final draft Essay Unit 3

          The covid vaccine has helped and saved millions of people around the world but some people have still chosen not to take the covid vaccine and one of these people is Kyrie Irving, Kyrie Irving is an American professional basketball player for the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association. Kyrie Irving has many of his reasons for not taking the vaccine but him not taking the vaccine has been affecting his image and his team the Brooklyn nets. Kyrie’s recent actions have also been encouraging others to not get the vaccine.

          One of Kyrie Irving’s reasons for not taking the covid vaccine is because he believes that people shouldn’t have to be forced to take the vaccine and they shouldn’t lose their jobs for not taking the vaccine. Even though what Kyrie Irving states is true that people have been losing their jobs for not taking the vaccine this shouldn’t mean that he should not take the vaccine, because him not taking the vaccine affects the NBA  and it also affects the people that follow him and listen to him which can lead to these people to not taking the vaccine. Kyrie Irving also states that he has no plan on taking the vaccine anytime soon and he doesn’t plan on retiring and he hopes he can go back to the NBA and play basketball again.

          In the U.S there have been millions of people who have refused to get vaccinated but there have also been people who have lost their jobs because they have refused to get vaccinated. An article from the new york time called “Their Jobs Made Them Get Vaccinated. They Refused”. States “Josephine Valdez, 30, a public school paraprofessional from the Bronx, did not. Failing to meet the New York City Education Department’s vaccination deadline, Ms. Valdez lost her job this month. She is among the 4 percent of the city’s roughly 150,000 public school employees who did not comply with the order”. This quote from the article shows how much people have lost their jobs because of their refusal to get vaccinated.  This was one of Kyrie Irving’s reasons for not getting the vaccine, his belief that people shouldn’t lose their job because they refuse to get vaccinated but if Kyrie doesn’t tell people like his fans that they should get the vaccine then people may think the vaccine is bad and people will continue to lose their jobs and get sick from covid and can possibly die because of his actions.

       Kyrie Irving is known for being a controversial person in the NBA. In the past kyrie Irving has said crazy stuff for example back in 2017 Kyrie Irving stated that he believed that the Earth was flat and stated that there was no real evidence to prove that the earth was round but later on that year kyrie apologized for his comments on the flat earth topic which made him realize his actions and what he was saying. What I am trying to say is that Kyrie Irving is a huge athlete with millions of fans and his fans look up to him so whenever Kyrie Irving says something controversial or does something his fans will be the ones seeing it happen and they will be influenced by whatever negative or positive action he does.

         In conclusion, Kyrie Irving has to take responsibility for the actions he causes and realizes sometimes he can be wrong because Kyrie Irving has a huge audience and him not taking the vaccine is encouraging others it is ok to not take the vaccine when in reality the only thing the vaccine has done is help people and save millions of lives. According to scientists the covid vaccine has saved 279,000 lives and has prevented 1.25million hospitalizations, the covid vaccine is also safe and effective. So When big influencers or celebrities like Kyrie Irving refuse to take the vaccine and give reasons like they don’t trust it or it’s what’s best for them, it spreads false information, and this is why kyrie is in the wrong.

Azi Paybarah “The Brooklyn Nets’ Kyrie Irving defends his decision not to get vaccinated.”New York Times. October 27, 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/13/world/kyrie-irving-vaccine-benched-nets.html

Scott Cacciola and Jonathan Abrams “Nets Bar Kyrie Irving From All Games Until He’s Vaccinated” New york times Oct 12, 2021

Michael Greenwood “U.S. vaccination campaign prevented up to 279,000 COVID-19 deaths” July 8, 2021