Covid vaccine - opinions?

[Front242]

Another dumb comment. I'm in Latvia now and took a PCR test before getting on the plane and same on the way back. Riddled vaxxed only need an antigen test and could therefore still have covid so think again before uttering nonsense. People like me are the safest people out there due to negative PCR and I don't go out mingling with riddled people either. You need to rethink your rubbish ideas in your head. Keep hiding under the bed afraid of a sniffle. I know absolutely tons of double and triple vaxxed people who have caught covid and I haven't. The vaxx seem to be doing great! Keep getting those jabs.

AP, got my PCR result to fly home and guess what? Negative again. Imagine that. The media and governments make it seem like the whole world has covid (especially the unvaxxed) and that the dirty, unvaxxed lepers are ruining the world as you claim. Big middle finger to that nonsense as I fly home again with no covid.

The reality is I know currently only vaxxed people who have caught covid and an absolute ton of them are triple vaxxed. Hilarious.

 

[Moxie]

I guess by now many will know that Novak got his exemption to fly to Australia and play in the AO, and I'm curious as to opinions. I'm fairly sure that some here will be against the vaccine mandate, in general, but, nevertheless, there was one, imposed by the government, and yet Novak manage to get around it. To me, it looks like blatant favoritism for a (the?) marquee player. Opinion, as reported in the press, is somewhat mixed, of course, but there seems to be a lot of displeasure amongst the Australian citizens, who have endured a lot of restrictions over the past couple of years. And some grumbling and snide remarks from some players, too.

 

[Front242]

Mandates make no fucking sense when double and triple vaxxed people are catching covid everywhere. When will the world ever fucking wake up?! Are they seriously that stupid that they think the vaxxed players are protected by an invisible protective barrier ?! They should be testing all of them every 2nd day and that way they could all play cos the vaccines clearly don't do shit in terms of transmission from Omicron especially. A load of nonsense. Obviously I can see how citizens would be pissed given their stupid restrictions over there but if ppl had balls and refused the vaxx in large numbers then the government would have been stopped dead in their tracks and this wouldn't be an issue. Protect the vulnerable and test the rest. End of story. Let life carry on.

 

[Front242]

Never thought I'd say it but I hope Novak wins just to piss people off. It'd be a worthless win to most anyway given the circumstances surrounding his entry in the draw but the level of scum people in society that covid has exposed has been truly eye opening and hope he wins to piss them all off.

 

[Moxie]

Mandates make no fucking sense when double and triple vaxxed people are catching covid everywhere. When will the world ever fucking wake up?! Are they seriously that stupid that they think the vaxxed players are protected by an invisible protective barrier ?! They should be testing all of them every 2nd day and that way they could all play cos the vaccines clearly don't do shit in terms of transmission from Omicron especially. A load of nonsense. Obviously I can see how citizens would be pissed given their stupid restrictions over there but if ppl had balls and refused the vaxx in large numbers then the government would have been stopped dead in their tracks and this wouldn't be an issue. Protect the vulnerable and test the rest. End of story. Let life carry on.

I rather knew you would be against the vaccine mandate, of course, and I do agree that loads of testing is important. However, given that there IS a mandate, do you have a problem with Novak getting an exemption? Particularly as it is rather clear that the only thing that qualifies him for one is that he is a) against the vaccine, and b) #1 men's player in the world and defending champion? Pierre Hugues Herbert and Tennys Sandgren opted not to get vaccinated and so had to pass on the AO. And a Russian women's player was denied a visa due to the Australian government not recognizing the (hilariously-named) Sputnik V vaccine that she got. If I were one of those players, (and surely there are others,) I'd be pretty pissed off. Or, for the vaccine skeptics who got it in order to play, they might be pissed off, too.

