World No. 1 tennis player Novak Djokovic has said he would rather miss out on future tennis competitions than be forced to get a Covid vaccine. He also said he was not anti-vaccine but supported an individual’s right to choose. BBC News has the story.
Djokovic was asked if he would sacrifice taking part in competitions such as Wimbledon and the French Open over his stance on the vaccine.
“Yes, that is the price that I’m willing to pay,” he said.
The 20-times Grand Slam winner was deported from Australia last month after the Government cancelled his visa in a row over his vaccine status.
Djokovic, who is the world’s number one men’s tennis player, said he had obtained a medical exemption to enter the country to play in the Australian Open as he had recently recovered from COVID-19.
However, the country’s immigration minister, Alex Hawke, personally cancelled the 34-year-old’s visa, on the grounds that his presence could incite “civil unrest” and encourage anti-vaccine sentiment.
“I was never against vaccination,” he told the BBC, confirming that he’d had vaccines as a child, “but I’ve always supported the freedom to choose what you put in your body.” …
Djokovic said he hoped vaccination requirements in certain tournaments would change, adding that he was hoping that he “can play for many more years”.
But he also confirmed he was willing to forego the chance to become statistically the greatest male tennis player of all time because he felt so strongly. Djokovic’s rival, Rafael Nadal, has won 21 Grand Slam singles titles – the most of any male competitor.
Asked why, he replied: “Because the principles of decision making on my body are more important than any title or anything else. I’m trying to be in tune with my body as much as I possibly can.”
Djokovic said he had “always been a great student of wellness, wellbeing, health, nutrition”, and that his decision had been partly influenced by the positive impact that factors such as changing his diet and his sleeping patterns, had had on his abilities as an athlete.
He said he was “keeping [his] mind open” about the possibility of being vaccinated in the future, “because we are all trying to find collectively, a best possible solution to end Covid”.
“I was never against vaccination. I understand that globally, everyone is trying to put a big effort into handling this virus and seeing, hopefully, an end soon to this virus.”
Clearing up some misunderstandings, Djokovic added that he was not deported from Australia because he was unvaccinated or broke any rules, but because “the Minister for Immigration used his discretion to cancel my visa based on his perception that I might create some anti-vax sentiment in the country or in the city, which I completely disagree with.”
BBC Medical Editor Fergus Walsh took it upon himself in the BBC article to attempt a rebuttal of Djokovic’s vaccine hesitancy, asking “What more does he want to know?”
With 60% of the world’s population vaccinated and 10 billion doses administered, there is a “wealth of information” which shows the vaccines’ “safety profile is excellent”, Walsh claims.
But if the vaccines’ safety profile is excellent, why has the U.S. VAERS system recorded nearly three times as many fatal adverse reactions since the Covid vaccines were rolled out than in all previous years combined? There have been 24,168 deaths reported in 2021 and so far in 2022 (21,947 in 2021 and 2,221 in the first five weeks of 2022), compared with 8,748 for all years from 1990 to 2020 combined. Reported deaths in 2021 were 36 times higher than in 2019, the previous highest number, when 605 were reported.
If the vaccines’ safety profile is excellent, why has the U.K. warned against giving the AstraZeneca vaccine to under-40s owing to risk of blood clots, and Denmark ceased using the AstraZeneca shot altogether? Why have Germany and France suspended the Moderna vaccine for the under-30s owing to risk of heart inflammation? Why has Vietnam suspended the Pfizer vaccine after three schoolchildren died of an “overreaction”? If this is an excellent safety profile, I’d hate to see a poor one.
Walsh points out that the regulators and scientists involved in the trials have said “no corners were cut on safety”. Yet the vaccines have been approved and rolled out while Phase 3 trials are still ongoing, and as Walsh admits, “side-effects did only show up once the jabs started being rolled out among millions of people”.
Walsh claims Djokovic is evidently not at zero risk from Covid, as he has had it twice. But as someone who has recovered from Covid he is highly protected against serious disease (before he was infected his risk was also very low), with a recent study from Qatar finding that even with Omicron the risk of serious disease on reinfection is effectively zero.
It’s a pity the BBC continues to publish such misleading information about the vaccines.
Worth reading in full.
Discussion
Comments
This week across the site:
To join in with the discussion please make a donation to the Daily Sceptic.
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Djokovic is being made a martyr by these totalitarian fools. The truth is just a trickle at the moment, but when it fully emerges, this fine man will forever be a hero for the enormity of what he’s willing to give up for his principles.
