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Djokovic’s Vaccine Stance May Cost Him Entry to the Australian Open

by Luke Perry
26 October 2021 6:30 PM

We’re publishing a guest post today by David Hansard, a writer who has previous contributed to Quillette, the Conservative Woman and Cumbria magazine. It’s about the principled refusal of Novak Djokovic to refuse to disclose his vaccine status and the risks he’s taking in doing so.

Daniel Andrews, the self-satisfied Premier of Victoria, has said it is doubtful unvaccinated tennis players will be allowed to take part in the Australian Open in January.

Few are surprised by what Andrews said. It is entirely in keeping with his authoritarian response to Covid, which seems to get more dictatorial by the day. He is not alone among politicians. But like others in Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere, his policies seem to be reaching new heights of illiberalism.

Nine-times Australian Open winner, and world number one, Novak Djokovic, in particular, is not happy.

Djokovic first made his views about vaccinations known some months ago. He believes it should be a personal choice free of any pressure, let alone mandated. Last week, when asked, he refused to say if he has been vaccinated. He added: “It is a private matter and an inappropriate inquiry. People go too far these days in taking the liberty to ask questions and judge a person.” 

I think it safe to say he has not been vaccinated.

Many sceptics are understandably pleased, and feel encouraged by Djokovic’s stance. It is not every day you find one of the world’s leading sports men on your side. It is a breath of fresh air after months of politicians and the media relentlessly urging everyone to be vaccinated, masked, distanced and tested, while those who express concern are often dismissed, demonised or censored.

https://twitter.com/BellaWallerstei/status/1451852735645618178

But sceptics need to be cautious. Andrews’ statement puts Djokovic in a more difficult position than it might at first appear. Doubtless, Djokovic knows this himself.

One argument in support of Djokovic is simple but powerful: elite tennis players are some of the fittest people who have ever lived. They are at a diminishingly small risk from serious illness from Covid, let alone from dying of it. And at the highest level of the game, those who win and win regularly, do so by a very narrow margin. It is this small but vital difference between players’ performances which separates the very good from the exceptionally good, from the winners and legends.

It is to be expected, therefore, that Djokovic is uneasy. Other players and coaches agree, but have received less publicity. Pat Cash, for example, has voiced dismay about vaccinations and about the restrictions, bubbles and testing faced by players on tour. And one unnamed female player, Cash said, had a blood clot after being vaccinated. 

In April, Djokovic said: “My issue here with vaccines is if someone is forcing me to put something in my body. That I don’t want.” For Djokovic, and for all top players, it is not just training and perfecting their skills which matters. They follow what we might call a ‘whole body’ approach. Close attention is paid to diet, to improve and safeguard fitness, strength and stamina. But perhaps most of all to gain the extra advantage which helps players win grand slams. Why add the worry that it all may be put at risk, especially by a new and previously unproven vaccine, and one they don’t need?

If only it were that simple. Djokovic also has to consider his public image. Sponsors may be nervous, as will be the ATP, the governing body of men’s professional tennis. The ATP, and in women’s tennis the WTA, are emphasising the benefits of vaccination and attempting to reassure players.  As with so many organisations, companies and governments, they fear damage to their reputation, even if what they are doing sometimes defies logic.

Along with the claim that being vaccinated reduces transmission, all this makes it far from straightforward for the world number one.

Djokovic has said he is unsure if he will play at the Australian Open. He knows his words carry some weight and will be hoping in this case that he can change minds. For now, it is perhaps the best – and only – tactic he has at his disposal, if he is to give himself a chance to win a tenth Australian Open without being vaccinated.

Stop Press: A leaked email from the Women’s Tennis Association suggests unvaccinated players may be able to compete at the Australian Open provided they quarantine for two weeks on arrival. The Mirror has more.

Tags: Australian OpenNovak DjokovicSportTennisVaccines

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42 Comments
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Ron Smith
Ron Smith
11 months ago

I will make of it what I always do. This fear porn was mentioned on the radio this morning.
Hajj deaths: Hundreds of pilgrims die as Mecca, Saudi Arabia temperatures soar | CNN

32
0
Westfieldmike
Westfieldmike
11 months ago
Reply to  Ron Smith

It’s become a joke.

0
0
FerdIII
FerdIII
11 months ago

The BBC and the fake news/science complex is a joke.
Now in Sussex it is 22c. Next week it might reach 26c. After a miserable 19 days of June weather, the BBC will declare this June the hottest June evah, in 14 trillion, billion, Darwinian, Brazilian years. Whatever.
State funded vomit.

