THE Icelandic Handball Association is investigating the rationale behind a directive from the International Handball Federation requiring all players to receive yet another Covid-19 vaccine booster to be allowed to take part in the World Championship in Sweden and Poland next month.
‘We were really surprised that these requirements were imposed on us now, when we received notifications from the International Handball Federation (IHF), regarding mandatory vaccination of players,’ Róbert Geir Gíslason, general manager of the Icelandic Handball Association, told Icelandic online newspaper Fréttin.
Fréttin asked Gíslason whether players and coaches were going to comply by these rules. Iceland is favourite to win the tournament. Gíslason said that additional material was still being received from the IHF about these issues and others, but that the directions changed from time to time.
‘We didn’t expect this, since the pandemic is officially over and all restrictions have been lifted,’ Gíslason said. He said most of the players have already had Covid and most also been vaccinated, ‘and they are also waiting for further information from the IHF. ‘This might affect ten players or 20 players, it remains to be seen,’ he said.
As for the health risks from the Covid vaccines, Gíslason said they had just heard from a very well-known British cardiologist who was at a conference in Norway a while ago where he strongly warned players against getting vaccinated; it could have a significant impact on their career. This is most probably the cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra who was at a conference in Oslo last month.
Gíslason told Fréttin’s reporters about his own experience. He said he first got the Janssen vaccination and ‘a quarter of an hour later’ the brand was no longer allowed in Iceland because of heart problems, then he got Moderna and ‘another quarter of an hour later’ Moderna was no longer allowed because of heart problems, and then finally he got Pfizer which has also been linked to heart problems.
Many sportspeople worry about the detrimental health effects from the Covid-19 vaccines. Last spring the Icelandic Football Association hosted a meeting on athlete heart problems hoping for explanations from renowned German cardiologist Dr Martin Halle, who unfortunately did his best to obscure the real reasons. Gíslason’s comments and response to those new requirements show sportspeople have started to demand real answers and Dr Malhotra’s dire warnings surely add to their concerns.
This article appeared on From Symptoms to Causes on November 30, 2022, and is republished by kind permission.
