Yona on board with WADA on COVID-19 vaccine
Published:Monday | December 21, 2020 | 12:10 AM
Springboard diver Yona Knight-Wisdom says the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) guidance on the COVID-19 vaccine could ease concerns of athletes taking it to stop the spread.
His comments come after WADA recently assured its stakeholders that the administering of the vaccine to athletes would not put them in jeopardy of breaching anti-doping violations.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach, while encouraging athletes to take the vaccine before arriving for the rescheduled Tokyo Olympics next July, said that it will not be a requirement for participation.
But Knight-Wisdom says that if COVID-19 vaccination was a requirement to compete, the guidance from WADA does ease the concerns that athletes may have of possible doping violations.
“If the International Swimming Federation or the IOC says that to be able to train or to compete, or travel for competition, that it is necessary to take the vaccine, then obviously I would, because I want to compete,” Knight-Wisdom told The Gleaner. “If that was the case, I would assume that there would be no adverse findings from WADA, so we could take it with confidence and with comfort.”
approved vaccine
The vaccine developed by Pfizer-BioNTech is the only one that has been approved for use to prevent COVID-19. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says AstraZeneca, Janssen, and Moderna are three other vaccines still undergoing trials.
WADA said on December 10 that it will give guidance regarding the vaccine and whether substances in the vaccine may pose a problem.
“While there will be multiple vaccines developed and deployed, and therefore definitive statements concerning their compositions is premature, athletes can be confident that WADA will continue to monitor all available information and advise them and other members of the anti-doping community in the event an ingredient of a vaccine might be problematic,” WADA said.
Knight-Wisdom says that the vaccine can lead to staging competitions safely, although he is still wary of the roll-out.
“The fact that it’s here doesn’t necessarily put me at ease, but I’m sure it gives the governing bodies and the organisers a little bit more confidence to run more events and competitions as close to normal as possible,” he said. “I think that if it helps us return to competition safely and securely as soon as possible, then I’m all for it.”
Former Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association President Dr Warren Blake, also a general practitioner, says that athletes should get vaccinated if they have access to it.
“If you can get the vaccine, you should take it,” he said. “COVID is killing a lot of people and no amount of side effects can come close to the destruction that COVID has [done] to people.
“Vaccines have changed the face of healthcare in the world and this vaccine should be no different.”