The 36-year-old four-time NBA finals MVP believes that because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, 'people literally forgot about the flu' and 'common colds.'
- Dec 30, 2021
AceShowbiz - LeBron James has noticed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's criticism of him. After the former basketball player dissed him for sharing a COVID-19 meme, the four-time NBA finals MVP set aside time to explain the meaning behind his post.
"No, I don't have a response to Kareem at all," the Los Angeles Lakers star said during a press release. "And if you saw the post and you read the tag, you're literally, honestly asking, 'Help me out?' Help me kind of figure it all out. We're all trying to figure this pandemic out."
"I think people forgot about the flu," James further claimed. "People like literally forgot about the flu during these times like that's still going around, it's flu season. People have forgot about common colds. That happens, especially with a lot of our kids that's in school."
The said meme shared by LeBron on Instagram saw three Spider-Men cartoons pointing at each other. The figures were labeled "covid," "flu" and "cold." The 36-year-old captioned the image by writing, "Help me out folks."
The meme didn't sit well with Kareem, who believed that its "implication is that LeBron doesn't understand the difference among these three illnesses, even after all the information that's been presented in the press." He added in his essay, "With 106 million Instagram followers, making such a post is automatically politically impactful because he questions the validity of the efforts to get the country vaccinated."
"As is evident by some of the comments that cheer LeBron's post, he's given support to those not getting vaccinated," the 74-year-old elaborated further. "[It] makes the situation for all of worse by postponing our health and economic recovery."
"The CDC reports that those who are unvaccinated are 9 times more likely to be admitted to the hospital and 14 times more likely to die from COVID than those vaccinated," he went on sharing. "The number rises to 20 time more likely when compared to someone who's gotten a booster shot. By posting the uninformed meme, LeBron has encouraged vaccine hesitancy which puts lives and livelihoods at risk."
Kareem later reminded LeBron to be "the same necessary and dynamic advocate with vaccines" as he is for "police brutality against the Black community." The former then concluded his lengthy post by noting, "The racism is just as real-and just as lethal-in both cases."
