Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has finally spoken out about his COVID controversy.
After a whirlwind week of confusion, controversy, and deception, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers is speaking out about his COVID vaccine controversy.
Rodgers appeared on The Pat McAfee Show and gave his side of the story. The Packers quarterback explained that he didn’t lie about his vaccination status, seemingly putting it back on the reporters who didn’t follow up with any clarifying questions for ultimately causing the confusion.
Rodgers will miss the Packers Week 9 showdown with the Kansas City Chiefs after testing positive for COVID earlier this week. Because he’s not vaccinated, Rodgers must sit out a mandatory 10-days before he can return to the team, as well as return another negative test. It was that specific wrinkle that ended up exposing Rodgers vaccination status and forcing everyone to revisit his comments from this past August.
He also said that the decision he made to not get vaccinated and instead take a homeopathic route was what he felt was best for his body.
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Aaron Rodgers on Pat McAfee Show: What did Packers QB say?
“I’m not an anti-vaxx, flat-earther.. I have an allergy to an ingredient that’s in the mRNA vaccines. I found a long term immunization protocol to protect myself & I’m very proud of the research that went into that,” Rodgers told McAfee.
He also said that he has been taking Invermectin — the horse medicine that has not been recommended by medical professionals or scientists but has been recommended by Joe Rogan — to treat his infection.
In addition to that, Rodgers blamed the ‘woke mob’ for coming after him in the wake of the controversy created by his positive test and the revelation that he is not vaccinated.
Wait, what’s the Aaron Rodgers COVID controversy?
It’s not that Rodgers contracted the virus, it’s how he skirted accountability by deceiving the public with carefully chosen words.
As the Packers opened training camp, Rodgers held a Kamp Krusty-style hostage negotiation where one of the concessions the team made was allowing him to speak his truth. In that press conference, Rodgers was asked if he had been vaccinated to which he answered that he had been ‘immunized’.
No one bothered to follow up with this very specific wording, although reporters like Michael Smith and Mike Florio called Rodgers out right away. It was ultimately forgotten about until Rodgers returned a positive COVID test, and his 10-days away from the team served as a revelation to everyone that he wasn’t vaccinated.
So why wasn’t Aaron Rodgers treated like other unvaccinated players?
This is a key question at the core of the controversy. While reporters failed massively by not actively following up on his comments to confirm his status, the optics of his situation didn’t raise any red flags.
Unvaccinated players are separated from the team after games, travel separately, and do not attend in-person press conferences. Because Rodgers, since his arrival at training camp, was doing in-person press conferences it’s been assumed that meant he had satisfied NFL protocol for vaccination.
As it turns out, this was not the case.
