Rep. Taylor Greene Compares Kyrie Irving’s Covid-19 Vaccine Refusal With Magic Johnson’s HIV Diagnosis

Normally while you evaluate two issues, they should be someway associated. In any other case, it’s possible you’ll elevate some eyebrows by saying one thing like, “these chips are making me thirsty, but I bought some botox injected into my face.” That’s why Consultant Marjorie Taylor-Greene’s (R-Georgia) try to match Kyrie Irving’s refusal to get the Covid-19 vaccine with Magic Johnson’s HIV prognosis again within the 1990’s bought a collective “what the bleep” from the Twittersphere.

Irving, a star level guard for the Brooklyn Nets, has remained unvaccinated regardless of the New York City (NYC) government requiring proof of vaccination to take part in group indoor actions corresponding to sporting occasions in NYC. This requirement was put in place to forestall the unfold of the extreme acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) as a result of these unvaccinated could also be extra more likely to catch and unfold the virus. Since Brooklyn is in NYC till additional discover, the Nets group should maintain Irving from enjoying in Nets residence video games so as to adjust to the NYC regulation.

This apparently prompted Lavern Spicer, a Republican who in 2020 unsuccessfully ran for a Florida seat within the U.S. Home of Consultant, to tweet the next final Tuesday:

Whoa, what does Johnson, the Corridor of Fame level guard who performed for the Los Angeles Lakers within the Eighties and Nineteen Nineties, should do with the Irving state of affairs? Why did Spicer bringing the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) right into a dialog concerning the Covid-19 coronavirus? And what the heck is full-blown HIV as @bRHOwn_eyedgirl requested under:

HIV will not be a pile leaves. It doesn’t make sense to check with the virus as “full-blown” and even “partially-blown.” However that’s not the one method Spicer appeared to blow it along with her tweet. They, that means the NBA, allowed Johnson to return to basketball after his 1991 HIV prognosis as a result of not like SARS-CoV-2, HIV doesn’t unfold through respiratory droplets or informal contact. Former NBA participant Rex Chapman questioned whether or not Spicer knew this truth:

Apparently sufficient, Spicer appeared to acknowledge this truth within the following thread the place somebody appeared to highschool herself:

And no, basketballs are usually not the kind of balls often concerned with HIV. For HIV to be handed from one particular person to a different, there usually must be rather more sustained physique fluid contact corresponding to transfusion with blood that’s contaminated with HIV or unprotected intercourse with somebody who’s contaminated. Neither of those situations are likely to happen throughout a basketball sport, as the next tweet response emphasised:

Basketball referees additionally often don’t say, “on account of the non-public foul, a blood transfusion will happen on the foul line.”

Against this, the SARS-CoV-2 is a respiratory virus. It may unfold through respiratory droplets that may come out of an contaminated particular person’s nostril and mouth. Due to this fact, an contaminated particular person can readily infect others on the identical basketball courtroom. That’s why social distancing and face masks use have been ion place at completely different occasions in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The subsequent day Spicer adopted up about Irving once more, this time pushing the wrong narrative that your resolution to get vaccinated in opposition to Covid-19 is not more than a private selection that solely impacts you:

This, after all, will not be the case. As a substitute, everybody’s threat of catching the Covid-19 coronavirus will depend on whether or not these round them could also be contaminated with the virus. So sure Irving can maintain you safer from Covid-19 and vice-versa.

It’s not clear whether or not Taylor-Greene noticed the Twitter exchanges with Spicer. Regardless, two days after Spicer’s foray someway tried to match the 2 conditions with the next tweet on Thursday:

This tweet appeared just like the film Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo, a foul sequel of a foul authentic. In actual fact, Taylor Greene’s tweet had extra inaccuracies as former NBA coach Stan Van Gundy identified right here:

As you may see, Van Gundy made it clear that “the NBA will not be preserving Irving from enjoying” in Nets residence video games. The NBA and the Nets have merely been complying with NYC laws.

It’s actually not truthful to deliver Johnson into the Irving-Covid-19 vaccine dialogue as Spicer and Taylor-Greene did. Arguably the best level guard in basketball historical past, Johnson has had a protracted historical past of providing assists to actual science and drugs. He has been a powerful advocate for extra HIV consciousness, analysis, and prevention. And earlier this 12 months Johnson publicly bought the Covid-19 vaccine so as to encourage his many followers to get vaccinated:

Perpetuating misconceptions about HIV, the Covid-19 coronavirus, and Covid-19 vaccines can do numerous actual hurt. It may be like changing a basketball with a rock throughout a sport and hurling it at others. The Covid-19 coronavirus and HIV are usually not the identical factor. Evaluating these two very completely different pathogens may be like evaluating, oh, some politicians and individuals who really perceive and recognize science.