MLB News: Baseball Players Will Not Get Preferential Treatment with COVID Vaccine Rollout
On Wednesday, Major League Baseball through The Athletic revealed that its players will not receive the coronavirus vaccine without waiting their turn.
“Like the NBA, Major League Baseball and its clubs will work with public health authorities on issues related to the availability and timing of vaccinations for players and other employees,” MLB said in a statement to The Athletic. “Vaccinations will only be made available to players when public health officials deem it appropriate.”
Here is where things get sticky for MLB and the MLBPA. The two sides engaged in an ugly, very public battle last summer over what the 2020 season will look like as it set up to restart following a spring training shutdown. Now, weeks away from the scheduled spring training report dates, rumors say that the two sides are continuing that battle.
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Essentially, players want to play on time and for the full, normal 162 game season. However, MLB team owners, after losing billions in revenue in 2020, are looking to stall long enough to allow paying customers fans time to potentially receive the vaccination and for things to return closer to normal in 2021.
To do this, owners are demanding that the season not start in earnest until players receive the vaccine as well.
The union is arguing that players proved last season that they can adhere to strict protocols and open the season on schedule, playing to empty stadiums until it’s safe enough for fans to return to the ballpark. Of course, logistical nightmares lie ahead in any scenario involving fans in the seats as the league will have to adhere to state and county restrictions.
An easy but unethical solution would have been for the league to cut in line, as it were, and get that vaccine in time for a full season (thankfully they won’t be doing that). But, that remains not in the best interest of club owners who will stand to lose even more money in 2021 if no fans are in the stands.
In short, things aren’t looking great for baseball to start on time, if at all, next year.
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Our Daughters, Cousin and Nephew are all in the front lines of the Health System, Two are in charge of ICU’s. My Nephew who is a higher up in the EMT World told me that with the problems with vaccine procurement and organization and the fact it is not a National Lead Response he does not see the US reaching safe herd type levels until 2022, sigh.
I live in AZ the Healthcare people say that with many people not accepting a vaccine we may never go over 60%. That said it is going to be very difficult to play games with stadiums with enough fans to generate sufficient revenue for it to be worth having stadiums open.
The Players do not want to hear that. No one does we are all tired of this. But the Hospitals are overrun and if they get to overfull levels people will begin to die at higher rates.
Please give baseball players the vaccine so I won’t have to listen to people whining about how a a certain player could celebrate a world championship without wearing a mask. Vaccinate all of them who want to be vaccinated. Remove all politically correct restraints on them. And let them play ball. Let the whiners, whine about something else.