Olympics, y'all still doing that?

[olivermoss]

Japan has a 6% vaccination rate and some already arrived players have been disqualified for having The Rona.

All I can think is ... remember when the biggest concern for the Tokyo Olympics was their plans to use cardboard furniture? They are doing a 'sustainable' Olympic Village and use recycled cardboard for things, including the bedframes. 3 people on a bed could easily be over the weight limit.

I don't think it's impossible to hold safe sporting events right now, but the Olympics are huge and pull big teams from all over the planet. 11k athletes from 205 countries is a LOT more than the French Open or a Golf tourny draws. And Japan's vax rate is well below the planetary average. There is a separate vaccine supply for Olympics workers and volunteers,so hopefully they'll all be fully vaxxed in advance. Tho the wording in articles makes is sound like the shipment is still incoming and, uh, hopefully that detail is wrong. Also, Tokyo is supposed to be in a state of emergency until July 11th.

I hope it all goes well, but networks trying to trot out the usual Olympic narratives hits weird right now. I keep getting recced clips of smiling faces as people have 'miraculous comeback to nab final slot on the team!' It's going to be a strange Olympics at the very least. Making both bubbling and training work is going to be a logistical nightmare.

Comments

[mistressofmuses]

Its *extremely* strange to see "typical" coverage, with the "inspirational story" messaging and international excitement stuff... when things are so very still atypical. I don't know that I realized Japan's vax rate was quite that low - that DEFINITELY pretty concerning.

I'm stuck thinking about how in the game "Plague Inc." one of the specific random events that can help your pathogen spread is the Olympics. :|

[olivermoss]

Not only are they not requiring athletes to be vaxxed, some that are vaxxed will have gotten the less effective vaccines. The Olympic Village wasn't built to accommodate bubbling. And in general, gathering people from all over the world in one place is just not a great thing right now.

Japan is one of those countries that initially was managing things well, but now is having a lot of problems. I don't understand their vaccine distribution issues, so I wont comment on them. But, at least at some points the government had a supply and was just sitting on it. My event-runner brain is wondering how they are going to justify having an event where injuries are expected and will need to re-allocate doctors to the event during all this. No wonder most Japanese people oppose the Olympics this year. Depending on the article I am seeing either 70% oppose or 80%. That's a big percent. Imagine going to a country where that many locals oppose what you are going for.

[mistressofmuses]

Everything about this sounds kind of like The Worst Thing To Do. Nothing about it seems to have the necessary precautions in place to even mitigate the risks. I realize that no one really wants to keep postponing things, but taking dangerous risks isn't going to help anything. *Especially* with something that could become a global vector.

I know several countries have had similar issues, where things were initially going well and then really tanked. Norway is another one, if I recall.

But oof. The idea of something like that being SO locally unpopular has got to be a difficult thing for a lot of participants.

[olivermoss]

I hope Japan goes really hard to make this safe somehow, but it seems like such a bad plan. The delays have cost Japan billions in lost revenue and a full cancellation ... price tags vary but the Bloomberg article puts it least 16.4 billion US or more. It's a big mess.

[mistressofmuses]

Same. I understand it would be a burden - and one that wouldn't be easily weathered - to cancel it or delay it further. But at the same time, there's potential for so much bad to happen, and it doesn't seem like enough precautions are being taken. I hope I'm wrong, and that it really does get turned around and winds up going very smoothly and safely!