Premier League vaccine rate is WORST in world
Mail on Sunday survey finds English game is lagging far behind as rival sports pull weight in Covid battle
PREMIER LEAGUE clubs are lagging behind the world’s major sports in persuading their star players to get the Covid-19 jab.
A Mail on Sunday survey has found that almost all other top leagues have a much higher vaccine take-up rate than English football.
Even tennis — which has had a similar issue with vaccine hesitancy — is threatening to outstrip English football, with the take-up rate on the ATP tour having improved by about 20 per cent over the past six weeks.
Other sports have attributed their success to reasons that include top athletes promoting the jab and tougher restrictions for unvaccinated players, neither of which have happened in the Premier League.
This has been done in some American sports such as the NFL who have more than 95 per cent of their players and staff fully vaccinated — despite a number of high-profile refuseniks — with some franchises at 100 per cent.
They credit star players and coaches coming out as strong, vocal advocates for vaccination as a key factor in their high number, such as Super Bowl-winning coach Bruce Arians.
‘That has had a huge impact in dressing-rooms,’ NFL chief medical officer Dr Allen Sills told The Mail on Sunday. ‘Young and less experienced players look up to them and want to be as successful in the same way. It speaks to have people who have the trust of the players. That has been incredibly important.’
The Premier League have lacked such a spokesman among top players with conspiracy theories about virility and heart defects being shared in WhatsApp groups. They were unable to persuade players to take part in a similar publicity campaign despite a myth-debunking video by the UK’s deputy chief medical officer Jonathan Van-Tam.
Everton striker Richarlison became a rare advocate last week. He has been involved in campaigns encouraging people in Brazil to get vaccinated and posted a picture on social media of himself receiving his second jab.
Of the 20 Premier League clubs, 13 were understood to have vaccination rates below 50 per cent, according to a letter sent to clubs in September. This figure is likely to have risen slightly.
The most recent set of Football League figures, revealed by this newspaper last week, had just 49 per cent of players fully vaccinated. A quarter of EFL players effectively said they were not planning to get jabbed.
Britain’s two rugby codes have both seen swift increase in the number of players getting immunised. Sources say the ‘majority’ of Premiership Rugby clubs have reached a squad target of 85 per cent vaccinated and all 13 sides are expected to have reached it by the start of November. Clubs who said that they were at 85 per cent included Leicester, Saracens, Sale, Worcester, Harlequins, Newcastle, Exeter and London Irish.
Clubs in the Rugby Premiership, Championship and women’s Premier 15s were encouraged to get vaccinated by being told that they could relax Covid protocols once 85 per cent of their squad were jabbed.
Harlequins coach Tabai Matson said: ‘I’m not sure what our rate is now, but it’s well over 85 per cent. It’s one of those things where people just did as they were told.’
Significant progress has been made in rugby league too. In the Super League, the overall vaccination rate was at 78 per cent by mid-September, with the highest being 96 per cent at champions St Helens.
About 96 per cent of England’s international cricket players during the pandemic have been double-jabbed.
Of all the major sports, tennis has had the biggest issue, with players from Eastern Europe understood to be the most likely to be reluctant. But its rates have improved from just above 50 per cent at the start of September to between 60-65 per cent, sources said. The prospect of much stronger quarantine restrictions at the Australian Open in January is expected to increase rates further.
American sports across the board put the Premier League to shame. Major League Soccer have around 95 per cent of their players and staff vaccinated while the men’s and women’s US national teams are almost 100 per cent.
‘I would like to believe that it has been built on the conversations between us medical staff and players from the beginning of Covid,’ chief medical officer of the US national team George Chiampas told The Mail on Sunday. ‘We have had those conversations [about conspiracy theories]. In those circumstances I will have direct conversation with that athlete and I try to provide them with the best possible information. They are like my family so I speak to them as such.’
The PGA Tour told The Mail on Sunday that more than 85 per cent of golfers and caddies were fully vaccinated while the European Tour claim the ‘significant majority’ of theirs have been.
Major League Baseball said they were at 87 per cent. The NBA reached 95 per cent by the end of last month, with unvaccinated basketball players having to eat in separate rooms from team-mates and staff who have had the jab, use lockers as far away from vaccinated players as possible and stay masked and at least six feet from others in team meetings.
In Australia and New Zealand, the National Basketball League reported a 99 per cent vaccination rate.