Major League Baseball is now panicking, overreacting to vaccinated players testing positive for the coronavirus.
Four players and eight staff members of the Washington Nationals tested positive for the virus, leading the league to postpone the team’s game against the Philadelphia Phillies. Nationals manager Dave Martinez thinks only one of the 12 positive tests came from someone who is not vaccinated.
The Nationals have over 85% of their coaches, players, and on-field staff vaccinated. What point, then, is there in forcing them to delay games and play with reserves while vaccinated players are forced to sit out? Does Major League Baseball intend to force teams to bench players well into the future, given that COVID-19 isn’t just going to disappear?
We saw a similar egregious overreaction when the NCAA disqualified North Carolina State University from the College Baseball World Series over positive COVID-19 tests even though it was, at that point, allowing fans at full capacity. Two unvaccinated N.C. State players tested positive for the virus, prompting the NCAA to test the entire roster. When four more vaccinated players tested positive, the game was called off and N.C. State’s season was over.
First, there’s no reason for vaccinated players to be tested at all. Even on the rare chance that someone fully vaccinated manages to contract the virus, the case is likely to be very mild. This is especially true among the young and healthy, which includes vaccinated baseball players.
Unless the NCAA and MLB intend to enforce these rules for decades, there is no reason for them to be in place now. Forcing vaccinated players to sit out or forfeit games because they happen to test positive for a virus that usually has no symptoms won’t protect anybody other than the willingly unvaccinated.
There is no reason for sports leagues to be as stringent in their COVID protocols as they were before the vaccine is even available. There is certainly no reason for them to implement even harsher protocols now than they did before the vaccine was available, as the NFL has decided to do. Sports leagues led the way last year, showing that an element of normalcy was possible when many in sports media were pushing them to quit. Now, they appear to be stalling and even backsliding.
Sports have been the antidote to the political hysteria over the virus so far. Testing vaccinated players and forcing them to miss games runs counter to science and only feeds into the hysterics pushed by federal bureaucrats and pundits. There is no reason that sports seasons this year shouldn’t look the same as they did in 2019, aside from weak leadership from commissioners and league officials.
