Monday, December 13, 2021
Bayern star fears division
Kimmich comments on the mandatory vaccination debate
Joshua Kimmich now wants to be vaccinated. The national soccer player criticizes what he sees as a cross-border debate about his vaccination concerns. In an interview with ZDF, the Bayern star also commented on the ongoing vaccination debate.
Joshua Kimmich considers the heated debate about his vaccination concerns to be completely exaggerated and sometimes even dangerous. “The boundaries were simply crossed where some jumped on this train, in order to distinguish themselves there, in order to use the whole discussion for themselves, and I absolutely condemn that,” said the national soccer player from FC Bayern Munich to ZDF. For weeks, the 26-year-old has been the most prominent example in the sharp social discussion about vaccination and how to deal with the corona pandemic.
“We always talk about respect, tolerance, openness and these are precisely the values that I was missing in my discussion,” said Kimmich. The midfielder warned that fears and concerns about a corona vaccination should be taken seriously. “If we say now that we have cleared up enough, now we have to exert pressure, I am not sure whether this is the right way and I believe that this will lead to an even greater division in our society,” said Kimmich. He himself announced on Sunday that after a long hesitation he would like to be vaccinated.
“The decision to vaccinate Joshua Kimmich deserves respect. He was never a lateral thinker and only hesitated too long,” tweeted the new Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach on Sunday evening and apparently also pleaded for more information than pressure: “Unfortunately, many people feel that way, Many people in the intensive care units regret their hesitation. We have to address those who hesitate more specifically. ”
Football as a diversionary maneuver
Most recently, the Federal Council and the Bundestag decided that health workers should be vaccinated, but work is also being carried out on a general mandatory vaccination. “The federal government and the states have just taken very rigid measures. We will check every day how they are implemented and whether they are sufficient,” said Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz of “Bild am Sonntag”.
Experts and politicians had also called for vaccinations and booster vaccinations out of concern about the spread of the new virus variant Omikron. “Vaccines against the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus prevent you from contracting Covid-19 and offer highly effective protection against serious illnesses,” says the Federal Center for Health Education. Their benefits far outweigh possible risks.
In the midst of the debate about Kimmich and the role model effect of footballers, some top politicians had even brought up compulsory vaccination for Bundesliga professionals. “Here and there you have not got rid of the feeling that professional football is also used by individuals to get into the media or to distract attention from other things,” League boss Christian Seifert told the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” and asked for a vaccination quota referred by more than 90 percent to the Bundesliga clubs.
The press is said to have ambushed Kimmich’s family
Kimmich assured that he was well aware of his role model. “I’m a national player, I’m a Bayern Munich player – and yet I’m just a person somewhere who also has fears and concerns,” he said. As for politics, it is difficult for him in the pandemic to always make the right decision. “That’s one of the reasons why I don’t quite understand why then, a person like me, is not allowed to make this mistake and then you really point your finger from almost all directions and judge,” said Kimmich.
He could understand factual criticism and he had to “endure it somewhere,” assured Kimmich. However, he complained that “a great deal of personal information has become public”. In October, the “Bild” newspaper initially reported that Kimmich and four other Bayern professionals were not vaccinated. Kimmich then admitted this in an interview with the TV broadcaster Sky and cited concerns about alleged long-term effects of a vaccination as the motivation. However, many experts rule out such long-term effects.
In the course of the stormy debate about the national player, close family members were also targeted. “It was even the case that the press was on site at my grandfather’s funeral and I was already wondering where the limit is, how do we want to deal with each other in our society,” said Kimmich.
Everyone has to make the decision about vaccination for themselves. He welcomed the vaccination calls from other role models and distanced himself from conspiracy theorists and lateral thinkers, said Kimmich, but emphasized: “In general, I don’t think it’s my job to convince people to vaccinate.”