Buffalo Bills could be among least covid-19 vaccinated teams

[Big Turk]

Apparently the Bills are one of the 4 teams under 89% vaccinated... competitive disadvantage.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/only-four-nfl-teams-below-163258591.html

[DrDawkinstein]

1 hour ago, Big Turk said:

Apparently the Bills are one of the 4 teams under 89% vaccinated... competitive disadvantage.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/only-four-nfl-teams-below-163258591.html

 

Are you piecing that together from Beane's comment that we are "just above 80%"? Because that article doesn't seem to name the teams (unless I missed it).

 

Not sure if this question/post is against the rules. Just trying to clarify the info.

 

 

Edited August 25, 2021 by DrDawkinstein

[HOUSE]

Buffalo Bills could be among least COVID-19 vaccinated teams

 

https://billswire.usatoday.com/2021/08/25/buffalo-bills-least-covid-19-vaccinated-teams-cole-beasley/

[IgotBILLStopay]

7 minutes ago, HOUSE said:

Buffalo Bills could be among least COVID-19 vaccinated teams

 

https://billswire.usatoday.com/2021/08/25/buffalo-bills-least-covid-19-vaccinated-teams-cole-beasley/

I am borderline alarmed. After the Ryan Succoup dinner incident, Bruce Arians instituted his own protocols which are more stringent than those mandated by the NFL. 

 

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/32084225/bruce-arians-implementing-own-covid-19-rules-tampa-bay-buccaneers-road-trips

 

Quote

"For us, life is not normal," Arians said. "We're pretty much under the same protocols -- we're going to be under the same protocols as last year. Because that's the way it is, especially living here. Tennessee coming in and going out to dinner -- they found out the hard way. So did Ryan. You can only tell them so much. Once we get to 53 -- even this weekend -- our guys are going to make a bunch of sacrifices that you have to make now. Families at the hotel, all those things -- they're all out the window."

 

I think the Bills should follow suit especially given their low vaccination rates. Forget who is vaccinated and who is not. No more family outings etc. Go back to 2020 protocols.

Edited August 25, 2021 by IgotBILLStopay

[Buffalo716]

16 minutes ago, IgotBILLStopay said:

I am borderline alarmed. After the Ryan Succoup dinner incident, Bruce Arians instituted his own protocols which are more stringent than those mandated by the NFL. 

 

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/32084225/bruce-arians-implementing-own-covid-19-rules-tampa-bay-buccaneers-road-trips

 

 

I think the Bills should follow suit especially given their low vaccination rates. Forget who is vaccinated and who is not. No more family outings etc. Go back to 2020 protocols.

80+% is a low percentage? 

 

40% would be low

[Hapless Bills Fan]

1 hour ago, DrDawkinstein said:

 

Are you piecing that together from Beane's comment that we are "just above 80%"? Because that article doesn't seem to name the teams (unless I missed it).

 

Not sure if this question/post is against the rules. Just trying to clarify the info.

 

Of the thread where it and some other posts wound up yes

Now that it's got its own place, No

 

Yes, at least I did the same math that @Big Turk did: 

-4 teams in the NFL are under 89%

-Beane sez the Bills are just over 80% or maybe a little less after the cuts

-Therefore the Bills are one of the 4 teams in the NFL that are under 89%

 

It has to be very frustrating for Beane.  I thought he kind of looked defeated, in that press conference.

 

4 minutes ago, Buffalo716 said:

80+% is a low percentage? 

 

40% would be low

 

Apparently one of the 4 lowest in the league at ~79-80% and going to get lower when we're cut down to 53

It's not just the % it's apparently who that % is: Butler, Lotulelei, Poyer, Boettger, Beasley, Davis, probably Allen - a lot of core starters.

 

[Buffalo716]

6 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

Of the thread where it and some other posts wound up yes

Now that it's got its own place, No

 

Yes, at least I did the same math that @Big Turk did: 

-4 teams in the NFL are under 89%

-Beane sez the Bills are just over 80% or maybe a little less after the cuts

-Therefore the Bills are one of the 4 teams in the NFL that are under 89%

 

It has to be very frustrating for Beane.  I thought he kind of looked defeated, in that press conference.

