droplets doesn't seem like a fun or safe environment.  I've got a handful of UGA friends with season tickets that are skipping the Clemson game and selling the 1st few games.  I'm sure there are similar people doing the same in Auburn.

Anyone have tickets and hesitant on going to a game?

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,648]

Where do I petition to get this thread moved to a different section? Lol 

[ken woolley 27]

Regardless of the vaccination rate if you have been vaccinated would you not be safe?

[Mike4AU 1,739]

If the State of Alabama continues on its current Covid path, I seriously doubt we will see a complete football season.   And that will be the least of our problems. 
 

 

[AuburnEagle79 2,165]

This one will be fun.

[W.E.D 11,070]

22 minutes ago, ken woolley said:

Regardless of the vaccination rate if you have been vaccinated would you not be safe?

You're like 90% more safe than any of the unvaccinated people, but when you're around 40k people who are unvaccinated and possibly many spreading a disease that is highly contagious, there can still be break through cases.

While the vast majority of break through cases have mild cases compared to the unvaccinated, but why risk it?  Why get covid and then give it to my 1 year old son who can't get vaccinated?

Edited August 13, 2021 by W.E.D

[au701948 997]

3 hours ago, aubiefifty said:

Time for vaccine requirements, tests for football games

By Joseph Goodman | jgoodman@al.com

6-7 minutes

---

There is nothing left to say. Now it’s up to actions to protect the public from itself.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said a lot on Tuesday in his address to fans, begging them to get vaccinated — and he should be commended for that — but we all know the truth already. No one in the Deep South is going to listen who doesn’t want to hear it. That’s the unfortunate fact of it all.

So, here we are, with SEC schools facing more decisions, difficult but obvious.

To protect the South from itself, it’s time for SEC schools to once again lead when others will not and require for entry into all sporting events proof of vaccination or a current negative test for COVID-19. If selfish politicians pass laws preventing that, then schools should just break those laws to protect the public. It’s the right thing to do.

Getting a vaccine is a “personal choice,” and that’s fine, but no one should have the right to attend massive public gatherings and get other people sick with a virus that has already killed hundreds of thousands of Americans.

That’s just selfishness, and it cannot be allowed.

Again, this should all be obvious, but we’ve allowed politics to use science like a tool of cultural warfare against ourselves. Alabama, for example, is last in education and last in vaccines. These things are not coincidences. Unvaccinated people are dying of COVID-19, and no one seems to care. Health care workers are demoralized and defeated, and we’re arguing about masks again.

This time last year, Sankey reminded us, the SEC held out for hope when other conferences were canceling their seasons. It wasn’t hope alone, though. The SEC saved college football by enforcing rules. Alabama required tests for all college students before they returned to campuses. Time for universities to do what’s necessary again.

No vaccine? No negative test? No entry to football games this fall. Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, scheduled for September 2-5 in Manchester, Tennessee, announced a similar plan on Tuesday. Can’t say it any clearer: if you want to attend SEC football games this fall, and do your part to protect your neighbor, then please get vaccinated.

If not, then no hard feelings. Just stay at home and watch TV.

GOODMAN: The municipal golf course where Bobby Bowden was everyone’s friend

The SEC wants to have full stadiums and full campuses on game day this fall — for the record, because I know people will read this and try to twist it, that’s what everyone wants — but allowing unvaccinated and untested individuals into full stadiums is simply a reckless endangerment of our public health. Can’t happen. Games will be super-spreader events, and more people will needlessly die.

Cynical people will say let them, but that is wrong, and that can never be acceptable rhetoric or behavior no matter how frustrating this becomes. In the end, slowing this latest variant of COVID-19, and the others to come, is going to be up to our leaders. It’s on them to protect those who refuse to protect themselves, and, in doing so, protect everyone as best as possible.

Will that mean losing money on college football? Probably so, but choosing cash over consciences cannot be the business of higher education.

