DFB director Oliver Bierhoff has clearly backed the national soccer player in the vaccination debate about Joshua Kimmich.

"Understandably, the discussions about the vaccination quota are very emotional," the 53-year-old told the Bild newspaper: "But I have no understanding that Joshua is now being publicly pilloried."

At the end of October it became known that the professional from record champions Bayern Munich had decided against a vaccination against the coronavirus due to "personal concerns". According to their own statement, the 26-year-olds were skeptical about the "lack of long-term studies". As a result, a debate about Kimmich's decision broke out, in which even Chancellor Angela Merkel intervened. "As the DFB, we have started a vaccination campaign ourselves and encourage everyone to get vaccinated," said Bierhoff: "However, there is also no question that we do not have a compulsory vaccination in Germany and therefore accept Jo's attitude and continue to fully support him stand as a national player. "

Experts had rejected Kimmich's concerns about possible long-term damage from a corona vaccination. The chairman of the Standing Vaccination Commission (STIKO), for example, Thomas Mertens, said that there had been accompanying studies on the vaccines that carefully examined whether serious side effects could occur when used. “You have to consider that seven billion doses have now been inoculated on people with the Covid-19 vaccine. It is clear that there can be no ten-year observational studies when a vaccine is used for almost a year. ”This applies not only to all other vaccines, but also to every drug.

In general, most of the side effects of vaccines occur within a few hours or days, in rare cases even after weeks. Klaus Cichutek, President of the Paul Ehrlich Institute, told the Tagesschau's online presence that side effects that would take years to appear “are not known about vaccines”.

The left-wing politician Sahra Wagenknecht also expressed skepticism about vaccinations and the long-term consequences of a corona infection in the ARD talk "Anne Will" last Sunday.

The SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach has now sharply criticized her for it.

Lauterbach told Spiegel that he had a "dark suspicion" that she was deliberately misrepresenting facts about corona vaccinations.

Lauterbach went on to say that he valued Wagenknecht as a politician, but her statements were dangerous: "That hurts."

"The other possibility is she knows more, but misrepresents it."