The news headlines today are full of stories about Djokavic being refused entry to Australia as he is not vaccinated vs covid and has supposedly not disclosed reasons for a medical exemptions to the border control authorities. I'm sure more details will emerge over the next week, and this is tennis of course, but we can imagine the basic principle of no vaccine no visa applying to any international sport. So what do you think? On the one hand, personal choice, on the other public health. Personally I find it hard to argue with Nadal's simple summary; "we all have a choice, but our choices have consequences." What say you MAP?
Why did djokovik pay for his Australia flight on his MasterCard? Because he's visa wouldn't work!!!! From what I can tell his visa needed supporting paperwork, which he hadn't got, so the Visa was cancelled, so no entry, he's appealing it in court, so he's allowed to stay in a secure hotel until that is delt with, really if he didn't want this to happen, he should of supplied the correct information to begin with.
But what are your thoughts on the broader issue? No vaccine = no participation in international sport?
You have personal freedom to die in COVID. But you have no right to pass COVID to me so I may die in COVID too. When your action start to endanger my life, you become my "enemy". To be kind to your enemy is to be cruel to yourself. Any restriction to your "enemy" is understandable.
I have never in all my history on MAP agreed with YouKnowWho more than this. He nailed it! I am sick of the selfish people dragging this out for the rest of us. They should bear the consequences for their actions. You don't want to act like a responsible citizen? Then your rights as a citizen are affected, Your right to swing your fist stops at my nose (unless it is an agreed to sparring match.) Your refusal to keep society safe means you don't get to participate in societal things where your choice endangers others. You do NOT have the right to inflict your irresponsible choice on others safety and well being.
No vaccine means no entries to countries that require a vaccine, that isn't the case here though, our man novax djocovid didn't apply for the correct visa/didn't have the correct supporting evidence for his medical exemption. Just because he's good at hitting a ball doesn't mean his exempt from all laws. He's also a noted anti Vaxer so it's very likely his reasons for not being vaccinated arnt particularly real.
The Venn diagram of people that want to "take back control of our borders" and "I should be able to go wherever I want without being vaccinated" is a circle.
Unfortunately the stupidist amoung us, now have the ability to form groups, and get radicalised by memes of all things (let's go Brandon etc), and not for any social good, but often for crazy conspiracy theories that harm us as a whole. What Is to Be Done? Is the Burning Question of this Moment in time, I propose we switch all social media off, apart from MySpace, Tom didn't try and bring down the government, create a genocide, or build rackets for billionaires, he took his money from whoever bought the company, and went on his way, a little wiser, and a lot happier. We could all learn from Tom's example.
https://bbc.in/34tcPOj "But on Wednesday, Australian Border Force (ABF) officials said Djokovic had "failed to provide appropriate evidence" for entry after arriving from Dubai. He is being held at a hotel used for immigration detention in a Melbourne suburb. "If he hasn't filled out the forms appropriately then he's taking the sovereign capacity of another nation for a joke," Mr Joyce told the BBC's Newshour programme. "100% someone's made a mistake and if he hasn't told the truth then the person who's made the mistake is Mr Djokovic." He added: "You can't just wander around the world thinking that because you're really rich you're really above the laws of other nations." " Oh no, won't someone stick up for the (checks notes) multi millionaire sportsman who thinks obeying the law is for others?
"Now"? Come on, dude, this has likely been going on since the first cave paintings were made. The scale might be bigger now, but the mechanisms are all well known.
The scale is the problem, when the bottom 3% of the small tribe are idiots, that's a small problem, when the bottom 3% of the country all gather together in one place, that's a much larger problem.
That's unfair, I heard the guy who winds up big Ben is a lovely guy! (Also not all MPs are terrible, some are but definitely not all)
Yeah I know. Was just doing it for giggles. But it does beggar belief that, out of all the people in the UK we could have leading us, we end up with the likes of BoJo, Hancock, Gove, Patel, etc. It's like we've knocked on a door and a child has answered and we need to ask if an adult is at home.
But they're are best and brightest mate, Brexit/blah blah blah! Re Patel/ Alexander etc, I found it amazing how noone is saying about the anti semitism of the new nationality and borders bill, which allows any Jewish (or someone else with potentially due nationality, windrush generation etc) people in the UK to have their UK nationality taken off them, based on Israel allowing any Jewish person to claim Israeli nationality. Whereas someone in the same situation but church of England, wouldn't have their UK nationality taken off them.
People have the freedom (in most countries) to get a drunk as they want. Even take large amount of drugs, but the moment they decide to drive a car they are putting others in danger. Yet no one blinks an eye lid that and proclaimed that these laws are unfair (well maybe when they first came into place). It's a not about freedom if choice for everyone, this is about throwing your weight around for a cause you decided to get drawn into. The other point @Mitch about no vaccine, no international sport. If there are legitimate medical reasons then I think exceptions should be made available. By that, I would expect in this scenario it would mean that all players and people in contact would then need to be quarantine and tested before and after. So that means at who's expense? I think that a high level athlete of a very intense cardiovascular sport is going to find it hard to provide evidence that they cannot take the vaccination based on medical reasons. So in this instance in finding it hard to believe, particularly as no real reason had been provided (no surprise). I do believe there will be some exceptions, but very few, and so far the only people that have tried to put themselves forward as an exception are doing it out of principle to make a point rather then actually having a real exception. They also object to the alternatives (social distracting, masks, quarantine) which adds weight to them just pushing a false narrative against the health organisations.
Probably because most of them are on experimental PEDs of some sort . There is excercise induced asthma. So a crazy cardio/environmental sport like Tour de France, would wreck havoc on everything, including the lungs.
