Posted on 06/26/2021 9:56:09 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
As the UEFA Euros are underway across Europe, showcasing the return of spectator sports on the world stage, Japan is preparing to host an even bigger event in less than a month. With COVID cases down and the state of emergency freshly lifted in most of the country, it may look like the timing could hardly be better for the Olympics to come to Tokyo, at least under the given circumstances. However, as Statista's Feliz Richter notes, for many people in Japan the thought of hosting thousands of athletes, trainers, and media workers from all over the world in the middle of a pandemic remains daunting, especially under the specter of the more infectious delta variant of the coronavirus.
And while roughly 18,000 workers directly involved in the Tokyo Olympics will be vaccinated ahead of the Games, as the organizers recently announced, the same cannot be said of the Japanese population, which trails other rich countries by a wide margin in terms of vaccination progress.
You will find more infographics at Statista
According to official figures tracked by Our World in Data, less than 20 percent of the Japanese population had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by June 22, compared to 53 percent in the U.S., 48 percent in the EU and 43 percent in China. The contrast is even more startling when looking at fully vaccinated people, where Japan stands at a rate of just 8 in 100 people.
Tokyo 2020 will kick off with the opening ceremony on July 23 and competitions will be held until August 8. The spectator limit has been set at 50 percent of venue capacity up to a maximum of 10,000 people. Masks will be mandatory at all times and other rules to limit infection risk will be implemented. The Paralympic Games will be held from August 24 to September 5. A decision on spectator limits for the Paralympics will be made on July 16.
Or LEADS the world, in logical reasoning.
When it comes to things such as this the Japanese as a culture are very wary of jumping in Head First to a “remedy” that is classified as “EXPERIMENTAL”. Becoming Human Guinea Pigs is not something they are attuned to.
My wife and my daughter are adamantly against me getting the vaccine.
RE: My wife and my daughter are adamantly against me getting the vaccine.
You’re not traveling to Japan or any other place anytime soon are you?
I live in Japan. My wife and daughter are Japanese.
The point being that Japanese culture is obviously vaccine hesitant. Vaccines are widely available and their vaccinated numbers are still very low.
Mask were particularly effective against the first variant of Covid and because a great deal of Japan’s residents wear mask regularly, they weren’t affected by Covid as badly as other countries were. Their infection and death rates were lower through most of 2020.
When it comes to the UK and India variants, non-surgical mask are not as effective... Thus more cases and more deaths are occurring. The only defense against the new variants is the vaccine.
The new variants (not surprisingly) started showing up when vaccines were approved in early December. On December 10th, there were only 2,456 deaths from covid in Japan. Deaths from Covid in Japan have now risen to 14,626 deaths. Other developed countries experienced as many deaths before the vaccine approvals, as they have since vaccine approvals, and because of vaccine those death numbers are dropping significantly and daily.
Until last week, it wasn’t an issue because nobody had offered me the vaccine. They are being distributed via the government, by appointment, at medical centers.
Our vaccine notification mails from the city government showed up last week. My wife grabbed both of them and stuck them in her purse. That’s her way of telling me not only “no”, but “HELL NO!” At least for the time being.
Yes, I know all about Japan’s vaccine resistance, but both my wife and daughter are very worried about the side effects. So am I, to tell the truth. I work from home so I have very low exposure risk anyhow, and I always mask up and keep social distance outside.
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