Opposition leader Edano says Olympics cannot be held safely

@ simian lane

No Olympics were held in 1940 or 1944 so I do believe they succumbed to war.

It would be nice to see the opposition step up. Hey, DPJ, this is your cue!

Perhaps in 6 months from now the world will no longer be talking of the South African strain or the British strain, but instead, the Olympic strain.

If it is not safe for spectators, it is not safe for Athletes, Staff, Coaches, etc. It doesn't take a Nasa Engineer to figure this out.

have you noticed how all the IOC suits have stopped visiting Japan? Guess it’s not safe even for them. I wouldn’t put it past them to stage the Olympics while staying sheltered in place

People say there is no viable opposition to the LDP. Vote for Edano. What do you have to lose? Seriously. What do you have to lose?

The big elephant in the room is that thousands of Japanese citizens and residents returning to Japan every week without proper quarantine. That is the Root cause of why we have so many coronavirus cases in Japan. If proper hotel quarantine measures were implemented like Australia or China, we would not be in this problem.

The world media are reporting on whether going ahead with the Games is possible or sensible. Long report just now on BBC News.

It is the good timing for opposition parties to gain ground. Edano is very smart but the opposition needs a more charismatic leader.

But at the end, Japanese never vote for the opposition, they just downvote the LDP once in a while.

The Japanese people are not strong enough to oppose anything. Just mull along.

If the purpose is to stop variants from entering the country there would be many other measures that should be put in order first, so that is not actually so important.

But the huge amount of resources that need to be used for the games is an extra weight that holds over the city at a time where the health of the population is at risk. It has become clear that holding the games will cost lives.

It's more than about time for the countries of the world to step up and openly state that they will not be sending their national team's to the Olympics.

Get one or two of the "major" participants, best would be the USA, and folks would see the Olympics get cancelled right quick!

@ReasonandWisdom

I believe he will also be very popular among the Japanese population, the majority of who, agree with him.

The big elephant in the room is that thousands of Japanese citizens and residents returning to Japan every week without proper quarantine. That is the Root cause of why we have so many coronavirus cases in Japan. If proper hotel quarantine measures were implemented like Australia or China, we would not be in this problem.

the question is what's going to happen when the Indian strain gets here. That's what I'm worried about.

The Japanese people are not strong enough to oppose anything. Just mull along.

Exactly, the Japanese people aren't quite ready for democracy

There is an opposition party here? Who knew.

The Olympics are going ahead anyway... All countries are vaccinating their athletes now.

They are going to launch this senseless even as per schedule, while ordinary people wait in the sidelines, asking for the govt to cancel it. Really insensible, insensitive.... with no one to stop them

"Opposition leader Edano says Olympics cannot be held safely"

This is what I have been saying since last year.

Edano is correct but why did he wait this long ? Because he wanted to make sure an anti olympic stand would not hurt himself. Now the publics sentiment is clear he can step up without personal risk. Politicians are all the same

Exactly, the Japanese people aren't quite ready for democracy

Yep, Japan may have a democratic system, but it is not a functioning democracy. It functions more like a medieval feudal elected monarchy system, where the king (the PM) is selected by the nobles (political families and factions) , except it is even a more prefect system as the subjects (JP voters) are extremely loyal to their nobles, and fully believe in their absolute right to rule and legitimacy. Therefore there are zero risks to any unrest.

Opposition is there just for show to the western powers, just talk (whom no one will care), no ability to do anything. The Japanese voters will never elect people outside of their regional political families, as that is seen as treason to their lord. The voters are loyal to their regional political families rather than the country.

Indeed, the usual fear porn is not based on science.

That would be the antivaxxer propaganda, the opposition to the games has been supported by several experts in their professional opinions.

Yes, very true, that is exactly what SCIENCE says.

That is false, this is the opposite of what science says, as easy as you will not find any well respected medical or scientific institution repeating this debunked approach and for many you can actually find official communications saying this is actually a mistaken approach.

How exactly is it "clear the games will cost lives"? The number of people coming in will be less than the norm, even not counting returning Japanese. And they will be tested more often than the average Joe.

Because resources that are extremely necessary for the control of the pandemic and the treatment of the affected individuals are being diverted for the games, if people are dying now when those resources are supposedly available, what would you think will happen when they become scarcer thanks to the huge event?

