Last man standing, part 2

A few weeks ago, I discussed the lightning quick spread of the virus throughout the National Hockey League. At the time, I estimated around 70 players, or around 10% of the league, had been infected by the virus only two months into the season. Only one player, Tyler Bertuzzi, remained unvaccinated. Since then, Bertuzzi has been infected, and the vaccine enthusiasts jumped for joy as, being a population of 1, that means their vaccine is highly effective!

Well, Bertuzzi has returned to the ice, unfazed. He now has better immunity than many players in the league, but will remain unable to play in Canada. If he was making a mockery of the league while all those around him fell sick, he now represents the disgusting double-standards of the world’s pandemic response. Skating proof that everything is about the virus; except the virus. The virus is about power.

Bertuzzi was not alone in the last few weeks. Many others became infected. A third team postponed games due to an outbreak. These outbreaks did not happen in the backdrop of the omicron variant; Canada and the United States have hardly been touched thus far. No, the outbreaks occurred with the variants that the vaccine is supposed to be “highly" effective against. The truth may be more sinister than that.

We are, in a way, blessed to be able to view examples of the same group of highly people being tested daily for the virus. Daily testing amongst the vaccinated is something we have not seen elsewhere and, in fact, was not even close to attempted in the vaccine trials. Considering tests are cheap in the grand scale of things, the vaccines were funded by taxpayers in many countries, the pharmaceutical companies stand to make billions upon billions in profits, you would think they could pay for 40,000 tests a day? Then maybe we would know how effective these vaccines truly are instead of playing guesswork. But since we must guess, massive COVID-19 outbreaks in the NBA¹, NHL, and NFL — places that are testing regularly for all players and staff, is not a good look for the vaccine manufacturers.

Now, in the wake of the Prime Minister of Canada calling a closed meeting with his Premiers to discuss banning foreign nationals from entering the country or Canadians leaving it (something they have already done for unvaccinated serfs), it may be a good time to do a full accounting of the NHL COVID protocol list in case the league ends up in limbo. More likely, they will be given exemptions because everyone knows the NHL does not have foreign nationals, but let’s pretend the rules will be consistent.

Here is the full list of the 119 NHL players that have entered COVID protocol this season:

• Adam Pelech

• Adam Ruzicka

• Alex Formenton

• Anders Lee

• Andreas Athanasiou

• Andrei Svechnikov

• Andrew Cogliano

• Andrew Ladd

• Andrew Mangiapane

• Andy Greene

• Anthony Beauvillier

• Austin Watson

• Blake Lizotte

• Blake Wheeler

• Brad Marchand

• Brad Richardson

• Brandon Saad

• Brendan Gallagher

• Brendan Lemieux

• Brett Howden

• Brett Pesce

• Brian Dumoulin

• Casey Cizikas

• Chad Ruhwedel

• Chad Ruhwedel

• Christian Jaros

• Christopher Tanev

• Cody Ceci

• Colin Blackwell

• Craig Smith

• Danny DeKeyser

• David Rittich

• Devon Toews

• Dillon Heatherington

• Drake Batherson

• Dylan Gambrell

• Dylan Larkin

• Elias Lindholm

• Erik Karlsson

• Frederick Gaudreau

• Gabriel Vilardi

• Garnet Hathaway

• Greg McKegg

• Henrik Borgstrom

• Ian Cole

• Isaak Phillips

• Jacob Middleton

• Jake Guentzel

• Jakob Silfverberg

• Jani Hakanpaa

• Jared McCann

• Jeff Carter

• Johan Larsson

• Jonathan Dahlen

• Jonathan Marchessault

• Jonathan Toews

• Joonas Donskoi

• Jordan Binnington

• Jordan Staal

• Josh Bailey

• Josh Brown

• Juho Lammikko

• Justin Faulk

• Kevin Leblanc

• Kieffer Bellows

• Kris Letang

• Kyle Clifford

• Lars Eller

• Luke Schenn

• Marc Staal

• Marc-Edouard Vlasic

• Marcus Pettersson

• Mark Giordano

• Mark Scheifele

• Mathew Barzal

• Mats Zuccarello

• Matt Murray

• Max Domi

• Michael Amadio

• Michael Stone

• Mika Zibanejad

• Milan Lucic

• Nic Dowd

• Nick Holden

• Nico Hischier

• Nikita Zadorov

• Nikita Zaitsev

• Niko Mikkola

• Noah Hanafin

• Patrick Brown

• Radim Simek

• Rem Pitlick

• Riley Sheahan

• Riley Stillman

• Ross Johnston

• Ryan Graves

• Ryan Johansen

• Ryan Lomberg

• Ryan McLeod

• Ryan O’Reily

• Ryan Strome

• Sami Niku

• Sean Monahan

• Sebastian Aho

• Seth Jarvis

• Steven Lorentz

• Timo Meier

• Tony DeAngelo

• Torey Krug

• Trevor van Riemsdyk

• Tristan Jarry

• Tyler Bertuzzi

• Tyler Bozak

• Victor Mete

• Viktor Arvidsson

• Ville Husso

• Yanni Gourde

• Zach Aston-Reese

• Zdeno Chara

Furthermore, here is a list of the players that have had an “undisclosed” illness. Not all of these players were infected, of course, but many of the players on the COVID protocol started off on the illness list. And many of these illnesses occurred at the same time their team mates had the virus.

The 45 NHL players that had undisclosed illnesses:

• Alexander Radulov

• Andrej Sekera

• Anton Forsberg

• Brandon Sutter

• Brayden Holtby

• Caleb Jones

• Carl Hagelin

• Charlie Coyle

• Charlie McAvoy

• Connor Hellebuyck

• Denis Gurianov

• Elvis Merzlikins

• Ethan Bear

• Frederik Andersen

• Gustav Forsling

• Jakub Voracek

• James Reimer

• Jean-Gabriel Pageau

• John Gibson

• John Klingberg

• Jonas Johansson

• Joonas Korpisalo

• Josh Anderson

• Jujhar Khaira

• Justin Holl

• Juuse Saros

• Linus Ullmark

• Logan Couture

• Martin Necas

• Matt Dumba

• Matt Grzelcyk

• Mattias Ekholm

• Max Jones

• Michael Raffl

• Mike Hardman

• Nick Ritchie

• Nikolaj Ehlers

• Nils Lundkvist

• Oliver Ekman-Larsson

• Radek Faksa

• Roope Hintz

• Scott Perunovich

• Tomas Nosek

• Troy Terry

• Yegor Sharangovich

A pandemic of the unvaccinated, indeed.

1. 60% of whom already have boosters, by the way.