Novak Djokovic wins appeal as Australian court quashes visa cancellation
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The politicians down here are about optics and spin. Political blame games are the national sport, not cricket.
The media loves a villain to target. Outrage is currency. Drummed up, spoon-fed.
If Novak tests negative multiple times, that's enough to confirm he is safe.
Omicron spreads extremely easily among vaccinated people, as we know. Vaccination status is therefore not a significant variable in transmission risk. The charade of Novak being a "risk", is misinformation.
On Australian breakfast TV yesterday, a presenter said "think about the ball boys and girls who are at risk from Novak". This misinformation spreads to anxious viewers, who are accepting of information when it's framed in a public health crisis context.
Novak had Covid before. In Australia the guidelines are to wait 6 months to get vaccinated after infection. But the main thing is, when someone doesn't want the vaccine, their decision should be respected if they're willing to comply with tests and masks and other measures.
With the testing infrastructure beyond capacity (some samples have expired before getting tested), I don't think catering to people who chose not to get vaccinated right now is a good idea.
This will of course change as the pandemic further develops in Australia, but the rules as they are written at the moment make sense. Australia doesn't need to be importing further risk to its health care system already at capacity.
Absolutely clumsy performance from the government and they should have to answer for this show.
Omicron spreads easily among the vaccinated. Any "reduced spread" is negligible. The only other benefit is reduced severity of illness.
Most over 60s and vulnerable in Australia have had the vaccine. That leaves the unvaccinated group as mostly younger, healthy and significantly less likely to need hospital care. They are not a risk or burden. They get mild symptoms, recover soon after, and now have natural immunity.
> importing further risk
There's statistically no risk. An unvaccinated person who tests negative is not a transmission risk or an illness risk. This is where we're at with Omicron. Your suggestion to discriminate against those not vaccinated, doesn't add up.
An unvaccinated person who tests negative is more likely to become infected and require hospital care than a vaccinated person. It doesn't matter how remote, we are beyond capacity at the moment, this is where we're at with Omicron.
Most suggest this will be a short wave, in which case we can reassess once it has passed.
It does matter. We don't mandate helmets for walking the streets, even with the remote chance you might stumble and hit your head.
We should not disrupt society or deport/hate people because of "remote" and insignificant risks in an environment where the virus is already on the loose, spreading easily.
> "An unvaccinated person who tests negative is more likely to become infected..."
It doesn't work like that anymore. Many unvaccinated people by now have had the virus and therefore have some immunity.
Even if you aren't ignoring natural immunity, Omicron will spread among vaccinated people every time. This is evidenced in the current surge data, and also reflected in countless anecdotes shared by others, and observed in my own family: Fully vaxxed, vents and air going like crazy, the virus nevertheless spread around the family with ease.
Another confirmed anecdote: An elderly family friend went to dinner with 10 others. All fully vaxxed. One had Covid without knowing. ALL members of the dinner table contracted the virus and all became sick, including the source. None died or needed ventilator, but I think 3 or 4 needed oxygen levels monitored and 2 went to hospital as precaution. The vaccine likely helped reduce severity. But transmission was NOT stopped or slowed. The virus scored a perfect 10 that night, infecting every person at the table.
Risk mitigation needs to be practical, fair, humane, effective and not politically motivated. We don't need to tell unvaccinated people to "go back where you came from" when they visit our shores. There is no gain from that with a virus already running wild.
I think I've come around and I wouldn't be against allowing recent infected and recovered in. Unrestricted is not an option at the moment while the current wave is meaning people are missing hospital treatment.
I can think of a few possible answers, but none that are both a) legit and b) make a lot of sense.
Ironically, Nick Kyrgios, double vaccinated, just tested positive to COVID and has vowed he'll still be playing in the Open next week.
Clarification: It was Tennis Australia who told him he could play, not the Australian government.
Then, based on that, the Australian embassy delivered a visa for his entry on Australian territory. That visa was then rescinded by a deputy assistant directly under the Minister of Foreign affairs after his plane from Dubai took off.
So "the government" all the way, no Tennis Australia in sight.
They have litterally made the rules, and are sometimes delegated to adjudicate on specific cases.
