What sports leaders (and all of us) gain by encouraging, not demanding, vaccinations
Various life experiences, being 54 years old and serving as general manager of the Royals gave Dayton Moore clarity and conviction about receiving a COVID-19 vaccination. And he carries an unambiguous preference that everyone in the organization should get one as part of creating a safe work environment.
“It would make it clean for everybody to do it,” he said Wednesday in his suite at Kauffman Stadium. “Just makes it very clean.”
By “clean,” he also meant clear and simple.
Also because of his perspective and his role, though, Moore knows what’s so clear to him is murky to some.
And he appreciates, and even empathizes with, some reasons that not all have embraced vaccination — including a half-dozen or so players on the team’s current 26-man roster composed of all walks of life.
That means people of different nationalities, colors, cultures, religions, politics, education levels and socio-economic backgrounds. In a room where some signed for a lot of money and others didn’t, a room where everyone also is a reflection of his distinct belief system and family dynamics, past and present.
Some may never have had a shot in their lives. Others might distrust the medical system or government. And still others say they worry about potential side-effects or scoff at the science pointing the way no matter how well-documented it might be.
All of which embodies a unique challenge of the times, even through the lens of team sports as a microcosm of being part of the human chain.
‘The common good’
That inter-dependency has been amplified by a pandemic that has killed nearly 600,000 people in the U.S.
Even as it has dwindled lately with nearly 50 percent of Americans (160 million-plus) having received at least one dose and almost 40 percent (more than 126 million) fully vaccinated, the pandemic remains a menace in part because it’s not known how many more will do so … and thus enable the virus to circulate, re-emerge and form new variants.
So, many might feel vaccination is quite a small thing to ask. And count me in that group for reasons well-articulated by Don Heider, executive director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University.
“From an ethics perspective, it has everything to do with the idea of the common good, the idea that our actions should contribute to a life that helps everybody, especially on a team,” Heider said Friday, later adding, “If you look at championship teams, they have that special chemistry and they have that great deal of respect and love for each other.
“How can you respect and love somebody if you’re not concerned about the health and well-being of them and their families as well?”
As certainly as I believe in what he said, when I feel that sure I find it useful to remind myself of that old George Carlin bit intended to make you consider how narrow our perceptions can be: “Have you ever noticed when you’re driving that anyone who’s driving slower than you is an idiot and anyone driving faster than you is a maniac?”
With that, it seems worth considering that the heart of the matter maybe isn’t as clear and simple as anyone on extreme ends of the spectrum might be shouting at you to believe.
And that maybe there’s some benefit to trying to understand how some might be gridlocked between their own hardwired beliefs vs. a moral obligation to others.
“In some sense (that) is the question, and not just for vaccination but for all kinds of issues,” sports ethicist Shawn Klein of Arizona State University said in a phone interview Thursday. “And I think we make a mistake ethically, theoretically, if we think that there is a single line that we can draw that’s bright and clear that everybody can recognize.”
Understanding that, Moore is taking a thought-provoking stance that we might all do well to ponder if we understand that we’re absolutely in this together no matter how apart we might feel.
Encouraging, not bullying
Moore has heard of other teams on which high-profile players stood up in the clubhouse and said, “Everybody’s getting vaccinated. That’s it. Everybody’s going to do it. That’s just what we’re going to do.”
He’s had people tell him he should essentially do the same.
But he balks at what he calls “bullying.”
Instead, he’ll keep doing what he’s been doing: encouraging vaccination, trying to provide education through his medical staff, maintain open dialogue and not judge as he seeks first to understand … and hopes players become “comfortable that this is the right thing to do.”
While Moore has been more expansive on it, his method largely seems to also have been adopted by a number of other local sports leaders.
To be clear, we recognize that’s at least in part because of constraints and guidelines of their sports, player’s associations, schools and in some cases governments that may inhibit more blunt efforts by those used to having enormous control.
