“They let Magic Johnson play with HIV but won’t let Kyrie Irving play because he won’t get a COVID shot”: Republican Congressional candidate from Florida makes whopping false equivalence to push against nationwide vaccine mandate

It seems that Kyrie Irving and Magic Johnson are mere props for the Republican Party to use to prop up whatever illogical argument they think up.

The vaccine mandate that has come into effect in some of the USA’s largest metropolitan areas has met with stiff resistance. New York and the Bay Area passed these resolutions, causing teams like the Warriors and Brooklyn Nets a few headaches.

Andrew Wiggins, Bradley Beal, Jonathan Isaac and most notably Kyrie Irving emerged as 4 prominent NBA players who’re unvaccinated. Wiggins eventually gave in to financial pressures and took the vaccine dose at the start of this month.

Bradley Beal has been in action for the Washington Wizards, meanwhile, but Jonathan Isaac is out with injury concerns. Kyrie, who was set to miss 41 home games by default, has now been disbarred from team activities by Nets GM Sean Marks.

This marks a stringent step by the Joe Tsai-owned franchise, whose patience with their mercurial star appears to be wearing thin. Kyrie Irving being unpredictable was a part of the reason Tsai pushed for a James Harden trade this January.

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As things stand, Irving will stay out of action until the time he chooses to take the vaccine. However, this announcement was shortly followed by the news that New York City shall be allowing religious exemptions.

JUST IN: New York must allow religious exemptions to COVID-19 vaccine mandate, judge rules – Reuters.

— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) October 12, 2021

Kyrie, a practicing Muslim, could cite this as his get-out-of-inaction card.

Republican politician uses Magic Johnson example to makes whopping false equivalence against Kyrie Irving ban

Lavern Spicer ran as the Republican Party’s congressional candidate for the 24th district in Florida last November. She lost the election as a strong anti-Donald Trump wave hampered the Reds’ electoral chances in several states.

This didn’t prevent her from crossing over to the publicly anti-vax camp – a trend followed by several Republicans. And she put out a problematic tweet relating the Kyrie Irving situation to Magic Johnson returning as a Laker in 1995:

They let Magic Johnson play basketball with FULL-BLOWN HIV but won’t let Kyrie Irving play because he won’t get a COVID shot.

— Lavern Spicer (@lavern_spicer) October 12, 2021

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Spicer conveniently glossed over the different natures of the spread of the HIV virus and the Covid viruses here. This is also something that some American politicians seem to wear as badges of honor – science denialism.

The vaccine mandate exists in order to relieve the nation’s hospitals from an ICU, ventilator crisis. They are not micro-chipping billions of people across the planet in order to do so.

It pains me to have to write all of this, but such are our tumultuous times.