Jun Tashiro, principal of Shiratori Elementary School in Tokyo, expressing concern for the nearly 500 pupils he had planned to take to Paralympic events in August.
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quote of the day
I want to offer our children a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that can stay in their memory forever. But safety is the top priority.
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snowymountainhell
Well, *here’s *someone in authority concerned about the heat in August, the requested SOE resections, and lastly, the ongoing Pandemic:
Aly Rustom
Then don't take them Jun. Simple as that.
virusrex
Having some risk means that yes, they are, and obviously if someone gets infected the risk do not stop at them but to anybody they are in contact with, including for example family members at an elevated risk because of age or co-morbidities, it should be obvious the principal do not want to promote an activity that could increase these risks, direct and indirect.
One of the safest, most effective ways to reduce this risk are vaccines, but in Japan that is still something months away for a lot of the population, so the other way is not to expose the students.
More likely he is aware that experts can prove there is a risk with scientific data, and he feels the benefits do not outweigh these risks, so he is assuming correctly his responsibility, even if science denialists try to misrepresent the situation as "risk-free".
PerformingMonkey
I think he overestimates just how memorable young kids would find the Paralympics anyway.