Senators Rick Scott and Marco Rubio ask Biden to exempt Djokovic from the vaccine

EL NUEVO DIARIO, MIAMI.- US Senators Rick Scott and Marco Rubio sent a letter to US President Joseph Biden asking him to authorize Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic, current world number 1, to enter the country without being vaccinated against covid-19 to play in the Miami Tennis Open.

The digital newspaper Miami New Times publishes this Tuesday the letter from the two Republican senators in which they remind Biden that in September 2022 in a television interview he said that the covid-19 epidemic “is over” and qualify the maintenance of the vaccination requirement to enter the US is “obsolete”.

Scott and Rubio, who represent the state of Florida, say Biden has already received a request from Djokovic for a vaccination exemption and they urge him to grant it.

Among the arguments they put forward for the exemption, they mention an article by government epidemiologist Anthony Fauci in which he acknowledges that vaccines have limited efficacy when it comes to protecting a person from respiratory viruses.

“In light of these changing circumstances and admissions by you and members of your own administration, the vaccine requirement you have maintained for international travelers entering the United States appears outdated and worthy of rescission,” they wrote in their letter. letter dated March 3.

According to the Florida senators, Djokovic, 35, is “a world-class athlete in optimal physical condition who is not at high risk of serious complications from covid-19.”

Scott and Rubio find it “illogical and not in accordance with the opinions of the Biden administration itself not to grant him the waiver he requests, given that” there is no risk to public health” and there is also “the clear benefit of his participation in a event that will be an important engine for our local economies.”

They also stress that if the Serbian tennis player is granted a vaccination waiver, it will serve “as a precedent for others in his position and hopefully lead to the full revocation of this obligation for other foreign visitors who wish to travel legally” to the US.

The refusal to get vaccinated against covid-19 has cost Djokovik not to participate in some tournaments on the professional circuit in the last two years, such as the 2022 Australian Open.

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