Andy Murray Urged to Become COVID-19 Vaccine Champion as UK Begins Mass Vaccination

After approving the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer/BioNTech, the UK government will begin mass inoculation in the coming weeks. To encourage people to get vaccinated, celebrities including Andy Murray have been urged to become vaccine champions for Scotland. Having won 3 Grand Slam titles and two Olympic gold medals in singles, Murray is one of the most popular figures in Britain.

First Minister of Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon, believes well-respected people like Murray can be responsible ambassadors to reassure people about the safety of the injection. The minister feels political figures are not the right ambassadors for a universal public health drive, hence well-known people like Murray should come forward to reduce apprehensions about the vaccine.

Andy Murray is pro-vaccine

Recently, Murray talked about making the coronavirus vaccine compulsory for all players taking part in tournaments. Former World No.1 hoped that most players would willingly get vaccinated, provided the clinical trials were successful and didn’t have any significant side effects.

Having received a knighthood in the year 2019, Sir Andy Murray got the tremendous honor for his services to tennis and charity. Struggling with hip injuries over the last few years, Murray has been in action intermittently and is yet to return to full fitness.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, multiple tournaments including the Wimbledon Championships got canceled because of the adverse safety concerns. Post the ATP tour’s resumption in August, players were kept in a bio-secure bubble to stop transmission of the virus.

The biggest change was that most tournaments didn’t allow spectators into the stadiums. The usual sight of jam-packed electrifying crowds got replaced with deafening silence, with only the players’ voices echoing.

Despite the promising results around the vaccine’s efficacy, Novak Djokovic doesn’t want any player to be coerced to get inoculated. Having contracted the virus during the Adria Tour in June, Djokovic had received widespread criticism for organizing a tennis tournament amidst a global crisis.