David S wrote:
Here are some suggestions for how we could have the Olympics, there are really only two sides to the coin in my view:
1. Have it somewhere where people just don't give a sh1t about COVID. South Dakota maybe. No harm done if we have it there.
2. Here's the other side of the coin: Keep the Olympics in Japan, but only allow delegates from countries where the infection rate is low and the population has figured out how to behave responsibly. Sorry, your country has behaved like an infant for the past year, we revoke their privilege to be represented. Maybe let some athletes attend under a neutral banner like the Russians if those athletes have been training in a country with a sufficiently low infection rate.
I think you're really in the camp of don't have the Olympics but if you're not. As for #2 I don't see that as feasible. Look at this map:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/world/coronavirus-maps.htmlClick on per capita.
Outside of Asia and Africa covid has been on a relative scale pretty bad in most of the world. Sure it's been worse in certain countries than others but you think people in Africa care more about Covid than someone in India? And it doesn't really matter how a country feels about Covid, an individual from that country could still carry it. So treating all athletes from certain countries as a block I don't think is fair.
And are you about stopping the spread of penalizing countries? Some hard lockdown countries like Peru have had terrible outcomes. Should they be allowed into the Olympics? Bigger point is I think an Olympics where we exclude certain countries is not the Olympics.