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Unlike their vocal support for issues like Black Lives Matter, some of the biggest stars in the NBA are reluctant to participate in public campaigns to promote the Covid-19 vaccination, according to reports.
ESPN cites sources as saying many elite basketball stars fear adding their names to league-sponsored public service campaigns to promote the safety and effectiveness of vaccination against a virus that has caused nearly half a million lives in the United States.
According to the popular American sports media report, factors involved in some players’ reservations include uncertainty about taking the vaccine themselves and reluctance to help the NBA amid criticism of this year’s plans for a star match.
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The apparent reluctance comes despite the NBA’s work to educate teams on the vaccine’s effectiveness, as well as public service announcements already underway with basketball icon Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and coach of the San Antonio Spurs, Gregg Popovich.
U.S. reports show black Americans have been vaccinated at significantly lower rates than the white population, for issues that include accessibility and disparities in health care, but also higher levels of mistrust within of the black community.
Some believe that more visible and vocal public support from the stars of the NBA – where a large majority of players are African-Americans – could help solve this problem.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has previously said that “in the African-American community there has been an extremely disparate impact of Covid … but now, a little perversely, there has been enormous resistance [to vaccinations] in the African American community for understandable historical reasons. “
“If this resistance continues, it would be a double whammy for the black community, because the only way out of this pandemic is to get vaccinated.”
The apparent reluctance of big NBA stars to go public with vaccine promotion contrasts with their vocal activism on issues such as Black Lives Matter.
In December, the current biggest name in basketball, LA Lakers star LeBron James, was urged by US Surgeon General Jerome Adams to publicly take the Pfizer anti-Covid vaccine because “we want to make sure people understand that this is how we end the pandemic. “
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NBA chief Silver said this week the league won’t “Skip the line” before the general public for players to get vaccinated, but added that stars could start receiving doses from the end of March.
The latest reports indicate that more than 57 million doses of the vaccine have been administered in the United States, reaching just over 12 percent of the population.
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