Shaquille O’Neal has taken a hard stance against vaccine mandates on the basis of personal freedom. Due to what seems like a liberal take over of the NBA Shaq seems like an unlikely ally to conservatives.
Fox News reported, O’Neal, the Basketball Hall of Famer who won NBA championships with the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat during his career, encouraged his listeners on “The Big Podcast with Shaq” to “be safe and “take care of your family.” But he disagreed with forcing those people who don’t want it to get it.
Shaq appears as a voice of reason among celebrities proclaiming, “But it’s just, people don’t want to take it, and you shouldn’t be forced to take something you don’t want,”
Shaq debated with his co-hosts Nischelle Turner and Anthony Adams that an individual should not be forced by a private company or the government to choose between their morals and their income.
Turner argued back that a private company should be able to have independent vaccine mandates requiring employees to get the jab. She insinuated that if they refuse, they should be fired.
O’Neal said he can see where Turner is coming from, as he is a person who sees himself as a “rules guy”. He continued, “But I do feel sympathetic towards people who have to make that kind of decision.”
Turner reinforced her stance by claiming that those who refuse the vaccine put others at risk. This may be so, but a person’s value as a human being is not determined by how much risk they cause others.
The act of simply driving a motor vehicle creates a certain amount of risk to others, as does acting irresponsibly in a general sense. However, irresponsibility in one personal life does not justify their loss of free will and rights.