Thread by @RaeComm

Watching the Kimmich interview now on ZDF. I’ll post the key points below.
To be fair to him, his tone is one of someone who has learned the hard way & wishes he had avoided getting Covid while unvaccinated.

Kimmich says his it was a difficult time for him. He was lucky his infection was “relatively mild.” But he lost taste & smell & a medical check showed he had some fluid in the lung. Therefore 10 days before he can return to training.

Asked about the fluid, he said he can’t do intensive training as there’s a danger it could travel to the heart and then the absence would be longer. But has been told if he takes it easy for 10 days, he should be OK.

When he found out he was positive it was of course “not great.” He had been 2 weeks in quarantine prior. The positive test came on the last day of his quarantine. Just hoped he would have a mild course & that no consequences would result.

Why didn’t he get vaxxed? He said he for a long time saw risks in both the disease & being vaxxed. He thought he could protect himself & teammates by just sticking to health measures & being tested every 3 days.

Then Kimmich saw & felt that with the arrival of the fourth Covid wave in Germany, you couldn’t influence that as much through your own personal conduct. Also in the team they has a few cases in the team. That made it clear to him, it’s not in our own hands.

Will Kimmich now get vaxxed?
“Yes. I even had a vaccination date agreed with my doctor during my second quarantine period. Unfortunately the illness came first.”

Kimmich says he’ll be regarded for a while as “recovered” (Genesen) but when it’s recommended that he gets vaccinated, he will absolutely do it.

Does he have a guilty conscience for leaving his teammates without him such as against Dortmund? He says he does. But also feels first & foremost for his family who had to listen to it.

Kimmich:
“I was the one who sat at home, missed this huge game, couldn’t help & as good as left the team in the lurch. Not because I got infected but because I missed 2 weeks & 1 week respectively as I was a contact person. And had I been vaccinated, that wouldn’t have happened.”

Was there criticism within the Bayern team? Kimmich says not criticism as such but regular & honest conversations. At the end of the day it’s everyone’s own decision. But you can understand the annoyance when an important player is unavailable.

On his salary being cut during quarantine (as unvaxxed) Kimmich says he can understand it & says the club has every right. He must accept it.

On criticism that was heaped on him, Kimmich can understand the constructive criticism, above all currently with the case numbers rising significantly. Despite that he thinks some of it was below the belt & some were using it to enhance their profile.

Kimmich says he’s aware he has a certain function as a role model & has wrestled with this as a national team & Bayern player. However he says he’s also just a guy who had worries & concerns.

Kimmich talks about politicians having to react to different phases of the pandemic & making mistakes.
“So then I don’t understand completely why a guy like me isn’t allowed to make a mistake with almost everyone from every direction pointing their finger & judging.

Kimmich says he found it OK that there was criticism for his undecided stance on the vaccine. But it’s hard when his personal situation is out in the public & played over & over. In his home village cameras were trying to record his relatives at various times.

Kimmich says at his grandad’s funeral there was press on site & he wonders where the line is. We speak of respect, tolerance & openness & these are values that are missing. Borders were broken & people jumped on to the train for their own ends & he condemns this.

Kimmich on people who are unvaccinated. “It’s a decision everyone must decide for themselves. I find it good that many role models use their position to encourage people to get vaccinated.”

Kimmich says in general he doesn’t see it as his job to convince people to be vaxxed. It’s not the right way to put people under pressure. It’s worth listening to people. Why do they have concerns? Of course there are conspiracy theorists around who he separates himself from.

But Kimmich thinks we still need to explain things to people who just have concerns. If we put these people under pressure it will just lead to an even bigger split in society.

Kimmich says his “We Kick Corona” campaign aimed among other things at getting vaccines to third world countries in tandem with UNICEF shows he could never be regarded as an anti-vaxx.

What would we do differently? Where has he made mistakes.
Kimmich: “Of course it would have been better to get vaccinated earlier for several reasons. There are many good reasons to get vaxxed, primarily so as not to get infected.”

Kimmich: “You can’t say that with certainty but you can say with certainty that I wouldn’t have had to go into quarantine as a contact person. All in all it was difficult for me to deal with my fears & concerns & so I was undecided for a long time.”

Kimmich: “And therefore I couldn’t come to a decision at that point in time and had to live through what I have now lived through. Of course looking back, I would rather have made the decision to be vaxxed earlier but at that time it wasn’t possible.”

The ZDF interview was 12 minutes long (Jan Mendelin.)
This thread is a summary of what Kimmich said in answer to the questions. Translations all mine.
Ende/