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The terrifying COVID in Japan is approaching the Olympic starting point | Olympic issues

Tokyo, Japan – In front of the red brick walls of Tokyo Station, the digital clock reaches days at the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Signs carrying five Olympic rings are hung on the stone blocks, while shops in the area carry shirts, posters, and posters with the same banners.

Across the capital of Japan, the attraction of the Summer Games is unmistakable, but the excitement that comes with playing at this level is unseen.

With less than a month to go before the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics on July 23. But the Japanese remain strongly opposed to the Games, fearing that the number of athletes, sports officials and journalists could increase the spread of COVID-19 in Tokyo and other parts of the country. .

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the organizers of Tokyo 2020, however, have been steadfast in their determination to continue with the Games that have already been delayed. The race is now making the Olympics more expensive than ever and has become the first to be held during a pandemic.

Final preparations for the event are under way even though antiretroviral measures are still in place in many parts of Japan, but Olympic organizers and the Japanese government are promising to tighten 93,000 Olympic visitors to prevent further epidemics.

The Games are said to be a symbol of human courage and victory over the plague.

But of all the things that have been taken to fulfill those promises, the questions remain.

Immigrant spectators were banned, and on Monday the organizers of the site will be relocated 50% and more than 10,000 people at a total cost of 3.6 million homes.

Developers have recently published a “Playbook” outlining the ways in which athletes, administrators, journalists and volunteers will be monitored – including daily testing of the 15,000 runners taking part in the Games, as well as GPS trackers for external TV shows to stay in touch. the city’s preferred location – but doubts abound about how the rules will work and how these systems will work.

‘It doesn’t make sense’

Doctors and health workers are very strong in opposing the Games, worrying that an increase in disease could disrupt the medical system in Japan.

“Paramedics are treated as if they were missing,” a 27-year-old nurse working at Komagome Hospital in Tokyo.

The nurse, who asked not to be identified, said nursing, which was once a physical and mental exercise, was designed to withstand the onslaught of the epidemic. He also said that his colleagues and colleagues had resigned last year and a half.

“Participating in events like the Olympics at a time like this, is like marking the end of the epidemic, which is in full swing,” he said. It doesn’t make sense. ”

Japan has recorded more than 785,000 cases of coronavirus since the outbreak, and 14,385 people have died – far fewer than most developed countries. However, medical procedures in this country have been falling in four different waves of the epidemic.

In March this year, more than 100 doctors suddenly left three hospitals run by Tokyo Women Medical University. Last year, more than 400 nurses threatened to leave the hospital because of the growing number of staff members, as well as the hospital’s unwillingness to operate.

Protesters want the Tokyo Olympics to be banned in Tokyo, Japan on February 12, 2021 [Nicholas Turner/Al Jazeera]
Tokyo Games are now poised to become the most expensive Olympics ever and will be the first to be held during a pandemic [Nicholas Turner/Al Jazeera]

And in May, hospitals in Japan’s second largest city, Osaka, were hit hard, with sleepers passing 100% for several weeks.

When government agencies, medical institutions, private companies and even several Japanese newspapers reported their opposition to the game or sought to have it eliminated, he was a well-known and influential figure in the government.

On June 2, Shigeru Omi, chairman of the sub-committee, said: “In most cases, the games would not have taken place this way.”

While it is difficult to predict the likelihood of a very common occurrence due to the sport, health workers fear that the risks the sport may currently have in the medical field.

“Risks may not be as dangerous as people fear, but the high number of serious cases could cause panic in Tokyo and increase the city’s hospitals,” said Satoru Hashimoto, director of the intensive care unit at Kyoto Prefectural University School of Medicine.

“Headquarters epidemic could spread across the country and could eventually lead to the fifth plague. It’s not a story I like to think about. ”

Fear of new emergencies

Japan also has a problem with HIV / AIDS because its infertility laws – enshrined in post-war laws that vigorously protect human rights in the event of a crisis in the country – remain free.

In other words, it is impossible for the Japanese government to legally force people to live in houses, or for governors or city administrators to enforce the standards imposed on other countries.

However, emergencies appear to have reduced the number of cases nationwide, with cases falling from a peak of 7,000 in mid-May to less than 2,000 in early June.

The third world emergency ended with the exception of one province on June 20. The law is still in Okinawa and emergency procedures in nine states – including Tokyo – until July 11. But the decline in coronavirus not less than two weeks before the opening of the Olympics caused problems.

