Tennis star Novak Djokovic’s visa and vaccination saga Down Under has been the perfect news story for a post-pandemic world.
The story hit all the right notes, guaranteeing headlines on almost every front.
Here you have an unvaccinated world-renowned tennis star squaring off against possibly the world’s most anal country, poised to host one of the most anticipated events in tennis, the Australian Open.
Not only do Australians famously never speed, jaywalk, or break rules of any kind, the conservative government that rules them has imposed some of the longest and harshest lockdown measures worldwide.
This has earned them both praise (for keeping OZ virtually Covid free) and heavy criticism.
The Human Rights Watch (HRW) World Report 2022 flagged Australia as one of a “handful of countries that has severely restricted free movement internationally to respond to the pandemic”.
This they noted was not a “proportionate” response to the threat at hand. By ‘not proportionate’ they mean that about 40 000 Australians are stranded overseas, and have not seen their families for the past 2 years.
While the country is now allowing citizens to return home, flights are limited so as not to overwhelm the country’s quarantine system.
As you can imagine, that leaves a lot of rather fed up citizens and a government whose response has been to dig in its heels ‘for the greater good’.
With the world’s eyes trained on the outcome, the legal battle between Djokovic and Australia quickly became symbolic of the battle between supporters of coronavirus vaccination and restrictions on travel and those who oppose them.
Australia was pretty much backed into a corner.
If it allowed Djokovic in, it would appear laughably hypocritical after everything it has put its own citizens through.
For a high profile sportsman like Djokovic to be seen to be above the rules could seriously have undermined the nanny state’s legitimacy.
The country has already had its fair share of lockdown and anti-vax protests, some just days ago outside the Australian Open.
So, it was no surprise when the government cancelled his visa on grounds of “health and good order”.
It was not that the Serbian world number one himself represented any real risk to Australians, it’s what he represented that mattered.
The tennis star is young and fit and has had Covid twice already.
At 34 he is also statistically unlikely to be badly affected by the virus and, ironically, most likely does not need the vaccine at all.
But if they had allowed him in, it might have broken the dam wall.
While Djokovic’s views on Covid-19 vaccination are not known, if he persists not getting vaccinated he will be playing a lot less international tennis.
Already France has made it clear that he will not be welcome at the French Open if he does not get the jab.
France’s vaccine pass law, approved by parliament on Sunday, will require people to show a certificate of vaccination before they will be allowed entry to public places such as restaurants, cafés, cinemas and long-distance trains.
It does seem that the horse has bolted though. If scientists are right and the pandemic is waning, what will it help to now divide society by making vaccination mandatory?
This will only serve to broaden the gap between the haves and have nots
Mandatory vaccination for work, travel and public places is not only unethical, it is unnecessary.
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