Cardinals getting vaccinated

[CardsofSTL]

Only takes 5 players from a 30 man roster (do they still have expanded rosters this season? I haven't paid enough attention) to not reach 85%. Not too hard to find 10 hardcore GOP'ers on any given team, half of whom refuse to get vaccinated.

26 players, plus staff

[JoeMcKim]

Only takes 5 players from a 30 man roster (do they still have expanded rosters this season? I haven't paid enough attention) to not reach 85%. Not too hard to find 10 hardcore GOP'ers on any given team, half of whom refuse to get vaccinated.

Well considering that a lot of players last season got COVID they might already have a good amount of antibodies in their system that a vaccine for them is unnecessary.

[Popeye_Card]

Only takes 5 players from a 30 man roster (do they still have expanded rosters this season? I haven't paid enough attention) to not reach 85%. Not too hard to find 10 hardcore GOP'ers on any given team, half of whom refuse to get vaccinated.

26 players, plus staff

Ok, well let’s call it 40 on the high end including staff. Would only need to find 6 not willing to get it. Given that baseball teams likely skew a bit conservative, it would not be too hard to get there for most teams.

[CardsofSTL]

Only takes 5 players from a 30 man roster (do they still have expanded rosters this season? I haven't paid enough attention) to not reach 85%. Not too hard to find 10 hardcore GOP'ers on any given team, half of whom refuse to get vaccinated.

26 players, plus staff

Ok, well let’s call it 40 on the high end including staff. Would only need to find 6 not willing to get it. Given that baseball teams likely skew a bit conservative, it would not be too hard to get there for most teams.

True. Could be difficult for many teams as long as it's voluntary.

[Radbird]

Why didn’t they do this sooner than right before opening day?

[CardsofSTL]

Why didn’t they do this sooner than right before opening day?

Supply? I would have to think 20-something athletes were not high on the priority list for the vaccinations; unless they had underlying medical conditions (Jordan Hicks for example).

[heyzeus]

Why didn’t they do this sooner than right before opening day?

My guess is optics. A number of states only opened vaccination up to all ages this week. It would've looked bad to announce player vaccinations before now. I'll go a step further: Many players were vaccinated quietly weeks or months ago. In a ruthlessly competitive field where one injury or down season might mean the difference between a starting job and a multi-million dollar payday and going back to stocking groceries, why would a player not get vaccinated as soon as possible?

Same incentives are there from the owner's angle - you've committed something like $200 mil in salary to 40 humans this year alone, your entire product is based on the physical talents of those humans, and as of 4 months ago there's a magic shot that makes it incredibly unlikely those humans will miss time and performance from a pandemic? The teams no doubt have quietly encouraged vaccinations.

[obucard]

[CardsofSTL]

mmm love those loosened protocols.

[Jocephus]