In this place, in the Deep South, history has proven time and time again that good people will die by the thousands and thousands before being told what to do. “We dare defend our rights,” is the state motto of Alabama, after all. Why Alabama is that way is complicated, but this is not. The reasons we’re so obstinate about this vaccine, whether it be politics or religion or what was shared on Facebook from the Russian bot farms, doesn’t much matter to a virus.

Give Sankey credit for trying, though. He tried and tried.

First it was at SEC Media Days in Hoover when he unveiled the SEC’s hashtag “#SECBacksTheVax.” People laughed at it, but Sankey persisted. On Tuesday he posted this plea to his personal Twitter account.

GOODMAN: For UAB, the moment of truth is here

“We know nothing is perfect, but the availability & efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines is an incredible product of science, not a political football & we all need to do our part to support a healthy society. Like the @SEC a year ago, will you now try with us to return toward normal?

“State policies limit the @SEC’s ability to establish Conference wide mandates. We need individuals — our fans — to join in accessing the vaccine, reducing COVID-19 spread, limiting the chances for more variants to emerge … and enjoying a full year ahead for college sports!”

It was an important message, but let’s be honest. When Auburn’s football coach refuses to support that stance, then we got problems on top of problems.

School hasn’t even started and our hospitals are already filling up again with COVID-19 patients. Medical professionals are demoralized and burned out. Cases and deaths are spiking again, and it’s only going to get worse until it gets better. That’s just the reality now with so few people getting vaccinated in the South.

For our medical professionals, and for their well being and mental health, the time for words is over. To protect us against the selfish, the time for talking has ended.

After all that we’ve been through, and everything we have sacrificed as a country, and all that has happened since March of 2020, really, we should already know that all the words in the world will not make one bit of difference to a person who refuses to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. It is their “personal choice,” they will say, and it’s their right to refuse the vaccine.

Fine. But when it comes to college football this fall, it will be the duty of our universities to protect the health of everyone.

Joseph Goodman is a columnist for the Alabama Media Group. He’s on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr. His first book, “We Want Bama: A Season of Hope and the Making of Nick Saban’s ‘Ultimate Team’,” debuts in November.

If in fact Harsin is genuinely not “onboard” with at least proposing considering vaccinations to his team for the sake “the team” he and our players may very well pay for it with losing players to a Covid Protocol or even forfeiting a game this season. He preaches “team”  but there can be no team without each member being given an opportunity to consider one another’s welfare. JMHO

[steeleagle 2,945]

1 hour ago, W.E.D said:

You're like 90% more safe than any of the unvaccinated people, but when you're around 40k people who are unvaccinated and possibly many spreading a disease that is highly contagious, there can still be break through cases.

While the vast majority of break through cases have mild cases compared to the unvaccinated, but why risk it?  Why get covid and then give it to my 1 year old son who can't get vaccinated?

Or in my case, I'm over 65, vaccinated, but have a weakened immune system bc of treatments I had about 2 years ago. 

I have always had season tickets but I don't feel I can trust sitting around hundreds of people, milling around getting into the game or going to a concession stand, that there aren't spreaders among them. 

And there younger people all around my street and at church who are catching this variant strain. 

Just bc I'm 95% affective, doesn't mean, based on reports of even younger people, vaccinated and still having to be hospitalized, that I won't get Covid, and who knows how my body will respond. I have no clue...just odds. 

[au701948 997]

2 hours ago, nurbis said:

Covid vacs are very different from other vaccines. They have had very little testing, they are emergency use approved only and there are legitimate dangerous side effects like blood clots and myocarditis. How many vaccines have been manufactured where the government stepped in to release the manufacturer from all liability? Does a completely safe vaccine need that kind of government protection? There are also many deaths reported on VAERS that are not guaranteed to be vaccine related but could be vaccine related. 

Plus, you brought up the explosion of cases from the Olympics. Everybody there was required to be vaccinated and Japan allowed no foreign attendance. That doesn't exactly speak wonders for the efficacy of these vaccines. 

