Charles Barkley said he thinks it should be mandatory for professional athletes to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
“This COVID thing is a real thing.” the 58-year-old sports analyst shared with Alabama.com in a piece published Friday. “Obviously you’ve got a ton of people dying. You’ve got a ton of people who have lost their livelihoods — their houses, their businesses.” (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)
“The only way we’re going to get this thing under control is to get the vaccine,” he added, saying he’s asking people to “take care of themselves, their fellow man and women — and more importantly — kids.”
Charles Barkley to attend COVID-19 vaccine rally in Birminghamhttps://t.co/BBqWiNWp1V
— ABC 33/40 News (@abc3340) August 20, 2021
“This thing ain’t just about you as an individual,” Barkley continued. “People come up to me all the time, want to get an autograph and take a picture. I don’t know if I would ever forgive myself if I got somebody’s kid sick or some adult sick. That’s why I think you should take the vaccination.” (RELATED: ‘The Only People Who Are Not Vaccinated Are Just A**holes’: Charles Barkley Slams The Unvaccinated)
He continued, explaining why he thinks it should be mandatory for professional athletes.
“A lot of people have lost jobs, money and businesses, but there’s not a single jock who hasn’t gotten a paycheck in the last two years,” the TV analyst shared. “Think about that. All these businesses are ruined. People are losing their houses. They’re losing their livelihoods. So I think it should be mandatory if you play pro sports because we have been pretty much unaffected financially.”
Two of the three vaccines approved by the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use (Pfizer and Moderna) have been demonstrated to have more than 90% efficacy against COVID-19, Yale Medicine noted. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been found to have 72% overall efficacy.