For example if Tokyo cannot even manage to test a fraction of what is necessary to follow properly the pandemic what will happen with thousands more of daily tests become necessary? how about the beds that have to be reserved for the participants according to the contract? Why would you compare the games with "the norm" when this is obviously completely outside of what is even recommended. More people will enter Tokyo than what is actually recommended for a city where the disease is going into widespread dissemination. It is still an event that puts thousands of people in close contact of each other, including thousands of volunteers that will commute to their houses every day. Are they also going to be tested daily? are the dozens of people that were in contact with any positive in the few days before the test held in isolation?

Why IOC/JOC/Japan don't cancel the Olympics? They already lost a lot of profit from Olympic business. If it is held in summer, they will fall in enormous debts. The matter is they lose bigger or stop big loss.

Has a Japanese politician found a spine at last?

Notice the absence of science in his remarks- surprise.

What is Yukio Edano expertise in this matter? Is he an infectious disease expert?

There is a huge difference in not having scientific sources when what is being said goes along or against the opinion of scientific experts. There have been several articles where scientist and doctors have expressed that the games are not safe to be held and that they represent an unnecessary risk that is not justified.

If a politician says the same thing as the experts then it has those opinions to support him, but if he says the opposite (as Suga does) then he would also need the professional opinion of experts on his side, I have not read anybody of expertise saying that the games can be held safely even in the current situation only politicians and athletes, which are not exactly authorities.

Keep the vulnerable home, don’t let people breathe in each other’s face for 15 minutes straight, and all will be fine.

The consensus of science says that this is wrong, the high percentage of transmission observed from people without symptoms makes it realistically impossible to isolate vulnerable people if the infection is widespread. And even if that were possible the health system in Japan is not prepared to even manage the percentage of people that get complications from COVID in the general population.

Edano accused Suga of passing the buck, saying, "Different experts have differing opinions. In the end, it's up to the government to make a call."

We all know this. Suga doesn't have balls.

the question is what's going to happen when the Indian strain gets here. That's what I'm worried about.

It's here. Been for a month or so. Of course, same stand as with the others: we have found one case, and it's stoppable. We will work to stop it spreading, take a lot of precautions, etc, etc. The same harp is playing on and on.

The problem is they don't test much from the limited tests for the variants.... Just a handful of samples here and there. Even then, there were 20 of the Indian variant the last time they announced it.

Amid opposition, Japan PM says has 'never put Olympics first':

"To have or not to have", that is the question.

Japan premier is torn between public opinion and IOC as to whether to have the Games on. As more people are against the Olympics, he has a tough decision to make.

Tough or not, he has to decide real soon. Time has no mercy, it is running out..

More nightmares awaiting..

does this shadow party minister really think the five rings give a hoot about summer covid variants ?

No. And that's exactly the point.

They haven't got this under control

It really doesnt matter what Edano says or do, Japanese voters will not vote for his party.

Japanese voters are loyal to their local political families, the only way to move power from LDP is for the politicians to actually move parties. Japanese voters may disagree with policies but the overwhelming majority will never change their votes, the voters view the current politicians and their families are the only legitimate rulers of Japan.

So how many resources does Tokyo have and how many will they need? If you have no clue, you can't predict what would happen. Hospital wise, they are in a much better situation than say, Osaka.

Risk analysis do not require predictions, do the games liberate more resources? then it could be possible that the number of deaths would be reduced thanks to it, but the reality is the opposite, so any death that could be prevented with more resources can be validly said to be originated by the use of those resources for other purposes, like the games. That other places are worse than Tokyo do not automatically means there is plenty to spare in the city, what have the experts said about the health services in Tokyo? In January over 80% of the hospital occupancy was filled in Tokyo, and this time is not looking better.

Who says they can't manage it? Again, it is just your guess.

The government promised several times over the number of tests being done now, if they could not fulfill that promise that can only be because there is no capacity for it or because they are evil people that would like the city to be full of cases for no reason whatsoever, it is natural to think the first reasons is true. So yes, they can't manage it even now, much less with extra thousands of tests.

I was comparing the number of visitors to the norm,

The norm do not apply to what should be observed right now, so it is not an argument that makes it OK for the games to be held. The state of emergency declarations specifically call for people to refrain from visiting the city and to congregate in large numbers because experts correlate this movement (and big events) to a higher spreading of the disease.

Again, where does this recommendation come from?

Have you put any attention to the communications for the state of emergency? do you think people are encouraged to travel at this point?

It was already announced in April the athletes will be tested daily. Volunteers won't be a huge number compared to average daily commuters in Japan.

