I don't think I'm owed an explanation, but I think he's a complete piece of shit for not providing any further discussion or context.
Anyone who uses a public platform and has amassed 100k followers who promotes an anti-vax message and then turtles in the midst of a pandemic where lives depend on as many people getting vaccinated as possible in an asshole. The question of what's owed or not owed is beside the point. The point is that if you're going to throw that out there with the bullshit pretext that you have been getting asked, and then refuse to say more, you're a jerk and should be treated as such.
Discussion is important in this context, because if the answer is "because the Martians told me not to," that would be a nice thing for his 100k followers to know.
Again, I'm not owed anything. Again, fuck him.
But this was kind of my point. This guy isn't a politician that can sway decisions around the Covid vaccine. If he was a politician, I'd absolutely agree with the majority of posts in this thread. He would OWE us an explanation, because how he got to his conclusion is important when deciding if this person should be representing large groups of people.
But he's not. He's a (most likely) uninformed athlete. Out of his 100K followers, how many do we think are forming their opinion about the vaccine based on Andrelton Fucking Simmons? Is there even one person? If this was a preacher at one of those monster churches and he had his claws into the psyche of a bunch of people? Sure. Yes. I'd understand the vitriol.
And, again, I'm not anti-vax. I wasn't before Covid and I'm not now. My MIL has recurring ovarian cancer and she just started her chemo again. Thankfully, she was able to get the vaccine. But if that weren't the case - which for some cancer patients, is unfortunately true - and she couldn't get the vaccine, how many people would she encounter that did get the vaccine and now are lax on social distancing, hand sanitizing, masks, etc? For the majority of socially responsible middle-aged (or younger) people, the concern was always, "I'm not worried about myself, but I don't want to get my elderly/sick/immunocompromised/etc relative sick." Well, after the vaccine, we still have no idea if they can be carriers. But a whole lot of people are certainly acting like they arent. Which could very well make things significantly WORSE for the people we all are trying to protect. Because now the Ted Cruz's of the world get to stand on their pedestals and say,
"I got your fucking vaccine! I'm done with masks!"
All of this is to say: nobody gives a fuck what Andrelton Simmons thinks about Covid. Not you, not me, not his 100K twitter followers. They just want to be able to confirm that he's an anti-vaxx asshole. And while they're probably right, the inability to hear his reasons directly from him (and either mock or crucify him) pisses people off. And I'm not even saying that's the wrong reaction. It's perfectly acceptable. I'm just not sure why people are trying to justify a visceral reaction. (Theres probably a tie in here to #CancelCulture, but this is neither the place nor am I smart enough to make it).
Simmons isn't getting the vaccine. He's an asshole.
Thats what it boils down to for people. Just say it. You're probably not even wrong.