Olympics could pose grave health risk, medics say
TOKYO: With just over a year to go until the Tokyo Olympics, medical experts say the event could pose a grave health risk to the Japanese public, predicting that few people will have coronavirus antibodies and vaccines will not be widely available.
Olympic organisers and the Japanese and Tokyo metropolitan governments are scrambling for steps to prevent the pandemic from derailing the event. But they say concrete plans are unlikely to shape up before the end of this year.
Although Tokyo confirmed 224 new infections on Thursday, a record high for a single day, Japan has largely avoided the disastrous effects seen in other countries.
That has scientists and medical experts concerned about how things might look next summer, a year after the Tokyo Games were postponed.
In interviews with a dozen infectious diseases experts, a common theme emerged: the Olympics would increase the risk of an outbreak.
“Infection will flare up if we push ahead with the Olympics and hold them. There is no doubt about it,” Daiichi Morii, a doctor at Osaka University Hospital’s infection control team, said.
More than 100 potential vaccines are in development, but experts say none is likely to be available in enough quantity in time for the Olympics, which involve about 200 countries.
“Even if a vaccine has been developed by then, it’s near impossible for it to go around the world,” Atsuo Hamada, a professor at Tokyo Medical University Hospital, said. — Reuters