When 2021 began winding down into the holiday season, I was hoping that my parents and I would not have to deal with isolation due to COVID-19. However, our luck would swiftly run out, just as the clock struck midnight on a year largely defined by the rise and fall of variants, mandates and vaccination rates both domestic and international. In the second week of January, my dad caught the Omicron variant of COVID-19, and now has what is called “long-term COVID” symptoms, including a continued cough and general fatigue more than 10 days after having tested positive. The best way for us to prevent cases like this from Omicron and other emerging variants is simple: denying the virus an opportunity to spread and replicate.
While key public officials advocating for vaccination are helpful, we are living in a digital age where certain global athletes, celebrities and social media influencers can have real-life, salient impacts on people who are hesitant to get the COVID-19 vaccine or boosters. So far, epidemiologists have said that there is limited evidence to directly correlate pro-vaccine celebrity public service announcements with an increase in vaccinations. However, those who chose to oppose vaccines can bring potent vaccination misinformation into the spotlight . Many people look up to local, national and international athletes such as Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers. In November, during an interview on “The Pat McAfee Show” after having tested positive for COVID-19, Rodgers was asked to explain his views on whether athletes should be required to get vaccinations and the public’s negative response to unvaccinated individuals. He responded by asserting, “I believe strongly in bodily autonomy and the ability to make choices for your body,” and claimed he wanted “not to have to acquiesce to some sort of woke culture or crazed individuals who say you have to do something.” Identifying doctors, politicians and the general public who criticize him for vocally promoting anti-vaccination views as part of some kind of “woke culture” is a way of pedaling dangerous false information to susceptible audiences. If our goal is to prevent new variants from emerging, then sports leagues must increase punishments for athletes like Rodgers.
Another globally renowned athlete, tennis star Novak Djokovic, was recently in headlines due to his anti-vaccine opinions and deportation from Australia by order of the Minister for Immigration. The Minister for Health and Aged Care said of the canceling of Djokovic’s visa, “The rules are very clear. People can enter if they’re vaccinated or have a medical exemption. He didn’t have that … Prior infection is not a valid medical exemption.” Djokovic was seeking to still play in the Australian Open Grand Slam without getting the COVID-19 vaccine, and under Australian law, he needed a preexisting medical condition preventing vaccination. His infection in December clearly didn’t meet this requirement. Djokovic’s father had compared his son’s struggle against Australian authorities to Jesus Christ and Spartacus, and in absurd fashion hailed Djokovic in a spur-of-the-moment statement as the “leader of the free world.”
For Djokovic, this is not his first bout with openly advocating pseudoscience and denying the effectiveness of vaccinations. In fact, while the tennis tour had stopped during the initial first wave of COVID-19 in 2020, Djokovic participated in multiple social media chats with a notoriously farcical wellness guru Chervin Jarafieh, during which he claimed that the mind could purify water. The underlying message here is that if Djokovic promotes these ideas and continues to indirectly or directly rally supporters in anti-vaccination and mask mandate demonstrations, he should not be allowed anywhere near professional tennis tournaments. Similar to the NFL allowing Rodgers to compete in games throughout the season after learning he had not actually been jabbed, the response by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) to the Djokovic situation was altogether lackluster. If the Minister of Immigration had not stepped in to revoke Djokovic’s visa over a medical exemption altercation, the Australian Open and ATP would have permitted his participation in the draw.
The strongest possible response from the NFL and ATP at this time would be to bar Djokovic and Rodgers from competing in any tournament or game until either is fully vaccinated. I believe that this approach is reasonable, but it is also very unlikely to actually become policy. While I am personally in favor of a complete ban on players who refuse to get the vaccine, the NFL and ATP are not likely to completely ban top-tier athletes from matches. However, there are ways that these organizations can deter Djokovic, Rodgers and other important athletes from having a spotlight to promote misinformation. For example, the ATP is considering allowing unvaccinated players to compete only if they can test negative for COVID-19 every 48 hours and banning unvaccinated athletes from using any tournament facilities such as locker rooms and hotels. Additionally, the ATP will seek to follow the local government rules of the host cities for tournaments, which would lead Djokovic to likely miss the French Open and U.S. Open due to vaccine mandates in Paris and New York City. Following this approach somewhat similarly, I believe that the NFL should seek to make life for unvaccinated players as difficult as possible and come out with official statements condemning players like Rodgers who campaign against vaccination in interviews and on social media. Many other teams who are enforcing vaccine and testing protocols have criticized the NFL’s handling of the situation with Rodgers, and the league may be hesitant to increase fines and punishments due to the fear of losing revenue following the loss of star anti-vax athletes.
When it comes to the sports world, there are some who believe that leagues banning players from competing who are unvaccinated or have a valid medical exemption is an act of silencing, but this just isn’t the case. To escape the never-ending cycle of rising and falling cases when new variants emerge, drastic measures must be taken by all organizations with influence. If we allow unvaccinated athletes to both compete and spread disinformation off the field, we are actively perpetuating the consequences of the pandemic.
Sean Reichbach is a freshman double-majoring in economics and philosophy, politics and law.