It had been noted early and often throughout the early portions of the offseason that the Minnesota Vikings had the lowest vaccination numbers in the entire NFL.
When they lost three quarterbacks, including starter Kirk Cousins to the Covid-19 list for an extended period of time during training camp, Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer didn’t mince his words of frustration.
With less than a month until the regular season opener and not much changing for the Vikings on the vaccination front, they are pulling out all the stops in bringing in a epidemiologist and infectious disease doctor to speak with the team about the vaccine.
The #Vikings are bringing in renowned epidemiologist and infectious disease expert Dr. Michael Osterholm to speak to the team today, I'm told. Minnesota’s vaccination rate among players has lagged behind other NFL teams and coach Mike Zimmer has been vocal about his frustration.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) August 23, 2021
The hope for Zimmer and the Vikings’ braintrust is that this discussion on Monday helps change the mind of some who have opted to not get vaccinated. The reality paints a different picture though in that if most of these players who have opted to not get vaccinated haven’t done it by now, they likely won’t anytime soon.
Cousins made waves this offseason when he noted that he more or less didn’t plan on changing his mind about not getting vaccinated. Instead, he offered up some wild ideas like the Vikings surrounding non-vaccinated players with plexiglass when they are moving around the team facility.
Perhaps the dialogue with Dr. Michael Osterholm will change the mind of some of these players or even just one or two from the Vikings. Zimmer likely realizes it won’t change all their minds but if it changes even a couple, it will have been worth it.
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