 

[Front242]

I rather knew you would be against the vaccine mandate, of course, and I do agree that loads of testing is important. However, given that there IS a mandate, do you have a problem with Novak getting an exemption? Particularly as it is rather clear that the only thing that qualifies him for one is that he is a) against the vaccine, and b) #1 men's player in the world and defending champion? Pierre Hugues Herbert and Tennys Sandgren opted not to get vaccinated and so had to pass on the AO. And a Russian women's player was denied a visa due to the Australian government not recognizing the (hilariously-named) Sputnik V vaccine that she got. If I were one of those players, (and surely there are others,) I'd be pretty pissed off. Or, for the vaccine skeptics who got it in order to play, they might be pissed off, too.

Those aren't the criteria for him being allowed entry. They'd sell plenty of tickets with just Nadal playing and it may actually backfire on them for ticket sales letting Novak play. While it's obvious the ATP and sport in general are/is corrupt asf, if they wanted to make a point they would have. He's supposedly coeliac so that's my guess as to his exemption although many coeliacs are "fully vaxxed" in quotes as there is no such thing. It's ongoing for life. Their moronic mandate made all this unnecessary and made people who dislike Djokovic dislike him even more which isn't cool but the world is lame asf right now. Testing everyone has the same result as what they're doing now which is clueless and pointless. BTW any non nazi should be against mandates as they are NOT right given the vaccines are utter tripe. If they actually worked and didn't come with a massive list of possible adverse effects and stopped transmission then maybe there could be some talk of it but that's a lot of ifs and the fact remains the vaccines don't do shit to stop transmission and mandates should therefore not be used anywhere.

 

[Moxie]

Never thought I'd say it but I hope Novak wins just to piss people off. It'd be a worthless win to most anyway given the circumstances surrounding his entry in the draw but the level of scum people in society that covid has exposed has been truly eye opening and hope he wins to piss them all off.

You're so funny...you're going to root for him and put an asterisk on it at the same time? Good try. You see this issue as very b/w, IMO, and people who don't agree with you are "scum."

Those aren't the criteria for him being allowed entry. They'd sell plenty of tickets with just Nadal playing and it may actually backfire on them for ticket sales letting Novak play. While it's obvious the ATP and sport in general are/is corrupt asf, if they wanted to make a point they would have. He's supposedly coeliac so that's my guess as to his exemption although many coeliacs are "fully vaxxed" in quotes as there is no such thing. It's ongoing for life. Their moronic mandate made all this unnecessary and made people who dislike Djokovic dislike him even more which isn't cool but the world is lame asf right now. Testing everyone has the same result as what they're doing now which is clueless and pointless.

Duh, I know those aren't the criteria for exemption. These are:
If a person has a history of anaphylaxis.( an allergic reaction) to all approved COVID-19 vaccinations
Currently suffering from a acute medical condition
Past six months has suffered from an inflammatory cardiac illness.
Have natural immunity for Hep B,measles,mumps,rubella and chickenpox only.

Which of those things sound like Novak to you? And I looked up celiac's disease...it's not contraindicated for vaccine. Anyway, we don't know that he has celiac's disease, just that he has a sensitivity to wheat gluten, which is not part of the make-up of any vaccination.

My point is, regardless of your position on a vaccine mandate, doesn't it look like Novak got a pass as in "the rich and famous are different from the rest of us?" That's not going to go down well with the general populace in Oz, nor with the players, if you ask me. I thought you were more a man of the people than that, and surely a proponent of fair play. If you're willing to suspend that just to stick it in the eye of vaccine mandates, you do you.

 

[Kieran]

the (hilariously-named) Sputnik V vaccine

Now sister, don’t go knocking the name Sputnik - is the only word the Russians have to describe things they like. “Our rocket Sputnik is best rocket in all space.”

“Our new shiny Mockba police car called Sputnik is best cop car for catching the robbers ever.”

“Our potato peeler Spudnick is world best potatoes peeler.”

They love that word. They have Sputnik earrings, Sputnik sauerkraut, Sputnik tanks. Sputnik babushka dancers. You insulting their Sputnik vaccine is like saying their Sputnik vodka is like piss. Which it is. But we shouldn’t say it. Siberia hasn’t been closed yet!