 

 

Apparently one of the 4 lowest in the league at ~79-80% and going to get lower when we're cut down to 53

It's not just the % it's apparently who that % is: Butler, Lotulelei, Poyer, Boettger, Beasley, Davis, probably Allen - a lot of core starters.

 

Are those players all 100% not vaccinated

[TEC]

Diggs said it best:

 

Accountability .... Availability 

[Patrick Duffy]

It could go up a little maybe. I saw many people were waiting for the FDA approval. With that said, many also have had their mind made up long ago if they weren't getting it regardless. So hope that number goes up at least a little bit.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

37 minutes ago, IgotBILLStopay said:

I am borderline alarmed. After the Ryan Succoup dinner incident, Bruce Arians instituted his own protocols which are more stringent than those mandated by the NFL. 

 

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/32084225/bruce-arians-implementing-own-covid-19-rules-tampa-bay-buccaneers-road-trips

 

 

I think the Bills should follow suit especially given their low vaccination rates. Forget who is vaccinated and who is not. No more family outings etc. Go back to 2020 protocols.

 

I think Beane is beyond alarmed and off into "large cold knot in the pit of his stomach"

 

I don't think they have to go back to the 2020 protocols exactly.

 

Things I would like the Bills to do:

1) Test vaccinated staff and players more often.  Daily may not be necessary but every 2-4 days, adapted for risk factors.

2) Everybody masks indoors unless 6 feet away for meals

3) Staff providing close interaction such as therapeutic massage or rehabilitation treatment mask and shield

4) Request that all staff and players ask visiting family to isolate and test first (vaccinated or not)

5) Sauna Yes, hot tub No

 

[HOUSE]

We are doomed

[Victory Formation]

Well, unfortunately the virus can be passed along by people who are vaccinated, but the main problem are unvaccinated players may face is that their symptoms will be more severe if they get COVID. It’s a personal decision, I refuse to judge someone if they did or didn’t get it. I’m hoping this darn thing doesn’t mutate again.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

19 minutes ago, Buffalo716 said:

Are those players all 100% not vaccinated

 

Butler, Lotulelei, Beasley, and Davis are not vaccinated (or not fully vaccinated yet) because they are following the NFL's protocol for unvaccinated players who have close contact with a positive case.

 

I am making a high probability assumption about Poyer because of his wife's outspoken views and also because of a DM exchange I had with him on Instagram (all very polite and civilized disagreement, very nice guy).

 

I am making an inference about Allen and Boettger because usually when someone is asked whether they're jabbed, if they say "I'm going to keep that private", they mean "No"; if they are, they just say so.

[Process]

Absolutely ridiculous for a SB contending team. Wish McDermott would speak up more about it like Rivera and Zimmer.

 

We know for sure the following are not vaccinated. 

 

Star

Beasley

Butler

Milano

Klein

Davis

 

Safe to assume Poyer and Hyde are not. 

 

And those are just the ones we know. That's a lot of players that are expected to have a big impact that will likely be missing games at some point. 

[Bad Things]

I'm going to be bloody PO'd if these unvaccinated players mess up our season.

[Doc Brown]

With it FDA approved the NFL should just mandate current nonvaccinated players under contract should get the pfizer vaccine or you're banned for life with no pension.  I'm sick of this.

[Buffalo716]

Nobody on our team was vaccinated last season and we got by following the protocols fine

 

Unvaccinated players didn't mess up our season last year... If McDermott has them follow strict protocol we should be fine

7 hours ago, Doc Brown said:

With it FDA approved the NFL should just mandate current nonvaccinated players under contract should get the pfizer vaccine or you're banned for life with no pension.  I'm sick of this.

