The Observer (2022-01-09)

S •

http://www.observer.co.uk | Sunday 9 January 2022 | £3.

Novak Djokovic faced fresh contro-

versy yesterday over his attempt to

enter Australia to take part in the

Open tennis tournament after pic-

tures emerged on social media of his

appearances at public events in mid-

December – on the day a positive cor-

onavirus test had been recorded that

allowed him an exemption from the

country’s strict Covid rules.

Tumaini Carayol

Melbourne

Continued on page 8 Continued on page 7

called for a major rethink of the UK’s

Covid strategy, in effect reversing the

approach of the last two years and

returning to a “new normality”.

“We need to analyse whether we

use the current booster campaign to

ensure the vulnerable are protected, if

this is seen to be necessary,” he said.

“Mass population-based vaccination

in the UK should now end.”

He said that ministers should

urgently back research into Covid

immunity beyond antibodies to

include B-cells and T-cells (white

blood cells), which could be used to

create vaccines for vulnerable people

specifi c to Covid variants: “We now

need to manage disease, not virus

spread. So stopping progression to

severe disease in vulnerable groups

is the future objective.”

His intervention comes as it was

revealed more than 150,000 peo-

ple across the UK have now died

from Covid. Official figures pub-

lished yesterday recorded a further

313 deaths, the highest daily number

since February last year when the last

peak was receding. It takes the total

recorded deaths within 28 days of a

End mass jabs

and treat Covid

like we do fl u:

ex-vaccine chief

 Former taskforce

head urges new policy

 Death toll from

virus tops 150,

Crisis management

Tories are baffl ed by

today’s world: they

can no longer be

relied upon to solve

its problems

Nick Cohen, page 48

The starman

shines again

Djokovic, who has spoken against

vaccine mandates, has been kept at

a Melbourne hotel since Thursday,

after his visa was cancelled due to

problems with the medical exemp-

tion from vaccination granted by the

organisers of the Australian Open.

He faces decision day tomorrow as

his appeal against the cancellation of

his visa gets under way, after which

he could be deported.

According to court documents

released yesterday , Djokovic’s

Covid-19 infection was recorded on

16 December by the Institute of Public

Health of Serbia, which provided the

basis for the medical exemption he

received from the Tennis Australia

and Victoria state government med-

ical panels. He was then granted his

exemption on 30 December.

However, pictures on social media

of the player attending indoor events

without a mask on the day his Covid-

Madame Tussauds has

released previously

unseen images

of David Bowie’s

original sitting with

its artists in 1983,

as it announced a

new waxwork of the

late singer would be

unveiled this year.

The pictures show

Bowie, who would

have been 75 yesterday,

dressed in a white

button-down shirt as

artists measure his

face and replicate the

mismatched colours of

his eyes.

Madame Tussauds/PA

Djokovic pictures add to visa controversy

From £1.75 for subscribers

Covid should now be treated as an

endemic virus similar to fl u, and min-

isters should end mass-vaccination

after the booster campaign , the for-

mer chairman of the UK’s vaccine

taskforce has said.

With health chiefs and senior Tories

also lobbying for a post-pandemic

plan for a straining NHS, Dr Clive Dix

James Tapper, Michael Savage

& Robin McKie

Time

to fi nd

your new

adventure

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writers share tips for

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