Why don’t the BBC just give it a rest? I hate them. They are fake news.
When will the bbc be fined for their continuous spewing of misinformation regarding covid? Last night the presenter said there were “rare” adverse events from the covid vaxx. That after three jabs, people were protected from serious covid. Honestly, I know they are bought and paid for, but I also know why I stopped watching this nonsense a year and a half ago.
Forcing people to take products from a private company reeks of reich.
Why is the Moderna CEO flogging shares?
https://www.businessleader.co.uk/moderna-ceo-sells-10000-shares-of-company-stock-worth-1-8-million/
Why is Pfizer not doing an independent trial in India?
https://www.reuters.com/world/india/exclusive-pfizer-withdraws-application-emergency-use-its-covid-19-vaccine-india-2021-02-05/
This man is dangerous. He has principles and stands by them: he is a threat to public groupthink.
At last a sportsman with balls . #DumpBBC the truth gangsters
Ah, Fergus Walsh, that world renowned immunologist
BBC was quite obviously biased from the fact that they billed it as Djoko discussing his controversial decision not to have the thing. I don’t see what’s controversial about him making his own choices.
No animal studies; no toxicity studies; no studies of drug interactions; only healthy subjects enrolled in trials; results fudged; no follow up studies as phase three continues; no autopsies of shots victims….
This is just a quick, incomplete list answering “what more does he want to know,”
Mr. Welsh.
Phase 3 trials have been abandoned, all subjects were unblinded and the control group was allowed to be vaccinated.
Those who currently have not been vaccinated, are now the de facto control group.
“The Minister for Immigration used his discretion to cancel my visa based on his perception that I might create some anti-vax sentiment”
…which never existed in Lockdownunder before Novak’s arrival and hasn’t been since his departure.
That gathering in Canberra, as the Minister will tell you, was just an accidental coincidence of destination.
The Liberal government is hopeless, and being only slightly more appealing than the Labor opposition is not going to save them on election day.
Yep. We keep marching; they keep lying.
Wondering what to do on Election Day: write “Damn you all to Hell” on my ballot paper and be registered as Informal; or seek out sane independents and make sure that my vote counts by allocating preferences to the unspeakable?
I spent a decade or more voting informal, or not voting at all. Then I discovered J K Galbraith’s line ‘politics is always a choice between the unpalatable and the disastrous’.
Find the party or candidate with which you disagree the least, and give them your support. Not voting or spoiling your vote (same thing, really) is a free kick to the people you really don’t want in power.
That’s always been my operating principle. But we’ll end up with either Lib or Lab – and at the moment, I really don’t want either of them in power.
I’ll be putting them last, along with the Greens. Which will probably not prevent one or the other winning a majority in the Reps. But if the Senate has enough LD, UAP, PHON, they’ll make it a very tough three years for either party.
Or this one
What disgusts me, as an Australian, is the abandonment of so much that was supposed to be “Australian”: love of sport, the principle of a fair go, thumbing one’s nose at authority, etc.
The Australian Open made a place for the obedient, where people jeered at the very mention of the name of the world’s greatest tennis player – because the government disapproves of him.
P.S. Thanks for your great writing, Phil – here and elsewhere.
I’m all out of words on all this witchunting of Novak Djokovic (which all started in Australia – another Covid World First from Downunder!). It’s best to sum up the nonsense with a few pic.
Sorry if you have already posted a link to the interview of Dr Christine Stabell Benn by Dr Sebastian Rushworth in which she explains ‘Non specific vaccine effects’ that the team she is part of have discovered over 30 years of research of vaccinated children in Africa.
This is the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcwg-Vzg9NU .
Long story short; live weakened virus vaccines confer unanticipated benefits on vaccinated children and dead virus particles or entirely artificial vaccines (e.g. the mRNA jabs) confer disbenefits on vaccinated children. Both will be effective against the target virus, but the latter often result in increased mortality, while the former create long lasting immunity against a slew of other diseases that are often fatal in third world countries. They have completed the highest standard of tests on 10 vaccines, the last being polio, for which both a weakened whole virus vaccine and a dead or synthetic vaccine exists. They now have a good understanding of why the effects occur, suffice it to say that the acid test of their understanding is the anticipated phasing out of the weakened whole virus polio vaccine, when they expect that this will result in polio becoming a more common infection as the… Read more »
I’ve had such a crush on Novak since this all happened – totally switched my allegiance to him from Federer 🙃.
LovelyGirl, what exactly do you …
… mean ???????????
