Ingo Froböse, professor of prevention and rehabilitation in sport at the German Sport University Cologne, warns of the long-term consequences of long-covid in unvaccinated athletes.
National soccer player Joshua Kimmich, who has not yet had himself vaccinated against the corona virus, is also part of the endangered group who may suffer from long-term effects after a possible corona infection.
“The risk he's taking here is pretty big.
The big problems with the non-vaccinated athletes arise from Long-Covid, "said Froböse on Tuesday in the ARD morning magazine.
Long-Covid is a long-term consequence "and what a", said the sports scientist.
In the worst case, as has already occurred with other athletes, this could lead to the end of a career.
"Lengthy Consequences"
At the sports university in Cologne, many athletes are now being considered and supervised, "which have protracted consequences because they have not been vaccinated," said Froböse.
He could not fully understand Kimmich's argument: "He's wrong to take a wrong look at the vaccination."
There are of course side effects, "but these are always only acute reactions from the vaccination," said Froböse.
The chairman of the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko), Thomas Mertens, had also rejected Kimmich's concerns in an interview with the Deutsche Presse-Agenur and, with reference to approval studies, stated that so far only "a few side effects have occurred, all of which were quite a short time after the Vaccination have occurred. "