Times have changed. Two years ago, tennis great Novak Djokovic could not play in the U.S. Open tournament. It was not because he had Covid-19 and posed a danger to fellow athletes and fans. Djokovic could not come into the country because of President Biden’s proclamation banning the entry of unvaccinated noncitizen air travelers into America.
Now, U.S. sporting officials let American sprinter Noah Lyles compete at the Olympics with an active case of Covid-19, putting his fellow athletes at risk of contracting the disease and impairing their performance.
Lyles tested positive on Tuesday. But he was allowed to run the 200-meter semi-final on Wednesday and the final Thursday, despite having a fever. It was hard not to notice Lyles talking with and hugging other athletes, exposing them at a time when he was surely contagious. Yet, Lyles said that he never considered withdrawing from the event. Nor did he notify anyone of his condition outside of the USA Track & Field medical staff that allowed him to compete.
Lyles was not alone. The World Health Organization reported that at least 40 Olympic athletes have tested positive for the virus. Yet the International Olympic Committee has removed all requirements for health measures or notifications. And the Paris Olympics officials have likewise taken a hands-off approach, letting athletes and teams determine for themselves how to respond to infection.
Amid this change, however, one finds a Covid constant: public authorities have consistently promulgated health requirements that have been, and remain, contrary to medical and scientific knowledge. Imposing a vaccination requirement on noncitizen air travelers, but not citizens and other types of travelers, made zero sense. Moreover, it has long been clear that the vaccine’s primary utility is to protect the person vaccinated from severe disease—the guard against infection is limited and short-lived; thus, vaccine mandates could not be justified as protecting the public.
Public authorities also seemed intent on denying the existence of natural immunity resulting from earlier infections. In Djokovic’s case, he had already had Covid twice. It was common medical knowledge that natural immunity is generally as good as or better than vaccine immunity, though, in the case of Covid, the public health authorities tried to ignore this for years. By April 2022, even Anthony Fauci acknowledged that natural immunity was just as protective as vaccinations for Covid.
Today, the advice is even worse. Athletes with active infection and illness such as Lyle are allowed to compete and possibly infect other athletes and bystanders. People can transmit Covid for five to ten days after their first symptoms. Even the CDC, which has relaxed some of its earlier recommendations, advises those with infections to stay away from others, not resume normal activities until 24 hours after symptoms, including fever, have subsided, and once returning to normal activities to take care to limit exposing others for five more days.
Lyles first had symptoms and tested positive for Covid on Tuesday, just two days before the race. His coach has revealed that, when he ran, “the dude was sick” with a 102 fever. How many athletes did he infect with Covid, damaging their results in later events? How many coaches and staff who are generally older and more susceptible to severe illness were infected? What were the American, French, and Olympic authorities thinking?
When it comes to Covid, as the French like to say, “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose”—the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Photo by Hannah Peters/Getty Images