Game, set, unvaxxed: Tennis great Novak Djokovic made a point in more ways than one, defeating decade-younger Daniil Medvedev in the US Open and proving that he’s still the best of the best — despite being iced out of last year’s US Open by President Joe Biden’s zealous COVID policies, which kept unvaxxed noncitizen air travelers out of the country.
Barring Djokovic made little sense in more ways than one: First, plenty of citizens declined the jab.
Second, why ban travelers (like Djokovic) who had natural immunity from having contracted COVID already?
By the time the Biden team announced the restriction in October 2021, it was already clear that natural immunity was on par with vaccinated immunity, and the majority of Americans had already started moving back to normal life. Keeping Djokovic (and so many others) out at that point was little more than virtue-signaling.
Or, perhaps, a punitive resentment of all who refused the shots.
In a hilarious twist of fate, Djokovic finally “got his shot,” as his winning stroke wound up as the “Moderna Shot of the Day” — an ad gimmick from one of the two main COVID-jab makers.
When Djokovic plays, he wins. It’s a shame that anti-science policies kept him out of the Open until now.
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