Sunderland boss Lee Johnson has made the bold claim that one of his players has been ruled out for five weeks because of the Covid vaccine.
Back-up goalkeeper Lee Burge was one of a number of players at the club who contracted Covid-19 at the start of the month, but the 29-year-old has been forced to remain on the sidelines for longer due to having an “inflamed heart” and will be out for around five weeks.
As quoted by the Daily Mail, speaking in his pre-match press conference ahead of his sides trip to Bolton Wanderers, Johnson said: “It seems to happen a lot after these injections or Covid.
“The weighting would be on Covid but you can’t rule out, I suppose, vaccination.”
Uptake for the vaccine in the EFL is quite poor relatively speaking. Many of the divisions across Europe have better uptakes than what is present in the UK.
Data from December indicated that while 59% of players were double jabbed and a further 16% were set to get the jab, 25% of players had no intention of being vaccinated.
British Heart Foundation research shows Johnson’s claim of it being a regular occurrence to be wrong, with the Foundation’s website saying the condition is rare for those who have had the Moderna vaccine and even more scarce for those who have had the Pfizer vaccine – 40 per million men.
Johnson did later climb down on his claims, but it underlines the need for education surrounding the vaccines.
People should be encouraged to get the jabs done, LJ was totally irresponsible in making that statement. Any vaccine has risks!
What an absolutely pathetic article man! At what point dkes Johnson claim it was because of the jab or state this was a regular occurance? I’ll tell you at what point…..none!!
He stated he’s not a doctor so couldn’t really answer and that it could be Covid or the Vaccine. That statement is completely correct and you can’t deny that.
What a horrific standard of “journalism”.