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World tennis No. 1 Novak Djokovic should be allowed to defend his men's singles title at the Australian Open in Melbourne this month, after a judge quashed the government's decision to cancel his visa and ordered him to be freed.

Following hours of deliberations, technical glitches and arguments from both sides, Justice Anthony Kelly ordered Djokovic to be released from a temporary hotel detention facility and his possessions returned within 30 minutes of the Monday ruling.
Justice Kelly also ordered the respondent in the case -- the Australian Ministry of Home Affairs -- to pay Djokovic's legal costs.
Following the decision, a lawyer for the government said Australia's Minister for Immigration reserves the right to personally intervene in the case. Christopher Tran, acting for the government, said Minister Alex Hawke retains ministerial power to remove Djokovic from the country, despite the ruling.
After the hearing, Djokovic tweeted that he was "pleased and grateful" at the outcome. He said that "despite all that has happened," he wants to remain in country to "try to compete" in the Australian Open. He also thanked his supporters for standing with him and encouraging him to "stay strong." He tweeted a photograph apparently showing himself and his coaching team on a court in Melbourne.

At a press conference in Belgrade, Serbia, his brother thanked supporters. "Everything is completed, finally, and Novak is finally free. Novak was on the tennis court a little earlier, he trained a little bit, and this is how he fights for himself -- he plays tennis," Djordje Djokovic told the news conference.
"Novak did nothing wrong," he added, saying he was thrilled that "the Australian legal system had come through for Novak."
However, Djordje cut the press conference short when questioned about Djokovic's positive Covid test on December 16 and his whereabouts in the days after.
Djordje confirmed that Djokovic had tested positive, and when a reporter asked if he was at an event on December 17, he stuttered and replied: "This press conference is adjourned."
Sitting next to his son, Novak's father Srdjan Djokovic can be heard telling Djordje "it is for the court" when the question is asked.
On December 16, the day he tested positive, Djokovic was photographed at three events, where none of the other participants are masked. The following day, he was also photographed at a youth awards event.
The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) called the series of events leading up to the hearing "damaging on all fronts" -- including to the athlete's well-being, according to a statement from the association on Monday.
The earlier ruling, held via video link at the Australian Federal Circuit Court in Melbourne, comes after days of speculation and public anger about whether the tennis star would be able to play in the Australian Open, despite being unvaccinated for Covid-19.
The 34-year-old Serb flew to Australia on January 5, only to have his visa canceled after Australian Border Force deemed his medical exemption from requirements that all arrivals be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 was invalid.
Faced with deportation and his hopes of winning a record 21st grand slam in jeopardy, Djokovic launched a legal challenge.

During the hearing, Djokovic's legal team argued he had obtained the required medical exemption to travel to Australia and bypass vaccination restrictions for Covid-19. That exemption had been granted on the grounds that Djokovic had natural immunity after being infected with Covid-19 in December, his defense argued.
Djokovic, who has previously voiced opposition to Covid-19 vaccines and vaccine mandates, was unvaccinated when he arrived in Australia. In his ruling, the judge noted that if Djokovic had been deported, he would have been banned from Australia for three years.
The case has attracted worldwide attention and sparked anger from both his supporters and critics, with some saying his case shows celebrities are getting special treatment when it comes to Australia's tough Covid-19 rules, which have seen families separated for years, and others who believe coronavirus restrictions are encroaching on their civil liberties.
Djokovic's situation has also highlighted the plight of asylum seekers in Australia -- with dozens of refugees inside the same hotel as Djokovic who have been locked up for years, and who face indefinite detention under Australia's tough immigration rules.

Lawyers for Australian Minister for Home Affairs, Karen Andrews, defended the Australian Border Force decision to deport Djokovic, arguing the tennis star did not provide any medical reason why he could not be vaccinated against Covid-19.
The government said Djokovic was mistaken to think he was guaranteed entry, and that a previous Covid infection does not equate to a valid medical reason why he could not be vaccinated.
They pointed to the same ATAGI guidelines, which say despite acknowledgment of natural protection, past infection "is not a contraindication to vaccination" -- meaning it is not a valid reason for somebody not to get the vaccine.
The government also argued that while those guidelines suggest people can temporarily put off their vaccination after acute illness, "there was no suggestion Djokovic was seriously ill."
"All he has said is that he tested positive for Covid-19. That is not the same," the government said in its court submission.

