Erickson on Antivax. Analysts Off Air. | Winners & Losers in Today’s Green Room

Conservative radio host Erick Erickson railed against those undermining public faith in vaccines against the coronavirus with misinformation.

During his radio program on Wednesday, Erickson focused on a Wisconsin math professor’s recent look at how at one point more vaccinated people were hospitalized for Covid in Israel than unvaccinated people.

Erickson was concerned that people were seizing on that statistic in order to sow doubt on the efficacy of vaccines, even though the professor — Jordan Ellenberg — has explained how that claim ignores crucial context and statistical data. Namely, that vaccination rates are very high in Israel, so there will be very few unvaccinated people in hospitals.

“I need you to understand something important: there is an organized effort to undermine trust in the vaccines. I personally find it to be a deeply evil thing,” Erickson said. “I know that offends some of you… And because some of you are doing it, you’re offended at me saying it, but you are involved in a sin, and you don’t care.”

Erickson spoke of a relative of his who recently died of Covid, despite being young, healthy, and with no comorbidities, after buying into vaccine misinformation. He talked about overwhelmed hospitals and misunderstood data points. “The problem is there are a lot of people out there who really are willfully trying to undermine trust in the vaccine,” he said. “They’re willfully lying, willfully distorting data, they’re willfully highlighting parts of information and leaving out the full picture.

“I’m trying to be diplomatic here but it’s pissing me off,” the conservative talker said in an epic rant that today’s Media Losers would do well to give a listen.

Star MLB Network analysts Hall-of-Famer John Smoltz and former All-Star Al Leiter will no longer appear in studio after refusing to get vaccinated against Covid-19.

The network reportedly issued a mandate earlier this year for all employees to receive the vaccine, which Smoltz and Leiter refused. According to Andrew Marchand of the New York Post, Smoltz and Leiter will continue contributing to the network remotely, despite not being allowed in their Secaucus, NJ studios.

Smoltz is still scheduled to provide game analysis for a division series on MLB Network during the playoffs. It’s not clear whether that will be done remotely or in a stadium booth next to his likely vaccinated play-by-play partner. The 54-year-old Smoltz is also lead analyst for baseball coverage on Fox, but the network is unaffiliated with MLB and has its own set of protocols.

In March, Leiter joined former Yankee CC Sabathia and then-New York Governor Andrew Cuomo for a Covid-19 briefing to announce fans would be allowed to attend Mets and Yankees games this season. Leiter did not discuss the vaccine or comment on the pandemic during his appearance.

It’s also fair to question the future of both Smoltz and Leiter with MLB Network. Considering the rate at which Covid is currently spreading throughout the country, MLB Network is unlikely to drop their vaccine mandate by the start of next season. Although they could continue with some remote work, it’s definitely not a career plus.

More importantly, it singles them out on a national issue that has major implications in sports, and which has, as Erick Erickson noted in his Media Winner rant, can have deadly consequences.

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