The image of football as a reflection of society is an often tried one, but it is not always true. In terms of income, for example, professional football is guaranteed not to be a reflection of the masses, not to mention gender equality. But it is well known that the coronavirus does not care who earns how much. It behaves the same wherever people come together, and that’s why you can use the DFB team to describe the pandemic situation in the country very well.
There is a positive corona test with the player Niklas Süle, he is double vaccinated, but you now know that you can get infected despite being vaccinated. Four players have to be in quarantine as close contacts. One, Joshua Kimmich, is not vaccinated, with Serge Gnabry, Jamal Musiala and Karim Adeyemi, the DFB understandably does not disclose the vaccination status – however, you do not have to be vaccinated or recovered asymptomatically in isolation, not in Bavaria (where three of the four players live) and not in Lower Saxony (where the international match takes place).
The DFB nevertheless points out that conclusions on the vaccination status are not permissible, in individual cases the health department can decide differently – you can read that out in the regulation. However, the authorities saw no reason for quarantine with four other players in the Munich travel group.
The rules currently in force can be traced back to the Süle case
Kimmich’s now famous statement that he lacked long-term studies on the vaccine has led to a wave of education: Many experts said that vaccine side effects only occur for a short time and that the data situation for corona vaccines is extremely good. The current case means that the currently applicable rules are clearly explained. As a vaccinated contact person, you do not have to be in quarantine because if the virus were to be transmitted, it would encounter antibodies that prevent it from multiplying. A contact person who is not vaccinated will not have these antibodies, so the virus can spread more freely. These are not absolute statements – even a vaccinated person can, in the worst case, become an intensive care patient – but the probability is much lower.
And so the situation in the national team is a harbinger of the Corona winter, the signs of which can already be seen everywhere. With the current incidences, depending on the region, there is a very, very high chance of coming into contact with the virus either directly or indirectly – as a young professional athlete or as a member of an endangered group. As an unvaccinated first-degree contact person, that means at least seven days of quarantine in Bavaria. If you are infected with the virus, you run the risk of disease progressing without vaccination protection and a 14-day quarantine.
When it comes to the quarantine question, it is worth taking a special look away from society and towards professional football. Because a lot is usually done there in the medical field to minimize downtime. Not vaccinating, however, maximizes the amount of time players are unavailable. Joshua Kimmich’s seven-day isolation during the international matches against Liechtenstein and Armenia will of course be manageable. But as soon as he is classified as a contact person again for a new case, the whole thing starts all over again. FC Bayern won’t find it that great. Kimmich himself doesn’t guarantee either.