The Austrian Government has urged the tennis player Dominic Thiem, number nine in the world, c already against covid-19, after the athlete has expressed his intention to wait for a new type of vaccine to be available.
“I can only urge Dominic Thiem to get vaccinated,” said the Austrian Minister of Health, Wolfgang Mückstein, in an interview with the radio station Puls4, in which he recalled that athletes also suffer the effects of prolonged covid and that in there are young people in intensive care units. Thiem recently assured that his intention is to wait for the approval of the use of Novavax, a vaccine still in development and that uses a different technology than the messenger RNA or viral vector that are currently used in the European Union.
“I am not yet vaccinated. In fact, I want to wait for the Novavax vaccine because my doctor has told me that it is supposed to be very good,” said the athlete. However, Thiem clarified that he is open to using any other drug if that vaccine is not ready in time to meet the obligation to be fully immunized to participate in the Australian Open next January.
Reigning tournament champion and current No. 1 in the world rankings, Novak Djokovic, has insisted in the past that getting vaccinated is a personal decision and has avoided commenting on whether he is already immunized. Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas, number three in the ATP ranking, was also critical of covid vaccines last August. Austria registered this Wednesday the highest number of infections since November last year and only 62% of the population has received the full schedule of the vaccine.
Vaccination schedule, very slow in ATP
65% of the ATP circuit tennis players have already been vaccinated, just over two months after the Australian Open begins, which requires vaccination in the protagonists to avoid two-week quarantines.
According to a leaked ATP document, to which ‘Tennismajors’ has had access, the ATP circuit has 65% vaccinated players, which places tennis behind other competitions, such as the Premier League, which already has 68% of the players with the two doses, or the
American sports like the NFL, where the percentage is higher than 90%.
The ATP affects the letter on the need for tennis players to be vaccinated since, although the organization does not contemplate that it is something mandatory to play, something that tennis players like Novak Djokovic have already opposed, is the decision of each country and government entry laws.
The same goes for airlines. The Australian Open, which takes place in Melbourne in January, is the litmus test for tennis players like Djokovic or Stefanos Tsitsipas who have opposed the use of the vaccine and who have not wanted to reveal whether they have received the doses or not. Australia, according to another leaked WTA document, would only exempt those tennis players who have received the two doses from quarantine, while those who have not, will have to quarantine in a hotel for two weeks.
EFE
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