Which company cut ties with Aaron Rodgers after outrageous COVID-19 vaccine comments?
Aaron Rodgers has taken a lot of heat for his anti-vaccine comments. Now it has resulted in him losing his first endorsement. Prevea Health and Aaron Rodgers mutually terminated their partnership after his alternate views on healthcare came to light. As a healthcare company, Prevea Health had a different view on this topic than Aaron Rodgers does.
An announcement from Prevea Health and Aaron Rodgers regarding their partnership. https://t.co/TEesvDBl3T
Who are Prevea Health and why did they cut ties with Aaron Rodgers?
Prevea Health is a healthcare provider in Wisconsin. Prevea Health claims to have 400 providers and provides both primary and specialty care. It was founded in Green Bay in 1996. As the quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, Aaron Rodgers, of course, became a natural spokesperson for them.
As a healthcare provider, they naturally want more people to get the vaccines. If the goal of the provider is to keep their patients healthy, all data and science dictates that they encourage them to take the vaccines.
WALENSKY: "For the week ending August 28, 2021, the hospitalization rate in fully vaccinated people was 4.5 per 100,000... while the hospitalization rate in unvaccinated people was 83.6 per 100,000... an 18.5-fold increase in hospitalizations for those who were unvaccinated."
That is where Aaron Rodgers' comments ran completely counter to their message. Hence, they were not in synchronization with the message they wanted to get out. Aaron Rodgers can have his opinion in a free country, but that does not mean that a healthcare provider has to amplify it when it is false.
Prevea Health were left with no choice after Aaron Rodgers went on the Pat McAfee show to deride vaccines. He seemed to suggest that by a 'holistic' treatment, he had got the same amount of antibodies as that a vaccine, which turned out to not quite add up since the NFL still considered him unvaccinated after his appeal to them.
Aaron Rodgers explains his decision:
"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"
https://t.co/I1T1ESmU9d
Not only did he not spout bizarre opinions about vaccines, he also managed not to follow any protocols that are associated with unvaccinated players. He did not wear masks in press conferences or socially distance himself from his teammates. He also went on to say on the same show how he was not only anti-vaccine, he was also anti-mask and any other protocol that he felt was unjust, comically going on to compare himself to Martin Luther King Jr.
Being unvaccinated, Aaron Rodgers was expected to follow the #NFL's protocol:
➡️Traveling on separate flight as rest of team
➡️Getting tested daily
➡️Wearing mask at team facilities and during travel
➡️Not leaving hotels
➡️Not eating meals with teammates
However...
📹 @Packers https://t.co/LNyvtepoUN
It made the situation between Prevea Health and Aaron Rodgers untenable because quite clearly they were giving out two different messages to the public. Which is a shame because no one carries a bigger megaphone in Green Bay and wider Wisconsin than Aaron Rodgers.