As the NFL gets set for the 2021 season, a big conversation has been around what players are and are not getting the COVID-19 vaccine because of the league’s strict policies regarding COVID-related absences for those who choose not to get vaccinated. Unlike last year, games will not be rescheduled for outbreaks on teams and players won’t get game checks for forfeited games (on either side) if it’s due to unvaccinated players.
That has led to a small group of players voicing their displeasure with the policies, but for the most part, the league has seen vaccination rates soar, as they announced they reached 90 percent of players being vaccinated league-wide, with 27 of the 32 teams over 85 percent (per CBS). With the vast majority vaccinated in order to protect themselves and their teammates as case counts rise around the country once again due to new variants, it has cast a light on those who have chosen not to get the vaccine, particularly those at marquee positions.
Among those is Vikings quarterback Kirk Cousins, who recently missed four days of camp as a close contact to backup quarterback Kellen Mond, putting into perspective the precarious position he is putting his team in by not being vaccinated and thus being subject to much stricter policies regarding close contact to cases. Cousins has remained insistent he won’t get the vaccine and is apparently willing to go so far as to stay in a plexiglass box inside the Vikings facility rather than getting the free and incredibly effective vaccine.
Cousins said he has thought about surrounding himself with plexiglass in the QB room. He was asked why he would go to such lengths when a vaccine would be far more effective and efficient. He said the decision is personal and private.
— Kevin Seifert (@SeifertESPN) August 5, 2021
While the vaccine doesn’t guarantee you won’t get the virus (as is the case with every vaccine), it has been proven safe and wildly effective in helping the body’s immune system fight off the virus and avoid serious cases, as well as limiting the danger of spreading the virus. Trying to take such drastic measures as building himself plexiglass areas in the facility to keep from having close contact with his teammates seems like an awful aggressive and unnecessary strategy when, as noted, the vaccine would be far more effective and require much less effort on everyone’s part — for example, the Vikings have had to change up what room is for quarterbacks in order to have more space.
Cousins has also parroted a favorite line of those who refuse to get the vaccine, which is to say they are “doing their research” into it, but when pressed as to whether that research included talking to the NFL’s head doctor who has been made available to all players who have questions or concerns about the vaccine, Cousins confirmed he had not.
Kirk Cousins says he’s been doing a lot of research. When asked if he’s made contact with Dr. Allen Sills, he says no
— Arif Hasan, training camp attender
(@ArifHasanNFL) August 5, 2021
That would seem to indicate the research is, at minimum, incomplete on Cousins’ part, and his steadfast refusal to get the vaccine has to have Vikings fans wary of a season in which they could very well see their starting quarterback miss games as a close contact because he would rather try to prevent getting the disease via plexiglass instead of the vaccine.