Tom Izzo has entered the COVID vaccine chat

Makes him sick? Tom might want to avoid getting sick right now, since so many healthcare workers are busy fending off attacks from anti-vaxxers.

What he said was perfect

“I have a lot of friends that are doctors and nurses, and I'm really ticked off at our country a little bit. Whether you choose to get vaccinated or not is your choice. I'm gonna beg people to get vaccinated because it's what I believe. But it's not just me — it's the scientific knowledge, it's the doctors, it's the nurses, it's everybody. And the people that are getting it that are vaccinated have such a better chance to survive everything and stay out of the hospitals.


[ Michigan State basketball: Best-, worst-case scenarios for Izzo's 2021-22 team ]

“Our hospitals are overwhelmed again. And for the first time last week, I had some friends of mine, I had some people say to me, ‘People are so idiotic. They're blaming the doctors and the nurses.’ So if you don't get it (the COVID vaccine), that's your business. But these are people that were our heroes, they were our heroes for a year. And now because people, in my humble opinion, don't get vaccinated and let down your guard a little bit, and our hospitals in the state of Michigan are in trouble again. And then that's OK if that's what you want to do. But for the people out there condemning our doctors and nurses and the first responders makes me sick. It really bothers me. So you have your own decision on what you want to do, that's your business. But I'll tell you one thing, if anybody's that ignorant that they're condemning our doctors, nurses, first responders — all the people that are giving their frickin' life, and now we can't even get operations, we can't do things because these hospitals are overwhelmed again — shame on you.

“So take your shots at me. It doesn't bother me. I'm not telling you that you have to — who's Tom Izzo to tell you to go get vaccinated? That's your business. But please, from the bottom my heart, appreciate the people. Those nurses that get paid little and put their life on the line every day. And the doctors, please don't forget we love them, we care about them, we appreciate them. What they've done for us, while most of us were sitting home not working, and they were going in every day. And I hear that stuff out in our community? It makes me sick. So let the fight start, let it begin. Do what you want with your vaccinations. But please, appreciate the people that have done so much for us.”

Izzo has been a vocal proponent of health safety throughout the nearly two years of the pandemic, from promoting wearing masks early to pushing for the public to get vaccinated in September. He overcame a bout of COVID-19 in November last year before the start of the 2020-21 season.

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Read more on the Michigan State Spartans and sign up for our Spartans newsletter.

Izzo has actually softened his vaccination position. Before the season, he was telling people to get vaccinated and calling bullshit on anti-vaxxers' reasons for not getting vaccinated.

Thank you, Tom!

GRR Spartan wrote:

I long for the good old days of early March 2020 when the science deniers were claiming COVID deaths wouldn't be any larger than annual traffic fatalities.

They haven’t changed their stance.  They now claim the nearly 900k deaths are fake news.

Trapper Gus wrote:

PennSpartan wrote:
They haven’t changed their stance.  They now claim the nearly 900k deaths are fake news.

In one sense they are correct, just not the way that they mean. The actual deaths caused by the pandemic are higher than the 900k number. An alternate analysis which tracks average deaths per population from past years as a baseline was higher than one million deaths months ago.

Excess deaths rather than expected deaths.