Sunderland manager Lee Johnson has sparked outrage after claiming that the COVID-19 vaccine may have sidelined his goalkeeper, reports the Daily Mail.
Despite the swiftly-developed vaccine having been proven to be safe and effective, there have been some wild, unfounded conspiracies doing the rounds in the gloomy depths of the internet since it was first rolled out.
It appears as though Sunderland manager Lee Johnson has been spending too much time on tinfoil hat forums, because as quoted by the Daily Mail, he blamed the absence of his goalkeeper Lee Burge on the COVID-19 vaccine.
“‘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.”
“I don’t know, I am not a doctor. I get the information and the first thought is the player. Is he fit and well and survives it well and has a long career.”
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Goalkeeper Burge is understood to be suffering from heart inflammation, an incredibly rare side effect of the Moderna vaccine. Cardiac issues of this nature certainly do NOT “happen a lot” following COVID-19 vaccination.
With 25% of EFL players yet to be convinced to take the vaccine, it’s highly counterproductive for Johnson to be spouting fearmongering nonsense of this nature to the media.
He did backtrack on his comments, shifting the blame onto COVID-19 itself, perhaps fearing that he’d let the mask slip to the media and expose himself as a foolish anti-vaxxer – but the damage was already done.