Testing is only half of the necessary measures that have proved to be effective, the other part is complete isolation. Volunteers are precisely what makes the environment in the games NOT a controlled environment, people are not going to interact with tested/quarantined people only, but with thousands volunteers that can be infected or become infected at any point, specially in a city with a large number of positive cases every day. That means that everybody in the games has a very real chance of getting infected, and to transmit the infection to others up to the point where they are detected and (hopefully) isolated.

You are also not taking into account that the situation will most likely improve in the hot summer, as history has shown. 

You are betting lives that this will happen, even when there are plenty of examples in other countries where a growing number of cases is not reduced by summer. See the numbers of Brazil for example, did the summer interrupted the spreading? of course not.

Edano has been a voice of reason, going back to the 3-11 event.

Maybe it’s time for a change in Japan: Less co-operation with globalist agencies, and more Japan first.

Tell it like it is Edano-san!

Although he is right on this, he jumped the train very late. It’s surely more about getting more parliamentary seats in the elections.

The popular answer is always the easy answer, especially when you don't have a horse in the race.

Perfectly agreed with Mr edano.

That's the best thing he's said in a long time.

I am glad that Yukio Edano is telling Japanese people the truth: that holding the Olympics this summer would be a public health disaster.

That is assuming there will be more deaths, which is not a given since Tokyo is seeing deaths only in the single digits per day. 

Again that is not what the experts say, single digits per day are still more deaths every day some of which could have been prevented (as sure as you can read everywhere how some people died without access to medical attention) since the games do not liberate resources but instead use them any of those deaths can be attributed to it.

January, yes, but as of now it is only 39% in Tokyo. So either the situation is not as bad as January, or they have freed up more hospital beds.

But once again, this is not the worst that could happen and the experts say there is a very real risk of conditions deteriorating very quickly if the trend is not reversed immediately, you are completely fine betting this will not be the case, the people responsible for the public health are not so carefree. The same applies for the state of emergency, you keep trying to present it as the cause of having problems for the games, in reality it is the effect of having problems. If widespread infection is present at the time (maybe because resources were diverted to the games instead of measures against the pandemic) the SoE would not the the important part, the need of the SoE would.

As mentioned Tokyo only has a few deaths to begin with, so yes I would take that bet any day. And comparing with other countries isn't helpful when we know full well that in Japan the summer did interrupt the spreading.

And again, you being completely free of care about the possibilities is not something the people in charge of public health can do, specially when it already has become obvious that summer do not automatically means less cases, specially when new variants are put into the mix. You taking the bet is not important, you are not risking anything, authorities cannot take that bet because they are risking the lives of the people under their responsibility.

Ref: https://japantoday.com/category/tokyo-2020-olympics/olympics-organisers-hail-diving-world-cup-after-anti-covid-measures

It shows that a sporting event, where the world was invited, held in Tokyo, didn't have any new COVID cases for nearly 500 people at this event over multiple days.

Seems like science to me.

Seems like it was held safely.

Other professional sporting events under similarly controlled situations show similar results.

Facts. No fear.

What is Yukio Edano expertise in this matter? Is he an infectious disease expert?

Last week, the World Cup Diving trial event was held in Tokyo. Of almost 500 people involved, only 1 was found with COVID at the airport and immediately quarantined. The people involved were tested daily, followed the "bubble rules" and none tested positive the entire time.

Ref: https://japantoday.com/category/tokyo-2020-olympics/olympics-organisers-hail-diving-world-cup-after-anti-covid-measures

I seriously don't understand some of the complaints here.

You say it's unsafe that athletes are travelling to Japan. Then you say it's bad that athletes are getting vaccines prioritised.

Surely having international athletes vaccinated prior to travelling would be something that everyone can agree on but people here just love to complain.

It seems like none of you will be happy until the Olympics are cancelled, Suga is gone and people are forced to remain in their homes for the next year and cower to coronavirus.

Maybe the Olympics can be held? Let's wait and see.

Risk analysis do not require predictions, do the games liberate more resources? then it could be possible that the number of deaths would be reduced thanks to it, but the reality is the opposite, so any death that could be prevented with more resources can be validly said to be originated by the use of those resources for other purposes, like the games.

That is assuming there will be more deaths, which is not a given since Tokyo is seeing deaths only in the single digits per day. If Tokyo was seeing hundreds or thousands of deaths, then I would be inclined to agree with you, but based on the stats up until now, the more likely outcome is that there will be no impact at all.

