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Yohan Blake, the world's second-fastest runner, prays during the 2016 Rio OlympicsYouTube / screenshot

JAMAICA, March 1, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – Jamaican sprinter Yohan Blake, who is the second fastest man in the world after Usain Bolt, has signalled his opposition to the COVID-19 experimental vaccines, declaring that he would “rather miss the Olympics than take the vaccine.”

Blake made the comments this past Saturday, after competing in the Jamaican Athletics Administration Association (JAAA) Qualification Meet at the National Stadium.

Jamaica’s The Gleaner reported that the sprinting star stated: “My mind still stays strong, I don’t want any vaccine, I rather to miss the Olympics than take the vaccine, I am not taking it.”

“I don’t really want to get into it now, but I have my reasons,” Blake continued.

Currently the Olympics are due to be held in Tokyo between July 23 and August 8, after having been postponed from last summer due to COVID restrictions. The Tokyo Olympics are thought to likely be Blake’s last games; he is aged 31.

In declaring himself ready to forego the games in order to avoid any mandatory vaccine, Blake is making a bold statement, since he is not without significant pedigree on the track. He is currently the second fast man in the most famous tests of speed, the 100m and 200m sprints. His times of 9.75 seconds in the 100m and 19.26 seconds in the 200m have only been beaten by his former training partner, Usain Bolt.

Blake took two silvers and one gold medal in the 2012 London Olympics, then returned from injury to take another gold in the 4x100m relay in Rio in 2016. With a winning time of 9.92 seconds at the 100m in the 2011 World Championships, Blake became the youngest 100m world champion, aged just 21. 

In a video posted to Twitter after his comments on Saturday, Blake pointed to his faith, and hinted at an explanation for his refusal of the experimental vaccines. “Love me or dislike me, but I am here for a reason, to serve God, and at the same time be a servant for God to help each and every one.”

“I am a righteous man, I am a man of God, and I believe that everybody do have a choice in life, no matter what. And I want to tell someone, don’t let anyone take away that choice from you,” Blake continued. “At the end of the day if anything should happen, nobody’s going to be by your side apart from God. No one is going to be there to hold your hand, it’s going to be you.”

“Follow your mind, don’t follow the crowd. At the same time, be respectful to each and every one. Don’t let no one take away your choice.”

Some weeks before, the sprinter posted a picture of his training with the caption: “Today was brutal at the track. You always see the finish product but don’t see behind the scenes. Not my will, but Thine be done.”

The International Olympic Committee (IOC), responsible for organizing the Olympics, has stated that athletes will not be required to receive the vaccine in order to participate in the games. However, the IOC further stated that when vaccines become widely available, it “calls for Olympic and Paralympic teams to be vaccinated.”

In addition to this, the IOC has ordered athletes and members of the teams to wear face masks “at all times” apart from eating and sleeping, or if outside with a space of two meters from others. They will also have to use the Japanese COVID tracing smartphone app, and avoid any public transport. “Repeated” breaching of the rules could result in athletes or team members being prohibited from participating in the games.

Whilst Blake did not specify his reasons in avoiding taking the experimental COVID vaccine, others are already raising significant questions about the safety of the injections.

Data gathered from recipients of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccine trials found that those who had the vaccines were seven times more likely to develop Bell’s Palsy, than those who merely had the placebo. By February 26, the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention included 177 reports of patients who developed symptoms that included Bell’s Palsy after COVID-19 vaccinations. 

Since the launch of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S., the latest data from VAERS has also recorded a total of 1095 deaths from December 15, 2020, up to February 18, 2021, accounting for almost 6% of 19,907 adverse events on the system’s report.

Across the globe, a growing number of residents in nursing and care homes have died shortly after receiving the injections, whilst many more have tested positive for the virus after the injections, despite no cases of the virus having been recorded before the injections.

Whilst the death toll grows amongst those who have recently received the experimental vaccine, along with the number of side-effects, former vice president of Pfizer Dr. Michael Yeadon has ridiculed the need for vaccines for COVID-19. Yeadon, who “spent over 30 years leading new [allergy and respiratory] medicines research in some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies,” wrote: “There is absolutely no need for vaccines to extinguish the pandemic. I’ve never heard such nonsense talked about vaccines. You do not vaccinate people who aren’t at risk from a disease. You also don’t set about planning to vaccinate millions of fit and healthy people with a vaccine that hasn’t been extensively tested on human subjects.”