Bryce Cartwright and other NRL anti-vaxxers: Shut up and get the flu shot

Our hearts bleed for the nation’s footballers, who have been among the least affected by the virus crisis, but still can’t seem to do the right thing.

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Since the throat-tightening terror and crippling restrictions of COVID-19 began gripping Australia in March this year there have been several constants we could rely on as we woke each day.

The terrible death toll, creeping ever upwards all over the world.

The state premiers and chief ministers delivering their soothing morning news conferences, keeping us all as informed and safe as possible.

The heartwarming stories of people lending each other a helping hand, cheering health workers and reaching out to the elderly and infirm.

And then, of course, there was the daily updates about the NRL’s fight to return to the field.

Their competition was cancelled! Their seven-figure salaries were reduced to slightly smaller seven-figure salaries! Some, like Penrith Panthers player Nathan Cleary, even found that players’ usual romps with random blondes got people even more worked up than usual, and people are tedious wowsers about that sort of thing at the best of times.

Penrith Panthers halfback Nathan Cleary got into hot water last month after pictures of him appearing to break social distancing laws surfaced on social media. Picture: Channel 9

Life, it seemed, had become intolerably unjust for these young, fit, privileged, overpaid men and I think I speak for every unemployed airline worker, cafe owner, store clerk, hotel porter, student, tour guide, plus the overworked supermarket attendants, aged care workers, doctors, nurses and especially those who have lost loved ones to COVID-19 when I say we all hoped things would return to normal for them as swiftly as possible.

And now it would seem things are looking up, with the competition set to resume on May 28 – a move that sets the sport apart from thousands of Australian industries and businesses which remain shuttered for the foreseeable future.

But there’s a cruel catch.

Following clear and established health advice, the NRL wants its players to get a flu shot to minimise the likelihood of contracting influenza which could in turn weaken their immune systems and make them more susceptible to contracting coronavirus – a disease that every other person in the country is doing backflips to contain.

And several players, including the Gold Coast Titans’ Bryce Cartwright and Canberra Raiders forwards Josh Papalii, Sia Soliola and Joseph Tapine, have refused.

The New Zealand-born Canberra players – at least one of whom, Papalii, is reported to be a “committed Christian” – are alleged to be protesting the measures on religious grounds, although no one has yet pointed to the bit in the Bible that says God hates intramuscular injections of deactivated viruses that help the body produce protective antibodies.

Cartwright, on the other hand, is married to a woman named Shanelle who has read some things on the internet about how vaccines are bad.

“People have the freedom to say what they like, just like we have the freedom to choose which medical procedures we undergo,” Shanelle wrote on social media.

Bryce Cartwright with partner Shanelle Cartwright. Picture: Instagram

Cartwright himself added his two cents on Wednesday night. “I’ve never claimed to be a doctor or a medical professional …” he announced, apparently unaware that there had never been any danger of anyone mistaking him for either.

“I stand for the freedom to choose what goes into our bodies, I am pro-choice, pro-informed consent and pro-medical freedom.”

Encouragingly, Prime Minister Scott Morrison seems to think that Cartwright is very welcome to be pro- all of those things, but in his own time and away from the football field. “When I was social services minister I started the ‘no jab, no play’ rule into the childcare facilities,” he told Sydney’s 2GB radio on Wednesday. “And I think the same rules apply here – no jab, no play.”

The parallels are priceless. If these men insist on prioritising their pseudoscience over the health and safety of other players and the community at large, then it’s only right that they should have to submit to rules usually reserved for preschoolers.

Bryce Cartwright is seen during the Gold Coast Titans training session on the Gold Coast, Wednesday, May 6. Picture: Dave Hunt/AAP

Today the NRL is meeting to decide whether or not to overrule the current exemption that allows players to train and play without a flu vaccination if they sign a waiver, which would mean that the vaccine objectors would be out of the game if they refused to get their jab.

And whatever the outcome, the NRL’s bosses should realise that the way they handle this situation will be illustrative not only of how much those in the game value the physical health of other Australians, but it will also be emblematic of how much – or how little – humility it has about its exalted status in Australian society.

The virus has wrecked all of our lives in one way or another – from mass unemployment, to decimated school years, and of course the nearly 100 lives that have been taken away altogether. We are all suffering. The least these deified dingbats, whose luxury lifestyles have been no more than mildly inconvenienced by the pandemic and have now been permitted to carry on crashing into each other on a patch of grass as if nothing happened, can do is sit still and get a little prick in the arm like big boys.

Alex Carlton is a freelance writer | @Alex_Carlton