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Doctors warn of almost no spare capacity in Tokyo and call for the games to be cancelled.

https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/tokyo-doctors-call-cancellation-ol...

Nothing this year has suggested it was a good idea, with mutations still popping up, less than 1% of Africa vaccinated, it's just madness to do anything that promotes global travel. The athletes alone would be OK if they isolated for say 3 weeks before, but once you add in their entourage, media, all the extra folk working to feed and house them, it's still a massive gathering. 

They just need to make it a condition that you have to be fully vaccinated three weeks before travel and source a bunch of vaccine for athletes and officials from countries that can't arrange it themselves.  Wouldn't be hard to get Pfizer or AZ to donate vaccine in exchange for some publicity.

Just... it's not hard, yeah just vaccinate all the athletes, managers, coaches, physios, press, cooks, cleaners, electricians, TV crews, grounds workers, airline crews, the airport workers etc..

Or put the time, money, effort and vaccine towards vaccinating the most vulnerable globally and skip the non essential sport for 4 years.

Ps. I'd love to watch the games on tv etc..  but it's really just not a priority. 

It isn't that hard.  Most of them will already be vaccinated.  Compared with the rest of the logistics involved in the Olympics sourcing  maybe 100k doses of vaccine isn't a big deal.

The whole thing's a shit show. The public have a pretty low opinion on having it and the towns that were meant to host athletes and events have shut themselves off both for not wanting any of it and volunteers pulling out. Medical staff are being asked to volunteer when they are needed elsewhere which is insane. People outside Japan can't get to see family and work, but they can fly in the whole circus for media and sport.

Meanwhile it's a standoff between the IOC and the Japanese govt where neither will cancel over contract breaches and insurance. The govts popularity is ebbing away fast, not helped by the surge in cases of course but also competing with China who have the winter Olympics, national pride and all that.

Japan has been slow to roll out vaccinations and even in full swing, with such a huge chunk of the population in the higher risk age groups, many rural, it will be a long slow road till things look stable. Bringing in a special group that absorbs vaccinations for themselves, and the logistics that goes with it, is idiocy.

All to watch people throw rocks and run in circles.

youtube.com/watch?v=FdCy6MGOVfw&

It's not lke there is a problem with regulatory compliance in sport in any of the countries attending...

That's pretty much how I see it, though was looking forward to the skateboarding.

Exactly. Every sport that has tried to run events without spectators has still had out breaks. 

The ioc is rotten to core, all they want are they 5* hotels, cocktails parties and money. 

And what about the vast majority of Japanese people who haven't been vaccinated (less than 2% fully vaccinated)?

Its not clear by how much vaccine prevents transmission, so having a vast pool of extra people arriving in country who may or may not spread it too an aging and largely un-vaccinated resident population - seems a bit of stupid risk just to play some sport? 

If the Olympic attendees are isolated in the Olympic village, vaccinated a few weeks before travelling and PCR tested before travel it seems like a manageable risk.

I think it is now pretty clear that vaccination reduces transmission substantially.

The Tories are saying their climate conference in Glasgow is still going ahead and they'll use vaccination to make it safe.  Why shouldn't the Olympics do the same?

The UK is still allowing flights from India to land at Heathrow.  That's far more scary than an event like the Olympics with a huge budget and the ability to do things right.

As a radical idea but perhaps the tories are wrong? Whilst I know you are a great fan of them it is possible they make mistakes ever so occasionally.

Climate conference damn sight more important than the Olympics, and now more than ever. Hardly a 'Tory' conference either 

I thought Tom assumed the Tories were not only always wrong but actively malicious. The conference is probably plot to kill independence supporters.

Aren't you happy that the UK government is hosting such a crucial global event in Scotland?

I'm looking forward to a nice big Indy march through Glasgow, especially if they do what Johnson said they were going to do and cover the place in Union Jacks.

No, its a plot to establish 'green leadership' so the City of London can make money out of trading carbon and lending the money for all the green hardware the governments will make us buy.

When Tories get enthusiastic about something there is always a financial services angle.

You missed the bit about UK action to reduce climate change being a conspiracy to destroy Scotland's economy by stopping North Sea oil and gas extraction.

Which it is.   They are already saying the oil industry 'will need to shut down to meet our targets' i.e. their targets are more important than our industry.   They want to look good on green targets to benefit the City of London and the oil industry is collateral damage.

If Scotland was an independent country maybe we could hit reasonable green targets without shutting down oil because there's so much green energy to balance off against it.

How disgustingly petty.

You do realise that this is about a much, much bigger issue than Indy, and that you would look absolutely ridiculous.

There's a lot of hot air generated in Edinburgh which could be put to better use

You have put forward a good argument for the Union there if independence is going to give us a spurious excuse to keep extracting oil.

From the Olympics to Scottish independence in fewer than 20 posts 😂

Wouldn't that be especially dangerous for Scotland in general, and Glasgow in particular, considering the rise in Covid currently happening.

It's brilliant how a parody of Tom results in him agreeing. He is beyond parody.

As long as it's not English Covid it'll be fine.

Bet it goes ahead ... anyway.

Bet everyone watches it on the telly, too ... anyway.

The Olypmics and the IOC or FIFA or any of these corrupt and negligent big spectacle producers know that they don't need to BE responsible, they just need to put on the circus and they'll make their money. The only way to change that would be for people to stop watching but that's never going to happen.

And to add to the fun, Japan's typhoon season looks much more unpredictable this year. It always was going to be an issue, and this year the seasons are proving very unstable.

To try to get back to topic... if I were head of the IFSC, or Red Bull, or could get a consortium of major equipment manufacturer sponsors together, I'd have been secretly organizing the (covid-) logistics for a Plan B for several months: a one-off international invitational climbing competition in Meiringen, Boulder, Wellington or wherever, to take place in July or August under Olympic rules; the list of invited athletes would be identical to that of the Olympic qualifiers. 

The Tories want the G7 and the climate conference as part of their Brexit posing to pretend they are a world power.  It's the Tory version of the Berlin Olympics.   Johnson has said he intends to cover Glasgow in Union Jacks during the climate conference and that Sturgeon is not welcome at it despite it being held in Scotland and just across the river from her constituency.   

If it was up to me we'd rename the street leading to the airport Independence Avenue and line it with the 27 flags of the EU states plus the Saltire.  

'Currently happening' is irrelevant: this is months away.   If we still have Covid problems in the autumn obviously there shouldn't be a conference or a demo but the most likely scenario is everybody has had two jags and it is fine. 

I don't understand why you think everyone is turning into John Prescotts?

Sadly true. Corporate money wins.

I think you're just doing the self-parody thing for a laugh now.

He is the Prime Minister of the UK bringing a crucial global event to the UK. There is nothing wrong with that. I think it is great that it is being held in Scotland rather than London (which you would have moaned about too). If what you say about Sturgeon is true, I'm sure there is more to the story than you are admitting.

Maybe.

Although the Tories definitely have a thing for flags.  Every time you think you are exaggerating for effect it turns out they are actually worse.

Like I would never have thought that the Pestfix guys would actually put in an e-mail to the UK government that their guy was bribing the factory.   

https://twitter.com/RussellScott1/status/1395104517088333828

So do the Nationalists with their Saltires (I've nothing against either really).

I was with you until the last paragraph. Immeasurably more people derive pleasure from taking part or watching competitive sport than say lugging a mattress up a hill to try and find the most difficult way up a diminutive boulder. Now that is stupid?