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Trump White House made 'deliberate efforts' to undermine Covid response, report says

Posted by Lasun Dec 17th 2021

Category: Stories

Tags: Trump White House made 'deliberate efforts' to undermine Covid response report says

Trump White House made 'deliberate efforts' to undermine Covid response, report says

The White House repeatedly overruled public health and testing guidance from the nation’s top infectious disease experts and silenced officials, the report found.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration engaged in “deliberate efforts” to undermine the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic for political purposes, a congressional report released Friday concludes.

The report, prepared by the House select subcommittee investigating the nation’s Covid response, says the White House repeatedly overruled public health and testing guidance by the nation’s top infectious disease experts and silenced officials in order to promote then-President Donald Trump's political agenda.

In August of last year, for example, Trump hosted a White House meeting with people who promoted a herd immunity strategy pushed by White House special adviser Dr. Scott Atlas. The subcommittee obtained an email sent ahead of that meeting in which Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House Covid response coordinator, told the vice president’s chief of staff, Marc Short, that it was “a fringe group without grounding in epidemics, public health or on the ground common sense experience.” Birx also said in the email that she could “go out of town or whatever gives the WH cover” on the day of the meeting.

A few months later in October, National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins called for “a quick and devastating published take down” of the herd immunity strategy, according to emails obtained and released by the subcommittee.

In an interview with the subcommittee, Birx said when she arrived to the White House in March 2020 — more than a month after the U.S. declared a public health emergency — she learned that federal officials had not yet contacted some of the largest U.S. companies that could supply Covid testing.

Birx also told the panel that Atlas and other Trump officials “purposely weakened CDC’s coronavirus testing guidance in August 2020 to obscure how rapidly the virus was spreading across the country,” the report said. The altered guidance recommended that asymptomatic people didn’t need to get tested, advice that was "contrary to consensus science-based recommendations," it said, adding, "Dr. Birx stated that these changes were made specifically to reduce the amount of testing being conducted.

Altas did not immediately respond to NBC News' request for comment.

The subcommittee also found in its investigation that the Trump White House blocked requests from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to conduct public briefings for more than three months. That move followed a late-February 2020 briefing in which a top CDC official "accurately warned the public about the risks posed by the coronavirus," it said.

Another CDC official told the panel that the agency asked to hold a briefing in April 2020 on a recommendation to wear cloth face coverings and present evidence of pediatric cases and deaths from Covid, but the Trump White House refused.

Jailed American in Venezuela tells family he's in 'complete shock' after visit from Biden official
CDC officials also stated media requests to interview them were denied during that period, the subcommittee report said.

Documents obtained by the committee also show that Trump political appointees tried to pressure the Food and Drug Administration to authorize ineffective Covid treatments the president was pushing, like hydroxychloroquine and convalescent plasma, over the objections of career scientists, the report said.

In addition, Dr. Steven Hatfill, an adviser to former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, “may have declined leads to purchase supplies like N95 masks in the spring 2020 solely because the products were not manufactured in the United States," the subcommittee said.

In a statement provided to NBC on Friday, Hatfill said that the administration began sourcing personal protective equipment in early 2020. He said "the most logical and efficient choice was to seek U.S.-based manufacturers' help."

"At the time, profiteers were peddling defective and fraudulent PPE at inflated prices directly to the public," he said. "Even states such as California and New Mexico fell prey to these schemes, but we had no time to waste at the federal level. Even the shortest delay could cost thousands of lives. That was a risk we were not willing to take. Our choice to buy American goods saved lives and the United States taxpayer's money."

Dr. Jay Butler, a senior CDC official who helped supervise the agency’s coronavirus response during the spring of 2020, told the subcommittee in an interview that the Trump administration published guidance for faith communities in May of last year that “softened some very important public health recommendations,” such as removing all references to face coverings, a suggestion to suspend choirs, and language related to virtual services. Butler told the panel that “the concerns he had about Americans getting sick and potentially dying because they relied on this watered-down guidance ‘will haunt me for some time,’” the report said.

The revelations in the panel's report come as Covid cases surge across the country as the U.S. battles the new omicron and the delta variants.

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