Bristol City hoping to set an example with high Covid-19 vaccination rates

It is Monday afternoon at Brockway Medical Centre in Nailsea and parked outside is the unmistakable bright red Bristol City team bus. Fresh from training, players and staff file into an outdoor marquee before, one by one, being called in for their Covid vaccination booster, after 98 per cent received two jabs. It is an encouraging number given the English Football League recently revealed that, as of November, one in four of its players did not intend to get jabbed. “Did it hurt?” the club’s chief executive, Richard Gould, asks teenage midfielder Alex Scott, who smiles and shakes his head.

The message on flyers outside the north Somerset practice, in line with government and EFL advice, is clear: “Get vaccinated, get boosted, get protected.” In September the league facilitated a meeting between Jonathan van-Tam, the UK government’s deputy chief medical officer, and managers and captains to outline the benefits of the vaccine, as well as addressing questions and myths. In the Premier League, Wolves’ first-team bubble are fully vaccinated, and Morecambe of League One are 100 per cent double-jabbed and set to follow Bristol City – whose manager, Nigel Pearson, has suffered with Covid – by receiving their boosters on Tuesday. Gould says it has not been a case of “banging the table” to encourage uptake within the squad.

“We’ve spent time sitting with the players, educating them, giving them the information to be able to make their own decisions about it,” says Bristol City’s club doctor, Thom Phillips. “We’ve not forced anyone to do anything, we’ve not cajoled anyone into doing it. We’ve had honest conversations with everyone about their own personal reasons for wanting it or not wanting it. We’ve had a couple of group sessions to talk about it. It’s about discussing their concerns, their questions and addressing them with a good amount of time and care. I’d like to think myself and my GP colleagues, like the ones here, are doing a good job of having conversations with everyone in our community, in encouraging them to come and get vaccinated.”

The England manager, Gareth Southgate, previously suggested some players have been swayed by conspiracy theories on social media. “There is a lot of misinformation out there and what I hope we’ve done here is spoken to our players and given them good, reliable sources of information to make their own decisions,” says Phillips. “Some of them [players] have never had a vaccine before. Some of them wanted to know how it worked, some of them wanted to know about the side effects. The one that we came back to was about young people [being] concerned about the risks and we had honest conversations about them and they have made good decisions.”

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Last week the EFL mandated its clubs to adhere to ‘red protocols’ at training, which include daily lateral flow testing – subject to availability – social distancing, staggered use of facilities, and the wearing of masks indoors. City, Phillips says, are working with “skeleton staff” at their training base. Nineteen of the EFL’s 36 matches were postponed last weekend and on Monday Stoke City announced their fixture at Barnsley was one of seven EFL games that will not go ahead on St Stephen’s Day. “It’s a bit difficult going back to the future, especially when we’ve got so many jabbed, but I can see why the EFL has introduced the protocols,” Gould says. “We want supporters to come and watch football. We don’t want another season interrupted by Covid.”

Phillips has a quiet word with the odd player after their booster and in a few hours he has 150 vaccinations to administer at a Covid clinic in Cwmbran, where he is a GP. Meanwhile, a couple of fans spot their favourite player boarding the team coach. Are there any big City fans in the practice? “No comment … we may have some Bristol Rovers fans,” smiles GP Dr Jon Rees. “The Bristol City squad coming here for their boosters is a real lift for our staff and a real positive message to emphasise the importance of getting your booster now. They are setting a good example to the rest of the Premier League and the Championship. We would love to see that rolled out.” – Guardian