79
0
Heretic
Heretic
11 months ago

The easiest way to understand why there are these extreme shifts in temperature is to look at the following illustration of what happens during the Low Solar Activity preceding an Ice Age. The normally steady Jet Stream flow turns “loopy”, bringing cold air down from the Arctic to southerly regions, soon followed by another loop bringing hot air up from the tropics to northerly regions. This article was published before the Electroverse website went behind a paywall.

Explained: Low Solar Activity And A ‘Meridional’ Jet Stream Flow – Electroverse

This was also explained by the late Robert Felix in his 1999 book:

Not by Fire but by Ice: Discover What Killed the Dinosaurs…and Why It Could Soon Kill Us: Amazon.co.uk: Felix, Robert W.: 9780964874688: Books

(He was a healthy man until his wife insisted that he get the Covid jabs. He suddenly died soon afterward, in 2021)

Last edited 11 months ago by Heretic
33
0
godknowsimgood
godknowsimgood
11 months ago

Who is old enough to remember the time when the weather was normal for the time of year in every part of the world?

Indoctrinated young people may believe there was such a time.

27
0
Richard Austin
Richard Austin
11 months ago
Reply to  godknowsimgood

Exactly, it has always been a bit loopy tunes. There are some patterns though which can be weird. We were on holiday in Greece one year and got talking to a bar owner. He said “It will rain on Thursday, this time of year, it always rains on Thursday”. Sure enough it did. Was that man made to keep his customers in the bar?

8
-1
Iain McCausland
Iain McCausland
11 months ago

The DS may now be awakening to the nature of the real climate crisis coming and how so much more dangerous it will be than any amount of ‘warming’ –https://open.substack.com/pub/electroverse/p/montanas-record-lows-and-snows-global?r=jx6c3&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post

7
0
Heretic
Heretic
11 months ago
Reply to  Iain McCausland

Thanks for helping DS readers to have access to that otherwise paywalled Electroverse article.

2
0
varmint
varmint
11 months ago

Anyone with an agenda, a point of view, or an argument will highlight that which aligns with their world view while ignoring all that doesn’t. It was ever thus. —–It is exactly the same with activist News Channels pushing the Political Agenda of Climate Change. No one should be fooled by this claim that what they are reporting on is “science”. In science you question everything. When Mainstream News question NOTHING it means they are not indulging in science at all. —–The whole Sustainable Development political agenda depends on there being dangerous changes to climate caused by our use of fossil fuels, and if there isn’t then that whole political agenda collapses. So, the Climate Industrial Complex have to keep the idea of a climate emergency foremost in our minds so we all will accept the changes this political agenda wants to impose on us, and at astronomical expense and with severe consequences for prosperity and freedom. —–So we will always be shown extreme weather events from all corners of the globe to give us the impression that everything is getting worse, but as it happens real world data that the public seldom see or attempt to look at reveals there is no increase in the frequency or intensity of any type of weather event anywhere in the world. ——The whole political agenda of climate change is therefore a pack of lies, and at best a smidgeon of the truth elevated into a planetary emergency for which no empirical evidence exists.

11
0
Richard Austin
Richard Austin
11 months ago

About 5 years ago I read a report from NASA which said that the Moon is on a wobble cycle. It went on to explain that this will cause extremes in weather for around 10 years and is a normal occurrence.
Look at a weather map and you can see where the weather fronts are. El Nino was particularly long and blocked cold air from moving South and hot air moving North. Perfectly normal.
We now have a weather front doing the same thing. I was talking to come colleagues in India and it is around 36 degrees. This time of year they always expect a Monsoon, it will come but it is late this year. The BBC would report the Monsoon, when it comes, as being due to “Man Made Climate Change”, yet, it has always happened at roughly the same time since time immemorial.
I find it interesting when you ask someone where the non-modelled, real world data is that proves this nutcase theory. There isn’t one despite all the billions.

8
0
mrbu
mrbu
11 months ago

The MSM latch onto any high temperature events they can find (especially if forest fires are involved) because that makes it easier for them to convince non-thinking members of the public that global warming will destroy us all, and that we should all willingly embrace a Dark Ages lifestyle to save our world. However, I’m a little surprised the BBC didn’t feature the Montana snowfall as “evidence” that global warming can make the weather more erratic. They missed a trick there.

4
0
Westfieldmike
Westfieldmike
11 months ago

The youtube channel ‘Oppenheimer Ranch Project’ has daily weather and other reports. The US winter was record breaking, colder than hell.

0
0

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