JapanFlyerT

I am curious how the actual "VIPS, officials and support staff" numbers break down. I have read there will be 15,000 athletes and 80,000 "other" coming in from abroad, but I can't find any specifics. Some big-name individual athletes probably have more than one coach/trainer/doc/nutritionist, on the other hand, teams would be sharing resources.

I found this: The United States is anticipating sending about 600 athletes to the Tokyo Olympics. It could be the country’s largest Olympic contingent since the 1996 Atlanta Games, which included more than 640 American athletes.

USA Today* The uncertainties go beyond the absence of family members, friends and spouses; individual coaches, trusted nutritionists and other members of athletes "teams" likely won't be making the trip across the Pacific.

evergrn

That, plus they should’ve at least made vaccination mandatory for all incoming athletes, staff and officials. If you don’t want vaccine, fine. You don’t get to participate this year.

jib71

There's something perverse about a situation where developing countries that have vaccinated less than 1% of their populations are prioritizing the fittest people in the world for their shots ... but what am I saying? Everything about the Tokyo Olympics is perverse.

evergrn

you've got that right.
But the whole idea of this pandemic Olympics is perverse regardless, so at least make it as safe as possible. Maybe some countries will simply not allow athletes to get prioritized. Then those athletes won't participate. Seems messed up, but this will be messed up Olympics anyways. And it'll at least be significantly safer this way.
If vaccination is not made a prerequisite for all athletes and staff who will be exempt from quarantine in what I presume will be imperfect bubbles, then to me they're not trying hard enough to maximize safety.
I read the same lines from the organizers... we're confident the Games will be safe, we'll continue to explain the Olympic details to reassure the public (国民に丁寧に説明していく).
So far these clowns haven't explained nothing.

jib71

This competition should just be cancelled.

My guess is that a quarter of the 90,000 participants will have received a full course of a >90% effective vaccine more than two weeks before they arrive, a quarter will have had a 70% effective inoculation, and the rest will have been in the same room as a clear liquid approved by the WHO, or will be unvaccinated.

With those kind of numbers ... Even if the participants overwhelmingly comply with protocols and minimize their time at the games, I think there will be several viral "leaks" out of "olympic bubble" into the Japanese population, and many more infections within the "olympic bubble," which will lead to significant re-exporting of virus back to the participants' countries of origin (especially bad for the countries that haven't vaccinated many people).

I suspect that the organizers think this too. I don't think they're really trying to eliminate or even truly minimize such incidents. I think they're just hoping that any such incidents will not stand out against the background noise of the ongoing pandemic. Luckily for them, the poorer countries don't do much sequencing of samples, so perhaps there won't be a full forensic accounting of the impact of this competition and nobody will blame the IOC or the Japanese government for killing grandpa.

nnn

Maybe, but how many athletes/staff from those countries really are there that would need those precious vaccines? Seems like a pretty small number of people in the grand scheme. It seems to me that perhaps the U.S. alone could easily fund the extra vaccines to deliver to those few people. (I assume NBC stands to gain a lot from not only having the Olympics, but having it be as competitive and compelling as possible.) Perhaps there is also something to be said for the net benefit to the people of every country who want to watch and cheer for their athletes. I know there are plenty of people who are anti-Olympics, or at least anti-Olympics in this climate, and I totally understand that point of view when so much suffering is going on. But I suspect there are also many around the world, even in hard-hit countries, who would still be excited to watch. I also get there are bad optics with giving young, healthy people the vaccine, but it would really just be for this one event IMHO, not a regular occurrence.

Topcare

NBC has never cared about broadcasts of anyone other than curated segments, vast majority of which are not live, of Americans winning. I know. I live next door and laugh at the coverage. If you were american, I'm amazed you would know other countries actually also win events. But alas, given the time zone difference it is all moot anyway. I'll wake up in eastern time zone and know who has won everything in the crawl or news in the morning.

hailstorm

That all depends on what you define as being in "need". For many of these athletes, they have been working the majority of their life towards their performance on one specific day of the Olympics, a once in a lifetime opportunity that could be taken away from them and all the people that supported them if they were suddenly stricken with a case of COVID-19. Surely you could see such a person believing that they "need" to be vaccinated?

nnn

Not sure what your point is. IMO everyone "needs" the vaccine in the sense that I believe anyone who is eligible for the vaccine should get it as soon as they are able to.

But the context of my earlier statement had nothing to do with that. I was referring to the number of vaccines that would "need" to be siphoned off to Olympic athletes/staff if those people were given priority. Not "need" in the sense of people "needing" vaccines for their health.

Q Shoe Guy

The Olympics reminds of the cruise industry and its imperviousness to opposition.

Topcare

Lots of once in a lifetime opportunities for millions in the world impacted. I'll survive without Olympics. I am sure the athletes will too. I'll gladly prioritize the amazon workers or meat plant or any other industrial job in close proximity over an Olympic athlete.

Topcare

I truly think this is changing. There are fewer cities bidding. Especially summer. Bidding with existing facilities. Not Kowtowing to IOC. Interest has, not is, gradually waning....

ainternational

Yikes. The motive will definitely solicit some
opinions here. Could be wholly unrelated to the Olympics or….

https://japantoday.com/category/nati...of-train-media

jib71

Diamond online published some hand-drawn infographics to compare the cost of cancelling the Olympic Games vs. the economic impact of emergency measures in response to the pandemic.



https://diamond.jp/articles/-/273170

hailstorm

Quite a lot of assumptions there, the biggest being the assumption that another emergency would be needed if, and only if, the Olympics are held.