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr ….. Gonna take up with Putin’s henchmen, are we?
Now is not the time to be sending out flirtatious signals to fit and healthy and vivaciously poke-it-on-in-and-keep-it-there-for-half-an-hour well-bred males.
When we rebels retake the kingdom we’ll deserve and demand our just rewards.
Hear this LovelyGirl:
We will put to the sword any females that scream, “I won’t service him because he’s old, bald, toothless, hairless and has a di*k that would not be capable of leaving a print in melted butter”.
Try this, and we’ll shave your head with sheep shears like the Dutch did to the Nazi-servicing who*es after the First World War – or was that the Second?.
By the way lass, is such a thing as butter still around these days? … the toast I’m getting now hardly has flour in it.
How do you know I’m a female, hmm?
Am I wrong??? Is my nose, like everything else failing?
I would rather slide down a razor blade using my balls as brakes.
That made me wince, even as a female.
Can one story on pro tennis players – or on any pro or college athletes – tell us how many athletes have died or been hospitalized from COVID?
Is it not true that the answer is zero …. in 24 months? What does this tell us about the “health and safety risks” of Covid to healthy young athletes?
Also, of all the legion of athletes who have now tested positive, what percentage had either “asymptomatic” or very mild cases?
Fascinating to see how standing up for basic ethical principles, erected in the aftermath of Naziism, is now a persecuted belief. How does supping with Mengele feel, Fergus?
Here is a very brief summary of the three main adverse reaction monitoring organisations, MHRA, EudraVigiance, VAERS and OWID for jab totals. I have much more information, but this is the bottom line.
This guy has risen to greatness already and his stance against the bullies makes me admire him more! Well said Novak, that put theBBC in their place
I see the phantom down-ticker is having a busy afternoon!
Ha ha well I hope the phantom did not just tick but read too. Being open to the market square of sharing ideas maybe their salvation. So who ever you are please read.
So this Walsh character thinks that a degree in English Literature qualifies him to spout ”science” – or is it because his wife works in ‘pharmacy’?
Perhaps he ought to apply for a job as an adviser to the ”health secretary” – two scientifically illiterate people getting together would surely produce something worthy of interest. Or not.
Hmmm…
Novak Djokovic’s correct implication is that those who care about their health and who like to stay fit while retaining at least two brain cells to rub together shouldn’t touch an “anti-SARSCoV2” spikystab with a 10-foot bargepole, let alone a tennis racket.
He may well have said so more explicitly, but if he did the BBC cut it out.
The British state broadcaster, which experts say maintains close relations with the US-backed monarchist regime in the archipelago, spun his words as meaning primarily that he believes that he and everybody else has the right not to get spiked. In other words, they painted his main point as being “I believe in an individual’s right to decide what goes or doesn’t go into their body.” They didn’t paint it as “I am very well-informed about how to stay healthy, and very experienced at successfully staying healthy, as you can see from what I have achieved on the tennis court, and on the basis of my knowledge and experience I am highly confident that were I to get spiked the risks would outweigh any possible benefits.”
Good on you, Novak, mate: you’re totally right to put your health first, and you’re a… Read more »
I’d sooner rely on medical information from Joe Walsh (during an intricate solo) than Fergus Walsh (another pathetic BBC Big Pharma shill).
What is a DS “response parameter” and how can it ‘go missing’?
I’d like to see the full interview, uncut. Not that we will. It’s obvious on a few occasions Novak was about to expand and this was cut.
It’s never been so obvious that the British mainstream media is essentially an extension of the State who they derive so much of of their advertising revenue from in various forms.
The whole Russia-Ukraine situation is just more Mi7 fear mongering propaganda, can’t see why anyone pays any attention to them on anything now, are the public addicted to 24/7 fear porn and misinformation?
Djokovic could have pointed out this product wouldn’t have met the definition of a vaccine until very recently when they conveniently changed it.
I heard two lesbians talking about this at David Lloyd’s this lunchtime, one was insisting he is selfish and the Australians were right to throw him out.
It really is difficult to bite your tongue at times when such abject stupidity is all around you.
It’s obvious that the BBC’s interview with Novak Djokovic was not an honest attempt to tell his story, and people like him, but to use him as a tool to push their propaganda.