If it's not in the contract they probably can't do that

Edited August 26, 2021 by Buffalo716

[billsbackto81]

Something tells me Covid is going to bring new meaning to the term  "healthy scratch" this season.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

8 minutes ago, Process said:

Absolutely ridiculous for a SB contending team. Wish McDermott would speak up more about it like Rivera and Zimmer.

 

We know for sure the following are not vaccinated. 

 

Star

Beasley

Butler

Milano

Klein

Davis

 

Safe to assume Poyer and Hyde are not. 

 

And those are just the ones we know. That's a lot of players that are expected to have a big impact that will likely be missing games at some point. 

 

We don't know that about Milano and Klein.  They are back today.  Two people in the Shoutbox today said that in an interview over the summer, Milano said he was vaxxed.  Don't know that about Hyde either; he and Poyer are different guys with different wives.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

8 minutes ago, Doc Brown said:

With it FDA approved the NFL should just mandate current nonvaccinated players under contract should get the pfizer vaccine or you're banned for life with no pension.  I'm sick of this.

 

They can not do that. 

 

The NFL players are represented by a union, and any change to their conditions of employment must be collectively bargained with the union. 

 

That's the way it is.

 

8 minutes ago, Buffalo716 said:

Nobody on our team was vaccinated last season and we got by following the protocols fine

Unvaccinated players didn't mess up our season last year

 

That was Then, this is Now.

Behavior of predominant viral variant is different.

NFL Protocols are different (and based on data about last year's viral variant)

 

I believe that the NFL will make changes, I'm just unclear that they will do so in a timely fashion vs. AFTER 1-2 teams have outbreaks.

 

They made changes last year, but it was AFTER outbreaks.

 

 

 

 

 

[Ya Digg?]

So if/when a team has to forfeit a game this year, what do you think the players will be more upset at their teammates for? The fact that they have to lose a game or lose a game check?

[Buffalo716]

3 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

They can not do that. 

 

The NFL players are represented by a union, and any change to their conditions of employment must be collectively bargained with the union.  There was an opt-out date which is passed; any change at this point would be unlikely.

 

That's the way it is.

 

That was last year, this is this year.

Protocols are different.

Behavior of virus is different

 

I believe that the NFL will make changes, I'm just unclear that they will do so in a timely fashion vs. AFTER 1-2 teams have outbreaks.

 

They made changes last year, but it was AFTER outbreaks.

 

 

 

 

 

If the bills follow the same protocols that they did last year they should be fine

 

Vaccinated players have gotten covid so everybody's at some risk  

 

The bills isolated themselves fine last year.. if they did the same exact thing everything should be good.. should

[Hapless Bills Fan]

1 minute ago, Buffalo716 said:

If the bills follow the same protocols that they did last year they should be fine

 

Vaccinated players have gotten covid so everybody's at some risk  

 

The bills isolated themselves fine last year.. if they did the same exact thing everything should be good.. should

 

If the Bills do what Arians has said the Bucs will do, and voluntarily follow more stringent team rules vs. the NFL protocols, I agree with you.

 

I don't know if the Bills players and personnel are going to be asked do that, or to agree to do that.

[Buffalo716]

Just now, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

If the Bills do what Arians has said the Bucs will do, and voluntarily follow more stringent team rules vs. the NFL protocols, I agree.

You just have To get the team to voluntarily agree

[Hapless Bills Fan]

1 minute ago, Buffalo716 said:

You just have To get the team to voluntarily agree

 

That might be harder than one thinks.  For example, players who got vaccinated in part because they didn't want to drive to the facility and get a swab stuck in their nose first thing every day, or because they want to be able to walk around the locker room unmasked, may not want to voluntarily revert to last year's rules.

[Doc Brown]

3 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

They can not do that. 

 

The NFL players are represented by a union, and any change to their conditions of employment must be collectively bargained with the union.  There was an opt-out date which is passed; any change at this point would be unlikely.

 

That's the way it is.

It would be nice if the union gets some guts and points out how unvaccinated players could cost vaccinated players game checks.  I won't comment any further.

