What Van-Tam tells footballers about...

... VACCINE MYTHS

‘A few footballers have been hospitalised with Covid. If you have two doses of the Pfizer vaccine it is going to cut your chances of being ill by 85% and cut the chances of you ending up in hospital or dying by 95%. And if you don’t get Covid, you can’t long Covid and you don’t want long Covid if you’re a sportsman.

... VACCINE BENEFITS

‘If you’re double-jabbed you don’t need to isolate if you’re a close contact of a positive case. All you have to do is make sure your tests keep coming back negative. That means you’ll miss less training and miss less games too.

... FOREIGN TRAVEL

‘Many countries are insisting on a Covid passport. And it’s going to be difficult for players to travel to European fixtures, or international fixtures unless they’ve been doublejabbed.

... THE SIDE EFFECTS

‘They’re extremely rare.

The one that is taught about is heart inflammation. But the risks of that are far, far higher from Covid than from actually having the vaccine.

... VACCINE CONTENTS

‘Some of the Covid-19 vaccines do contain trace amounts of alcohol. But the Pfizer vaccine, which is the one you’re most likely to be given in the UK if you’re under 40, has no alcohol in it. And there are no animal products in any of the Covid vaccines in the UK.