Tokyo Olympics - Not looking good / "Stop the fear porn" says Rojo

VroomVroom wrote:

Don’t delay it or cancel. They’re having this thing. The chicken little posts need to stop.

Once again this is why it needs to be in America every time or at least every other time. This is ridiculous. The athletes will 100% take the chance even if they knew they would get covid. Lets gooo

America is a terrible place to hold the Olympics.

Besides the 'blue riband' events and perhaps things like skateboarding, they simply can't get the fans to turn up.

Needs to be in Europe where they can sell the tickets.

Too damn many guns in America for safe spectating or performing.

Also possible that they may be unusually fast maturing and already be near their peak, and declining by the second half of their twenties.

Coevett's post reminds me of that Eurovision Song Contest winner from Ireland(Jonny Logan) a number of years back:

"Whats another year, for someone who's lost everything that they own".

In some people's minds, there will always be an excuse for "just wait another year" until the perfect conditions prevail. In some sports in Britain, we have lost 3 out of the last 21 years to Covid and Foot and Mouth Disease (a cattle disease), not to mention all the usual weather-related cancellations we get here from the cancellation brigade.

kmaclam wrote:

http://www.cnn.com/travel/article/japan-olympics-us-covid-travel-advisory/index.html?fbclid=IwAR33sgWQyIc9JWRLQ86HuZK-9bZHhrDWoaHIybebGku9I-Do4qBEBKKJsxw

Good then we won't have to watch thousands upon thousands of so called " athletes" pretend that their so athletic or something.

And all of their dumb sports such as badmitton...etc....

This is really great news.

Hopefully they wuss out and cancel.

I've been as cautious as just about anyone in terms of Covdi-19 in my personal life but I have just written an article calling for the Games to go on.

Calls for the travel bans to Japan and calls for the Olympic cancellation of the Olympics are off-base and not based on science.

https://www.letsrun.com/news/2021/05/stop-the-fear-porn-the-olympics-should-go-on-japans-covid-rate-is-currently-50-less-than-the-rate-in-the-us/

arunnerinwa wrote:

It's so weird and nonsensical that the US has a Do Not Travel advisory on Japan. It's safer to be in Japan than in the US based on case and death counts! All this Covid stuff is just completely illogical and insane.

Bingo.

And case counts. iT was a big part of my article. The rate in Japan for both is currently 50% of what it is in the US - yet here we are suddently letting 17,000 people attend a Knicks ame.

It's just proof to methat governments like to blame outsiders. You saw it in the US with even the sates like CT and NY blaming each other for the virus. Now Japan wants to act like brining in less than 100,000 foreigners - the vast majoirty of whom will be vaccinated - and all of whom will be tested daily is going to be the cause of a Covid-19 spike.

That's now how it works.

One thing I didn't mention in the article is the timing. If Japan wanted to cancel last year, then fine. Florida or someone could have been selected as a replacement.

So, the New England Journal of Medicine, the British Medical Journal, the Japanese Medical Association, and Japanese healthcare workers don't want the Olympic Games to happen as scheduled, but rojo has checked out the science and says, "Hey... it's all good."

The only reason I didn't mention the 83% of Japanese citizens who don't want the Games this year in the above paragraph is because it's reasonable to suggest that they wouldn't necessarily know the science.

The experts who actually know the science (to be clear, rojo is not one of these experts) and most people in Japan don't want the Games. Your article is one of the craziest things I've ever seen on this site, and regular visitors know that's saying something.

The media likes to cause outrage to get their ratings up. This is widely known as outrage porn.

Little Dickie Pound wrote:

The experts who actually know the science (to be clear, rojo is not one of these experts)

And neither are you so stfu.

Fear porn is different in these countries. This article talks trends and science without understanding Japan. People in Japan don't want it because they are xenophobic. Has nothing to do with actual safety, as Japan is already terrible in prevention measures. I've been in Tokyo the entire pandemic. Turns out, face masks alone don't cut it. Japan is learning the hard way .

Romo neglected to mention that only 2% of Japan has been vaccinated.

