Dwight Howard has been very outspoken about his frequent decision not to wear a mask within the NBA bubble at Walt Disney World in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Los Angeles Lakers center often posts on social media or goes live without one, and has wondered why players were even forced to use them in the first place.
On Sunday, he took things one step further.
After going live on Instagram without wearing a mask despite being around others, Howard was asked if he believed in vaccines.
“No, I don’t,” he replied. “That’s my personal opinion, but no, I don’t.”
Howard also said, according to USA Today, that “he did not know that the coronavirus flew through the air looking for people,” although this is essentially how the virus works, or most viruses.
Part of Howard’s logic for not wearing a mask is that he and others inside the bubble are not around anyone who enters and leaves Disney World, and that he thinks he can’t get it inside. However, that is not the case. While players, coaches, and other team personnel are trapped inside, Disney World employees can get in and out.
He claimed that “someone told me about me” via the anonymous hotline for not wearing a mask earlier this week, although he has repeatedly shared videos where he does not wear a mask, so it is extremely likely that it was counted himself.
Given that the pandemic is on the rise in the state: Florida had more than 350,000 confirmed cases as of Sunday afternoon, according to The New York Times, and is averaging almost 12,000 new cases per day over the past week, it is highly possible that the virus You can still enter the bubble. If players like Howard wore a mask around campus, it would significantly limit the risk that they or others would contract the virus.
His crusade against the mask is not only problematic for a league trying to resume play for the first time in five months during a global pandemic, but his beliefs against vaccination, something that has been repeatedly disproved, are even more so.
During an Instagram Live on Sunday afternoon, Lakers center Dwight Howard again made controversial comments within the NBA bubble in Florida. (Brian Rothmuller / Icon Sportswire / Getty Images)
