Honesty

As the great Serbian tennis player Novak ‘Novax’ Djokovic defecates publicly over his reputation and legacy, I wonder how it all ended up like this. Two years into a terrible pandemic, known as Covid-19, at least 5.4 million people have died, including people we knew and loved. For families, the upset and distress may last forever, with loved ones taken before their time and here we find ourselves watching an argument panning out on TV involving one of the greatest athletes on Earth and a country on the other side of the world. It’s unedifying to watch.

Inadvertently or not, Djokovic has found himself as the poster boy of the anti-vax movement, a gruesome coalition of anti-science conspiracy theorists and right wing populist politicians. Then enter Chervin Jafarieh, a ‘health guru’, who has far more influence on Djokovic than anyone who actually knows what they are talking about. Which takes us to where we are today.

My loyal reader will know I am no medical or scientific expert. Instead, I rely on those people who are medical and scientific experts. If I am unwell, I am more inclined to follow medical advice than that offered by a former hedge fund manager and ‘health guru’ with no medical or scientific qualifications. I know, I know: I’m very old fashioned about these things. I believe in experts. And I don’t believe in non experts.

Slowly, but surely, Covid-19 is becoming politicised into familiar channels. In the anti-vax camp, we now have the so-called libertarians of the Tory right in the House of Commons and the hard right, like ambulance chaser Nigel Farage who to date has not come across a situation he can’t make considerably worse. Which is why he is today in Belgrade, sucking up to the family of Djokovic.

What I don’t want this to turn into is another Brexit style culture war, even though this appears to be precisely what the illiberal elite want it to be. Indeed, in place of UKIP and the Brexit Party, we now have the hard right Reform Party, with the usual UKIP and Brexit millionaires and billionaires at its head, railing against the fact of climate change and of course any restrictions to stop people dying of Covid.

I don’t want another culture war because I just want Covid to be over, like I want Brexit to be over. Boris Johnson never got ‘Brexit done’ because it suits his cynical divide and rule political narrative. In truth, within the confected clown image lies a man with unlimited and ruthless ambition, someone who will say and do anything to be King of the World. If he thought campaigning for remain in the EU referendum would have helped him get into Number 10, do not be innocent and gullible enough to believe he wouldn’t have. Now, with Covid scepticism rampant in the Tory party, Johnson will go whichever way the wind blows. We need better than that.

More than anything, I want my normal back. It’s why I’m triple-jabbed and why I have at all times acted to keep my fellow woman and man safe. Many of us would really struggle with further restrictions and lockdowns so I want people of good faith to get us through this. Which means not anti-vax cranks, misguided sports stars and awful human beings like the tobacco-stained man frog Nigel Farage.

In the annals of sport, Djokovic risks being remembered as a dangerous crank prepared to risk the lives of others because of his anti-science views and faith in an unqualified ‘health guru’, instead of a tennis great. It’s just too bad. And all for the sake of a safe and effective vaccine which has enabled us to reopen society in a way it seemed impossible to do a year ago.

In the end, it all comes down to who and what you believe. I’m with medicine and science. I might not understand much of it, which is why I am neither a doctor or scientist, but I like experts. If you don’t believe in experts, I’m not sure I can help you.