New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers has proved that relating to well being and security, he’d slightly be secure than sorry.
In 2021, Rodgers confronted widespread criticism after revealing he was unvaccinated towards COVID-19 after beforehand saying he had been “immunized,” according to CBS Sports.
A 12 months later, on the “Joe Rogan Experience” podcast, Rodgers admitted he intentionally gave imprecise solutions about his vaccination standing earlier in 2021.
“I’d been prepared the whole time for this query and had considered how I wished to reply it,” Rodgers informed host Joe Rogan.
“And I had come to the conclusion I’m gonna say, ‘I’ve been immunized.’ And if there’s a follow-up, then speak about my course of. However [I] thought there’s a risk that I say, ‘I’m immunized,’ possibly they perceive what which means, possibly they don’t,” he stated.
After the NFL denied Rodgers a medical exemption from the vaccine, the Packers quarterback stated he went by means of an “immunization course of” supervised by a holistic physician as an alternative of getting vaccinated. He stated he didn’t wish to take the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and was allergic to an ingredient used within the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.
Rodgers additionally stirred up debate when he jokingly dubbed Kansas Metropolis Chiefs tight finish Travis Kelce “Mr. Pfizer” over Kelce’s look in a COVID-19 vaccine industrial.
Kelce responded by saying the nickname was “pretty good.”
The Jets quarterback then proposed a public debate on vaccine efficacy between himself and Kelce.
He recommended unbiased presidential candidate and COVID vaccine skeptic Robert Kennedy Jr. would assist him argue his stance, whereas Kelce could possibly be aided by COVID vaccine proponent Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the Nationwide Institute of Allergy and Infectious Ailments.
On Wednesday, Rodgers was again on the “Joe Rogan Expertise,” and he talked in regards to the vaccine backlash he confronted and his views on pharmaceutical corporations.
“You both stand for one thing — stand courageously for what you consider in — or the alternative facet of that’s both saying nothing or being a coward,” he stated. “And I wasn’t prepared to do this.”
“I’m going to proceed speaking about these things as a result of it’s essential to me,” the quarterback stated. “And I don’t need the reminiscences to be misplaced. I don’t need what I went by means of to get brushed over.”
He added, “I believe it’s an essential accountability to proceed to talk up and use my voice to present different individuals the permission to face up as nicely. As a result of there’s lots of people that consider numerous issues that I consider in that don’t have the chance to do it, don’t have the braveness to do it, don’t have the platform to do it in. And I really feel like I can communicate for a few of these individuals and maintain the road for a few of these individuals.”
WARNING: The next movies include vulgar language that some viewers could discover offensive.
“Why these drug corporations, Large Pharma, spending a lot cash on commercials in the course of the information is to not promote their merchandise — they don’t have an issue with that,” Rodgers stated in one other a part of his Rogan interview. “It’s to regulate the messaging.
“They’re f***ing controlling the message.”
He opined that if somebody have been to attempt to cease pharmaceutical companies from promoting their merchandise on tv, the particular person can be attacked for being “anti-science.”
Rogan identified that the U.S. is one in every of solely two international locations, together with New Zealand, that permit prescribed drugs to be marketed on to the general public.
“What RFK desires to do, type of the dismantling or the reforming, realigning of the CDC and the NIH and a few of these alphabet corporations who’ve been mendacity and deceptive the general public for thus lengthy, , he would get completely slaughtered by the media,” Rodgers stated, referring to Kennedy’s feedback in regards to the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.
“Why? It’s not as a result of they really consider that,” he stated. “However as a result of who’s paying them?
“It’s these corporations, to allow them to management the message.”
Aaron Rodgers is awake:
“Why are these drug corporations and Large Pharma spending a lot cash on commercials in the course of the information? It’s to not promote their merchandise, it’s to regulate the messaging.” pic.twitter.com/SUeGhv3Ap2
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) February 7, 2024
Rodgers is correct on the cash about pharmaceutical promoting — and even the scientific group is aware of it.
An evaluation revealed Wednesday by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health studied how a lot cash drug corporations spend on promoting on to customers.
The researchers checked out greater than 130 top-selling pharmaceuticals in the USA.
The examine discovered that medication with decrease effectiveness scores spent a better proportion of their promoting finances on client adverts.
In different phrases, drug makers spend extra to promote to customers when their medication aren’t that efficient or don’t have a lot benefit over different choices.
This issues as a result of client drug adverts can affect what medicines sufferers ask their docs for.
Sufferers could request costly or inappropriate medication simply because they’ve seen them marketed, even over their physician’s recommendation.
“The findings recommend that shifting promotional {dollars} to direct-to-consumer promoting probably displays a technique to drive affected person demand for medication that clinicians can be much less prone to prescribe,” Michael DiStefano, the lead writer of the examine, stated in an announcement.
“When a client sees these commercials on TV or social media, they need to actually query if it’s the perfect drug for them and have a dialog with their supplier,” DiStefano stated.
As Rodgers rightly identified, the USA is sort of alone in permitting medicines with severe negative effects to be marketed as if they’re sweet.
The Jets quarterback is not any stranger to controversy, and he’s risking additional backlash by confronting the affect of deep-pocketed drug producers.
We’d like extra conscientious public figures to observe his lead and leverage their platforms to query the established order.
This text appeared initially on The Western Journal.