Novak Djokovic, men’s tennis top-ranked player, was denied the right to play in the 2022 Australian Open.
The decision was made on a Sunday by a judge who sided with the government visa officer whose right to deny the visa was the actual technical question to be answered.
A majority of Australians favored booting Djokovic out. The people were under strict COVID controls since the omicron virus outbreak. They saw the double standard — one for them, potentially an exemption for the privileged professional athlete.
The unapologetically unvaccinated Serb anti-vaxxer had lied on his visa application. He had tested positive in December, then granted a press interview along with a photo shoot. Then stopped off in Spain enroute to Australia to compete in the tournament.
Brock Bastian, a social psychology professor at the University of Melbourne, told the New York Times, “it’s about social norms and enforcing those norms to continue to get people to move in the same direction to overcome this pandemic. In this culture, in this country, a sense of suddenly upending those norms has a great cost politically and socially.”
Wow, a collectivist approach to public health showing some unity in approach. Maybe the U.S. should give it a try.
