Novak Djokovic’s recent deportation has raised the issue of the right to remain unvaccinated

[ASEAN NOW News]

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Tennis star Novak Djokovic has had his visa to enter Australia dramatically revoked on his arrival in Melbourne yesterday.

 

The world number one was held in the city's airport for several hours before border forces announced he had not met entry rules and would be deported.

 

It came a day after he was granted an exemption from vaccination rules to play in the Australian Open.

 

Australian PM Scott Morrison said no one was above the rules, and Djokovic is reportedly challenging the decision.

 

Djokovic has not spoken about his vaccination status, but last year he said he was "opposed to vaccination".

 

Situation in the Philippines

 

President Rodrigo Duterte said on Tuesday that those who refused to get vaccinated against Covid-19 should just “stay home” or risk getting jailed and arrested.

 

Duterte made this statement after Metro Manila mayors agreed to pass local ordinances that will restrict the movements and activities of unvaccinated people amid a steep increase of infections in the region.

 

“If barangay captains know you are unvaccinated, they can just say ‘Don’t leave your homes’ but if you leave, you will be escorted…If you force the issue, the barangay captain can place you under arrest and bring you to a police station,” he said.

 

Citing health experts, Duterte said those who refused getting their jabs are at higher risk of contracting severe illness, complications, and death.

 

“There is a high chance that if you get infected, you will die. So, there are few deaths, thank God. But there still are. Perhaps they are unvaccinated,” he said.

 

Global Reactions

 

This week French President Emmanuel Macron has said he wants to make daily life more inconvenient for unvaccinated people in the country, which is facing a spike in coronavirus infections driven by the omicron variant.

 

“I am not for pissing off the French … however, the unvaccinated, I really want to <deleted> them off,” he said in an interview published Tuesday in the French newspaper Le Parisien.

 

“I’m not going to throw [the unvaccinated] in prison. I am not going to get them vaccinated by force. … We put pressure on the unvaccinated by limiting their access to social activities as much as possible.”

 

Macron’s remarks come as his government moves to impose more restrictions on the unvaccinated.

 

France requires people to present proof of vaccination, recovery from past infection or a recent negative coronavirus test to access venues such as restaurants and cinemas.

 

But the government is pushing through a bill that would remove the option of providing a negative test for entry.

 

Asia’s response

 

Until now all of Singapore's citizens and residents, except those who have recently arrived from abroad, have had their covid treatment fully funded by the government.

 

Under the new plan unvaccinated people lost this privilege on 8 December, and those who are partially vaccinated lost it at the end of 2021.

 

Unvaccinated people working in sectors where there is a risk that they could transmit the disease to customers, will need to carry out twice-weekly tests to prove they are not infected.

 

In November, Thailand’s Ministry of Public Health called on unvaccinated people to get their shots against Covid-19 or they may face restrictions.

 

The call came as the ministry planned to ramp up its inoculation campaign to achieve a target of administering one hundred million doses.

 

Also in December, Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh called for punishing people who refuse to be vaccinated without valid reasons.

 

At a meeting with the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control, he said authorities should convince people to get immunized, and consider banning people from leaving their home or making them pay the treatment fees if they contract Covid if they refuse the shots.

 

WHO seems to sit on the fence?

 

A World Health Organization official said recently that unvaccinated people are “dying unnecessarily” from Covid-19, citing global vaccine inequities as one of the main obstacles to immunizing more people against the virus.

 

“You can’t have it both ways, where you have everything opened up and you have everybody living and pretending that this is over while you have your ICUs full,” a WHO spokesperson said.

 

WHO has been pushing for greater vaccine access across the globe, and has encouraged people to get vaccinated as soon as they're able.

 

However, when asked how many of their own staff had been vaccinated, Dr. Margaret Harris, a World Health Organization spokesperson said, “We won't have that because it's confidential,"

 

With the World trying to cope with this unique pandemic, should we risk letting people like Novak Djokovic continue to stick to his principals of not being vaccinated, while still wishing to roam free?

 

Governments everywhere will now have to explain what their own rules and regulations will be on people who remain unvaccinated by choice. 

 

Peer pressure is likely in the end to play its part, and certainly, travel restrictions will be tougher!

 

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[ezzra]

Just because some one is a high profile or an revenue maker does not excludes him from following the country's guidelines when it comes to such important issue, and coming into Australia unvaxxed with no real good reason as allowed by law doesn't send the right message to millions of others who would like to be excluded as well. so back you Mr. Djokovic and go play somewhere ells where your exclusivity as a special person you see yourself as is tolerated...

[FritsSikkink]

You have the right to remain unvaccinated but you will have to accept that it will prevent you from doing certain things.