COVID Latest: Outbreak In 'Boneheaded' Tennis Stars Including #1 Novak Djokovic
Wednesday: BLM protests unfairly blamed for VIC outbreak; more NSW vs VIC conflict
Morning! It’s Wednesday, June 24. Here is today’s ‘5+5: coronavirus edition’ — 5 things to know about COVID-19 today, + 5 non-corona things as well.
Latest AU stats: as of 9pm Tuesday, Australia has 7492 reported cases of COVID-19, with 6915 reported as ‘recovered’, and 102 deaths, according to the latest federal Department of Health stats. More stats below.
5 CORONAVIRUS THINGS
Kyrgios calls out “boneheaded”, “stupidity” over tennis COVID outbreak
World number one Novak Djokovic has contracted coronavirus, the latest tennis star to be diagnosed following a controversial tournament last week which was slammed for ineffective social distancing. Djokovic helped organise the Adria Tour tournament, which took place in several Balkan countries including Serbia and Croatia.
Despite having no distancing measures, Djokovic claimed the idea was “meant to unite and share a message of solidarity and compassion throughout the region… with a philanthropic idea, to direct all raised funds towards people in need.”
But now Djokovic has confirmed he has COVID, alongside at least three other players — Borna Coric, Grigor Dimitrov and Viktor Troicki. Djokovic’s wife and Troicki’s wife also have the virus.
Aussie Nick Kyrgios earlier slammed the tournament, calling the decision “boneheaded” after Coric announce he had COVID. He has also been critical of plans to try to stage the US Open later this year, sarcastically tweeting he would play in a “hazmat suit”.
On Tuesday, as Djokovic’s diagnosis was revealed, Kyrgios simply tweeted “oh boy”. Soon after, he shared video appearing to show some of the players involved in Djokovic’s tournament partying in a nightclub. The Aussie, who has been constantly slammed in media for his on-court behaviour and off-court comments, added “Don’t @ me for anything I’ve done that has been ‘irresponsible’ or classified as ‘stupidity’ - this takes the cake.”
Kyrgios also retweeted another video, appearing to show Djokovic and others playing limbo in a nightclub.
In Djokovic’s statement confirming his COVID diagnosis, the star claimed “we organised the tournament at the moment when the virus has weakened, believing that the conditions for hosting the tour had been met.”
Black Lives Matter rally unfairly blamed for VIC spike
The sudden uptick in cases in Victoria has been attributed by some to the Black Lives Matter rally two weekends ago. True, it’s coincidental timing (the spike coming around two weeks after the rally, the incubation period of the virus) but it’s being clearly pointed out by health officials that almost none of the new cases have links to the rally itself, and even people who do have the virus now and did attend the rally were almost certainly not infectious when they were there, or didn’t pick up their infection there. To talk coincidences, the uptick also coincided with Victoria (like other states) gradually rolling back restrictions.
Victorian chief health officer Brett Sutton said “I really don’t think so… I don't think the Black Lives Matter protest has contributed” (link). But the rhetoric and conversation about the rallies has only gathered steam (despite the clear and patient explanations of health officials that it’s almost certainly bogus), with conservative politicians and commentators hammering the point each day. We’re now at a strange stage where the very same politicians who called for restrictions to be eased so people could go play golf or have Mother’s Day family lunch together, are now screaming about sending the wrong public message.
Some of those claims have now switched to voices saying that the BLM rallies might not have directly led to more cases themselves, but perhaps indirectly led to onlookers deciding to relax their own behaviour after seeing the protest and people gathered together. On that point, there’s zero evidence or claims I’ve seen from any Melburnian who has directly blamed the rally for loosening their behaviour — and if that was true, why are we only seeing a spike in cases in Victoria? Surely any such psychological effect would have been felt more uniformly across the country in other states that held large rallies, like NSW… but it’s not.
In any case, science communicator Ketan Joshi has written an interesting piece (link) pulling apart some of the arguments, using — you know — actual data, to show that no, the claims about people suddenly changing their behaviour due to BLM are false. The mobility data from Apple, in the tweet above, shows people didn’t suddenly start running around all over the place. There’s also an interesting story in The Age on the same topic, talking to epidemiologists (link).
It comes as the Herald Sun reports as little as 25 percent of Victorians have been abiding by social distancing rules this month (link)… which, you know, could also be a factor… just saying…
Victoria vs NSW
Long overdue, but exciting news that carte blanche shunning of Victorians is now an official NSW government policy. Premier Gladys Berejiklian yesterday advised “all organisations not to interact with citizens from Melbourne at this stage” due to the COVID outbreak in that state (link). It’s meant to be specifically in relation to businesses like tourism operators, with ski fields open and school holidays approaching, but it’s again set off another state-vs-state war. NSW isn’t closing the border to Victoria (yet) but there is growing concern over VIC’s numbers.
‘No demand’ for coins
The Guardian has an interesting one on coins. With COVID leading many businesses to request people with card only instead of cash, and many more people looking at online shopping, the Royal Australian Mint said it may cut back production of physical currency (link). However, the Reserve Bank “was forced to produce about 2.5bn extra banknotes to respond to a surge in Australians withdrawing their savings as early pandemic fear set in,” it was reported.
Today’s stats:
The latest stats from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering (as of 8.52am AEST Wednesday) report 9,183,225 confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide. There have been 474,572 deaths.
The United States has 2,341,632 confirmed cases; Brazil is next on 1,106,470, then Russia (598,878). The U.S. has the most deaths (121,157), then Brazil (51,271) and the United Kingdom third on 43,011.
In Australia, the latest federal stats (as of 9pm Tuesday) show 7492 cases, 6915 people recovered, and 102 deaths.
The latest Australian graph:
5 NON-CORONAVIRUS THINGS
The Sydney Morning Herald has published more allegations of harassment from former High Court justice Dyson Heydon (link). “Mr Heydon through his lawyers has denied all the allegations against him,” the paper reported.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese will call for an end to the energy wars in a speech today, after sending a letter to Scott Morrison offering to compromise and come to an agreement on a new energy policy for the country (link). Energy has become the third rail of Australian politics in recent years, with failed plans and negotiations toppling several PMs and leaders including Malcolm Turnbull (twice), but uncertainty about the future means energy companies are not able to invest or make concrete future plans — leading to higher consumer prices. One Labor MP has reportedly called it a “surrender note” to the government on climate and energy (link).
Nestle is changing the names of its Redskins and Chico lollies, which it says are “out of step” with values of respect, in light of recent renewed focus on racism. Both names have been used as derogatory terms, for Native American and Latino people respectively.
Australia and New Zealand are close to securing the 2023 women’s FIFA World Cup (link).
And to end on something lighter, this is absolutely the funniest thing I’ve seen on the internet in months.
IMPORTANT EVERY DAY
Be hygienic; wash your hands properly, at least 30 seconds with soap and water, multiple times a day (here’s how you need to do it, plus a handy Dr Karl video tutorial); sneeze and cough into your elbows.
Listen to only official information from the World Health Organisation and legitimate health bodies — Don’t share dodgy stuff on Facebook. If it looks too good (or bad) to be true, it often is.
World Health Organisation latest statistics here; Australian government latest statistics here.
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Signing off — stay safe, be healthy, look after yourself and others.
Josh