The Wall Street Journal - USA (2020-12-07)

A14| Monday, December 7, 2020 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

on the communications side of the

bargain risks being seen as prefer-

ential treatment and could revive

the resentment generated by the

leagues’ daily testing for healthy

athletes as other Americans

waited days for results.

What health experts and public

officials have to decide is whether

the value of vaccinating a few hun-

dred athletes would be greater

than the cost.

Saad Omer, a member of the

study committee for the National

Academies of Sciences, Engineer-

ing and Medicine framework for

priorities in coronavirus vaccine

allocation, warned that any sense

that sports teams had been vacci-

nated before people with a more

pressing claim would be counter-

productive.

“If the message is that I, a mul-

timillion-dollar football player,

can’t wait my turn in line, that is a

strong message in itself,” Omer

said.

Athletes rank far behind the

most vulnerable and essential

Americans who would get the vac-

cine first. The earliest they can ex-

pect to receive it is the spring—

and that’s if everything goes to

plan. But it’s precisely because ev-

Covid vaccine,” said Sandra Quinn,

the chair of the family science de-

partment at the University of

Maryland’s School of Public

Health.

Anthony Fauci and President-

elect Joe Biden, Obama, George W.

Bush and Bill Clinton have already

suggested they would take their

vaccines publicly. But other state-

ments of confidence might have to

be targeted to specific constituen-

cies because vaccine perception

varies demographically.

Polls show that Black people are

more skeptical of the vaccines

than Asian, Hispanic and white

people. A Pew Research Survey

from September found that only

32% of Black adults said they

would definitely or probably get

vaccinated. It was a decline from

54% in May. Another survey of

more than 1,000 Black adults com-

missioned by the non-profit COVID

Collaborative found that 14%

trusted the vaccine would be safe

and 18% trusted the vaccine would

be effective—which many re-

searchers say is lasting fallout of

the deceptive, federally run Tuske-

gee syphilis study of Black men

between 1932 and 1972.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt

that professional athletes could

have an important role to play in

terms of speaking up for the vac-

cine and trying to get members of

their respective communities to

have faith in it,” said Arthur Rein-

gold, the head of epidemiology and

biostatistics at the University of

California, Berkeley, School of Pub-

lic Health, and a member of the

National Academies’ vaccine distri-

bution committee.

Scholars warn that it will be

even more crucial to overcome

such misgivings if there are side-

effects in mass vaccination that

further complicate the safety

message.

“What if there are enough peo-

ple having adverse reactions in the

second dose that it may under-

mine confidence in the vaccines?”

said Peter Hotez, a vaccine scien-

tist at the Baylor College of Medi-

cine. “In which case having some-

thing like the NBA or NHL might

actually be an asset for health

communications.”

Sports influencers already

stepped up in the earliest days of

the pandemic. Stephen Curry

preached about social distancing

and introduced Fauci to his 30 mil-

lion Instagram followers. Nick Sa-

ban yelled at Alabama’s elephant

mascot for not wearing a mask.

Athletes have embraced activ-

ism this year, encouraging their

fans to vote and leveraging their

fame to demand change, but

whether sports would take on this

task is another unknown. NBA

teams were pilloried for tapping a

private channel of testing in the

chaotic early days of the pan-

demic. That episode showed how

the nation’s patchwork response

would allow some organizations to

get privileged access to critical

supplies—and that many Ameri-

cans would be furious at them.

But athletes who were tested

weren’t directly taking scarce re-

sources from someone else. That

would make things worse, as the

NHL’s Calgary Flames know.

During the 2009 swine flu pan-

demic, as Alberta Health Services

denied requests from senior living

facilities, the Flames secured a pri-

vate vaccination clinic for 150

players, staff and family members.

It was a Canadian scandal. There

were apologies, a public inquiry

and official reports.

It’s also not clear that profes-

sional athletes will be the influenc-

ers of choice. Mitchell Warren, the

executive director of AVAC, an ad-

vocacy group for HIV prevention

methods, enthused about James as

a possible frontman. But he cau-

tioned that any campaign would

need to be carefully vetted before

it’s deployed.

