Novak Djokovic breaks silence over Covid vaccine refusal - BBC News

have you received any vaccination against covid i have not why i understand that uh and support fully uh the freedom to choose you know whether you want to get vaccinated or not and i have not spoken about this before and i have not disclosed my medical record and my vaccination status because i had the right to keep that private and discreet but as i see there's a lot of wrong conclusions and assumptions out there i think it's important to speak up about that um and and and justify certain things right so i um i was never against uh vaccination i understand that globally everyone is trying to put a big effort into handling this virus and and seeing a hopefully a an end soon to this virus and vaccination is probably the biggest effort that was made probably half of the planet was vaccinated and i fully respect that but i've always uh represented and and always supported uh the freedom to choose what you put into your body and for me that is essential it's really the principle of of understanding what is right and what is wrong for you and me as an elite professional athlete i've always carefully reviewed assessed everything that comes in from the supplements food the water that i drink or sports drinks anything really that comes into my body as a fuel based on all the informations that i got uh i i decided not to take the vaccine uh as of today so do you have as of today yes i keep my mind open because we are all we are all trying to find collectively uh a best possible solution to and covid right i mean no one really wants to be in this kind of situation that we've been in collectively for for two years i'm part of the sport the very global sport that is played every single week in a different location so you know i understand the consequences of my decision and one of the consequences of my decision was not going to australia and i was prepared not to go and i understand that not being vaccinated today i you know i'm unable to travel to most of the tournaments at the moment and that's the price you're willing to pay that that is the price that i'm willing to pay ultimately are you prepared to forego the chance to be the greatest player that ever picked up a racket statistically because you feel so strongly about this jab yes i do but as things stand if this means that you miss the french open is that a price you'd be willing to pay yes that is the price that i'm willing to pay and if it means that you miss wimbledon this year again that's a price you're willing to pay yes why no why why because the principles of uh decision making on my body uh are more important than any title or anything else i'm i'm trying to be in tune with my body um as much as i possibly can what you say directly to anti-vaccination campaigners around the world who proudly declare novak djokovic is one of us i say that everyone has the right to to choose to act or say whatever they feel is appropriate for them and i have never said that i'm part of that movement you know no one in the whole process during australian saga has asked me on my stance or my opinion on vaccination no one so i could not really express you know what i feel and where my stance is neither in the legal process neither outside so i it's really unfortunate that there has been this kind of misconception and wrong conclusion that has been made uh around the world uh based based upon you know something that i completely disagree with you

Channel: BBC News

Views: 1,942,665

Keywords: bbc, bbc news, news

Id: rNaIMC4XMhc

Length: 4min 48sec (288 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 15 2022