Packers’ Rodgers Defends Being Unvaccinated, Decries ‘Woke Culture’

(Bloomberg) -- Aaron Rodgers has no regrets about not being vaccinated.

In a Friday appearance on the Pat McAfee Show, the Green Bay Packers quarterback said not getting vaccinated was the best choice for his body.

“I’m not some sort of anti-vax, flat-Earther, I am somebody who is a critical thinker,” Rodgers said. “I believe strongly in bodily autonomy and the ability to make choices for your body, not to have to acquiesce to some woke culture or crazed group of individuals who say you have to do something. Health is not a one-size-fits-all for everybody.”

The three-time MVP said he is allergic to an ingredient that’s in mRNA vaccines and that he had “heard of multiple people who had had adverse events” around getting the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Instead, Rodgers said he went through an immunization process. He defended his response earlier in the year when asked if he had been vaccinated and responded by saying “Yeah I’ve been immunized” and defended other players on the Packers who had not been vaccinated, saying he’s not going to “judge those guys” but did not say he was among them.

“It wasn’t some sort of ruse or lie, it was the truth,” Rodgers said Friday. Had there been a follow-up question, he would have further explained his feeling on the topic, he claimed.

In the interview Friday, Rodgers said he unsuccessfully petitioned to have his immunization treatment classify him as a vaccinated player and that it was denied. He described measures non-vaccinated players have to follow under the National Football League’s protocols as “draconian” and “not based in science.”

Rodgers said he first experienced symptoms beginning Tuesday night and tested positive on Wednesday. 

“I consulted with a now good friend of mine Joe Rogan after he got Covid and I’ve been doing a lot of the stuff that he recommended in his podcasts and on the phone to me and I’m going to have the best immunity possible now,” Rodgers said, adding that he’s been taking monoclonal antibodies, ivermectin and zinc, among other things.

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