[C19fan]

That is why I think the Olympics are a go hell or high water.

[TexasFreeper2009]

why the heck would we cancel the olympics or anything else over a new variant of the flu going around? ROFL

[McGavin999]

When are they?

[jeffc]

In addition, experts say that Japan's tourism industry could suffer a £1.7billion blow if the expected millions of spectators do not materialise...

So they would "lose" 1.7B pounds that they never had.....

[Slainte]

The IOC has a press conference starting shortly.

IOC live feed- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1WWc8tAAXM

[hanamizu]

Granddaughter had tickets to go to Japan and Korea in April. Airlines canceled her tickets. I doubt a lot of people are going to want to get that close to the epicenter.

[trebb]

Yep - all that new construction and nobody to enjoy it...I wonder what the actual cost/returns ratio is for folks that host the Olympics

[null and void]

That is why I think the Olympics are a go hell or high water.

IF Japan cancels, what does that tell us?

Bring Out Your Dead

Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.

The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.

So far the false positive rate is 100%.

At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.

*sigh* Such is life, and death...

If a quarantine saves just one child's life, it's worth it.

[rdl6989]

Right, no way do they cancel the Olympics.

[neverevergiveup]

Why not just move them to next year?

[CharlesWayneCT]

My personal opinion is that, before cancelling, they will seriously consider doing them with no, or limited, audiences.

This will still be a major hit on finances, as hotels were expecting to be full, and people had to eat and get places.

But they will still get the TV revenue.

They can protect the athletes at the games, and minimize interaction, so the athletes can still compete, and everybody can watch on TV.

They could populate the stands with groups of people that have been screened, if they want the feel of a real competition with people cheering. It will be like some of the preliminary rounds of lesser sports, where you notice the stands only have a few hundred people.

Just a thought.

[Grimmy]

We lose more than that every year just to payouts to illegal aliens abusing the “social safety net”.