But it also reflects recognition that it’s smarter to try to inspire and find room to navigate than to get in someone’s grill. Or as The New York Times put it in a story about what to say to people who don’t want the vaccine: “Research shows that many common persuasive styles — commanding, advising, lecturing and shaming — not only don’t work but also often backfire.”
That’s perhaps why Chiefs coach Andy Reid put it this way when asked about vaccinations last month:
“I think the more that we can push towards (vaccinating), I think that’s a positive … I don’t want anybody to get sick, and I surely don’t want anybody to pass away, so I think in certain situations a vaccine becomes important. We’ve seen it from the polio era on through that things have taken place where it’s helped us as humans here move forward, so I put that right there.”
On the same call, quarterback Patrick Mahomes also noted he’d been vaccinated, offering that positive message even while making it a point not to be heavy-handed about it:
“With having a baby girl and knowing I was going to be around people; I wanted to make sure I could do whatever I could to help keep her healthy. But I think it’s a personal decision for everybody. I mean, whatever you believe, I think you can do whatever that is and we’ll figure out the best way to keep each other healthy by social distancing and doing whatever it is whenever we can in this building.”
Meanwhile, KU men’s basketball coach Bill Self told The Star’s Gary Bedore last week that he’s been vaccinated. Self, with whom I’ve spoken before about the power of saying “I’m not sure, but I think (X)”, also said he is stressing the “positives from a health standpoint” and the chance for a “a little freedom” … but also that it’s a family decision.
And at the Tiger Takeover on Tuesday at Chicken N Pickle in North Kansas City, Mizzou athletic director Jim Sterk favored the word “encouragement,” football coach Eliah Drinkwitz said “you try to show” the benefits of vaccination but leave room for personal choices and men’s basketball coach Cuonzo Martin said he thinks “it’s the right thing to do” but wants to respect space.
(Each has been vaccinated).
But how to lead in this situation is only part of the equation.
Because, again like real life, this is about the duty of the athlete to his or her team vs. his or her decisions and principles.
Start with this: From the NFL to Major League Baseball to the Southeastern Conference, among others, there is a considerable reduction in protocols for reaching an 85 percent threshold of vaccination. Those who aren’t getting vaccinated are keeping their teams from being able to enjoy that luxury.
Striking a balance
Beyond that, of course, each poses a broader health risk. And in its most simplistic sense, what does it say to the team if that leads to key players being out at a crucial time (as KU experienced last postseason before vaccinations were widely available)?
“Balancing individual prerogatives and liberty vs. the need of the group or society, where we draw those lines of how much the individual has to give, how much society has to give space for that individual to be as they are, that’s a struggle just in general …” Klein said. “And this question of vaccinations, I think really hammers that home.”
Because there’s almost nothing more personal than questions about what you’re going to do with your health and what sorts of things you are or aren’t going to put in your body.
“That seems to be the essence of your own personal space,” he said, “but at the same time you’re talking about a contagious disease that has the possibility of being able to impact the lives of others.”
Even so, ethically speaking, Klein believes much of what Moore and others are practicing is the best approach.
Best to make space but encourage and provide opportunities, Klein said, perhaps in such ways as keeping vaccinations available when players are in for various treatments while not doing anything to make anyone “feel like they’re being pushed aside or disrespected.”
Certainly, Moore isn’t going to make anyone feel that way.
“I’ve heard people say, ‘Well, if they choose to not get vaccinated and they get sick and something happens to them, it’s on them,’ ” he said. “I’m not going to allow my mind to do that. Because I believe that people make decisions based on their own experiences.”
And that antagonizing or alienating them does no one any good. Not that they haven’t had direct discussions, even what Moore calls “controlled heartfelt dialogue.”
But Moore believes the best path he can take is to lead by example and hope others will follow of their own will. And even as he tries to stay more cognizant of process than outcome, such patience is paying dividends.
Earlier in the week, two more players decided they were ready to move past their initial distrust. Over time, they had learned more about the benefits and peers reassured them about their experiences, and certainly they understood it was for the greater good.
“We didn’t push it,” Moore said, “and let them find their own way.”
This story was originally published May 22, 2021 at 5:00 AM.