Oooooooooooooof don’t want to write this ok let’s get it over with.
We’d just gotten this bobblehead release, too:
It always happens after the bobblehead release.
IT ALWAYS HAPPENS AFTER THE BOBBLEHEAD RELEASE.
Ok that isn’t true Joe Kelly went on an absolute tear after the 2019 bobblehead night.
Joe Kelly has the coronavirus. We think. We aren’t positive, because of medical privacy stuff, but he’s on the IL, the Dodgers didn’t list a reason, Dave Roberts said he couldn’t say the reason, and usually that means Covid.
Now, the part I’m dreading.
The vaccine part.
We don’t know if Joe Kelly’s vaccinated. Breakthrough infections are, of course, possible, as we’ve always known (we know what 95% effective means, or we should), but it’s less likely to get infected if you’re vaccinated, and I’m of the impression MLB’s rules are stricter if you’re unvaccinated, making the IL visit at least a loose indicator that our guy, Joe Kelly, is not vaccinated, despite evidence that he is both an Irishman who works for Pfizer on something vaccine-related and Minnesota’s State Emergency Operations Center leader. Adding to that suspicion is the fact that Joe Kelly was often the only Dodger photographed wearing a mask during the team’s recent visit to the White House.
I know very little about Joe Kelly’s personal health, and I know possibly less about vaccine recommendations for the immunocompromised. It’s possible Joe Kelly’s immunocompromised and has received professional medical advice to wait before receiving the vaccine. I don’t know. My head comes up with other reasons, but this is the only one I’ve heard from unvaccinated adults that doesn’t come back to either fear or something performative. If Joe Kelly’s unvaccinated because of fear, that’s disappointing, especially because someone in Joe Kelly’s place in this country (a major league baseball locker room) probably isn’t being inundated with conspiracy theories the way some in different places in this country might be. If Joe Kelly’s unvaccinated because of some ego thing (or something similar), that’s really disappointing, because there isn’t an excuse for forgoing a means to protect one’s neighbors—a means that’s proven itself effective (look at how open our world is compared to a year ago, look at how few people are dying of Covid despite that openness, look at how many of those people are unvaccinated relative to the share of the population as a whole) and safe (look at the wide span of authorizations from the CDC, an organization that was so scared of a one-in-a-million side effect from the Johnson & Johnson vaccine that they pressed pause on it; look at how well those of us who are vaccinated are doing)—solely for the sake of one’s own pride.
We are, in large part, a Joe Kelly blog. A big part of my profession is hyping Joe Kelly, often in the face of reason (there’s a large category of files of ours named “Joe Kelly Spin Zone”). It is not my job to pass moral judgment on Joe Kelly, but it would also be disingenuous if I didn’t acknowledge the uncertainty part about his vaccination status, so…here we are. Most of all, of course, I hope he’s ok—that’s the most important thing with everybody. But I also hope he’s vaccinated, or that he has a good reason for not being vaccinated. I hope this was a breakthrough infection, or that it isn’t Covid. If he isn’t vaccinated, and there’s no good reason…I’m bummed, and while to be fair, you don’t start blogging about a relief pitcher because they’re an upstanding moral example to the world, there are lines to be met and, well, look. Let’s paraphrase Lincoln: I can’t fathom why someone wouldn’t take the Covid vaccine, especially because of its demonstrated effectiveness in helping protect one’s neighbors; but “judge not, lest ye be judged…”
Hope he’s ok and throwing healthy, 100-mph fastballs on a major league mound again soon, and that vaccination rates continue their recent rise, and that we can soon finally put this damn virus behind us and not have such a day-to-day test of our care for one another in our midst.
Oof.
