Yeah, it kind of ruins the “genuineness” of his brand.
1 Like
Golf sub par podcast just had Tim Tucker on. Pretty good interview and a lot of Bryson talk of course.
Bryson being unvaccinated, it costing him an opportunity to play in the olympics and him still refusing to get vaccinated is the final nail in the coffin for me…
I’m over the mad scientist.
1 Like
Yeah I was a bit surprised that a guy that seems to dive so deep into many things basically said “I’m young and healthy so I don’t need it”.
When are the Darwin Awards announced? He seems a reasonable candidate,. Oops, just read that he’d have to die first, I won’t wish that on anyone, no matter how foolish their decisions.
2 Likes
does that data suggest something different? I made the decision to vaccinate based on having all 4 of my parent’s / in laws in town but I don’t see much risk for young people who don’t smoke, are not obese, or have no pre-existing conditions
1 Like
Data so far suggests that unvaccinated people are far more likely to catch COVID, far more likely to be hospitalized with COVID, far more likely die from COVID, and far more likely to infect others with COVID. Sure, the risks to young healthy people are relatively low, but they’re still there. The rusks posed to an individual by the vaccine are still much less than the risks posed by going unvaccinated, and that’s just the “selfish” side of it. And from what Bryson said, he’s only looking at it from the “me” standpoint.
4 Likes
True I shouldn’t assume anything with how he made his decision. You and I made a decision to get vaccinated at least based in part on others (family, coworkers, etc), but it sounds like Bryson only thought of himself and not family, caddie, pga tour players, etc. I shouldn’t judge though as I don’t know him.
1 Like
Based only on what I’ve heard him say, I’d say he mischaracterized the risks involved with the two choices. “I’m healthy, I don’t need it”. How many people thought the same thing right up until the minute they were put on a ventilator? Also, his excuse, he’d rather give the available vaccine to someone who needs it is pretty silly, authorities all over can’t find enough willing arms to put all the available doses into. He says he’s open to getting the vaccine if it becomes “mainstream”?? How much more mainstream does he want, when half of the population has already had it? To me it sounds like he’s made up his mind, and is using poor excuses to justify his decision.
The vaccine reduces tail risk and has the benefit of slowing new infections which will hopefully reduce mutation
I believe that most people have absolutely no clue how risk works. Bryson is a smart guy and is probably doing some post hoc rationalization as you mentioned but i am never surprised to see people getting risk wrong… i see it everyday with people staring at phones while driving on the highway
I am fairly Hobbesian in my world view
1 Like
From what he’s been quoted as saying, Bryson hasn’t expressed any concern about slowing mutations, about the benefit to society from having a fully vaccinated population, or about his potential to spread the disease if he does get infected. Contrary to what @Kevomanc has suggested, I think its fair to judge to some extent, its not like Bryson lacks the ability to communicate with the world at large. I’m judging based on his communications to date.
My opinion applies to Bryson, all the other athletes making vaccine excuses, and the vaccine hesitant in general.
Yes, you have the right to make a personal choice to not get vaccinated against COVID. By making that choice, though, you should be banned from any public event where you are putting people at risk because of your choice. That includes playing in a golf tournament as well as going to a restaurant for dinner.
5 Likes
If you evaluate who is currently being hospitalized, the unvaccinated are not really putting the vaccinated at risk.
I believe hospitalizations are something like 95% unvaccinated (read that anecdotally in guardian article I believe)
It would be far easier to deal with the pandemic if we dispensed with the american ideal of individual liberty but alas… we are not china
That’s pretty much on the number. Simply put if you’re get vaccinated, you probably won’t get COVID, almost certainly won’t need hospitalization, and a near statistical guarantee you won’t die from it. It’s a dumb decision not get vaccinated. Still, if you want to make that dumb decision, then don’t allow that dumb decision to impact other people (especially those who can’t get vaccinated).
And in the interest of not getting too deep down the rabbit hole or too political around here, I’ll leave my (fairly obvious) feelings at that.
2 Likes
Yet the disease continues to survive and thrive in the unvaccinated, and as long as it survives it can (probably will) produce more variants. Those variants may be much more successful in breaking through any immunity that vaccines currently have provided us. So in that way, by enabling more variants, the unvaccinated ARE adding to the risk that all of us face.
Separately, hospitals in some areas are being strained by (mostly unvaccinated) COVID patients. If this continues, we may return to times when treatments and surgeries are postponed for us vaccinated people so the hospitals can take care of the COVID patients. That’s another way we may be impacted.
3 Likes
As someone who works in the healthcare industry or at least parallel to it in healthcare IT…let’s have a conversation for the absolutely heartless who don’t care about putting others at risk. Focus on something they may care more about… $.
95% of hospitalized folks due to lack of choosing to be vaccinated…how much financial burden do you think that puts on society in general? The dollars are HUGE - driving up the cost of care and insurance for everyone else.
1 Like
Same could be said for the obese or those that smoke
Should they have their individual rights curtailed for the good of the collective?
I concede these points btw… merely arguing that the loss of individual rights is far more costly in the long run
1 Like
I think its a balance, individual rights versus collective good. Specific to vaccinations, we’re long had certain vaccines required for children, so this is an “individual right” that there’s precedent for usurping, in favor of the good of society as a whole. All of our individual rights are limited to some extent. But we’re well off the topic of Bryson, so I’ll try to bring it back there. Bryson is clearly putting his own personal choice above the good of society, which isn’t particularly out of character, in my opinion.
2 Likes
Yeah, the more I think about it (and possibly regret making the comment), the more I think this moves me from “Bryson isn’t a bad guy, he’s just misundersood!” to… no, he’s just a petulant child who’s made millions of dollars being good at a game.
And maybe there is a fundamental conversation to be had about celebrity, early success and mental health (and maybe it’s already happening!)… I’m just done with him… I’m going to stick with the guys I get good vibes from (Homa and Zalatoris are two good examples) and ignore the shenanigans of others… i don’t care about Bryson or Brooks… I won’t ignore their on course performance, but I’m uninterested in hearing more about them off the course.
3 Likes