Professional tennis player Jeremy Chardy, formerly ranked 25th in the world, said his 2021 season is over thanks to a “series of problems” he experienced after getting Pfizer’s vaccine.
Professional tennis player Jeremy Chardy — formerly ranked 25th in the world — said his 2021 season is over thanks to a “series of problems” he experienced after getting a COVID vaccine.
Chardy, 34, received his Pfizer vaccine between the Olympics and U.S. Open — where he was knocked out during the first round by Matteo Berrettini.
“Since I had my vaccine, I have had a problem, I’ve had a series of struggles,” said Chardy. “Suddenly, I cannot train, I cannot play. I prefer to take more time to take care of myself and be sure that in the future I will not have any problem, rather than trying to get back on the court as quickly as possible and find myself still having health problems.”
Chardy told AFP he was suffering from movement-limiting pain — which caused violent pains all over his body as soon as he made any physical effort.
“I don’t know what to do,” Chardy said. “The problem is that we have no hindsight on the vaccine. There are people who had similar [side effects], but the durations [of the issues] were really different.”
Chardy said he regrets taking the vaccine, but he couldn’t have known.
“Now I have been to see two doctors, I have done some tests so I know what I have, and the most important thing is to take care of myself,” said Chardy.
Last month, Stefanos Tsitsipas, ranked No. 3 in the world, expressed reluctance about getting vaccinated.
“The COVID-19 vaccine has not been tested enough because it is new and has some side effects,” Tsitsipas said in August. “I know some people who’ve had them. I’m not against it, I just see no reason for someone in my age group to be vaccinated [yet].”
“For us young people, I think it’s good to pass the virus because we’ll build immunity. I don’t see it as something bad. As I said, it isn’t obligatory, everyone has freedom to decide for themselves what’s right and what’s not.
“At some point we should all do it, I’m not saying the opposite. The time will come when we will not be given many options, but until then I want to see a better version of the vaccine that gives us more pluses than minuses.”
As it stands, Chardy cannot estimate a time when he will return to competition. “In my head, it’s difficult, because I don’t know how long it will last,” Chardy said. “For now, my season is stopped, and I don’t know when I’ll start again.”
Chardy is not ruling out a possible retirement in the short term, as early as 2022.
“I turn 35 in February, so for the moment I’m maybe a little bit negative, but this is the first time the idea that next season might be my last has crossed my mind,” Chardy said. “I’m thinking about it … It’s difficult because I was enjoying myself and I wanted to play longer.”
NBA players stand firm against COVID vaccines
More than 90% of NBA players have been vaccinated against COVID, according to the league, and the remaining team personnel will be, too, by the season’s start in three weeks.
However, a few high-profile players are standing firm in their positions against COVID vaccines, while others, like lead scorer Kyrie Irving with the Brooklyn Nets, have declined to say whether or not they will comply with vaccine mandates.
On Monday, at Orlando Magic Media Day, Jonathan Isaac answered questions about his decision not to get the vaccine — a decision that potentially could lead to missing games based on the NBA’s protocols in various cities.
His response came days after he was labeled “proudly unvaccinated” in a Rolling Stone article on the NBA’s anti-vaxxers, which Isaac said on Monday “badly misrepresented.”
“I am not anti-vax, I’m not anti-medicine, I am not anti-science,” Isaac told reporters Monday. “I didn’t come to my current stance by studying Black history or watching Donald Trump press conferences (as the story states). I have nothing but the utmost respect for every healthcare worker and person in Orlando and all across the world that have worked tirelessly to keep us safe.”
“My mom has worked in healthcare for a really long time. I thank God and I’m grateful that I live in a society where vaccines are possible, and we can protect ourselves and have the means to protect ourselves.
“But with that being said, it is my belief that the vaccine status of every person should be their own choice. Completely up to them without bullying, without being pressured, without being forced into doing so. I’m not ashamed to say that I’m uncomfortable with taking the vaccine at this time. We’re all different. We all come from different places. We’ve all had different experiences and hold dear to different beliefs. And what it is you do with your body when it comes to putting medicine in there should be your choice, free of the ridicule and the opinion of others.”
Isaac said he had COVID in the past and acquired natural immunity.
“I understand that the vaccine would help if you have COVID, you’ll be able to have less symptoms from contracting it,” Isaac said, “but with me having COVID in the past and having antibodies, with my current age group and physical fitness level, it’s not necessarily a fear of mine.”
Isaac noted the vaccine could decrease his chances of having a severe reaction to the virus, but could open him up to the possibility of having an adverse reaction, “albeit rare,” to the vaccine itself.
“I don’t believe being unvaccinated means infected or being vaccinated means uninfected. You can still catch COVID with or with not having the vaccine,” Isaac said. “I would say honestly the craziness of it all in terms of not being able to say that it should be everybody’s fair choice without being demeaned or talked crazy to doesn’t make one comfortable to do what said person is telling them to do.”
When addressing a question on vaccine hesitancy, Isaac said he is hesitant at this time because he doesn’t feel that it is “anyone’s reason to come out and say well this is why or this is not why, it should just be their decision.”
“Loving your neighbor is not just loving those who agree with you or look like you or move in the same way that you do. It’s loving those who don’t,” Isaac said.
Bradley Beal told reporters on Monday he also has not received a COVID vaccine. The Washington Wizards guard who missed the Olympics because of his non-compliance with COVID protocols, cited “personal reasons” for his refusal, while questioning reporters on breakthrough cases, natural immunity and the COVID vaccine’s inability to prevent COVID.