[YoloinOhio]

Lets see who wins the  vax championship after all teams are at 53 next week. 

 

Edited August 25, 2021 by YoloinOhio

[Rc2catch]

It’s the players careers here. They have access to some of the best doctors in the world and unlimited information on this stuff. If we have guys who feel this strongly still not to participate in the vaccine yet, you should point some of your anger at the league and players union. 
I can see some posters already turning  this thread off the rails venturing into non football stuff. 
But I find it concerning seeing players labeled as selfish among other things and the concern over games missed, it’s not our lives. We all get to make our own choices and that should be respected. 

[eball]

13 minutes ago, Victory Formation said:

Maybe an unvaccinated player will spend double that, but then again, these kids are healthy and we’re talking about the top 1% quartile of the population so chances are if they do get sick, it’s probably not going to be anywhere near as bad as your average Joe, and it won’t be anywhere near a life threatening situation for them.

 

Dion Dawkins says hi.

[Mickey]

Just want to pause and reflect that this has actually been a calm, reasonable and informative discussion. My thanks to all.

[TheBrownBear]

I respect personal choice and all, but all I can do is shake my head at this point, especially after Dion and Tommy's experiences and the Pfizer approval.  It will be sad if losing one (or more) of these guys at the wrong time submarines our season.  And beyond that, I hope these guys stay safe and don't find themselves really ill and in the hospital.

[Victory Formation]

1 minute ago, eball said:

 

Dion Dawkins says hi.

The choice Dion made hurt himself, not someone else.

[US Egg]

So everyday could be a surprise? Who doesn't like surprises?

[transplantbillsfan]

1 hour ago, Buffalo716 said:

80+% is a low percentage? 

 

40% would be low

 

It depends on who the players are.

 

If there are 90 people on the roster and we're at 80%... that means something like 17ish players are unvaccinated.

 

If those players are mostly players we're going to cut in final cutdowns it doesn't much matter.  But if those players are all guys on the 53, that becomes 32% of our team being unvaccinated and could have a serious impact.

[Hapless Bills Fan]

25 minutes ago, Rc2catch said:

It’s the players careers here. They have access to some of the best doctors in the world and unlimited information on this stuff. If we have guys who feel this strongly still not to participate in the vaccine yet, you should point some of your anger at the league and players union. 
I can see some posters already turning  this thread off the rails venturing into non football stuff. 
But I find it concerning seeing players labeled as selfish among other things and the concern over games missed, it’s not our lives. We all get to make our own choices and that should be respected. 

 

To keep this football relevant, I would like to quote Ron Rivera here:

 

 

The problem is, if the subset of the unlimited information players most trust is misinformation obtained from social media, they're going to make decisions that aren't good decisions.  I've actually had DM discussions with two different (starting) Bills players about how to distinguish misinformation or conspiracy stuff from good information on social media.   I doubt I persuaded anyone, but they were very polite and respectful discussions and maybe I left a little seed.

 

They are (IMO) smart men who are trying to be informed, but who mistrust "main stream media" and tend to rely on podcasts and youtube and social media for their info, as Ron Rivera said.  The problem is once you get away from media that is required to have 2 vetted primary sources for everything and does fact-checking, there is a lot of misleading information or even lies that are cleverly packaged to sound very plausible - unless a person happens to have specific expertise in a relevant field.

 

 

 

[BillsShredder83]

I mean we're talking about 5.8 guys unvaccinated... get that to 4 guys and were in the top half of the league rate. We're talking about a 2 guy difference, it's frustrating yes, but again TWO GUY DIFFERENCE tops. Would I love it to be 100%, yes, but I'm not losing sleep over it.

 

We did pretty good last year with covid, and probably had no guys vaccinated. The community is more vaccinated than last year, players families are more vaccinated than last year, all coaches are vaccinated. 