I first discovered this site 20 years ago and sadly, I've visited on almost a daily basis since then. As a long term resident of Japan, I can state unequivocally that Rojo's article on the Olympics and Japan's Covid status is one of the most ridiculous pieces of garbage I've ever read on this site which is saying a lot.

Much like ESPN's silly take this morning about the Asahi Shimbun being a liberal newspaper after that publication demanded the cancellation of the Olympics, Rojo's hot take is ill informed to say the least.

It is extraordinary difficult to get a PCR test in Japan even today. I personally know two people who have died here in Japan with symptoms consistent with Covid-19 and neither were tested before they died and consistent with the policy in Japan, neither were tested after they died. The Covid numbers sited in Rojo's article reflect the LDP's desire to suppress the extent of the Covid Pandemic's impact in Japan and push forward with the Olympics.

If it was safe to allow 78,000 foreigners into Japan so that Tokyo can host it's expensive and unnecessary party, why is the central government, still refusing entry to the country for legal long term residents of Japan?

adrh wrote:

Little Dickie Pound wrote:

The experts who actually know the science (to be clear, rojo is not one of these experts)

And neither are you so stfu.

To be fair, he didn't explicitly take a stance on the matter or opine anything. He only cited credible sources and criticized Rojo for what he said, whether he's in the right or not.

Rojo - I appreciative the analysis. Got here from the front page article. Regarding the Olympics, what about, you know...the rest of the world. It isn’t just going to be US vs Japan.

First, the Olympics tend to be very unpopular in the actual countries where it is held because it is extremely expensive, inconvenient, and a terrible investment on stuff most of which is not used again. In 1997, I went to Barcelona and visited Montjuic, where the Olympics were held in 1992. Grass was growing through the pavement everywhere and while people still used the park, much of it seemed to be in disrepair. Athens '04 contributed mightily to Greece's bankruptcy problems in the Great Recession. Second, Japan was skating through COVID with almost no infections until something mild by our standards and this most recent series of peaks, which meant that they did not want enormous numbers of foreigners potentially spreading COVID and new strains around the country. Had they jumped on vaccination the way I expected, this wouldn't really be an issue, but right now they aren't even really targeting the 2 million a day vaccination rate they need to get the population over 50 percent fully vaccinated, a number already reached throughout New England.

chubu wrote:

I first discovered this site 20 years ago and sadly, I've visited on almost a daily basis since then. As a long term resident of Japan, I can state unequivocally that Rojo's article on the Olympics and Japan's Covid status is one of the most ridiculous pieces of garbage I've ever read on this site which is saying a lot.

Same for me other than the living in Japan part. Just a really embarrassing article.

Fair enough. You raise some good points about underreported numbers. But if you were going to cancel, you should have cancelled last year a long time ago. You don't invite people to your house for a big party, delay it a year, but then reassure everyone you'll have it the next year, only to cancel it when they are on their way. If you wanted to cancel, you should have cancelled months ago so Florida could have hosted it.

I tried to make the article short. But a few counterpoints.

The reality is everyone coming is going to be tested DAILY. The vast majority will be vaccinated. They will not be spreading the disease in large numbers. And if they spread it, they will be spreading it almost exclusively to other Olympians. There is PLENTY of time to vaccinate 100% of the volunteers/officials for the Olympics as well as the seniors in Japan

If Japan has a Covid problem, it's of their own making. The Olympics will only minimally impact it.

Everyone in the fall told us that bringing back NCAA football would kill lots of people. Guess what. With the strict testing, it didn't. ANd that was before we had a vaccine.

Honestly, I am flabbergasted at how many runners are torn to shreds because they can't race...

Racism, sexism, defending covid recklessness.

What about music? Writing? Inventing? Improving society?

I mean seriously? Today is May 26, 2021.

This means that most of you have not raced in only 15 months.

ONLY 15 months.

Did some of you subrogate your happiness tied to Dad and Coach that if you can't run one day, you feel fat and slow?

I really, sincerely feel bad for some of you.

We were told that it was just going to be 2 weeks. You really think people ought to bend down and just TAKE IT? "The scientists" are just politicians liars. Gain of function research is being investigated.

https://youtu.be/y6D8bQs-E8A