It’s hard to overstate the pointlessness of US policy here. Djokovic freely competed in the 2021 US Open last August and September, when vaccines were already widely available. At that time, the CDC was still refusing to acknowledge natural immunity, fans had to display proof of vaccination to attend the tournament, and over 1,000 Americans were dying every day with the virus. Today, the CDC’s Covid prevention recommendations “no longer differentiate based on a person’s vaccination status” due to breakthrough infections and natural immunity, the tournament has dropped its vaccine mandate for fans and daily deaths are under 500 nationwide. To make matters even more absurd, the US does not require illegal immigrants to be vaccinated to enter the country, and it does not demand they be vaccinated once they are in.
About the only rationale that Djokovic’s critics can come up with is that it’s his choice not to follow the rules like everyone else, which is true. But demanding that people follow arbitrary rules, just because they are the rules, breeds contempt for the rules and those who make and enforce them. “Because I said so” might be a good enough explanation for a recalcitrant toddler, but it is no way to govern a nominally free country. And it is a shame for tennis fans that these considerations, rather than on-court performance, are likely to decide the outcome of one of the greatest competitions in sport, the all-time Grand Slam race between Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.
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