As for Novak, it all seems a little shady, but…from what I can glean he was independently assessed, so the tournament themselves didn’t call the shots. Novak got a heavy duty, high priced legal and medical team to suss out the loopholes and they made it. I don’t know how, and I don’t know if we’ll ever find out, but I suspect the backlash will only grow before the tournament. If I lived down there I’d be a little disillusioned, to put it lightly.

I also feel that although Novaks vaccine hesitance was valid and I had no problem with it, he didn’t have the courage to stand on his principles and announce that he won’t be taking part. As you know, I suspected that he’d gotten vaccinated, because his innate champions greed wouldn’t let him skip a slam at this stage, but he’s worked the system somehow and he’s in, while I think fans are not allowed such an exemption.

This is gonna look worse the longer he’s in the tournament, the optics on this one are bad for everyone involved in getting him there…

 

[Moxie]

Now sister, don’t go knocking the name Sputnik - is the only word the Russians have to describe things they like. “Our rocket Sputnik is best rocket in all space.”

“Our new shiny Mockba police car called Sputnik is best cop car for catching the robbers ever.”

“Our potato peeler Spudnick is world best potatoes peeler.”

They love that word. They have Sputnik earrings, Sputnik sauerkraut, Sputnik tanks. Sputnik babushka dancers. You insulting their Sputnik vaccine is like saying their Sputnik vodka is like piss. Which it is. But we shouldn’t say it. Siberia hasn’t been closed yet!

As for Novak, it all seems a little shady, but…from what I can glean he was independently assessed, so the tournament themselves didn’t call the shots. Novak got a heavy duty, high priced legal and medical team to suss out the loopholes and they made it. I don’t know how, and I don’t know if we’ll ever find out, but I suspect the backlash will only grow before the tournament. If I lived down there I’d be a little disillusioned, to put it lightly.

I also feel that although Novaks vaccine hesitance was valid and I had no problem with it, he didn’t have the courage to stand on his principles and announce that he won’t be taking part. As you know, I suspected that he’d gotten vaccinated, because his innate champions greed wouldn’t let him skip a slam at this stage, but he’s worked the system somehow and he’s in, while I think fans are not allowed such an exemption.

This is gonna look worse the longer he’s in the tournament, the optics on this one are bad for everyone involved in getting him there…

Let's face it: Sputnik V?? It doesn't surprise me that the Australian government rolled their eyes.

But to the more serious part of your post, (and let me not move on before saying how hilarious the first part was,) sure, people in Oz should feel rightly disillusioned about this decision. Because you're right, the fans are not allowed the same exemption, and must be double-vaccinated to spectate the tournament. Tennis Australia, the tournament, and even the government have given themselves cover over this decision by leaving it to a panel of "experts." So, you can't blame the tournament, and you can't blame the government. But there is already a call for transparency. I think you're right that it will probably haunt the tournament, and Novak. No matter how he made that exemption work, in the court of public opinion, it's going to look like favoritism. And it's going to look that way in the locker room. Another addition in the mix is that Olivia Gadecki, 19-year-old Australian up-and-comer turned down a WC into the AO because she refused to be vaccinated. And she's already in Australia. Put all these things into the mix, and there are some bitter pills to swallow.

I understand why you say that Novak was allowed his vaccine hesitancy, as he is. However, as you also say, he failed to own it. He got the way around, and a lot of people have questions as to why. As you say, the optics are bad. I think the PR fallout is going to be poor, all-around.

 

[MargaretMcAleer]

Can we assume that Novak's team (coach,trainer etc) are all double vaccinated or did they get a medical exemption along with him?

 

[Moxie]

There has been some controversy over this:

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2...ics-medical-exemption-to-play-australian-open

 

[Moxie]

Victorian Premier Dan Andrews said last year he would not 'facilitate' unvaccinated tennis stars entering the country.

'I'm not very well going to say to people that they can't go to the pub tonight unless they're double vaxxed, but certain high-profile people who choose not to be vaccinated... I'm not going to be facilitating them coming here,' he said.

...Hm, that didn't age well.

 

[Front242]

Victorian Premier Dan Andrews said last year he would not 'facilitate' unvaccinated tennis stars entering the country.

