On Jan 17, 2022, the Australian Open tennis tournament began. Notably absent was nine-time champion Novak Djokovic. Having had his visa cancelled, Djokovic had been deported the day before he was due to start his title defence. The cancellation came at the behest of Australian immigration minister, Alex Hawke, who stated that he made the decision “on the basis that it was in the public interest”. Djokovic has not been vaccinated against COVID-19.
The world number one tennis player arrived in Australia with a medical exemption to the requirement that all foreigners entering the country have to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19. The exemption was granted by the state of Victoria, based on Djokovic having tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in December, 2021. This was not good enough to satisfy the Australian Border Force; they detained Djokovic after he arrived in Melbourne on Jan 5, 2022. His visa was subsequently cancelled. The decision was reversed in a federal court 5 days later, only for the immigration minister to intervene.
Hawke acknowledged that Djokovic was unlikely to pose a threat of infection, but added that he is “perceived by some as a talisman of a community of anti-vaccine sentiment”. Allowing Djokovic to remain in Australia, Hawke went on to say, could potentially “encourage other people to disregard or act inconsistently with public health advice and policies”.
The decision will probably be popular. One poll found 83% of Australians wanted the tennis star deported. “This might be the first time we have seen a general public push for vaccination with such ferocity”, said Heidi Larson, director of the Vaccine Confidence Project at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Almost 80% of Australians are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. They have endured one of the strictest lockdowns in the world. Many were outraged by the impression that a multimillionaire was receiving special treatment from the immigration authorities. Reports that Djokovic had failed to isolate after being infected with SARS-CoV-2 added fuel to the fire.
The man at the centre of the furore has said little. “Djokovic's insistence on privacy as to his vaccination status seems to extend to his views on vaccination”, noted Gavin Weedon, senior lecturer in sociology of sport at Nottingham Trent University. It only became public that Djokovic had not been vaccinated against COVID-19 when the transcripts of his interview with the Australian Border Force were released.
In April, 2020, several months before the COVID-19 vaccines appeared, Djokovic commented in a Facebook live chat that he was “opposed to vaccination and would not want to be forced by someone to take a vaccine in order to be able to travel”. It remains his only public statement on the subject. In Djokovic's native Serbia, where he is a national hero, less than half the population have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. “There is a great deal of vaccine scepticism and distrust of government in the Balkans, though whether or not this has influenced Djokovic's position on vaccination is a matter of speculation”, said Larson.
Nonetheless, Djokovic served as a UNICEF ambassador for the best part of a decade. It is hard to imagine he would be appointed to such a role, or accept it, if he had qualms over vaccination in general. Still, there is a sizeable risk that his ejection from Australia will be exploited by those who seek to undermine efforts to roll out the COVID-19 vaccines. “The problem now is that Djokovic is very vulnerable to having anti-vaccine messages attached to him”, said Weedon.
Djokovic's refusal to receive the COVID-19 vaccine makes him something of an outlier on the men's tennis tour. Just three of the top 100 players have not been vaccinated. Coverage with the COVID-19 vaccines exceed 90% for elite American football, basketball, and ice hockey teams in the USA. The English Premier League has stated that 84% of its players have received at least one dose of the vaccine, though a slew of cancelled matches in December due to COVID-19 outbreaks suggests that there is still some way to go. Over 90% of footballers in the equivalent leagues of France, Germany, and Italy are fully vaccinated.
“There had been concerns that athletes would be more susceptible to disinformation about COVID-19, or that they might want to retain total control over their bodies, so they would decline the vaccine, but this does not seem to have happened”, Weedon told The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.
The next major tennis tournament is the French Open, where Djokovic is defending champion. France have introduced a new law that will require anyone competing in a sporting event to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Australia is extremely unlikely to welcome Djokovic back into the country in 2023, unless he proves that he has been vaccinated. In the Facebook live chat of April, 2020, Djokovic said that if vaccination became compulsory, he would “have to make a decision”. It looks as if that time has come.
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