When speaking about the release of Cam Newton, Bill Belichick said him being unvaccinated had nothing to do with it, but he also pointed out that just because a player is vaccinated, it doesn't mean it's preventing them from getting the virus.
“Look, you guys keep talking about that and I would just point out that I don’t know what the number is -- I mean, you guys can look it up, you guys have the access to a lot of the information, but the number of players and coaches and staff members that have been infected by COVID in this training camp who have been vaccinated is a pretty high number," he said. "I wouldn’t lose sight of that.”
It was pointed out that while Newton did not get sick, he still could not be in the facility for five days, so there's still a negative impact.
“We have other players on the team who aren’t vaccinated as I would say as does every other team in the league and we’ve had minimal [cases], but throughout the league there have been a number, quite a high number I would say, of players who have had the virus who have been vaccinated," he said. "Your implication that vaccination solves every problem is just not really -- I would say that has not been substantiated based on what’s happened in training camp this year. That’s all.”
With that being said, it should be pointed out between Aug. 1-21, 68 players and staff tested positive out of 7,190 tests. Incidence rate among those unvaxxed was 7x higher than those who were vaxxed.