'I'm not very well going to say to people that they can't go to the pub tonight unless they're double vaxxed, but certain high-profile people who choose not to be vaccinated... I'm not going to be facilitating them coming here,' he said.

...Hm, that didn't age well.

No one knows the reason they approved his exemption but seeing as they're not short a penny then it wasn't about money. Doubt they deliberately want all this negative attention on purpose so therefore maybe we have to accept there was a legitimate reason they approved him after rigorous reviews as they said.

 

[Front242]

You're so funny...you're going to root for him and put an asterisk on it at the same time? Good try. You see this issue as very b/w, IMO, and people who don't agree with you are "scum."

Duh, I know those aren't the criteria for exemption. These are:
If a person has a history of anaphylaxis.( an allergic reaction) to all approved COVID-19 vaccinations
Currently suffering from a acute medical condition
Past six months has suffered from an inflammatory cardiac illness.
Have natural immunity for Hep B,measles,mumps,rubella and chickenpox only.

Which of those things sound like Novak to you? And I looked up celiac's disease...it's not contraindicated for vaccine. Anyway, we don't know that he has celiac's disease, just that he has a sensitivity to wheat gluten, which is not part of the make-up of any vaccination.

My point is, regardless of your position on a vaccine mandate, doesn't it look like Novak got a pass as in "the rich and famous are different from the rest of us?" That's not going to go down well with the general populace in Oz, nor with the players, if you ask me. I thought you were more a man of the people than that, and surely a proponent of fair play. If you're willing to suspend that just to stick it in the eye of vaccine mandates, you do you.

Seems you try and tell and the whole forum what you think I said rather than what I said pretty often. I'm not so narrow minded as to call anyone who disagrees with me scum and that you interpret things this way is disturbing. The people who are scum are the likes of Jacinda Ardern and her shit eating grin, the Austrian prime minister and anyone else condoning mandating vaccines that simply do not work properly, the uneducated blaming the failures of the vaccines to stop transmission are scum. There was a clearly uneducated girl in work with me who said to her friend a few months ago "imagine you were sitting next to someone and you didn't know they were unvaccinated" all while 2 feet away from the person she was talking to and literally spitting in her face. Scum and an idiot. The type of scum who goes out socially in packed restaurants and pubs with the wave of her magic covid pass that supposedly says she doesn't have covid and then blames the unvaxxed sitting at home. These people are scum and hopefully a nice dose of myocarditis or pericarditis will make them stfu after their 10th booster. People who say the unvaccinated should be denied health care are scum. People who want every kid on the planet or indeed every person on the planet vaccinated are scum as it's not necessary nor will it solve the problem since they don't stop transmission. High and mighty extreme pro vaccine people who proclaim to "follow the science" and post ignorant comments about the unvaxxed being the reason this so called pandemic is being dragged out are scum since they should be doing more research and realize the vaccines do sfa for transmission and therefore worry about their own health and let other people do the same. The hospitalization risk for unvaxxed is about 0.0036% and these clowns go on and on about unvaxxed being selfish and that they're gonna take up ICU beds. Pure willful ignorance of the facts that the overwhelming majority see this as a sniffle (especially omicron) and therefore you'd have to wonder what so called science they're claiming to follow cos it sure isn't reality based. Michael O'Leary from Ryanair said the unvaxxed shouldn't be allowed get on a plane and should be punished by the government. Like seriously? Wtf? They've been punished more than enough and he is another example of scum. Up until recently they didn't even ask for a vaccinated person to produce any test before leaving the country or coming home to Ireland so he must have been fine with all the riddled vaxxed on his planes despite the only ones who clearly didn't have covid were the unvaxxed with negative PCR tests. A fool of a man.

Back to letting riddled vaxxed fly home without a test from tomorrow. Pathetic. "Follow the science" !

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/pol...eed-negative-covid-test-under-plans-1.4769167

All my family are vaxxed and I don't consider them scum so, once again, this is hardly about calling everyone who disagrees with me scum. The above list isn't endless and there are plenty of other examples of scum in society that covid has exposed to the world by showing everyone what they're like.

