Joshua Kimmich says he’s not vaccinated – and half of Germany is going crazy. According to his statements, the national player from FC Bayern Munich is in the eye of a hurricane. The big vaccination questions are discussed at him.
Applause from the AfD, applause from the lateral thinkers and corona deniers, counted by those who believe they are on the right side. Of those who have been in a pandemic for almost two years and have recognized vaccination as the most plausible outcome in the direction of an epidemic. Even the federal government has spoken out. In the form of government spokesman Steffen Seibert, she hopes for a reassessment of the situation, for the jump to the camp of the vaccinated.
National player Joshua Kimmich is in a consistently awkward position from which there is no easy way out. Completely surprising for outsiders is the previous posterboy of German football, who like no other professional brought the Bavarian Miasanmia to the field and personified it with his behavior next to the field with his campaign against Corona, his waiver of a consultant in contract negotiations for well-being Become a line of conflict.
Joshua Kimmich may now be vaccinated against the corona virus after all. He said that. The FC Bayern player even said that it could happen very soon. Would that pacify the escalation of indignation? Because that’s what it’s all about right now. Kimmich, the shining hero of German football, is punished everywhere. The fact that the 26-year-old, who is celebrated for his clarity and strength of opinion as well as for his chip balls and slides, has so far decided against the trick, was the big topic of the weekend.
Kimmich, the new line of conflict
Not all Bundesliga players are vaccinated yet. There are no official figures on the vaccination status of professionals, because both clubs and leagues do not have to provide any information, but are well informed internally about specific cases. But the decision about vaccination is up to the players, not the clubs. For good reason. League and clubs can only remind and ask. They have done this often and with great urgency. But in other cases, like that of Wolfsburg striker Wout Weghorst, there was no outcry. For understandable reasons. Weghorst is a good striker, but Kimmich is traded as the upcoming captain of the national team – and only recently filled this role under his former club coach Hansi Flick. It is unlikely that Flick knew nothing about the player’s vaccination status, and thus unlikely that he made it an issue in his decision.
So the Kimmich theme is oversized because the height of fall is so high, because it is so surprising. And since this weekend it has split the country into two camps. Two camps that are strangers to each other, that are sometimes even hostile to each other. On one side of the path are the vaccinated, the recovered and the scientists. They revolt in their moral superiority, accuse the player of not caring about social solidarity. Because vaccination protects. On the other side are the lateral thinkers and corona deniers. They rise up in recognition and instrumentalize the national player as their hero.
As is always the case in such debates, new levels of escalation are ignited every minute on both sides. And in the middle is Kimmich. It marks the new line of conflict in the German vaccination and corona debate. Also because his sudden appearance in it is so surprising. He was washed up by a publication of “Bild”, which lay in heavy waters last week.
Joshua Kimmich is now a footballer. He’s just a soccer player! Why is this debate escalating so? Well, that has several levels. On the one hand, professional football got a few official Corona privileges last year. While cultural establishments, pubs and clubs, among other things, had to shut down their operations for ages, the ball rolled back quite soon after the first lockdown. Even if against a ghost backdrop. The sport lacked the soul, but it was alive and many clubs survived. This was not the case for most of the other industries. But can an individual’s duty of solidarity to vaccinate actually be derived from this collective situation?
Vaccination status divides our society
And then there is another problem with Kimmich. Through the “we kick corona” initiative, which he founded together with Bayern friend Leon Goretzka, he donated a hell of a lot of money for global vaccine distribution. A most honorable and welcome cause. But one that is now being undermined by a massive credibility problem. Because how does that happen when one face of the initiative rejects what it is campaigning for?
In Joshua Kimmich, one can currently trace in a bizarre way what is actually not supposed to be. Not allowed to be. Because the vaccination status divides our society. He creates trenches. He creates anger. On both sides. The vaccinated fight with the spades and the associated protection for more normality. She is stunned that the other side is so ignorant. But who is the other side? Sure, there are deniers, belittlers, refusers, reaching them seems impossible. It also seems impossible to see through the motives for not getting vaccinated. Their attitude is characterized by absurd absolutism, ignorance of science and, in some cases, terrifying aggressiveness.
But on the other hand there are also people who are afraid. That don’t play down or even deny anything. In the divisive debate, however, they do not end up in the gray middle, but are helplessly drowned somewhere in black and white (more in black). Well, Joshua Kimmich tried very hard after the publication of his vaccination status via “Bild” newspaper to place himself in this gray center. In a statement after the Bundesliga game against TSG Hoffenheim (4-0), he vehemently resisted being classified as a corona denier or a Piks denier. He justified the decision with a lack of long-term studies on the new vaccines. There should be no lack of possible clarification. Numerous experts offered help and once again explained in detail that there were numerous misunderstandings about the word “long-term consequences”.
Kimmich and his bizarre location
The situation is different with regard to the 2G rule in German stadiums. In an effort to fill the huts again, the 3G rule still applies at most locations. No problem for Kimmich. It can be tested regularly. It is also a bit of a mockery that he does not pay for it himself, but his club. Because people without an exposed status now have to pay privately for their results. But now there are also stadiums in which the 2G rule applies. Means: Access only for vaccinated or convalescent people. However, this regulation does not apply to football professionals who pursue their profession there in the stadiums. But in a debate that is currently not very rational, the much-discussed question of the special role of football in times of the pandemic is coming up again.
Kimmich, the shining hero of German football, is now in an extremely bizarre position. He is being pulled from all directions. One can say: this is also a price to pay for his popularity and wealth. He has to endure public debates. No matter how uncomfortable they are. But it’s just like this: Kimmich did not voluntarily publish his status. As far as is known, he was whistled. And that in the most sensitive area that our society has to offer.
Now it is like this: It is not problematic to be angry with Kimmich. Because the national player betrayed the values that we thought he wanted to convey with the “we kick corona” initiative. A large part of society, precisely the part that promises to get out of the pandemic with the vaccine, feels misled by the 26-year-old family man and has been excited since the non-vaccination became public. But the “digital stoning” of the Bayern player, who did not deny Corona, but rather expressed his irrational fear of the “long-term effects” of the vaccination, remains questionable in this escalating form.
Rather, the Kimmich cause shines a spotlight on the worries of the numerous people who, almost two years after the outbreak, the pandemic and its consequences continue to leave with more questions than answers. The Kimmich case also raises the question of how a society in the future wants to deal with those who, for whatever reasons, have so far withdrawn from the vaccination and may continue to do so in the future. It does not seem appropriate to continue fueling this debate, which also divides families.
What is inevitably the case: Joshua Kimmich’s credibility is gone for the time being. That alone is harm enough for him.