It’s good, but why has Kelce become ‘Mr. Pfizer’ in a sea of anti-vax sentiment? | Opinion
Have you heard the news about Travis Kelce?
No, not that news.
The Kansas City Chiefs tight end — a two-time Super Bowl winner, multiple-time All-Pro selection, unexpectedly great Saturday Night Live host and sure-fire future Hall of Famer — has been much in the headlines the last few weeks for a possible, purported, maybe-they-are-maybe-they-aren’t dating relationship with one of the world’s most popular superstars.
You know who I’m talking about. If somehow you don’t, go spend some time on TikTok or talk to your kids and you’re sure to figure it all out pretty quickly. Hint: It’s Taylor Swift.
But that’s not why I find him noteworthy this week. Instead, I’m here to praise Kelce for putting his now-considerable celebrity to work encouraging Americans to take care of their health by getting their flu and COVID vaccines.
He is starring in a commercial for Pfizer — it aired during the Chiefs-Jets game on Sunday night — that urges viewers to get both shots together at the same time. His now-famous mother, Donna, also appears in the ad. “The CDC says you can get this season’s updated COVID-19 shot when you get your flu shot if you’re due for both,” Kelce wrote on Instagram. “That’s why I got two shots in one stop!”
I don’t want to make too much of this. Kelce is not the first celebrity to do a “paid partnership” for a big company. There was a time in the not-too-distant past, though, when encouraging Americans to get their vaccines would’ve been seen as not that big a deal.
Normal, even.
These days, though, vaccines are politicized and polarized. Folks who do their “own research” have decided they know better than their doctors. To make yourself the face of the vaccination effort — as Kelce did this week — is an inevitably political stance that invites criticism and mockery.
Indeed, noted skeptic New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers — who once lied to the media about being “immunized” — sneered at Kelce in a podcast this week.
“Y’know, Mr. Pfizer, we kind of shut him down a little bit, he didn’t have a crazy impact game,” Rodgers said. It was a weird bit of strutting for a player whose team actually lost the game. It’s usually the victors who get to brag. Whatever.
Truth is, I was a bit surprised to see Kelce in the commercial. Kansas and Missouri — the markets where Chiefs fandom is most intense — are red states where anti-vaccine sentiment has taken firm hold among too many of our elected leaders.
In Kansas this year, Gov. Laura Kelly was forced to veto a Republican bill that would have blocked the state from requiring COVID vaccines as a condition of school attendance. In Missouri, the state health department tried last month to acknowledge anti-vaccine sentiment with a little humor: “COVID vaccines will be available in Missouri soon, if you’re in to that sort of thing,” the department posted online. “If not, just keep scrolling!”
Folks did not keep on scrolling.
The good news is that vaccines are still broadly popular — 76% of registered voters say they’ve been inoculated against COVID. That includes 60% of Republicans. But the vocal minority on this issue can be very, very vocal.
Kelce’s decision to partner with Pfizer, then, might be yet another manifestation of his don’t-give-a-bleep attitude that football fans love so much. Or maybe his individual and team success has made it easier not to worry what a few angry anti-vaccine fans might say or think. Maybe he just wanted to do the right thing. Who knows?
What we do know is that vaccines — while they might not make you invulnerable to infection — are effective. One recent study from Yale University shows that Republican voters in places with low vaccination rates tend to have much higher “excess death” rates than Democratic voters who live among other vaccinated people.
So be wise. Get your flu and COVID shots. Better yet, be like Travis Kelce and do it Swift-ly.
This story was originally published October 4, 2023 at 12:46 PM.