It’s one of those things that is exploding around Twitter and I want to acknowledge it, but I also want to make sure it comes with a lot of context.
Yes, I’ve seen that Yadi Molina this morning posted to his Instagram a picture of himself, and a group of unmasked folks closely gathered with the caption “f*** covid”. My first reaction was that it was a bad idea, even if his intent was to say, “eff this disease, I beat it, and I’m with my loved ones.” That’s a good message in private, but at this moment in time, it’s gonna raise questions about how seriously the protocols are being taken.
However, as Jeff Jones points out, there is a whole lot of context worth keeping in mind here:
This is all to say that these are all people who would otherwise and previously have been exposed to a person with a known positive test. Bad look? Yes, undoubtedly. But this is a small gathering of people all exposed to each other anyway.
— Jeff Jones (@jmjones) August 24, 2020
In other words, this picture might SPECIFICALLY be of the group of people Molina was already with in relation to his COVID infection. And, if that’s the case, him sharing a close, unmasked picture of the group saying “f*** covid” might make a ton of sense – they’ve all had exposure, they’re all past it now, etc.
I don’t know for sure that’s the case, just like I don’t know for sure that Molina was sharing a picture of himself flouting the health and safety protocols for this season. You don’t yet know for sure, either. So, I think we have to keep this all in mind.
Again, though, a point here: it just seems like a really bad idea to do this right now, and it’s going to invite lots of unwanted scrutiny for a team that had two weeks of its season blown up by an outbreak.
UPDATE: Molina deleted the original post and replaced it with his explanation:
On the whole, still not a great idea. But there’s the explanation.