The Red Sox have one of the lowest vaccination rates in MLB and are in the midst of a COVID outbreak during the most pivotal stretch of their season.
The anti-vaxxer Red Sox are getting what they deserve, right?
Not quite. The situation is a little more complicated than that.
The Red Sox hit their lowest point of the season Tuesday when Xander Bogaerts became the sixth player to test positive for COVID-19 since Friday. The others are Hirokazu Sawamura, Martin Perez, Matt Barnes, Enrique Hernandez and Christian Arroyo.
Relief pitcher Josh Taylor and first-base coach Tom Goodwin are also in quarantine as close contacts. Quality control coach Ramon Vazquez has tested positive as well.
While we don’t know the vaccination status of everybody on the COVID list, we can make some educated guesses. Alex Cora confirmed Hernandez is vaccinated, as is Barnes (who’s been on the COVID list three times). We can surmise Taylor isn’t, because MLB dictates that only unvaccinated players stay in quarantine if they’re considered close contacts.
But the fact is, the Red Sox are one of only six teams below the 85% vaccination threshold. It’s an embarrassment for the organization. Once that number is reached, teams are awarded certain relaxed COVID regulations by the league.
But the Red Sox aren’t there, so they must mask and carry on like it’s September 2020.
As we know, unvaccinated people are far likelier to test positive for COVID-19 than vaccinated people — and carry much more severe symptoms. Unvaccinated players account for four in five of MLB’s positive tests, according to the Wall Street Journal.
But even still, vaccinations haven’t culled outbreaks across the league. The Giants, who reached the 85% threshold in May, currently have pitchers Alex Wood and Johnny Cueto on the COVID-19 list — along with Donovan Solano.
Most infamously, eight vaccinated players from the Yankees tested positive in May, introducing us to the possibility of “breakthrough COVID cases” — long before the 4th of July reveling began in Provincetown.
Six more Yankees also tested positive in July, along with several others since. The majority of those players are vaccinated.
The Brewers also recently had nine players on the COVID-19 list, and the Nationals had a dozen cases involving players and staff — 11 of them were vaccinated.
Unlike the NFL, which allows asymptomatic vaccinated players to return after two negative tests, MLB mandates that all players and staff with COVID quarantine for 10 days.
So yes, the Red Sox would obviously be better protected against COVID-19 if more players were vaccinated. At this point, it is a true competitive disadvantage.
But it may not have stopped this current outbreak.
