Novak Djokovic is now officially out of the Australian Open and has left the country. There was incompetence and confusion on the part of the Australian government but ultimately it was the right final decision. Nobody is above the law, no matter the wealth or celebrity status of the person.
Serbia and all the anti-vaxxers are of course dismayed at the ruling. They said it was unfair because if the provincial government had not accept Djokovic's application for exemption, he would not have gone to Australia in the first place. But to me, there was something fishy about what Djokovic did. He knew he was not vaccinated and so needed an exemption. His request for exemption was that he had COVID already. But he got a positive test on Dec. 16 or 17. How did he know that he would get infected then or any time after? At that late date, he would not have enough time to get two shots before going to Australia. So the only way was to get infected to get an exemption. So if he did not get infected, he would not have gone to Australia to defend his title?
Djokovic then was seen in public without masks at least couple of times right after the positive test result. He is either extremely irresponsible, which should give Australia pause of admitting him in any case, or the test result was faked! He was not going to get vaccinated because he is anti-vax. So did he planned to get infected or get a fake medical result to get an exemption?
So to me the whole thing smell fishy and so I think Australia ultimately did the right thing by banning him. You cannot ask the whole population to sacrifice and then let somebody from another country flaunt the rules.
I do think that Djokovic should not be banned for 3 years because he was deported as some in Australia have suggested. That would be unfair because Australia shared some responsibility for giving him an exemption initially. If it didn't, then Djokovic would not have flied to Australia and thus would not be subject to deportation. So the 3 year ban rule should not be enforced here.
So, he won the Australian Open last year, correct? If so, I'm surprised that he was allowed in Australia last year. For some reason, I thought they had pretty strict restrictions there. Maybe I am mis-remembering and thinking of New Zealand. So Djokovic supposedly had Covid in December? Didn't he get it in early 2021 as well? The guy is a walking super spreader. You had mentioned something about Serbia earlier. Is there a national opposition of Covid vaccines there? How are the Covid numbers there? It will be interesting to see if Djokovic will be banned from playing at the other majors now. I saw some stats that most of the overseas cases are starting to go down, so there is hope it'll go down here in the U.S.
ReplyDelete-LBOAYM
Australia was among the countries with the lowest cases a year ago and so maybe they reduced the restrictions then. Lately their cases have skyrocketed and thus more restrictions. Certainly a bad look if they led someone famous bypass the restrictions. I think you are correct that Djokovic had COVID before. As we all know, having it once does not mean you can't get it again. Certainly, you can pass it to others again. So there should not be an exemption in the first place for having been already infected.
ReplyDeleteSerbia is an interesting situation. Serbia was part of the former Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia has a history of friendship with China. Their famous leader Tito was called the Mao Zedong of the Balkans. So in the beginning, China sent vaccines to Serbia. So they were one of the first country in Eastern Europe to get any vaccine. So they were doing better than others around them with the same economic situation. But there are also a lot of anti-vaxxers and there are also some who wanted western vaccines instead of Chinese vaccines. So I think China stopped sending them. But Serbia had trouble getting western vaccines. They still don't have any from Moderna or J and J. So between the antivaxxers and those pro westerners, only half of the population are vaccinated and the cases are climbing fast.
I understand France said that they will allow Djokovic in. I don't know about Wimbledon and the U.S. open in New York. If things are the same, he won't be able to play in New York. There are other tournaments in countries that have vaccine mandated, so will have to see what kind of schedule he can play if he continues to refuse vaccination.