Rant #2,859: Money Changes Everything

Once again, proving that protocols in place during the pandemic do not go “by the science” as many say, but by who can make a profit off of them, New York City’s lattest decision about home athletes that are not inoculated against the virus rings of “k-ching, k-ching,” and nothing else.
 
New York City Mayor Eric Adams is supposed to make the announcement today that players on home teams based in New York City, and entertainers who come to the city to perform, are exempt from the "vaccination" mandate, that basically says that those who work in the city, and who come into contact with at least one other person, must have either the two-shot Moderna or Pfizer shots or the one-dose Johnson & Johnson shot in order to keep their jobs.
 
Due to this mandate, thousands of city workers who refused to get their shots were fired from their jobs, could not collect unemployment, and basically gave up their careers because they would not get the shot(s).
 
Fine and good. I personally thought these people were imbeciles for giving up all of their hard work because they refused to get the shots, and I still feel that way.
 
However, a major monkey wrench has been thrown into that thinking--and my thinking too-- with the mayor’s impending announcement.
 
Now, home team athletes—those from the Knicks, Nets, Yankees, Mets, Rangers and the soccer teams that call the city home—are going to be exempt from this idiotic mandate, which has been idiotic from the get go simply because it allowed players from teams outside the city who were not inoculated to play in New York City arenas.
 
So, if you played for, let’s say, the Boston Celtics, and your team came into Madison Square Garden or Barclays Center to play, and you were not inoculated, you could play in those arenas, but the Brooklyn Nets’ Kyrie Irving—the poster boy for the complete imbecility of this mandate-and the true selfishness of these players—could not play because he didn’t get his shot(s).
 
The mandate made no sense, but I am sure it made even less sense to your police, fire and hospital workers who refused to get the shots and lost their jobs in the process.
 
Irving never lost his job, he simply lost the ability to play in New York City arenas, so he wasn’t unemployed, he still brought home a paycheck, and was still a part of the Brooklyn Nets organization even though his stance completely fouled up the organization this season as it maneuvered to cover for him while he wasn’t able to play versus when he was able to play while on the road.
 
Adams’ ruling not only is not “for the science” and completely “for the green,” but it dovetails into two important sports happenings where the city can make lots of money with all of its star athletes able to compete.
 
The NBA is ready to dovetail from its regular season to its playoff season, and the Nets—although they have faltered this season with Irving in and out of the lineup—are probably going to the playoffs.
 
This means that with Irving not having to worry about the mandate anymore, he can play in not only the very important final games of the regular season, he can play in all of the playoff games, games that bring plenty of money into New York City coffers.
 
And let’s not forget that the baseball season begins in early April, and reports are that there were several players on the New York Yankees and New York Mets who never got their shots, including some big names.
 
So without the exemption, these players would not be able to play in Yankee Stadium or CitiField, and yes, the more fannies in the seats bring more cash into New York City.
 
What is even worse about this thing is that Adams—unlike several of his predecessors—is an unabashed sports fan, and is a big fan of the Nets and the Mets.
 
His mandate exemption allows Irving to play, and allows many Mets—one of the few teams in baseball last year that did not reach the minimum 75 percent level of "vaccinated" players and personnel that the league asked its teams for—to play without getting their shots.
 
None of these athletes lost their jobs and their livelihoods because they did not get their shots, so once again, we are putting the rich and famous on a pedestal above us common folk, and it is just so wrong, a true money grab that goes against every supposed scientific principle that we are using to measure the pandemic.
 
And let me tell you, if I was a New York City worker who lost my job because I did not get my shot(s), I would be calling my lawyer today and suing the city to get my job back, with full back pay and other money to placate me in the months since I lost my job.
 
You can bet that the unions covering these workers will be looking into what they legal avenues are, I will bet that there will be plenty of lawsuits covering just about everyone who lost their job because of this, simply because why are athletes and entertainers put on a pedestal versus the real heroes of the pandemic, such as hospital workers and cops?
 
Why are athletes and entertainers thought to be more important than these people, which is basically what Adams is saying related to the enforcement of the mandate, which was an idiotic mandate to begin with?
 
Adams has previously stated that whatever happens with this mandate, the fired workers would not be rehired, because he believes they left their jobs themselves by not getting the shots—in other words, it was their decision to not get the shots, so it was their decision to lose their jobs.
 
I am sure that if Adams goes through with this, he will have reporter after reporter asking him what he would say to the common folk who lost their jobs because they refused to get their shots.
 
And for once, this very talkative mayor might just go mum for that moment, because even he will not admit to the real answer to this question—
 
“K-ching, K-ching.”