 

[the AntiPusher]

No AP, it wasn't me who implied that, it was scientists and virologists who actually proved it was a common cold for the overwhelming majority based on stats and facts. Do some research please ffs 'cos it's getting embarrassing to read.

Nah .it was you who posted it. Bloke there's nothing more pathetic than all the selfish bullshit you keep putting on this thread. However, you are not alone. Why..if you don't want to get jabbed don't do it. Yet you feel compelled to keep pushing your anti vaccine with the other anti .vaccas to justify that you are so much well informed about the virus. As I stated numerous of times, if anyone on this planet deserves their chance to face COVID without being jabbed it's yourself. I could flood this thread with pro vaccine data that has been vetted by the CDC but it will be useless because you and El Dude will reply back with satire or non vetted conspiracy theories.

 

[Front242]

Nah .it was you who posted it. Bloke there's nothing more pathetic than all the selfish bullshit you keep putting on this thread. However, you are not alone. Why..if you don't want to get jabbed don't do it. Yet you feel compelled to keep pushing your anti vaccine with the other anti .vaccas to justify that you are so much well informed about the virus. As I stated numerous of times, if anyone on this planet deserves their chance to face COVID without being jabbed it's yourself. I could flood this thread with pro vaccine data that has been vetted by the CDC but it will be useless because you and El Dude will reply back with satire or non vetted conspiracy theories.

Non vetted conspiracy theories such as me not being dead and not being hospitalized since this charade began? You realize your "vetted" sources are funded by the vaccine manufacturers? These are facts, AP. Covid is nothing to the majority of the planet and once again you only need to look at 99.4-99.6% in mild condition at any given stage on the official world stats. I'm not compelled to say anything in this thread. My replies in the last few days were about Djokovic and the AO and to your nonsense post about people like El Dude and I supposedly prolonging this so called pandemic which is bs as I pointed out given I don't have covid. Enlighten me please what the selfish bs I'm supposedly posting is given I don't have covid? Anyone rational would see it's clearly you who are selfish expecting everyone to take a useless vaccine that doesn't stop transmission.

Given I have no chance of going to hospital or dying from a common cold then what exactly would I be taking it for other than to go to riddled indoor venues or make traveling easier? Not doing it. History will judge society in years to come and I know I'm on the right side here. If you post nonsense about people then expect them to reply...

 

[El Dude]

The rich and famous have been getting passes all along. Remember the Democratic Party fund-raiser in Northern California awhile back, where all the rich and politicians were maskless and being served by masked workers? Or AOC partying it up in Florida without a mask? Or Gavin Newsom mandating masks in restaurants and then being seen maskless in a posh restaurant? (I single out Dems because those are the ones I've heard of, and they've been strikingly two-faced about it, but I'm sure there are Republicans as well).

Or maybe they know something that we don't know?

 

[El Dude]

As for whether or not it surprises me, or I'm bothered. Not really. For one, I greatly oppose mandates and especially when you're talking about an outdoor sports event, someone who has had covid and is in peak physical condition, it was just ludicrous.

But I'm also not surprised if Novak is receiving preferential treatment. He IS the Australian Open. Rafa fans should be happy, because it means that if he wins it, it will be well-earned, or a least nay-sayers won't have the excuse that Novak didn't play.

 

[Moxie]

I just heard on BBC that Novak is stuck at the airport as he applied for the wrong visa. I'm sure he'll get it straightened out, if the other stuff holds up.

 

[Moxie]

As for whether or not it surprises me, or I'm bothered. Not really. For one, I greatly oppose mandates and especially when you're talking about an outdoor sports event, someone who has had covid and is in peak physical condition, it was just ludicrous.

But I'm also not surprised if Novak is receiving preferential treatment. He IS the Australian Open. Rafa fans should be happy, because it means that if he wins it, it will be well-earned, or a least nay-sayers won't have the excuse that Novak didn't play.

This misses the point by a wide mark, IMO, but I shouldn't be surprised. Since you and Front are opposed to vaccines, and mandates, it doesn't fuss you that someone appears to skirt it.