“If we want to get vast numbers

of people vaccinated, we need to

understand who’s influencing

them,” Warren said. “It may be

that LeBron doesn’t test well.”

Sports teams have faced intense
blowback since the spring over the
perception that they have received
special treatment in a pandemic.
Now some public health experts
are weighing a counterintuitive
idea for how they could help end
it.
They are suggesting that ath-
letes get earlier access to the coro-
navirus vaccines.
The process of injecting 330
million Americans with a vaccine
for a disease that wasn’t identified
one year ago began as a marvel of
science and medicine. Soon it will
be a daunting logistical challenge.
And then it will be a vexing behav-
ioral problem. There are too many
people who want the vaccine right
now and too many people who
don’t want the vaccine at all.
That’s where the athletes would
come in. Researchers say that
prominent people getting the vac-
cine and urging others to get the
vaccine could help overcome wide-
spread skepticism—especially in
the Black community. Polls have
shown that vaccine mistrust is
greatest among Black adults.
“I could envisage celebrity
sports figures playing a very con-
structive role with vaccine hesi-
tancy,” said Harvey Fineberg, a
former dean of Harvard’s School of
Public Health and former president
of the Institute of Medicine. “I
could imagine a campaign that en-
listed professional sports. ‘Let’s
get everyone back in the game’
could be one tagline. And then
‘When it’s your turn, take a shot.’
That could coincidentally get vac-
cines to the athletes sooner.”
Fineberg knows something
about the monumental challenge
of vaccinating the entire popula-
tion of the United States in a few
months. He co-authored the offi-
cial study on the 1976 effort to al-
locate a vaccine in the U.S. for a
feared influenza epidemic that
never materialized. And he says
it’s perfectly sensible to let ath-
letes, celebrities and other influ-
encers get their shots early if that
means they can serve as official
ambassadors to people who are
hesitant about the vaccine.
“I would be reaching out,” he
said. “I’m not joking. I think it’s a
very serious proposition. Sports
has suffered as much as any eco-
nomic endeavor, so there’s a com-
bination of enlightened self-inter-
est to get involved and play their
part. I see a lot of winning possi-
bilities in it.”
Whether athletes or the rest of
the country see it that way re-
mains to be seen. The only way for
athletes to vouch for the vaccine
after it’s approved by regulators is
to get it themselves—early enough
to participate in the advocacy
campaigns telling millions of
Americans to follow. But delivering

BYLOUISERADNOFSKY ANDBENCOHEN

Can Athletes Help Sell the Vaccines?

Some health officials think sports stars should get earlier access to the vaccines—to help persuade the public.

TIMMY HUYNH/WSJ; ISTOCK

Weather
Shown are today’s noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.

City Hi LoW Hi LoW City Hi Lo W Hi Lo W

Today Tomorrow Today Tomorrow

City Hi LoW Hi LoW

Anchorage 30 26 sn 33 24 sn
Atlanta 50 30 pc 50 32 s
Austin 70 36 s 75 39 s
Baltimore 42 29 pc 45 29 s
Boise 40 23 s 43 24 s
Boston 3827pc 3524pc
Burlington 30 23 c 30 20 pc
Charlotte 51 28 c 50 26 s
Chicago 42 30 pc 44 34 pc
Cleveland 35 30 sf 37 29 c
Dallas 63 39 s 68 40 s
Denver 58 31 s 63 32 s
Detroit 38 26 pc 39 31 s
Honolulu 85 73 pc 85 70 sh
Houston 65 41 s 69 43 s
Indianapolis 41 26 pc 44 30 s
Kansas City 53 29 pc 56 36 pc
Las Vegas 67 42 pc 64 43 pc
Little Rock 56 31 pc 61 33 s
Los Angeles 69 50 pc 80 50 pc
Miami 74 54 r 64 47 s
Milwaukee 42 30 pc 43 34 pc
Minneapolis 39 25 pc 42 33 pc
Nashville 44 29 c 48 31 s
New Orleans 60 43 s 61 45 s
New York City 40 30 pc 41 32 pc
Oklahoma City 63 31 s 63 35 s

