Djokovic gets medical exemption while Indian teen denied entry to Aus Open.

[CaliforniaDrumming]

Vaccine inequity in operation. Novak Djokovic gets a medical exemption from being vaxxed for the Australian Open, while a 17-yr-old Indian player is denied entry because India has not begun vaccinating the under 18.

gulfnews.com/sport/tennis/australian-open-indian-tennis-teen-slams-double-standards-on-djokovic-1.84772010

He's been denied entry into Australia. He has the wrong visa. 😂 Hopefully he'll be put on the first flight back home. It's 2am-ish here so there probably won't be any emergency visa granting happening for at least a few hours.

twitter.com/thetimes/status/1478737205610827776?s=21

Hopefully. That seems a mess up by his support team but I gather the decision to exempt is unpopular anyway.

The exemption decision is extremely unpopular here in Australia. It's such bullshit. Melbourne has been through the longest lockdowns in the world and then this antivaxxing wanker gets an exemption.

Arrogance personified

It irks me massively but I imagine it's all about money and tv. They'll want a big name in it.
Not that that makes it in any way ok.

Sorry If I am out of the loop but as far as I know we don't know the status of this vaccination?

If he isn't vaccinated then certainly he should be kicked out of oz given the rules....

He isn't helping his case to be more liked is he?? 😂

I just said the same @Theforest
I imagine crowd support might be a bit sparce...

Money talks every time 😳

@Exhausteddog @Theforest oh my days can you imagine the boos he will get?!

Loathsome individual on many levels.

@CocoCarrie

DH often stays up late to watch the tennis but I'm not normally interested...I might watch a game just to see.🤣

He is under huge pressure to say why he is exempt. The coyness in response to first questions in his vaccination status lately has come across as really unseemly and quite narcissistic. I can’t imagine him being happy about revealing why he has an exemption. He is one of the world’s fittest athletes. It may be that he has had vivid in the last six months, as that is a ground for exemption.

The visa situation is embarrassing though.

unseemly and quite narcissistic

Those are perfect descriptions of Djokovic at the best of times tbh.

I half want them to let him in. He sulks anyway when his opponent is more popular with the crowd (most matches then) so would be funny to see the reaction he gets from the locals

@BananaBender

The exemption decision is extremely unpopular here in Australia. It's such bullshit. Melbourne has been through the longest lockdowns in the world and then this antivaxxing wanker gets an exemption.

I have a cousin in Melbourne and she is spitting mad! She has suffered a lot in lockdown but done her part, and now as you say, this wanker gets an exemption.

Is it beyond the realms of possibility he has a valid medical reason? His application for exemption apparently had to satisfy a panel of experts in Tennis Australia and then an assessment from the Victorian government in order to get the exemption.

Perhaps he doesn't want to share the reason with the world's media because, well, privacy?

Putting aside his arrogance.

I don't understand why any of the athletes must be vaccinated?

Unlike jobs where you are in every day and front line they can arrive and isolate and test before matches.

Vaccination status will make no difference to any of the players of someone tests positive.

@LumosSolem many thanks! I did purposely reign it in a bit

I don't understand why any of the athletes must be vaccinated?

Unlike jobs where you are in every day and front line they can arrive and isolate and test before matches.

They have masses of people around them. They can't all isolate from the rest of the population.

I don't particularly like djokovic but he is probably the greatest tennis player of all time.
It would seem unfair to deny him the opportunity to compete and prove his GOAT status because he hasn't been vaccinated.
Perhaps the tournament should have been moved to a remote island somewhere to avoid this situation.

Anyone in Australian who is angry about this should be angry with their government, surely, for imposing suck long lockdowns. Not blaming a visiting professional for maintaining his medical privacy.

I do so hope they kick him out. Apparently his wife has previously posted on social media about how Covid was caused by 5G.

@ShmeevilWeevil

I don't particularly like djokovic but he is probably the greatest tennis player of all time. It would seem unfair to deny him the opportunity to compete and prove his GOAT status because he hasn't been vaccinated. Perhaps the tournament should have been moved to a remote island somewhere to avoid this situation.

Federer is the GOAT to me, at his best he makes everything look effortless.

Rafa is my favourite though.

But both have a lot more class than Djokovic. He's a knob.

@Eastie77Returns

Is it beyond the realms of possibility he has a valid medical reason? His application for exemption apparently had to satisfy a panel of experts in Tennis Australia and then an assessment from the Victorian government in order to get the exemption.

Perhaps he doesn't want to share the reason with the world's media because, well, privacy?

He's also an anti-vaxxer and a lot of his behaviour during the pandemic has been pretty questionable. It would be a pretty big coincidence for that to be the case.

Not blaming a visiting professional for maintaining his medical privacy.

Don't be daft, he's been ignoring all Covid anything restricting for two years! Parties the lot. Yes I'd not fancy his chances out on the courts - be quite funny really!