May 4, 2021
May 3, SanFrancisco Chronicles
Eleven weeks. That’s approximately how long it is until the scheduled Opening Ceremonies for the Tokyo Olympics.
It’s simply not enough time.
When the Olympics were postponed by a year because of the pandemic sweeping the globe, the International Olympic Committee was buying time. Time for the coronavirus to be contained, time for a vaccine rollout, time for the fears and the disease to ebb.
And it turns out, it isn’t enough time. Not to safely hold the first post-pandemic global event. Because we’re not post-pandemic yet. Not even close.
Here in the United States, it might seem like a July Olympics could work. Our country is opening. Vaccines have been plentiful — a third of Americans are fully vaccinated. Many people are beginning to feel safe.
But that’s not the way it is around much of the rest of the world. And it is definitely not true in Japan.
Take a look at a current coronavirus map of the world. It is still ablaze in reds and bright oranges and not just in ravaged India. Parts of Europe, much of South America — all still awash in the virus. All of those countries are planning to send teams to the Olympics.
Japan, like many island nations, has done a relatively good job of controlling its borders and the virus. Scroll down the list of countries by cases and deaths and it take a while before you get to Japan. That’s good.
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