The Russian Ministry of Sports proposed to start vaccinating all national team athletes against COVID-19. Many Russian people are not especially enthusiastic about the vaccine – less than half of poll respondents last month said they want to get vaccinated. Part of it is connected to the dubious trials and rushed approval process of Sputnik V, the only COVID-19 vaccine currently approved in Russia. It seems that there is a campaign aimed at making the vaccine more popular and Svetlana Khorkina, who works for the government, was among the famous people saying they got vaccinated and advise others to do so. Khorkina said that if she were an active athlete right now, she’d definitely get the vaccine:
“This will be a personal decision of each athlete. If I was a current athlete, I’d get vaccinated, if only because you go home between camps and it’s really upsetting when you get out of shape because of an illness and it’s really hard to get back in shape. Especially since I heard about serious complications from the coronavirus. I’ll say it again that if I were preparing for the Olympics now, I’d do it. By the way, I’ve already gotten the vaccine without being an active athlete.”
Back in March, Khorkina said that COVID-19 and postponing the Olympics because of it was God’s punishment to the world for offending Russia. Her tune has probably changed since Russia is among the countries most affected by the pandemic, so the punishment theory does not quite work.