That other places are worse than Tokyo do not automatically means there is plenty to spare in the city, what have the experts said about the health services in Tokyo? In January over 80% of the hospital occupancy was filled in Tokyo, and this time is not looking better.

January, yes, but as of now it is only 39% in Tokyo. So either the situation is not as bad as January, or they have freed up more hospital beds.

https://www.stopcovid19.jp/mhlw-beds.html

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/special/coronavirus/hospital/

The state of emergency declarations specifically call for people to refrain from visiting the city and to congregate in large numbers because experts correlate this movement (and big events) to a higher spreading of the disease.

That is assuming there will be a state of emergency in Tokyo during the games, which again is just a guess. If they hold the current SOE long enough it will not likely be necessary.

Testing is only half of the necessary measures that have proved to be effective, the other part is complete isolation. Volunteers are precisely what makes the environment in the games NOT a controlled environment, people are not going to interact with tested/quarantined people only, but with thousands volunteers that can be infected or become infected at any point, specially in a city with a large number of positive cases every day.

It is controlled in the sense that they will have protocols to follow, unlike the average visitor on a normal day. They will only make up a small portion of the visitors to Tokyo, as well. Not to mention, Tokyo doesn't have a large number of cases when you consider the massive size of the city.

You are betting lives that this will happen, even when there are plenty of examples in other countries where a growing number of cases is not reduced by summer. See the numbers of Brazil for example, did the summer interrupted the spreading? of course not.

As mentioned Tokyo only has a few deaths to begin with, so yes I would take that bet any day. And comparing with other countries isn't helpful when we know full well that in Japan the summer did interrupt the spreading.

Japan as the host country should be hosting properly and being a safety country first. We need the experts to make the right decisions and then we can enjoy the Olympics this year or maybe next year.

Edano got it right and I hope that many Japanese voters will remember his remarks during the next election!

The opposition spends all their time whining and making deconstructive comments, so not any real basis for election there.

Because resources that are extremely necessary for the control of the pandemic and the treatment of the affected individuals are being diverted for the games, if people are dying now when those resources are supposedly available, what would you think will happen when they become scarcer thanks to the huge event?

So how many resources does Tokyo have and how many will they need? If you have no clue, you can't predict what would happen. Hospital wise, they are in a much better situation than say, Osaka.

For example if Tokyo cannot even manage to test a fraction of what is necessary to follow properly the pandemic what will happen with thousands more of daily tests become necessary?

Who says they can't manage it? Again, it is just your guess.

how about the beds that have to be reserved for the participants according to the contract? Why would you compare the games with "the norm" when this is obviously completely outside of what is even recommended.

I was comparing the number of visitors to the norm, since that's all that Edano based his complaint on. He doesn't provide anything on what is recommended, or how athletes/coaches in a controlled environment will pose a great risk.

More people will enter Tokyo than what is actually recommended for a city where the disease is going into widespread dissemination.

Again, where does this recommendation come from?

It is still an event that puts thousands of people in close contact of each other, including thousands of volunteers that will commute to their houses every day. Are they also going to be tested daily? are the dozens of people that were in contact with any positive in the few days before the test held in isolation?

It was already announced in April the athletes will be tested daily. Volunteers won't be a huge number compared to average daily commuters in Japan.

You are also not taking into account that the situation will most likely improve in the hot summer, as history has shown. Not that I would expect you to, though. Although your posts can be informative, you do have a tendency to take the worst case scenario and pass it off as a fact.

This just in! 'Opposition party opposes!' Read all about it!

The guy’s looking for some free pub.

Notice the absence of science in his remarks- surprise.

Keep the vulnerable home, don’t let people breathe in each other’s face for 15 minutes straight, and all will be fine.

The opposition opposes something. Wow that is news!

If the purpose is to stop variants from entering the country there would be many other measures that should be put in order first, so that is not actually so important.

But the huge amount of resources that need to be used for the games is an extra weight that holds over the city at a time where the health of the population is at risk. It has become clear that holding the games will cost lives.

How exactly is it "clear the games will cost lives"? The number of people coming in will be less than the norm, even not counting returning Japanese. And they will be tested more often than the average Joe.

Notice the absence of science in his remarks- surprise.

Indeed, the usual fear porn is not based on science.

Keep the vulnerable home, don’t let people breathe in each other’s face for 15 minutes straight, and all will be fine.

Yes, very true, that is exactly what SCIENCE says.

I'm sure Edano will be the most popular guy on the block. Especially on JT where people feel so much passion on this subject.