Yankees first baseman Anthony Rizzo, who declined vaccine with Cubs, tests positive for COVID-19
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Anthony Rizzo, who as a Chicago Cub said he chose not to receive the COVID-19 vaccine because he was "taking some more time to see the data," tested positive for the coronavirus, New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Sunday.
Rizzo, a cancer survivor who is celebrating his 32nd birthday Sunday, was traded from the Cubs to the Yankees on July 29, providing an almost immediate lift to the Bronx Bombers. They have won eight of nine games since his acquisition, moving within 1 ½ games of a playoff spot, and he's hit three home runs with a .963 OPS in nine games with the Yankees.
Boone said on a call with reporters that Rizzo was experiencing light symptoms.
A fan favorite in Chicago, where he made three All-Star teams and helped the Cubs to the 2016 World Series title, Rizzo came under scrutiny when he acknowledged in a radio interview that he had not received the vaccine.
"I love my teammates. I love this franchise, and I do everything I can to win here. But with this stuff, this is bigger than baseball," he said in June. "This is a life decision. This isn't a career decision right now."
The Cubs are one of seven major league teams whose Tier 1 personnel have not received the COVID-19 vaccination, and it created the appearance of a divide on the team.
At the time, Kris Bryant, Ian Happ, Willson Contreras, Nico Hoerner, Adbert Alzolay, Javy Baez, Kyle Hendricks and Craig Kimbrel acknowledged they'd been vaccinated, while Rizzo and outfielder Jason Heyward were among those who said they were not.
"We discussed it. If you want to call it 'we argued about it,' we did," Baez said, according to NBC Sports Chicago. "But at the end of the day we …respect each other."
Now, he will be out more than a week on a Yankees club that's clawed back into both the AL East and wild-card races despite several COVID-19 issues throughout the season. Most recently, six players - including All-Star Aaron Judge - went on the COVID-19 list shortly after the All-Star break. Judge and pitcher Jonathan Loaisiga were among those refusing to acknowledge their vaccination status. Their July 15 game against was postponed for testing and contact tracing.
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The Yankees are among the 23 MLB teams at least 85% vaccinated, allowing for relaxed protocols, but suffered a number of breakthrough positives. Most Yankees received the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which has proved less effective than the two-shot Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
Boone said he did not know if Rizzo had been vaccinated since his June comments.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Yankees 1B Anthony Rizzo tests positive for COVID-19
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Rizzo, whose acquisition to the Yankees on Jul 29th was expected to increase their playoff chances, has not let them down. He has hit three home runs for the Yankees in 10 days.
But I doubt they anticipated him missing half of August in the heat of the playoff race because of covid.
Rizzo had refused to be vaccinated.
He is also a cancer survivor.
He survived cancer only to risk dying from Covid. All because he refused the vaccine. Stupid!
Which makes his decision not to get the vaccine even more ignorant.
He will now have plenty of time to review the data while recovering from COVID-19.
I really dont know how a professional athlete who has responsibilities not only to themselves but also to attempting to help the team succeed could refuse to take precautions against being removed from the team for a time period.
Hopefully he is not receiving his salary while sidelined. Ignorance should not be rewarded with money.
They have good agents and lawyers. I'm sure he is getting paid.
What data is he waiting for? If we were talking about an obscure medication for like a rare cancer or skin condition - something only a few people might use - I could see waiting for more data. But not Covid vaccines.
To date , over 194 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine have been administered just in the United States. 139 million doses of the Moderna vaccine have been administered. Over 13 million doses of the J&J/Janssen vaccine. How much bigger of a sample size do you need?
According to the CDC only three deaths can be attributed to a vaccine - the J&J/Janssen vaccine.
THREE! 3 deaths out of a total of over 346 million doses.
What the fuck could anyone possibly be waiting for?