Health care company cuts ties with Aaron Rodgers after COVID-19 vaccine comments : NPR

Inexperienced Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers Rodgers has strongly questioned the NFL’s COVID-19 protocols, together with any group forcing well being necessities on people.

Rick Scuteri/AP

conceal caption

toggle caption

Rick Scuteri/AP

Inexperienced Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers Rodgers has strongly questioned the NFL’s COVID-19 protocols, together with any group forcing well being necessities on people.

Rick Scuteri/AP

GREEN BAY, Wis. — A Wisconsin well being care group has ended a nine-year partnership with Inexperienced Bay Packers star Aaron Rodgers after the quarterback detailed his reasoning for avoiding the three COVID-19 vaccinations endorsed by the NFL.

A statement posted on Twitter by Prevea Health stated the corporate and Rodgers mutually agreed to finish their partnership, efficient Saturday. Prevea Well being and Rodgers had been companions since 2012.

The assertion stated Prevea Well being “stays deeply dedicated to defending its sufferers, employees, suppliers and communities amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. This contains encouraging and serving to all eligible populations to grow to be vaccinated in opposition to COVID-19 to forestall the virus from additional considerably impacting lives and livelihoods.”

The transfer comes a day after Rodgers advised “The Pat McAfee Present” he had sought various therapies to COVID-19 vaccination as a result of he’s allergic to an ingredient in two of the FDA-approved pictures. Rodgers, who turns 38 in December, didn’t say what ingredient he was allergic to, or how he is aware of he’s allergic.

Rodgers has strongly questioned the NFL’s COVID-19 protocols, together with any group forcing well being necessities on people.

“I consider strongly in bodily autonomy and the flexibility to make selections on your physique, to not should acquiesce to some woke tradition or crazed group of people who say you need to do one thing,” he stated Friday. “Well being isn’t a one measurement matches all for everyone, and for me it concerned numerous examine within the offseason.”

The COVID-19 vaccines licensed to be used within the U.S. have been examined in tens of hundreds of individuals and confirmed to be each secure and efficient at dramatically decreasing the chance of great illness and demise. The vaccines now have been given to greater than 200 million Individuals and that real-world use plus further authorities security monitoring have made clear that severe unintended effects are extraordinarily uncommon — and that any threat is way decrease than the dangers posed by COVID-19.

Rodgers, who has been examined every day as a part of NFL protocols for unvaccinated gamers, came upon he contracted COVID-19 on Wednesday. He cannot rejoin the Packers for 10 days and can miss Sunday’s sport at Kansas Metropolis. He will need to have a destructive take a look at to return to the staff on Nov. 13.

The reigning NFL MVP, whose endorsement offers embrace a starring function in commercials for insurance coverage firm State Farm, hinted that his stance on vaccination might have penalties when he described himself Friday as a sufferer of “cancel tradition.”