The Olympics are scheduled to start on July 23 in Tokyo, and it seems to me that’s a big mistake.
One can understand the desire to get the Olympics done, since they’ve already been postponed for one year, but sometimes insisting on getting something in just doesn’t make any sense. Consider that in this case:
- No foreign tourists will be allowed to attend the games (only Japanese audiences will be permitted).
- Some 11,500 athletes and an estimated 79,000 journalists, officials and staff will travel to Japan, many of them unvaccinated.
- Vaccines will be available, but not required.
- Competitors from outside Japan must be tested for coronavirus twice, on different days, within 96 hours before their flights to Japan.
- Athletes will be tested again upon arrival.
- Athletes will be required to quarantine for three days after they arrive.
- Athletes will need to do daily reporting of their temperature and any symptoms via a smartphone app.
- Athletes will be tested daily for the coronavirus via a rapid saliva antigen test.
- Athletes can’t hug or high five.
- At meal times, athletes are to keep two meters away from others, or eat by themselves.
- Athletes cannot engage in tourist activities while in Japan.
- Unless they’re eating, drinking, sleeping, training or competing, athletes are expected to be masked.
- Foreign media will likely be monitored via GPS to ensure they don’t go to locations they’re not cleared to go.
- Foreign journalists could have their credentials stripped if they go to places they don’t report in advance.
- And finally, 80% percent of Japanese don’t want the games to go forward.
Hey, I’ve got an idea: how about they postpone the Olympic games one more year until the world is actually ready to hold them, instead of putting on the charade of a set of games they’re planning to put on now!