The Tokyo Olympics, which was supposed to happen in 2020, was shifted to this year’s July. But now, the health experts of Japan question if in the midst of the rising pandemic, is it worth hosting such big scale events, where athletes from all over the world will come to participate?
The 2020 Olympics has already been delayed by a year now, and there are less than a 100 days left for this upcoming event. Japan’s inability to contain the pandemic means that the plan to host the Olympics in Tokyo should be reconsidered, health experts wrote in a commentary. The country has expanded its quasi-measures emergency to halt the fourth wave of Covid-19.
“Plans to hold the Olympics and Paralympic games this summer must be reconsidered as a matter of urgency,” wrote lead author Kazuki Shimizu of the London School of Economics.
Shimizu also wrote “Holding Tokyo 2020 for domestic political and economic purposes—ignoring scientific and moral imperatives—is contradictory to Japan’s commitment to global health and human security.”
The commentary has put doubts in the minds of the medical fraternity of the country on whether the Olympics can be carried out safely this summer. A survey of more than 1,000 doctors last month showed that more than 75 per cent of them believe that the games should be postponed amid the pandemic. This will provide them with the time to vaccinate more people.
The government and Olympic officials have said that postponing the event further is out of question here. Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said on Thursday that the government would do “everything possible” to make this game go ahead as planned, after a ruling party official said that cancelling the event remained an option.