At 6:50 this morning on Radio 4 they used a brief comment by Djokovic as an excuse to introduce their health correspondent Fergus Walsh, allowing him to push the narrative. There was a lengthy exchange between Justin Webb and Fergus Walsh, obviously scripted, that I found so patronising and offensive that I just had to transcribe it so that it was on record:
Radio 4 – Today – Tuesday 15 February 6:50
Justin Webb: “It’s interesting Fergus isn’t it, there are a group of people, not just elite athletes, who don’t think the vaccine is putting a computer chip from Bill Gates into their arms, etc etc, but do think that their bodies are in some way sacred and need to be treated differently, and it is those people that governments around the world have had difficulty reaching”.
Fergus Walsh: “Indeed, and very interesting in the interview that Novak Djokovic says that he doesn’t feel he has enough information about the vaccine, and he’s very mindful about what… Read more »
Note the obvious double standards. Fergus Walsh berates Novak for saying “the vaccine” and then goes on to say it himself repeatedly, as everybody does. That’s just petty. So many people have had “the vaccine” that there is a wealth of information about it, but not enough people have had it to stop pushing it.
Truly breathtaking, even for them, and just underlines why I neither listen to nor watch any of their output – just one giant, lying nudge unit.
That last comment of FW.
Deary me. In any sane world he’d be locked up for Conspiracy to Administer a Poison./Noxious substance.
S. 23 and S. 24. Offences against the Person Act. 1861.
Stands the test of time.
“but do think that their bodies are in some way sacred and need to be treated differently”
The fiends! Expecting to be in control of their own bodies and what happens to them! When really our bodies should belong to the State, to do what it likes with.
A bit like slavery really, where you were the property of the “Master”…..oh, hang on, wait a minute……..
‘In some way sacred’. Spoken as if it was a turd floating in a punchbowl.
And now for some impartial commentary, we turn to the spouse of the General Manager of Gilead in the UK.
There are so many lies in their exchange, it really is shocking. For example:
‘Djokovic is at very low risk from Covid, but it’s not zero, and the safest way for him to have built up his immunity would be through immunisation, and of course any unvaccinated person, there is a level of risk that you run when you come into contact with somebody else, so vaccination is also not just about the individual it’s about others.’
But the jabs don’t confer immunity! As Boris Johnson stated on Sky last November, the jabs don’t stop people from catching or spreading the virus! And as Djokovic has had the virus, he’s almost certainly got natural immunity (which is long-lasting!).
‘The science is pretty clear that the best way to build up immunity, and the safest way, and the most effective way, is through being triple jabbed. Even some very elite healthy people, I’ve seen people in hospital who were extremely fit and healthy originally, and then laid low by coronavirus.’
The data from official sources demonstrates that being triple jabbed does not confer lasting immunity – it fades very quickly (and it certainly isn’t ‘safe’).
And which very elite healthy… Read more »
If Gavin Newsome’s had it, these two arseclowns have. They’ve probably both got VAIDS and will still queue up for the fourth.
Justin Webb doesn’t think that bodies are sacred. Well that comment certainly confirms that the body of Justin Webb is decidedly not sacred. In fact I would say that Webb’s body is trash.
The onus and responsibility for looking after our bodies starts with self. Webb clearly pimps his responsibility to others using his fat, taxpayer funded BBC salary. For the plebs and given the woeful lack of knowledge in the NHS we have to do the best we can.
These two sanctimonious pricks are a danger to public health and should be locked up. Their apparent knowledge of all things covid would disgrace a class of eleven year olds: no idea about immunity. According to these two brain dead numpties the injections provide immunity when the evidence is that they DO NOT confer any immunity.
Webb also clearly takes the view that independent thought is no longer allowed and bodily autonomy is no longer sacred.
Presumably Webb believes the slave class has arrived.
The lack of humanity in these two is off the scale.
I’m struggling to put the case I am so angry.
Matt Hancock appointed his chum Baroness Dido Harding to a top COVID-19 role. Harding didn’t want to be lonely in this exclusive role so she got Hancock to appoint a colleague of hers, Mike Coupe, to a senior role alongside her.
And the only reason this blatant in-your-face cronyism was complained about, and action taken against it, was because Harding and Coupe are white, so it was deemed to be racist.
Thousands dead and hundreds of thousands injured from a fake pandemic and criminally fraudulent vaccines, and this is the type of act Hancock, Harding and Coupe were pulling. And the court would have probably never in a million-years found against them if racial issues had not been raised.
These people, the entire lot involved, are so out of touch with reality that it’s unbelievable.
Respect .. bless you Novak
A key moment, comparable to Dr James (NHS vaccine mandates).
Both men have told the tyrants where to stick their numb skulls.
Maybe more need to ‘come out’ as unjabbed to normalise… normality.