Omaha 51 25 s 55 34 s

Orlando 66 43 pc 59 39 s

Philadelphia 41 29 pc 42 28 pc

Phoenix 79 51 pc 79 50 pc

Pittsburgh 34 28 sf 36 27 pc

Portland, Maine 34 23 pc 34 20 pc

Portland, Ore. 49 40 pc 53 44 r

Sacramento 71 40 s 66 35 s

St. Louis 47 30 pc 49 36 pc

Salt Lake City 42 21 s 43 23 s

San Francisco 68 47 s 65 45 s

Santa Fe 57 26 s 56 24 s

Seattle 52 48 c 54 45 r

Sioux Falls 47 26 s 51 33 pc

Wash., D.C. 42 32 pc 45 31 s

Amsterdam 45 31 r 39 31 pc

Athens 63 51 r 64 54 pc

Baghdad 67 43 pc 67 47 pc

Bangkok 88 70 pc 88 70 pc

Beijing 36 14 pc 38 22 pc

Berlin 49 35 c 45 36 pc

Brussels 39 30 r 39 29 pc

Buenos Aires 75 65 s 77 68 pc

Dubai 82 72 s 80 67 pc

Dublin 42 33 c 44 34 r

Edinburgh 41 37 c 44 38 sh

Frankfurt 40 30 r 37 32 pc

Geneva 39 31 pc 40 32 r

Havana 81 64 c 73 60 c

Hong Kong 74 61 s 71 63 pc

Istanbul 58 49 pc 58 45 s

Jakarta 86 77 c 89 77 t

Jerusalem 61 49 pc 65 44 s

Johannesburg 78 56 pc 75 57 pc

London 39 32 c 42 37 pc

Madrid 53 40 sh 50 31 pc

Manila 85 76 t 86 76 t

Melbourne 62 47 sh 65 52 c

Mexico City 69 50 pc 70 51 t

Milan 39 36 pc 40 35 r

Moscow 27 17 s 29 17 s

Mumbai 93 74 pc 93 75 pc

Paris 42 33 c 41 32 pc

Rio de Janeiro 79 74 r 80 74 t

Riyadh 64 44 pc 65 48 s

Rome 56 49 t 58 47 r

San Juan 85 72 pc 86 72 c

Seoul 43 22 pc 38 22 pc

Shanghai 55 45 c 53 46 pc

Singapore 88 78 c 89 78 t

Sydney 83 59 s 71 57 s

Taipei City 73 66 r 71 68 r

Tokyo 58 46 s 60 46 s

Toronto 31 22 c 35 28 s

Vancouver 48 45 r 50 41 r

Warsaw 3827pc 3529pc

Zurich 37 27 pc 33 29 pc

Today Tomorrow

U.S. Forecasts

International

City Hi Lo W Hi Lo W

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Today Tomorrow

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SHAKE IT UP| By Chris Gross &

Zhouqin Burnikel

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TheWSJDailyCrossword|Edited by Mike Shenk

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54 Proofreader’s

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58 Unit of force

60 Not new

62 Hosp. workers

63 Under the

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64 “I told you so!”

Previous Puzzle’s Solution

The contest answer is SIAMESE TWINS. Both words

in each of the four pairs of LINKED clues (STAPLE/

GUN, AT A/GLANCE, LINEN/CLOSET, AIR/PISTOL)

intersect a long grid answer; the letters between

them (SIA, MES, ETW, INS) spell the contest answer.

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erything may not go according to

plan that many see advantages to

inviting athletes to the front of the

general public line.

There is a long history of health

campaigns using everyone from

politicians to pastors for messag-

ing purposes. Researchers who

studied trust and communication

during the swine flu pandemic in

2009 found that President Barack

Obama‘s daughters receiving their

H1N1 shots made a difference in

parents’ willingness to have their

children vaccinated—regardless of

ideology or party affiliation. Presi-

dent Gerald Ford and his family

got their shots on television dur-

ing the 1976 vaccination cam-

paign.

“I have fantasies that we have

video of everyone from Dr. Fauci

to LeBron James getting their

‘I would be reaching out.

I’m not joking.’

—HarveyFineberg,former

InstituteofMedicinepresident

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