Aaron Rodgers is still doing his own research

Aaron Rodgers is currently in the midst of trying to protect home-field when the San Francisco 49ers come to town to face off with them in the divisional round. The Packers quarterback has gotten plenty of attention for his play on the field this season in leading his squad to a 13–4 record and the NFC’s top seed for the playoffs, but he has also made several headlines off the field due to his COVID-19 vaccination status—and his stance on the matter.

During a feature on Rodgers by ESPN’s Kevin Van Valkenburg, the two covered many topics about the ManningCast, his relationship with Joe Rogan, his frequent appearances on The Pat McAfee Show, and, of course, football.

However, it was what he said about the commander in chief that has everybody’s attention. It was sometime last year when Biden told a Packers fan he wants Rodgers to get the vaccine while visiting Kentucky after a week of deadly tornadoes.

“In December, he was not happy when President Joe Biden, while taking a tour of tornado-ravaged towns in Kentucky, joked with a woman wearing a Packers jacket that she should tell Rodgers to get the vaccine.

“When the president of the United States says, ‘This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated,’ it’s because him and his constituents, which, I don’t know how there are any if you watch any of his attempts at public speaking, but I guess he got 81 million votes,” Rodgers said Thursday. “But when you say stuff like that, and then you have the CDC, which, how do you even trust them, but then they come out and talk about 75% of the COVID deaths have at least four comorbidities. And you still have this fake White House set saying that this is the pandemic of the unvaccinated, that’s not helping the conversation.”

***UPDATE: It should be noted that Rodgers has taken the CDC’s comments out of context. The CDC Director’s comments that 75% of COVID-19 deaths are among people with four comorbidities applies only to vaccinated people — and not the general population, as Rodgers incorrectly stated.***

Rodgers, who said he was “immunized” against Covid, but is not vaccinated, doesn’t appear to have plans on accepting Biden’s suggestion.

BTW in what I’m sure is just a total coincidence, the NFL announced yesterday that it’s stopping daily COVID testing of the tiny percentage of players still in the playoffs who aren’t vaccinated. Rodgers is by far the most prominent such player, and I’m absolutely sure this has nothing to do with protecting The Product’s TV ratings in the three weeks leading up to Super Bowl LXCVIVIII or whatever it is in Roman or Greek or Abyssinian numerals.

Leaving the struggle of Quarterback Dunning Kruger for the moment, we have another story from Wisconsin, this one involving the fascinating new concept of one-way at-will employment:

ThedaCare requested Thursday that an Outagamie County judge temporarily block seven of its employees who had applied for and accepted jobs at Ascension from beginning work there on Monday until the health system could find replacements for them. 

The employees were part of an 11-member interventional radiology and cardiovascular team, which can perform procedures to stop bleeding in targeted areas during a traumatic injury or restore blood flow to the brain in the case of a stroke. Each of them were employed at-will, meaning they were not under an obligation to stay at ThedaCare for a certain amount of time. 

Outagamie County Circuit Court Judge Mark McGinnis granted ThedaCare’s request and held an initial hearing Friday morning. The case will get a longer hearing at 10 a.m. Monday.

McGinnis told lawyers for both health systems they should try to work out a temporary agreement by the end of the day Friday about the employees’ status until Monday’s hearing.

Otherwise, he said, the order prohibiting them from going to work at Ascension would be final until a further ruling was made. That means the seven health care workers would not be working at either hospital on Monday. 

“To me, that is a poor result for everyone involved,” McGinnis said. 

In the complaint, lawyers for ThedaCare wrote that Ascension had “shockingly” chosen to “poach” the employees during a stressful time for health care. More COVID-19 patients are hospitalized in the Fox Valley now than at any other time during the pandemic, according to Wisconsin Hospital Association data, and ThedaCare has canceled non-emergency surgeries to make space. 

A Thursday statement from Ascension said the employees were not recruited but instead decided to apply for open job postings. It was Ascension’s understanding that ThedaCare had the opportunity to make counter-offers but declined, the statement said. 

Don’t know much about the Middle Ages (looked at the pictures but I turned the pages), but this all seems a bit feudalistic.

Finally I can’t leave America’s Dairyland, before noting that the Cheesehead Board of Regents has just appointed a mergers and acquisitions lawyer, whose last contact with academia was as a law student 37 years ago, president of the entire University of Wisconsin system.

The business of America is business law, as Calvin Coolidge or possibly Marty Lipton once said.