These Olympics Will Be About Doctors, Not Athletes
Japan’s widespread Covid-19 means the heroes at the Tokyo games will likely be the thousands of medical staff who’d rather they not proceed in the first place.
Waiting on a medical opinion.
Photographer: Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images
Each iteration of the Olympic Games serves as a global spotlight for athletes who have spent their lives becoming the best in a chosen sport. In Tokyo next month, however, it will be doctors, nurses, lab technicians and thousands of other medical personnel who will determine the success of this international display of health and vigor.
Despite increasing vaccinations against Covid-19, host nation Japan lags well behind many rich-world peers. If the Tokyo Olympics were to be canceled in the final weeks before the July 23 opening ceremony — an increasingly unlikely prospect — the decision would have to be taken by the International Olympic Committee, following a growing band of medical professionals warning of the dangers.
So far, their pleas have fallen on deaf ears. Last month, the Tokyo Medical Practitioners Association, which represents over 6,000 doctors, asked that the IOC be convinced to cancel the games. Hospitals “have their hands full and have almost no spare capacity,” it warned.
The IOC says that “no one can be in any doubt” that thorough Covid-19 countermeasures will be in place. Faced with little choice but to proceed, the government regularly repeats the mantra that it is “working to make sure the games will be safe and secure by taking all possible measures to prevent infections.”