10/01/2021 / By Nolan Barton
Melissa Red Pill lauds Washington Wizards All-Star guard Bradley Beal for having the courage to speak up amid the growing pressure around the National Basketball Association (NBA) to have all players vaccinated against the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) before the start of the regular season.
“This guy is one of the best red pillers I’ve ever heard. He is really helping the Black community that is already very skittish about this vaccine,” Red Pill says during her program the “Freedom Force Battalion” on Brighteon.TV.
Red Pill shares a video in which Beal is asking members of the press in front of him about the effectiveness of the vaccine.
“I would ask the question to those who are vaccinated, ‘why are you still getting COVID?’ All it [the vaccine] does is reduce your chances of going to the hospital, but it doesn’t eliminate anybody from getting COVID,” Beal says.
Beal is one of the high-profile players in the league who refuse to get the vaccine. His 31.3 points per game average last season is next only to the 32 points per game of two-time Most Valuable Player (MVP) Stephen Curry of the Golden States Warriors.
“Is anybody in here vaccinated? I would assume [everyone is], right? So, you all can still get COVID, right? You can still get COVID and still pass it along [even] with the vaccine, right?” asks Beal. “I’m just asking a question.” (Related: VACCINE FAIL: 64% of Israel’s COVID-19 patients in serious condition are fully vaccinated.)
Red Pill believes Beal’s stance is having a big impact on people who follow him and love his skills on the basketball court. “They’re probably like, ‘let’s just hear what he has to say.’ He’s not taking the vaccine. This is great so definitely share this so that people can think for themselves,” says Red Pill. “And he’s not being rude or crazy, like hair on fire. He’s just asking the question. He just threw the question out there and left it hanging.”
While the NBA isn’t forcing players to get vaccinated, heavy restrictions await unvaccinated players throughout the coming season. Players who aren’t vaccinated must undergo daily testing, are required to wear masks inside team facilities and have to quarantine if they come into close contact with someone who has tested positive for COVID-19.
“The NBA kind of forces us, in a way, to want to get the vaccine,” says Beal. “But at the end of the day, I’ll have to talk it over with my family.”
Orlando Magic forward Jonathan Isaac feels the same way. He thinks unvaccinated players are being vilified and bullied and calls the pressure from the NBA to get vaccinated an “injustice.” Isaac also does not agree with the league’s COVID-19 protocols for unvaccinated players versus vaccinated players.
“You can play on the same court. We can touch the same ball. We can bump chests. We can do all those things on the court. And then when it comes to being on the bus, we have to be in different parts of the bus? To me, it doesn’t seem logically consistent,” Isaac says. “If you are vaccinated, in other places you still have to wear the mask regardless. It’s like, ‘OK, then what is the mask necessarily for?”
Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker announced on a Twitch livestream late last month that he had COVID-19 and had lost his senses of taste and smell. He is expected to miss at least part of the training camp.
“I’m not going to tell you guys if I have the vaccine or not, but you can still get COVID with the vaccine,” Booker said on the stream. “Educate yourself.”
As the NBA embarks on another season with COVID-19 looming in the background, the focus has shifted from social distancing and mask-wearing to getting players vaccinated around the league. Including players who have received the first dose, the league has now reached a 95 percent vaccination rate among its players. The regular season opens on Oct. 19.
In cities like New York City and San Francisco where there are vaccine mandates, players are required to be vaccinated in order to play in home games. Golden State’s Andrew Wiggins has already tried – and failed – to get a religious exemption from the league.
The Brooklyn Nets are also dealing with a similar situation. Brooklyn’s All-Star guard Kyrie Irving is planning to sit out home games so he doesn’t have to get the vaccine.
Since Sept. 13, Barclays Center and Madison Square Garden, where the Nets and the New York Knicks play, have required all employees and guests ages 12 and up without a religious or medical exemption to show proof of having received at least one vaccine dose, to comply with a mandate from Mayor Bill de Blasio regarding sports arenas. A similar requirement in San Francisco applies to Chase Center, where the Warriors play.
Unlike players in New York City and San Francisco, it isn’t required for Beal to get vaccinated to play in home games for the Wizards.
At the team’s media day, Beal explains why he is unvaccinated. “I don’t think you can pressure anybody into doing things, or putting things in their body,” says Beal.
Earlier this year, the three-time All-Star missed the Tokyo Olympics after testing positive for the coronavirus.
“I didn’t get sick at all. I lost my smell, but that was it for me. Everybody is going to react differently,” Beal says. “Some people have bad reactions to the vaccine. Nobody likes to talk about that. What happens if one of our players gets the vaccine and can’t play after that? Or they have complications after that? Because there are cases like that.”
It’s unclear how many other players on the Wizards are unvaccinated, as Kyle Kuzma has also elected to not share his vaccination status.
Watch the Sept. 29 episode of the “Freedom Force Battalion” here:
You catch new episodes of the Freedom Force Battalion with Melissa Red Pill every Wednesday at 11-12 p.m. on Brighteon.TV.
Follow Immunization.news for more news and information related to coronavirus vaccines.
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