Beal confirmed during Monday’s press conference he already had COVID, and thus, acquired natural immunity.
Andrew Wiggins, Golden State Warriors forward, also declined to take a vaccine and applied for a religious exemption with the NBA to opt out. The NBA denied his request last week — putting his status for Warriors home games in jeopardy, Yahoo! sports reported.
Wiggins didn’t explain his rationale for avoiding COVID vaccines saying, “It’s none of your business” — and was reluctant to engage the subject at all during his first meeting with reporters since the season ended in May.
“Anything that has to do with my status, vaccination, it’s a private matter,” Wiggins told reporters. “So, I’m going to keep it personal and private.”
While the NBA has not mandated players be vaccinated, local regulations in San Francisco and New York City require that Warriors, Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks players be vaccinated to gain access to their home arenas.
If Wiggins doesn’t get vaccinated, he won’t be allowed to play in Warriors home games, NBC Sports reported.
“Back is definitely against the wall,” Wiggins conceded. “But just going to keep fighting for what I believe, whether it’s one thing or another, get the vaccination or not get the vaccination. Who knows? Like I’m just going to keep fighting for what I believe and what I believe is right. What’s right to one person isn’t right to the other, you know, vice versa.”
What’s clear is that Wiggins’ principles are guiding his resistance, NBC Sports.com reported.
Elon Musk, Now World’s Richest Person, Told Forbes He’s Sending Jeff Bezos A Silver Medal
On Monday, Elon Musk became the third person ever to amass a fortune worth $200 billion, according to Forbes, surpassing Amazon founder and rival space billionaire Jeff Bezos in the process. Reached for comment by Forbes, Musk took a celebratory crack at Bezos.
“I’m sending a giant statue of the digit ‘2’ to Jeffrey B., along with a silver medal,” Musk wrote in a short email.
The jibe is no surprise coming from the eccentric Tesla chief executive officer, who has in the past taken to Twitter to playfully label Bezos a “copycat” twice (both times using a cat emoji), first in April 2019, when Amazon announced plans to launch internet-beaming satellites in competition with Musk’s SpaceX and again in June 2020, when Amazon acquired self-driving car company Zoox, which is taking on Tesla.
In recent years, the two men have been on a collision course on two tracks: their net worths and their space ambitions. Musk was worth $24.6 billion in March 2020, nearly $90 billion less than Bezos at the time. In August 2020, Bezos became the first-ever person to be worth $200 billion as Amazon stock soared. But a remarkable rally in shares of Musk’s electric vehicle company Tesla—up 720% in 2020—helped Musk catch up, and he briefly became the world’s richest person in January 2021. The pair have traded the title back and forth several times this year, as has Bernard Arnault, chief of French luxury goods conglomerate LVMH, in an unprecedented year of jockeying atop the billionaire rankings. As of 2 p.m. EDT Tuesday, Musk is in first place, worth an estimated $200.7 billion. Bezos is number two richest, at an estimated $192.5 billion. Arnault follows in the number three spot, worth $174 billion, according to Forbes’ estimates.
A spokesperson for Bezos did not reply to a request for comment.
On the space frontier, the two men head up competing rocket companies. Bezos founded Blue Origin in 2000, while Musk launched SpaceX in 2002. In July, Bezos flew into suborbital space on a ten-minute ride aboard a Blue Origin spacecraft. As the billionaire space race heats up, the two have increasingly traded barbs at one another on Twitter and in speeches.
Bezos has challenged Musk’s ambitions to colonize Mars. “My friends who want to move to Mars? I say, ‘Do me a favor. Go live on the top of Mount Everest for a year first and see if you like it—because it’s a garden paradise compared to Mars,’” Bezos said in a 2019 talk. Meanwhile, their space companies have been embroiled in a battle over NASA’s plans to build a lunar lander. In April, the U.S. federal space agency awarded a $2.9 billion contract to SpaceX, rejecting a bid by Blue Origin. In the ensuing months, Bezos’ company threatened litigation, prompting Musk to take to Twitter to mock Blue Origin’s lander design.
Last month, Bezos’ Blue Origin followed through in filing a lawsuit against the U.S. government over the lunar lander contract. Musk responded to Bezos’ complaints on Twitter by affirming a tweet from a SpaceX fan account that said Blue Origin was spending too much protesting instead of doing “actual rocket science.”
“If lobbying [and] lawyers could get [you] to orbit, Bezos would be on Pluto [right now],” Musk wrote in a Twitter reply.
After Amazon requested that the Federal Communications Commission reject an update by SpaceX to its Starlink satellite plan, SpaceX wrote back to the FCC earlier this month that Amazon was attempting to “slow down competition.” Musk added his own commentary on Twitter, quipping: “Turns out Besos (sic) retired in order to pursue a full-time job filing lawsuits against SpaceX.”
Still, the rivalry permits brief displays of sportsmanship. Ahead of Bezos’ spaceflight in July, Musk took to Twitter to wish him and the Blue Origin crew good luck. Two weeks ago, Bezos congratulated Musk and SpaceX on their successful launch of the Inspiration4 spacecraft onto a three-day flight around Earth’s orbit. “Another step toward a future where space is accessible to all of us,” Bezos wrote. Musk’s response: “Thank you.”