Tennis superstar Novak Djokovic, the world’s No. 1 player, has once again been denied entry into the United State because once again the Serbian is unvaccinated against the COVID-19 virus. It means he is persona non grata at the Indian Wells tournament underway in California and, barring a last-minute reversal, also will be barred from playing in the Miami Open that starts March 19.
The situation is entirely of his own doing. Start there and make it clear. When Djokovic laments how the matter is “out of my hands,” he could not be more wrong. For three years now it has been his very personal decision — his choice — to not get the vaccine. With freedom sometimes come consequences, of course.
I have been anti- anti-vaxxers all along. Have written how prominent sports stars such as Aaron Rodgers, Kyrie Irving and Djokovic could have been out front leading the fight against the a global pandemic, a public health crisis like none we have seen in our lifetime, but instead retreated into their own me-first selfishness.
I still have little tolerance for the anti-science crowd who watched the COVID death toll rise to 6.81 million worldwide (1.15 million in the U.S.) and yet refused to acknowledge that a vaccine might be a good thing.
So, yeah, part of me wants to say Djokovic is getting just what he deserves and good riddance to him for missing Miami. This would be on-brand for me, right? I mean, whatever Ron DeSantis and Marco Rubio are for, I’m probably against. My critics would tell you I haven’t slept since 2003 I’m so woke.
But enough already.
Continuing to bar Djokovic from entering the country at this point is not even remotely a public health matter.
It is closer to vindictive, punitive. Mostly ... unnecessary.
The Department of Homeland Security without explanation stamped a big NO on Djokovic’s latest request for a waiver or exemption.
Only President Joe Biden can now override that and let him in. And he should.
It would not be favoritism because Djokovic, 35, is a star athlete, a 22-time Grand Slam champion, a G.O.A.T. in sneakers.
It would be a gesture of goodwill that also would have value as a symbol that we as a nation finally are past the nightmare that has been with us since March 2020. By degrees we have gotten back to normal, and the continued banishment of Djokovic now seems like an outlier, like, so 2021.
Almost six months ago, on “60 Minutes,” Biden declared, “The pandemic is over. We still have a problem with COVID. We’re still doing a lot of work on it. But the pandemic is over.”
That will become ceremonially and officially true on May 11 when the U.S. is set to lift its COVID Emergency Declaration.
If “the pandemic is over,” it would seem a small matter to grant Djokovic a waiver to enter the U.S. and Miami just seven weeks earlier.
The Miami Open already will be missing hugely popular star Rafael Nadal, out with a hip injury. To also be missing Djokovic far more unnecessarily would be too bad. He’s a six-time Miami Open champion. He was dominating here when the event was played in lush Key Biscayne before moving a few years ago to the tennis facility that bloomed from a parking lot at Hard Rock Stadium.
“We’d love to have our greatest champion here,” said Miami Open director James Blake of Djokovic. “It’s getting late n the game so it’s not looking likely, but we’ve done what we can to try to get an exemption.”
Djokovic has paid a price for his personal beliefs.
“No, I don’t have any regrets,” Djokovic told reporters last week. “I mean, I do feel sad that I wasn’t able to play, but, you know, that was decision that I made. I knew what the consequences will be, so I accepted them. That’s it.”
To some there may be a Quixotic nobility in that stance. To many others, like me, it brands a me-first stain on his legacy. From a tennis standpoint he has missed majors, including last year’s U.S. Open, because he was not vaccinated.
But that is the untouchable past. What about right now?
If the pandemic is over, as Joe Biden declared last September, the president can make a small yet bigger-than-sports statement of that truth by allowing Novak Djokovic into the U.S. this month and onto courts of the Miami Open.
