Apparently, China has finally permitted LeBron James to get vaccinated.
LeBron announced that, after some hesitancy, he had received the COVID-19 vaccine. With the NBA season getting ready to tip off, the league’s most influential player has rather quietly joined the ranks of the vaccinated. However, he passed up the opportunity to promote vaccinations for others.
That’s right. After months of refusing to even talk about his vaccination status, LeBron will not promote vaccinations for anyone else. Even our appointed moral authority, King James, has his limits. Denouncing police officers for saving people from being stabbed to death? He’s on it. Recommending that other vaccine-hesitant people get the shot, as he did? That’s asking too much.
LeBron’s word could do a lot if he cared enough to speak out. Black people are lagging behind white people when it comes to vaccination rates. Even LeBron’s former teammate, Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving, apparently has not been vaccinated. According to Rolling Stone, Irving has been liking the Instagram posts of someone who says that “secret societies” are using the vaccine to connect black people to a master computer for a “plan of Satan.”
OK, maybe Irving won’t be persuaded.
LeBron will save his voice for his uninformed opinions about police shootings and racism. For him, the vaccine will be a lot like the money he makes from the Chinese market: something he will accept but doesn’t want to talk about.
