Will someone who has turned down a free vaccine for more than a year change their mind on the basis of being barred from the latest film release? It seems dubious. The days of jab incentives and positive enforcement have long since dwindled: much of the world is now fighting Covid with stick in lieu of carrot, with plans being touted including mandatory vaccination (due to come into effect in Austria next month), or making the unvaxxed who take up intensive care beds pay for their treatment.
Should Australia’s position on Djokovic remain the same, what would make him change his? In April 2020, eight months before the vaccine rollout, Djokovic said that he was “opposed to vaccination” and “wouldn’t want to be forced” to have one in order to compete; he retained “an open mind,” he added, but wanted the “option to choose what’s best for my body” due to being “curious about wellbeing and how we can empower our metabolism to be in the best shape to defend against imposters like Covid-19.”
Tempting as it may be to dismiss Djokovic’s comments as wellness quackery, they highlight a lesser-discussed tranche of the unjabbed: the homeopaths hellbent on fighting the virus “naturally”.
While Piers Corbyn acolytes with petrol bombs and 5G conspiracists may make for easier antivaxx villains, the reasons people turn down a vaccine – due to concerns over health or liberty, or even a phobia of needles – are far more diverse than we often acknowledge. Speaking on the high numbers of unjabbed patients in intensive care last week Prof Sir Chris Whitty said that “the great majority” were “not anti-vaxxers in the ordinary sense with some really weird ideas” but people who had fallen into misinformation online. US Census figures on unjabbed citizens last month found that around half were concerned about potential side effects from the jab; 10 per cent said their doctor had not recommended it, while two per cent said they had found it too difficult to obtain. In the UK, around 6m people are thought to be without a jab.
It is hard to imagine that those on the fence could be inspired towards rational decision-making by an adult man in voluntary detention halfway across the world, or a president whose modus operandi is outright hostility – but then little interest appears to have been paid to why this cohort think as they do. Rising anger on either side of the jab divide just pushes both further to the fringes – and this Djokovic-Australia stalemate is only a sign of more to come.
Zoe Strimpel is away
