King, who worked with the Biden administration last year to mark the 50th anniversary of Title IX, a landmark piece of legislation that increased opportunities for women and girls in college sports, reached out to her White House contacts on his behalf. I took The Professional Tennis Players Association, a fledgling organization spearheaded by Djokovic since 2020, also used the contact.
Djokovic’s leading sports and entertainment conglomerate, IMG, enlisted its government relations and immigration teams. These teams often work with governments on regulatory issues and secure entry for foreign customers under normal circumstances.
Interests for IMG go beyond Djokovic. The company owns the Miami Open. IMG executives contacted Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio, along with another Florida Republican Senator Rick Scott, wrote a letter Urge the Biden administration to end mandatory vaccinations.
One person who wasn’t involved was Ari Emmanuel, CEO of Endeavor, which owns IMG. Emanuel’s brother, Rahm Emanuel, served as Chief of Staff during Obama’s first term. His other brother, Ezekiel J. Emanuel, was a White House health policy adviser to President Obama. Ari Emmanuel may eventually replace Djokovic, but it’s not clear if that will help. That could backfire, too, and the Biden administration will become worried about the prospect of doing favors for someone with access to the highest levels of government.
Haas and others who support Djokovic, and even infectious disease experts, are still baffled by the continued ban on unvaccinated foreign travelers. Therefore, anyone who received one shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine two years ago may have been moderately effective and long since lost its health benefits. are allowed to enter the country, but unvaccinated individuals will not be allowed to enter even if they have previously tested negative. I get on an airplane.
Gigi Gromval, an immunologist and senior researcher at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, is a big proponent of vaccines for the health of those vaccinated and everyone around them. But a two-year-old vaccination probably offers little protection today. She also said rules like the current one are unlikely to force vaccination on unvaccinated individuals.
“If they didn’t do it by now, I don’t know if that would be any incentive,” she said.
A CDC spokesman said last month that the rule was the result of a separate presidential proclamation from the health emergency regulations that the Biden administration is set to end on May 11. Travel rules will only end if President Biden decides to lift them. .
The Biden administration has said it will leave decisions on this rule and all other Covid-19-related policies to health experts.
