Last man standing

For the second time this season, a National Hockey League team has postponed games due to massive COVID-19 outbreaks. Despite undergoing strict testing, quarantine, and vaccination procedures, “breakthrough” cases are rampant throughout the league. As of November 8th, forty-four players and two head coaches had breakthrough cases. Since then, both the Ottawa Senators and now the New York Islanders have had large outbreaks, which means well over seventy players and at least three coaches have been infected since the season began a little over two months ago.

Measuring breakthrough cases in professional sports is significant because there are few other arenas, no pun intended, where fully vaccinated individuals have to test on a regular basis. In many places, on the other hand, unvaccinated people have to test as conditions to work or to go to any sort of large venue. Governments have used these rigorous testing requirements as a hammer against unvaccinated individuals, often rehashing the phrase a “pandemic of the unvaccinated”.

Yet, the prevalence of testing in sports shows the opposite is likely true. The vaccinated are getting the virus at alarming rates and unknowingly spreading it in community settings — in other words, they are happily taking away people’s rights while serving as the perfect vessel for viral spread.

Interestingly, only one player in the NHL has refused to bend the knee to the league’s demands, Tyler Bertuzzi of the Detroit Red Wings.

“Personal choice. Freedom of choice. Life choice.”

Tyler Bertuzzi

For the sin of exercising his free will, he is not allowed to play in Canada, and has forfeited the salary he would have been paid for those games. He has also received widespread criticism from the fans who think he is being selfish. That criticism, selfishness, of course, is ridiculous. We should all be selfish for our own personal health choices as we must face the consequences of them, and the only people demanding others cede autonomy over health decisions are doing so out of similar selfishness. And with every passing day, Bertuzzi is making a mockery of his critics simply by holding to his conscience.

Strangely, it has not dawned on the league or the fans that punishing Bertuzzi is becoming more and more ludicrous as more and more players are infected. I feel like his situation may be a pretty good analogy for another similar situation happening in the world at large, but I can’t quite put my finger on it…