The Lakers’ Dwight Howard was apparently reported for not wearing a mask inside the NBA bubble in Orlando, Florida, and was talked to by the league, according to Howard.
Now instead of doing some light soul-searching and working to understand not only how coronavirus is spread, but also basic levels of human empathy, Howard instead posted a video to his Instagram where he reiterated that he wouldn’t be wearing a mask. He also argued that vaccines are bad, a lovely double-whammy of dangerous, ill-informed conspiracy thinking.
(If you think Howard is right, you can just duck out of this article right now because nothing I type here is going to change your mind. And please don’t tweet at me.)
The video is excruciatingly long and mundane, but if you want to sit through all 15 minutes of it yourself, it’s here:
Part of Howard’s logic for not wearing a mask was that he “didn’t know that the coronavirus be flying through the air looking for people,” apparently believing that some people think COVID-19 is an airborne viral hunter who stalks prey, or something.
Howard did bring up that he felt safe in the NBA bubble, and it’s probably more safe than anywhere else right now, which might be true. (The league didn’t have any positive tests in the most recent round of testing.)
But to thumb his nose at the seriousness of this virus is ignorant and also insulting. As SB Nation’s James Dator points out, fellow NBA big man Karl-Anthony Towns lost his mother to COVID-19 just a few months ago, and now Howard is essentially arguing he doesn’t need to do anything to help spread the disease. It’s a slap in the face to Towns and other people in and around the league, as well as just plain normal people, who have had loved ones who have been affected by the disease, or affected themselves.
As for the vaccine stuff, I’m not even going to get into it. Someone on the Lakers talk to Dwight. If people can get him to see the light about it not being smart to eat 24 candy bars a day, maybe they can talk some sense into him on this.
