Phils & Covid

[allentown]

So we made it too late for it to make any difference. Somehow that seems to perfectly describe the Phillies.

[BostonRoss]

I wonder if they got to 85% by releasing someone who is unvaccinated.

[zambonir]

haha two candidates there! and maybe Freddy, Kennedy and Gibson were all vaxxed.

still, to get from 50% all the way to 85% means a lot of people must have come around, especialy since it includes AAA.

The sad thing is it's not at all clear that the man games lost hurt them in the standings. Though the way it put a complete halt to Bohm's season can't be viewed as a good thing.

[LoneStarPhan]

Sad that it took this long to get the 85%.

Ridiculous that governments at various levels are spending millions of tax dollars on court actions for or against mask requirements, vaccine requirements, etc. Common sense seems to have left our society.

[zambonir]

And of course the total count of major league players and coaches, AAA players and coaches, and other support staff has to be somewhere around 80 - if not higher - so there are probably still 10, 12, maybe even 15 players holding out across both levels - if you think all the coaches and support staff have done it.

[bkox]

Sad that it took this long to get the 85%.

Ridiculous that governments at various levels are spending millions of tax dollars on court actions for or against mask requirements, vaccine requirements, etc. Common sense seems to have left our society.

Actually.. there were major fights about mask mandates during the 1918 spanish flu pandemic. There have been anti-vaxxers as far back as people fighting the small pox vaccine. Nothing that is happening is new... BUT what is new is that we now have a way to find someone from all over the country/world that agrees with us. Back with small pox you might have your little town and maybe the neighboring town. Now you can form a facebook group with 1000s. And easily feel like you are right because others do too.

History Shows Anti-Vaccination, Misinformation Campaigns Are Nothing New

By the time a smallpox vaccine was introduced in 1796, misinformation abounded again about its efficacy and safety.

"It's going to turn you into a cow because they're taking the cow puss and giving that to you," Najera said, repeating some of the misinformation that was passed around about the smallpox vaccine. "It's going to make you have stillbirths because look at how many cows have stillbirths after getting cowpox, etc."

[allentown]

All true, but we've learned a lot more in the past 100 years. Think what the state of medicine was like in 1796 and 1918. No antivirals, not even antibiotics. It's not unexpected that there was fear of the first vaccine, but we have many vaccines now and routine vaccination of children for close to 70 years, not counting routine smallpox vaccinations going back about a century. If people are fearful of the new mRNA-type Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, they can get the J&J, which is a standard vaccine.

The opposition is most peculiar. In 2007 TX Governor Perry (Republican) by executive order mandated that all girls must receive the HPV vaccine to protect against the virus which causes cervical cancer prior to being admitted to grade 6, even though that transmission is through sexual activity, hopefully ruling out classroom spread. TX was the first state to make this requirement. Merck lobbied heavily. The legislature overrode this order after conservative lobbyists claimed it would promote premarital sex.

[zambonir]

Hilarious photo choice

Phillies reach 85% COVID-19 vaccination rate

[EDmuch]

What we did not have in 1918 was Russian intelligence sources plantings disinformation within out society to undermine public confidence in the census needed to function in a successful democracy. I suspect that the vast number of vaccine misinformation posts on Facebook originate with Russian bots.

[el-pietro]

I suspect the vast majority originate with Donald Trump.

[zambonir]

Both things can be true!

Unfortunately there are people out there doing this that are not explicitly connected to either. And also people doing it who don't know they are being manipulated by those forces. Though you could say the same about the wya Facebook works in general.

[andyb]

It is possible the Phillies reached 85% by getting all the front office staff and support personnel up close to 100%. The various player releases don't seem to indicate they took vaccine status into consideration. I'd like to think/hope a bunch of players got vaccinated in recent months, but I really doubt much has changed on that end.

[Squire]

Yeah....I absolutely think that if we nudged the needle across 85% it resulted from increases in non-player vaccination, the release of a couple of players who were not vaxxed (like EDLS and maybe Vinny) and replacing them with guys who were vaxxed. I'm sure the anti-vaxx truthers like Bohm and Nola and let's admit it....Harper....remain unvaxxed.

[andyb]

We did have that major front office reorganization a few weeks ago. That is probably the biggest change in personnel they have had recently that might have affected the 85% goal. I don't recall vaccine status being mentioned (like the Nats did prominently with Boone and a few others), but I wonder if that episode helped their stats.

[EDmuch]

What has Harper ever done to indicate he is an anti-vaxxer ?

[bkox]

What has Harper ever done to indicate he is an anti-vaxxer ?

My guess is that people are guessing based on this quote back from March 2020 when the pandemic was first ramping up:

“I live, man,” he said in an interview. “I don’t worry about a disease or a virus. I live my life. I’m doing everything the same. I’m shaking people’s hands, I’m high-fiving. I’m healthy. I’m 27. The people that are affected, it’s a lot of older and maybe some young, as well. But I just live my life.”

[zambonir]

We did have that major front office reorganization a few weeks ago. That is probably the biggest change in personnel they have had recently that might have affected the 85% goal. I don't recall vaccine status being mentioned (like the Nats did prominently with Boone and a few others), but I wonder if that episode helped their stats.

I'm not even sure Assistant GMs count as "frontline personnel," though I suppose that is something the team would stipulate based on who they want to have access to the clubhouse and field.

But I seriously doubt Bonifay and Minnitti were among the the unvaxxed (or needed access to the major league clubhouse for that matter). I know the Phillies didn't mandate it, but they had the ability to put a lot more pressure on the non-playing, non-unionized staff.

What has Harper ever done to indicate he is an anti-vaxxer ?

Who do you think he voted for in the last two presidential elections?

There are small things that support my own guess, if you look. Trump and Q-adjacent stuff.

I also think the fact that he has never addressed vaccination - nor has the media been able to ask about it - suggests that he and the team don't want us to know. I hope he's not one of the ringleaders, but if he is vaccinated and was not able to change the tide in that dressing room what kind of leader is he really?

[schillingfan]

Not that Players’ personal lives should be our concern, except in this case, they are affecting the team’s performance. Anyway, I thought I read that he is a Mormon. The Mormon Church just put out a statement they would not provide religious cover for refusal to vaccinate, which I found interesting.

[bkox]

Didi Gregorius blames the COVID-19 vaccine for the elbow condition that led to the worst season of his career. Medical experts say he’s wrong. https://t.co/QqVpcYBgIs

— Matt Breen ( @matt_breen ) September 16, 2021

[zambonir]

I feel pretty bad for Didi after reading that. It is hard to have not one but two chronic illnesses, and when medical care can't fix it easily you look for someone or something to blame.

But I also feel like some of these guys are really big babies! They are just used to being able to get injections and legal or illegal drugs for any and every ache and pain. There is no way their vaccination responses could have been as debilitating as some of them make out. Don't get me wrong, I'd have gone 0-4 for a couple of days myself, but that's about all.

Thing is if any of this is as bad as they say, think, COVID obviously would have been worse.