4 most insane things Aaron Rodgers said about COVID vaccines on Pat McAfee’s show

Aaron Rodgers said a lot of wild things about COVID vaccines on The Pat McAfee Show, but here are 4 of the most alarming moments. 

While fans of The Pat McAfee Show are used to the weekly “Aaron Rodgers Tuesdays” segment, this week’s edition was understandably cancelled. Earlier this week, it was confirmed that an unvaccinated Aaron Rodgers contracted COVID-19, which placed him in a 10-day quarantine that sidelines him for Green Bay’s Week 9 game.

The Internet has been on fire this week as the news created a firestorm of controversy concerning vaccination theories, anti-vaxx politics and whether Rodgers, the Packers, or the NFL (or all three) are in the wrong. To that end, the NFL is conducting an investigation to determine who broke protocol — and Aaron Rodgers arrived to finally break the silence.

Although Rodgers endeavored to keep his vaccination status private (a move he cleverly concealed for months by telling media he was “immunized”), his vaccination status is out — and so are all of his opinions about the situation.

After Rodgers found himself “in the cross hairs of the woke mob right now“, the Packers quarterback spent over 47 minutes sharing his perspective on the entire situation.

Here are four takeaways from Rodgers’ rant, which included vaccine-induced sterility, a Joe Rogan medical consultation, and an ill-conceived MLK reference.

Using J&J recall to justify not taking allergen-free vaccine

Aaron Rodgers claimed he did “a lot of study in the offseason” about the efficacy and risks of the various COVID vaccines during the offseason, which included the discovery that he was allergic to an ingredient in the two mRNA vaccines, commonly known as the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

The one vaccine that he wasn’t allergic to, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, was available to Rodgers, but Rodgers was wary of the vaccine’s documented issues concerning blood clotting. The vaccine, which was temporarily put on pause while the FDA and CDC conducted a thorough review, had that pause lifted on April 23. Still, Rodgers maintains that this was why he never took the Johnson & Johnson variant.

As The Athletic’s Ben Baldwin pointed out, Rodgers was asked by the NFL to get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in August, four months after the temporary pause was relieved.

Even if Rodgers was wary of Johnson & Johnson after the reported clotting issues, the vaccine has been implemented nationwide for several months, which means that the allergen excuse would not grant Rodgers a medical exemption from taking the vaccine.

He’s taking medical advice from Joe Rogan, which includes Ivermectin, a parasite medicine for livestock

Despite skepticism of the CDC and the FDA, Rodgers put his faith in podcast host Joe Rogan, who has also contracted and recovered from COVID.

“I consulted a good friend of mine, Joe Rogan, and I’ve been doing a lot of the stuff he recommended in his podcast,” Rodgers said.

“I’m going to have the best immunity possible now,” Rodgers continued.

Rogan’s recommended COVID care regimen includes “monoclonal antibodies, Ivermectin, zinc, Vitamin D, Vitamin C” and a bevy of additional vitamins to sustain his body’s immune response.

“I feel pretty incredible,” he said on the second day of his 10-day quarantine.

If Ivermectin sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the anti-parasite treatment commonly given to horses to treat worms. It is absolutely not recommended to treat COVID in humans.

Rodgers is not a horse or cow, but because he doesn’t trust the Johnson & Johnson vaccine developed for humans to treat COVID, he is now taking a vitamin cocktail spiked with Ivermectin.

Ignoring all evidence on the dangers of taking Ivermectin, Rodgers believes the FDA condemnation is purely political.

Rodgers’ other reason for avoiding the vaccine? To avoid the “sterility” it supposedly causes

If his allergen reasoning was not enough of a cause for concern, Rodgers rolled out another debunked reason as to why he doesn’t want to be vaccinated.

According to Rodgers, concerns that the vaccine would make his sterile factored into his decision.

Again, the CDC cited 14 research studies in a statement concluding that the COVID-19 vaccine does not affect fertility in men or women.

Although Rodgers claimed he is not an “anti-vaxxer”, he is using many of the same medically-unfounded, scientifically-debunked claims that anti-vaxxers are using. It remains unclear where Rodgers is getting all of his information, but it certainly isn’t the CDC.

Rodgers invoked MLK’s name as he fights vaccine rules, not Jim Crow laws

For someone concerned about the “woke mob”, Rodgers sure did use arguments currently made by those on the political left for his own purposes.

First, Rodgers tried to apply a phrase that women who are fighting for autonomy over their bodies regarding abortion laws. “My body, my choice” is something women are still fighting for as Texas and other Southern states find loopholes to restrict a woman’s constitutional right to choose.

Rodgers wanted to know about his right to choose — not about a life-altering pregnancy or law-makers forcing him to carry a child he does not want, but about getting the COVID vaccine, which is not legally mandated in the United States or in the NFL.

But the most egregious example of Rodgers invoking progressive thinking was when he quoted Martin Luther King Jr.

“The great MLK said that you have a moral obligation to object to unjust rules and rules that make no sense. In my opinion, it makes no sense… You want me to wear a mask just to shame me that I’m not vaxxed,” Rodgers said.

Here is the actual MLK quote, which is found in his famous 1963 Letter from Birmingham Jail:

“One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”

When MLK wrote that, he was writing from a jail in Birmingham, Alabama, where he was imprisoned for sit-ins against Jim Crow laws that enforced racial segregation.

While King Jr. penned an inspirational letter on the call to fight injustice, it is an insult to his legacy to invoke that quote in a fight for… what, exactly? A desire to avoid judgment for not being vaccinated?

For Rodgers, a multi-millionaire white man who has never faced any law vaguely resembling what MLK faced in 1963 and what Texan women face in 2021, using these quotes to legitimize his arguments is in extremely poor taste.

Rodgers is set to return after his quarantine, but it’s safe to say that after today’s revelations, he will return to the NFL with a drastically different reputation.