Two things that were true in 2022 and that remain true today: Novak Djokovic is still the best tennis player in the world. And he’s still not allowed to play in America.
Djokovic, who holds a series of bizarre medical beliefs, remains defiantly unvaccinated against COVID. You may recall that last year, his stubbornness led to a drawn-out international incident before the Australian Open, which ended in his deportation. Since then, the pandemic has (largely) receded, and pretty much every country on earth has given up on trying to mitigate COVID spread. Even Australia, which maintained some of the strictest COVID policies in the world for two years, awarded Djokovic a visa to play this year; he received a warm welcome and proceeded to win his 10th Australian Open.
But the U.S., alone among major tennis destinations, continues to bar unvaccinated travelers from its shores, despite the unclear-at-best benefit of doing so. Djokovic couldn’t defend his U.S. Open Title last year, and six months later, as the American hardcourt season gets underway, he still can’t travel here. Now, lawmakers are getting involved. Djokovic recently applied for a waiver to play in the Miami Open, a Masters 1000 event that begins on March 19, and Florida’s Republican senators, Rick Scott and Marco Rubio, are pleading with President Biden to grant it on economic grounds.
To be clear, Scott and Rubio are far from trusted authorities on COVID. And yet their overall point — that the travel restrictions make little sense in March 2023 — is sound. When these two have a point, it’s a sign that something is amiss.
[The arrogance in the whole begrudging piece is just appalling. ~ Beege]
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