Checking that would have taken you exactly 5 seconds. It's litterally on their web page header, but in their statutes as well.
https://abcnews.go.com/International/djokovic-courts-controv...
Either that, or don't organize event at all if you have some concerns. Leaving to individual athletes to navigate country's ever changing visa rules is not fair or realistic. Even lawyers on Australian law subredit couldn't tell for sure how judge will rule in Djokovic's case and which laws and statutes should be taken into account and which have precedence.
This is not only about Djokovic. It's also about tennis players who received Sputnik vaccine and couldn't go to Australia Open. Yet we have numbers from few non-Russia countries which tell us it's in the similarly effective as other vaccines.
Also, I'm not talking about tennis and Australia only, too many times athletes were stopped from competing because of politics and it never seems fair.
Couldn't he make the whole problem go away by just getting vaccinated!?
What would he gain from that? He has natural antibodies from prior infection, and the vaccine very clearly does not stop, or reduce, transmission (in the light of Omicron).
I’m not from Serbia but I live nearby, speak pretty much the same language, and culturally Montenegro is very close. Over here, many people are generally skeptical towards media, and most people are skeptical towards statements of our own government. Due to such cultural traits, public perception of COVID is rather diverse here. For instance, despite vaccines are freely available for almost a year now (I think I got a first vaccine shot in April 2021), only about 50% of population (myself included) are vaccinated.
Just because Đoković attended a public event after testing positive doesn’t mean he’s lying about the test. He might simply think it’s not a huge deal. Maybe he’s a bit careless, but I think “giant asshole” wording is too strong. Other people attending the event were adults fully aware of COVID pandemic, they were free to skip the event, they were free to wear masks if they wanted.
Also, there’s lots of research showing that positive COVID test doesn’t mean the person is infectious. For instance [0] says “people can continue to test positive for up to 3 months after diagnosis and not be infectious to others… the amount of live virus in the nose and throat drops significantly soon after COVID-19 symptoms develop”
[0] https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2020/s0814-updated-isolat...
Endangering everyone by knowingly spreading a disease, regardless of the type, is being an asshole in my book. Regardless of his personal scepticism. Indeed, a positive test doesn't mean infectious, but it sure as hell doesn't mean zero risk and just go mingle with people. That's much more than "a bit reckless".
For the record, I'm originally from nearby, Bulgaria, and COVID and vaccine hesitancy and skepticism is even worse than Serbia. That doesn't in any way mean people who chose to follow their feelings of fear and mistrust, and ignore any sort of basic logic or established facts aren't really really stupid. They probably can't help it, but the rest of us can't excuse their behaviour. They should know better, and two years in, it's a 100% their fault when they do stupid things like get sick and not even have the basic decency to wear a mask. ( And i know i won't convince anyone with those sorts of words, but honestly at that point they're beyond convincing)
Sure, I mean when coerced by powerful governments people usually comply. Those with character sometimes don't.
Note, you're 100% not making any medical argument for the vaccine.
The really important part about this is that the Australian government promised him and arranged for him to come to Australia then went back on their word after they got political egg on their face when it was noted by the Australian public that the government's coercive policy is arbitrary and unrelated to health outcomes.
I don't like the argument that some people have to suffer because others already have had to. A fact: Novak represents a very low risk. He has had very regular testing and has antibodies from previous infections. Making the argument that he should suffer to make it even for others who have suffered is a very low and ugly argument. I think that it's especially bad to lock someone up so that the government can save face.
Finally, Novak is a god in Serbia. It was especially dumb to alienate a country for the dumbest of reasons.
Are you sure about that narrative?
And when you state “Australian government” are you referring to the federal government? State government (Victoria), border force? Department of immigration? Tennis Australia?
Likewise, you’re very welcome to come to my house for dinner next week. But if you print off this comment and present it to immigration...
I note that those are the same rules for everyone. The government however decided to override the medical panel (and in doing so undermine its independence) because it was politically awkward for the government and in doing so completely unnecessarily detain Djokovic and put him through all of this. It's hugely embarrassing to Australia on the world stage.
His application was approved apon his declaration of meeting the criteria. The criteria was verified on arrival.
If you can source the medical panel being for immigration exceptions I'd be very interested.