MLB and NBA Offer Players an Incentive to Get Vaccinated: Normalcy

All of these rules are designed to incentivize vaccine acceptance in populations that have demonstrated some hesitancy. And they will provide a test on a very public stage of whether the lure of normal life is more powerful than vaccine mandates. 

MLB and the MLB Players Association distributed a joint memo on Monday saying that players and staff “are strongly encouraged” to receive a vaccine when eligible, and that fully vaccinated individuals will be allowed to gather together in hotel rooms and other indoor spaces without face coverings or social distancing. 

The memo, which was obtained by The Wall Street Journal, also says that people two weeks past the second dose of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine, or two weeks after the one-dose Johnson & Johnson shot, will no longer have to wear masks in the weight room and can have their vaccinated family members stay with them on the road. 

They can also carpool together or use ride-share services like Uber and Lyft to and from club facilities. They can gather in close proximity on airplanes as long as no unvaccinated teammates are within two rows of them. And they can choose to be tested for Covid-19 just twice a week, as opposed to every other day. (Players and staff must voluntarily disclose their vaccinated status to their team in order to be counted.)

Once 85% of a team’s players and staff are fully vaccinated, masks will no longer be required in the dugout or bullpen for anybody. Players and staff will no longer have to wear Kinexon tracking devices that have been used for contact tracing. They can eat at restaurants, indoors or outdoors, with no restrictions. Shared amenities like videogame systems and pool tables will once again be permitted in the clubhouse. More changes could come as the 2021 season goes on.

The sports regulations are a prominent example of how American workplaces are dealing with the knotty dynamics of vaccine requirements that offices across the country will encounter as supply begins to outpace demand. 

U.S. states can legally require vaccinations, including as a condition of participation in public activities such as school, and employers can make them mandatory as a condition of employment. But most have chosen to strongly encourage vaccinations instead of requiring them, fearing a backlash that could be counterproductive—or worse. 

Researchers have generally concluded that even using the language of mandates is less effective in pushing Covid-19 vaccination than messages based around altruism, hope and empowerment. Incentives are emerging as a popular motivational alternative. 

Many public health messages draw on the idea of vaccination for the sake of others in a community. And some focus on what individuals stand to gain for themselves, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention telling fully vaccinated people they can gather indoors together without wearing a mask, and older Americans hearing they can hug their grandchildren indoors without masks and face a near-zero risk of contracting the virus. 

But the carrots and sticks for the elderly are not the same as the ones that matter to professional athletes. 

The NBA and the National Basketball Players Association reached a similar deal to MLB’s earlier this month to loosen strict Covid protocols for players and staffers who are two weeks past their final dose and for teams with 85% of their players and staff fully vaccinated. 

The most important perk for the individuals who get the shot: They no longer have to quarantine if they’re exposed to Covid-19. Many players have been sidelined this season because of contact tracing—not because they tested positive themselves—and this one rule change is likely to result in fewer disruptions as the NBA playoffs approach. 

They’re also permitted to have friends and family visit, which restores a sense of normalcy in a deeply abnormal season, and they won’t have to submit to point-of-care tests or trudge into work for testing on their off days, which is a relief to many players who are frustrated with the inconveniences of getting tested at least twice daily. 

The incentives for entire teams to get vaccinated are even stronger. As soon as 85% of players and staffers get the shot, NBA teams will feel more like it’s 2019 instead of 2020 or 2021. They won’t have to wear masks at the practice facility. They can leave the team hotel on the road, dine indoors or outdoors and eat meals on the team plane. They can even gather like normal human beings for in-person meetings. 

What that means is that the NBA teams with the highest percentage of players and coaches who get the vaccine could have an advantage in the playoffs if they find themselves in a series against a team with enough vaccine holdouts. 

The NBA deal came after the league and the union’s doctors mounted an educational blitz in February to address the concerns of hesitant players. It appears to have worked—though it isn’t yet clear to what extent. 

If there is any potential basketball advantage to getting vaccinated, the Atlanta Hawks will be one of the first teams to find out. They announced that 36 people in their basketball operations staff, including 14 players, received their first vaccine dose in mid-March. (Three players were not vaccinated because they were not yet eligible in Georgia.) Some players were still wearing their uniforms when they got the shots immediately after a recent game. 

As vaccine eligibility requirements have started to loosen in many states around the country, a few baseball teams have announced plans to vaccinate their personnel before Thursday’s opening day. 

The Houston Astros intended to fly from their spring training facility in West Palm Beach, Fla., to Houston on Monday to get vaccinated, instead of traveling directly to Oakland, Calif., for their series against the Athletics. The St. Louis Cardinals are expecting to have access to the Johnson & Johnson shot in Ohio before they begin their season against the Cincinnati Reds.

“I’m hopeful people will do it because obviously, the more vaccines that go into arms, ultimately, the more freedom or normalcy we’ll be able to experience,” Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said.

Write to Jared Diamond at jared.diamond@wsj.com, Ben Cohen at ben.cohen@wsj.com and Louise Radnofsky at louise.radnofsky@wsj.com