Joe Biden’s long train of abuses and usurpations has gotten a lot longer in recent weeks—and now it’s extending to the world of sports. Novak Djokovic, the 21-time Grand Slam singles champion and three-time U.S. Open champion, who won Wimbledon just last month, announced on Thursday: “Sadly, I will not be able to travel to NY this time for [the] US Open.”
Why can’t he travel to New York? Because Joe Biden says so.
On its webpage declaring that noncitizens traveling to the United States must be vaccinated for COVID, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cites a presidential proclamation as the authority for that senseless rule.
According to the CDC: “On October 25, 2021, the President issued a Proclamation to suspend and limit entry into the United States for non-U.S. citizens who are nonimmigrants . . . seeking to enter the United States by air travel and are not fully vaccinated against COVID-19.” The CDC adds, “On the same day, CDC issued” an order “to implement the President’s direction.”
Pretending that natural immunity doesn’t exist, Biden issued his proclamation when the Delta strain of COVID was dominant. Ten months later, as less deadly strains have taken over and as the evidence has become even more overwhelming that COVID vaccines do little to nothing to prevent the virus’ spread, Biden still has not bothered to change his proclamation. And Congress, sidelined as usual, hasn’t seen fit to pass legislation to nullify it.
Claiming that it “is the policy of my Administration to implement science-based public health measures,” Biden’s declared, “I have determined that it is in the interests of the United States to move away from the country-by-country restrictions previously applied during the COVID-19 pandemic and to adopt an air travel policy that relies primarily on vaccination . . . This proclamation . . . suspends the entry of unvaccinated noncitizen nonimmigrants, except in limited circumstances.”
Illegal immigrants, of course, need not be vaccinated.
Djokovic was too polite to pin his absence on Biden, graciously writing, “Good luck to my fellow players! I’ll keep in good shape and positive spirit and wait for an opportunity to compete again.” Four-time U.S. Open champion John McEnroe, however, who usually has a high tolerance for leftist nonsense, used stronger language—albeit without specifically blaming Biden—saying, “At this point in the pandemic, we’re two-and-a-half years in, I think people in all parts of the world know more about it, and the idea that he can’t travel here to play, to me is a joke.”
Even New York City isn’t requiring Djokovic to be vaccinated in order to play. Similarly there is no such mandate from the United States Tennis Association, nor the U.S. Open.
Djokovic has already had COVID. Years ago, Anthony Fauci said that “the best vaccination is to get infected yourself,” adding that anyone who has had a virus “doesn’t need” to get vaccinated for it. But that was then.
Djokovic and U.S. Open fans are hardly the only victims of Biden’s unscientific COVID decrees. Long-serving members of the U.S. Armed Forces are being forced out of the service by Biden for refusing to obey his vaccine mandates even as the Pentagon struggles to reach recruiting goals.
America is supposed to be the land of the free and the home of the brave. What an embarrassment that we won’t allow—or, rather, that our president won’t allow—an all-time-great tennis champion to grace the court at our national tournament because he hasn’t gotten vaccinated for an increasingly mild virus that he’s already had.
Djokovic, who embodies the American spirit a lot better than Biden does, emphasizes “the freedom to choose what you put into your body,” adding, “Based on all the information that I got, I decided not to take the vaccine . . . I’m trying to be in tune with my body as much as I possibly can.”