Remarks made by New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers regarding the HIV crisis of the 1980s are generating a tremendous amount of controversy this week.
The controversial QB has long had a reputation for espousing bizarre and potentially harmful conspiracy theories.
For example, Rodgers’ skepticism regarding Covid-19 vaccines made him a divisive figure among football fans during the pandemic.
But the news that Rodgers may be a Sandy Hook truther earned him near-universal condemnation.
Now, the 40-year-old NFL vet finds himself at the center of yet another unexpected controversy.
Aaron Rodgers Shares Controversial Views on HIV Crisis
In March, Rodgers appeared on the “Look Into It with Eddie Bravo” podcast in March, where he shared his belief that the HIV epidemic of the 1980s was engineered by the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases with the assistance of the federal government.
“The blueprint, the game plan, was made in the ’80s,” Rodgers said, according to Newsweek.
“Create a pandemic, you know, with a virus that’s going wild, right?” he continued.
“Only—he was given, Fauci was given over $350 million to research this, to come up with drugs, new or repurposed to handle the AIDS pandemic. And all they came up with AZ—was AZT.”
Rodgers’ remarks went mostly unnoticed at the time, but they resurfaced on Twitter this week, and a clip of the quarterback sharing his views on Dr. Anthony Fauci has now been viewed more than 5 million times.
“And if you do even a smidge of research — and I know, I’m not an epidemiologist, I’m not a doctor, I’m not an immunologist, whatever the f–k — I can read, though,” Rodgers said during the podcast.
“And I can learn and look things up just like any normal person, you know. I can do my own research, which is so vilified, to even question authority,” he added.
“But that was the game plan back then: create an environment where only one thing works. Back then, AZT. Now? Remdesivir until we get a vaccine,”
Remdesivir is a drug that has been shown to halt the progression of the Covid virus inside the body.
From there, Rodgers alleged that Fauci had a “stake in the Moderna vaccine,” though he offered no evidence that the medical expert in any way benefitted financially from the vaccine.
As Newsweek reports, social media users were quick to shut down Rodgers’ latest conspiracy theories.
“Can someone please take Aaron Rodgers home and make him stay inside until his head is fixed?” one person asked.
“Just a reminder, Dr Fauci is a hero. Aaron Rodgers is a clown,” said another.
“Aaron Rodgers is the worst type of idiot—the one who’s convinced he’s a genius,” a third user wrote.
“Please keep Aaron Rodgers & his weird conspiracy theories off of my timeline. Dude has choked on one too many shrooms dipped in acid,” a fourth chimed in.
But Rodgers also received support from many commenters who shared his views.
“People are finally speaking out,” one person wrote.
“In 3-5yrs everything Rodgers is saying will be considered fact and all the non-thinkers, unwilling to deviate from what TV tells them, will deny calling Rodgers a conspiracy theorist. I’ve seen this one before…” added another.
Rodgers has yet to respond to the criticism of his remarks — but whether he likes it or not, it looks like the future hall-of-famer is at the center of another heated debate.