 

I'm gunna get 50 thumbs down reactions from emotional responses, but we're in better shape than last year, which went pretty damn smooth 🤷‍♂️

[Hapless Bills Fan]

26 minutes ago, eball said:

 

Dion Dawkins says hi.

 

Tommy Sweeney lifts his hand

[LEBills]

20 minutes ago, Victory Formation said:

The choice Dion made hurt himself, not someone else.

What choice did he make tho? If I remember the reporting correctly he said he was vaccinated but not outside of the two week post vax timeframe where people are still susceptible 

 

Actually he did say he was vaccinated and did so for his wife and child but still got hit hard

https://www.google.com/amp/s/nypost.com/2021/08/19/buffalo-bills-dion-dawkins-describes-scary-covid-19-bout/amp/

[Hapless Bills Fan]

4 minutes ago, BillsShredder83 said:

I mean we're talking about 5.8 guys unvaccinated... get that to 4 guys and were in the top half of the league rate. We're talking about a 2 guy difference, it's frustrating yes, but again TWO GUY DIFFERENCE tops. Would I love it to be 100%, yes, but I'm not losing sleep over it.

 

We did pretty good last year with covid, and probably had no guys vaccinated. The community is more vaccinated than last year, players families are more vaccinated than last year, all coaches are vaccinated. 

 

I'm gunna get 50 thumbs down reactions from emotional responses, but we're in better shape than last year, which went pretty damn smooth 🤷‍♂️

 

I don't understand your math.

Roster is currently at 80 players.

If we are just under 80% now as Beane said in his presser, 20% of 80 is 16 players.

 

Now, who are those 16 players?  If they are guys who will likely be on the 53-man roster, the % vaccinated will be (53-16)/53 = 69.8%.

 

As @transplantbillsfan said above "If those players are mostly players we're going to cut in final cutdowns it doesn't much matter.  But if those players are all guys on the 53, that ....... could have a serious impact."

 

To get to the 90% level, we would need to have only 5 players unvaccinated, so 11 more players would have to decide to be vaccinated.

[Rc2catch]

4 minutes ago, Hapless Bills Fan said:

 

To keep this football relevant, I would like to quote Ron Rivera here:

 

 

The problem is, if the subset of the unlimited information players most trust is misinformation obtained from social media, they're going to make decisions that aren't good decisions.  I've actually had DM discussions with two different (starting) Bills players about how to distinguish misinformation or conspiracy stuff from good information on social media.   I doubt I persuaded anyone, but they were very polite and respectful discussions and maybe I left a little seed.

 

They are (IMO) smart men who are trying to be informed, but who mistrust "main stream media" and tend to rely on podcasts and youtube and social media for their info, as Ron Rivera said.  The problem is once you get away from media that is required to have 2 vetted primary sources for everything and does fact-checking, there is a lot of misleading information or even lies that are cleverly packaged to sound very plausible - unless a person happens to have specific expertise in a relevant field.

 

 

 

I can’t disagree on any of it honestly, there is more misinformation out there than real information. Every meme on Facebook is believed as fact by some. 
They have access to real doctors I’d imagine they work with quite a bit and have relationships with as every football player gets dinged up. I’m sure the league and team has probably brought in very qualified individuals to discuss this with them as well. But I don’t support bashing on the players who have chosen not to do it yet. That’s my only real beef. We should have some of that directed at the league and players union. I’ve seen some “OUR season possibly being ruined” comments, but it’s the players lives and paychecks. Right or wrong the league has given them the option to choose what they believe to be best for their families. From everything I have ever seen in football is that players generally do a pretty good job policing themselves, I’m sure this is discussed behind closed doors whats at risk for all of them. Rather it be health, paychecks, Super Bowl run, they know what’s on the line here. I just don’t like blaming the players in this situation. Beasley deserved some blowback for his social media but most of these guys have kept their opinions to themselves. They deserve a little respect even if we don’t agree. 
If you got a player on DM and said “you’re pretty selfish for putting games at risk when we’re a Super Bowl contender” they probably wouldn’t be too receptive. There’s a fine line imo.