Injured New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers on Tuesday challenged Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce to a vaccine debate, proposing that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Dr. Anthony Fauci act as seconds. (Watch the video below.)
“That’d be big ratings,” said Rodgers, a vaccine skeptic who grabbed headlines a few years ago for spreading misinformation about the COVID-19 jab and intentionally misleading the public about his immunization status.
He’s got time on is hands now that he’s out with a torn Achilles tendon and he used it on ESPN’s “The Pat McAfee Show” to hype a possible showdown.
“Mr. Pfizer said he didn’t think he’d be in a vax war with me,” Rodgers said, referencing the nickname he gave Kelce for promoting immunization in a recent ad by the drugmaker.
“But if you want to have some sort of duel, debate, have me on the podcast. Come on the show! Let’s have a conversation. Let’s do it like in ‘John Wick [Chapter] 4,’ so we both have a second — somebody to help us out. I’m going to take my man RFK Jr. ... and he can have Tony Fauci or some other pharmacrat.”
While the participation of RFK Jr., a prominent anti-vaccine activist who’s now running for president as an independent , and Fauci, the former White House pandemic adviser, would seem far-fetched, a smiling Rodgers looked somewhat serious about holding the event.
After Rodgers debuted the “Mr. Pfizer” moniker recently, Kelce fired back .
“Who knew I’d get into vax wars with Aaron Rodgers, man? Mr. Pfizer versus the Johnson & Johnson family over there,” the tight end said in a reference to Jets owner Woody Johnson, whose family’s Johnson & Johnson company has also manufactured a COVID-19 vaccine.
For the record, the vaccines are safe and effective , both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization assure .
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