Earlier this month, a team of researchers led by an infectious disease specialist advising the Ministry of Health published a study showing that, if Tokyo could detect the same number of infections in Osaka in April and May, with more than 1,000 people testing positive daily , the capital can see some problems in early August.

“An emergency of two months’ time may be necessary to stabilize the waves and prevent the collapse of medical equipment,” the report said.

The IOC – in a bid to address the potential health crisis in Japan – says in March that it was ready to send more to Tokyo in addition to staff at nine hospitals selected to treat athletes if they find injuries, and 500 nurses to be recruited on a voluntary basis. every day in the playground.

But local doctors and health agencies have said that no foreign medical practitioner in Japan could practice medicine without a permit, and urged the IOC and the Japanese government to reconsider their intentions to change the cost of medical and medical services in the meantime.

Vaccination

Another cause of public controversy is the delayed release of vaccines in Japan. As of June 16, more than 15 percent of Japan’s 126 million people have received their first vaccine. The Suga government wants to vaccinate people between the ages of 65 and over, who account for about a third of the Japanese population, by the end of June and will end up vaccinating the entire population by November.

The IOC also said 80% of athletes and perhaps 80% of all participants in the sport will be included.

Ayaka Kurasawa, an employee from Tokyo, said he refused to take part in the Games even though he had received the COVID-19 vaccine because he still did not know how effective jabs were in preventing the spread and spread of new strains of the virus.

“Doctors are still critical,” he said. “I think it’s important to reduce the number of cases until health workers are fully rested.”

Health workers are not the only ones who are protesting. While businesses that hope that the less-than-ideal Japanese economy may launch a Tokyo game, are now worried that they could launch another COVID-19 wave, introducing new sanctions that could exacerbate the financial crisis.

“This is not the time to have a party like the Olympics or the Fight for the Disabled,” said Yasuhiro Hasegawa, 50, who has had a wound in Tokyo with his wife for more than 20 years.

The duo closed the bar during the Japanese crisis – which ran from early April to late May last year – and closed at 8pm each day for the second time earlier this year.

Yasuhiro Hasegawa, a Tokyo pub vendor, wants the Japanese government to help local businesses recover from the epidemic [Nicholas Turner/Al Jazeera]

During the country’s third emergency, which was announced in late April but expanded three times and expanded three times, the bar remained open even though the Tokyo Metropolitan government called for the restaurant to close immediately or stop selling alcohol.

“All this time I’m wasting money on the Tokyo Games,” said Hasegawa, “when it is used to support local businesses, finance the resumption and establish strategies to eradicate the virus.”

‘Decline in Democracy’

Although the promotion has been withdrawn or relocated, in particular, it is the IOC which has the sole authority to settle the Olympics based on the agreement it made with the host country. But there is one thing, the strangest thing about a country that has called for a moratorium on the Games since 1938, when Japan lost what happened in 1940 as World War II was imminent.

But participants, many of whom participate in the marketing of the game, will not be able to return without having to spend a lot of money.

Japan has already spent at least $ 14.5bn on the Games and a study by the Japanese government has shown that the amount is too high. The cost of the game could reach $ 25bn, making Tokyo’s Summer Games more expensive than ever, according to Oxford University.

It is the largest government in Japan and the Tokyo Metropolitan government that provides total funding except $ 6.7bn separately. And if the ban is lifted, the Japanese government will spend a lot of money on taxpayers’ money.

“The Olympics bring about a decline in democracy,” said Jules Boykoff, a professor of political science at Pacific University, Oregon in the United States.

“I have a real concern about the Japanese,” said the Olympic and Paralympic Games star and former Olympic athlete. “They are not considered the most important, and rather, the interests of the International Olympic Committee, according to history, are the ones that should be prioritized.”

In many cases, the support of the Tokyo Games has been closely linked to the epidemic. As the number of lawsuits increases, fewer Japanese people want to host the game, and vice versa.

In early May, a number of polls indicated that up to 80% of respondents who believe that the Game could not be held accountable, should be suspended or removed altogether. But as the number of cases decreased and the number of vaccines increased, a survey published in early June showed that about 55% said the Games should be suspended or terminated, while 44% said the practice should continue.

Respondents were divided equally in another survey, with half of those surveyed saying the game should go ahead and 48% saying it should be banned.

People are likely to be excited about the game and resign from a job where dismissal is on the rise, says Kenneth McElwain, a professor at the University of Tokyo’s Institute of Social Science.

“It’s a good thing to protest,” McElwain said. “This is making the government more mature.”

Although people who want to end the sport are not getting what they want, he said, “the result will be a safe Olympics.”

Additional reports of Tamayo Muto




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