 

 

 

 

 

Anything in a range of 80%+ efficacy is a great deal better than an efficacy of 0% which is achieved when not vaccinated.  

And I beg your pardon in advance knowing that we will not agree.

[AuCivilEng1 10,995]

No amount of pleading is going to do a da*n thing, at this point. The people who have it, have it. The people who don’t have decided that they ultimately don’t give a s**t about other people’s lives. Unfortunately, the only thing that seems to work to change minds is when these fools get so sick they’re nearly dead. I personally couldn’t care less what happens to them at this point. But the fact is they are taking resources from children and adults that can’t take the vaccine. That’s not acceptable. So the best way to fix this, without forcing people to take the vaccines is to let them sit at home and prove that covid isn’t serious. If you have the opportunity to take the vaccine and haven’t taken it, you can wait to be treated after the others or you can die. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[WalkingCarpet 1,379]

Dumb article. We had massed shoulder to shoulder protesting for six months last year when there was no vaccine and very little natural immunity in the population and we were all assured that it didn't spread covid. Why are we gatekeeping football games 14 months later when two thirds of the population has either had the virus, been vaccinated, or both? 

[woodford 3,655]

Gonna breathalyze everyone that enters too?

[au701948 997]

1 hour ago, Mike4AU said:

If the State of Alabama continues on its current Covid path, I seriously doubt we will see a complete football season.   And that will be the least of our problems. 
 

 

I do agree. BUT, let’s choose to allow politicians and politics rule our decisions and health.

No sense in remembering that when we older folks (65+) were children, vaccines for debilitating viruses such as Polio, Dyptheria, Pertussis, Tetanus, Mumps, Measles, Diptheria were required for school attendance.

Things we’re not perfect then and they are not perfect now. However, because of the effort to save lives then, some of these diseases have been virtually eliminated. 

[woodford 3,655]

4 hours ago, aubiefifty said:

Alabama, for example, is last in education and last in vaccines. These things are not coincidences.

Oh man, I would pay money to watch this author expand on this topic on a podcast. Who exactly are the dumb people?

[woodford 3,655]

2 minutes ago, au701948 said:

do agree. BUT, let’s choose to allow politicians and politics rule our decisions and health.

No sense in remembering that when we older folks (65+) were children, vaccines for debilitating viruses such as Polio, Dyptheria, Pertussis, Tetanus, Mumps, Measles, Diptheria were required for school attendance.

You want politicians making decisions for you? Cringe. 
 

Your second point I’ve heard countless times lol because those diseases are JUST like Covid huh? Kids not being able to walk is exactly like COVID-19. Totally. Goodness gracious. 

[au701948 997]

1 hour ago, W.E.D said:

You're like 90% more safe than any of the unvaccinated people, but when you're around 40k people who are unvaccinated and possibly many spreading a disease that is highly contagious, there can still be break through cases.

While the vast majority of break through cases have mild cases compared to the unvaccinated, but why risk it?  Why get covid and then give it to my 1 year old son who can't get vaccinated?

Ken, you are being logical and sensible. How on earth can you do that?

Just kidding, I agree and would do the same if I had young children.

[au701948 997]

26 minutes ago, AuCivilEng1 said:

No amount of pleading is going to do a da*n thing, at this point. The people who have it, have it. The people who don’t have decided that they ultimately don’t give a s**t about other people’s lives. Unfortunately, the only thing that seems to work to change minds is when these fools get so sick they’re nearly dead. I personally couldn’t care less what happens to them at this point. But the fact is they are taking resources from children and adults that can’t take the vaccine. That’s not acceptable. So the best way to fix this, without forcing people to take the vaccines is to let them sit at home and prove that covid isn’t serious. If you have the opportunity to take the vaccine and haven’t taken it, you can wait to be treated after the others or you can die. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Amen.