The Olympic rings are illuminated in front of the National Stadium in Tokyo. Photo: REUTERS/file
tokyo 2020 olympics

Japan denies considering vaccine priority for Olympic athletes

37 Comments
By Elaine Lies

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37 Comments
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If only the Japanese people would transfer that fury into throwing these clowns out of office...

38 ( +40 / -2 )

1 million people have received the first dose since February

1 million in about 7 weeks.

At this rate hell will freeze over and the cows will come skating home before we get our jabs.

And the government want to give healthy young folk priority.

And they're surprised at the outrage?

Seriously?

35 ( +37 / -2 )

Lives before games. Period.

28 ( +30 / -2 )

I cannot agree more with Mikitani. It is stupid to hold the Olympics in such a dire situation.

21 ( +23 / -2 )

It gets better day by day these Olympics 2021.

And it hasn’t even started yet!

19 ( +23 / -4 )

Boycott them ace holes, turn off the TV dont buy the sponsors products and never ever vote for these politicians again.

18 ( +18 / -0 )

So any deaths of unvaccinated Japan residents after these Olympics can be laid at the feet of the Tokyo Organising Committee, the Japan Olympic Committee and the IOC.

Of course, they'll be busy counting their gold, silver and bitcoin medals!

15 ( +16 / -1 )

Toss Grandma and Grandpa under the bus.

14 ( +15 / -1 )

If the people really want to show their anger, those with tickets should demand their money back and not go to the events. And during TV airtime, don't watch a thing and therefore not watch any commercials.

13 ( +15 / -2 )

Well Japanese and Permanent Foreign Residents we will be brothers and sisters from now on if that scene to inoculate Olympic athletes comes first. We will all be put at the back of the line to get the leftover vaccine, if there are any syringes left. As the athletes peer and prance think of your love ones dying back home.

This Olympic has got to go.

12 ( +14 / -2 )

So China offers to vaccinate all Olympic athletes and Japan rejects this, because....??? opting instead to let unvaccinated participants into the country, and then considers letting its own athletes jump the starting gun on the rest of the public, who are left in the dust of government confusion over vaccine regulation and roll out. This would make great theatre.

12 ( +13 / -1 )

The government don't represent the people. They represent Dentsu and IOC and whoever holds the most money.

12 ( +12 / -0 )

The athletes should be getting their jabs in their own countries and well prior to travelling to Japan.

I think it only applies to Japanese athletes, not foreign athletes.

10 ( +10 / -0 )

Vaccinating a few hundred athletes may make mother lose her spot in line for a day or two at most.

And why should mother be made to wait even a day longer than necessary? She's already waited months and is sick of staying at home.

7 ( +7 / -0 )

That confirms the "all for Olympics" theory already seen in the testing strategy.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Reckless, no it is about equity, fairness, as Japan is nominally a democracy the system must at least appear to be run fairly for all. As others noted, no one likes a queue jumper and as the event is already massively unpopular with the Japanese public and the only ones still cheering for it are those with a financial stake there is little or no justification for prioritising a handful of the population over the rest.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

Olympics 2020 and government of Japan distort response to Covid-19 since last spring, and caused many victim until now.

Medical workers in Japan had been compelled to even self-sacrifice with limited resources and salary to respond domestic Covid-19 epidemic that incompetent government has caused.

But vaccination to medical workers in Japan don't yet finish.

Torch relay for Olympics sponsors has spread infection risk to nationwide unnecessarily everyday.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

I've long been a supporter of holding the Games, but after reviewing the recent corona numbers... We're now at twice the numbers we had during the period the Games would have been held last year, and like SIX times the numbers of when the Games were officially postponed. How do they expect this to go off safely???

6 ( +6 / -0 )

So it wasn't seriously.

Or more likely it was, and they stepped back when the excrement from the senpuki started hitting them in the face.

5 ( +5 / -0 )

If you object to the Olympics being held then don’t just refuse to watch it, write to the companies sponsoring it and tell them the damage it will do their brand as well as supporting boycotts of their products. Nothing motivates a board like their bottom line so if that is threatened watch how fast they change their minds on supporting the Olympic Games!

5 ( +5 / -0 )

I got vaccinated in the UK at the same time my wife, a frontline worker was vaccinated in Japan

4 ( +5 / -1 )

It is inevitable that athletes will be vaccinated before the majority of the population, there is too much riding on these games to take that chance.

Japan will argue that the inocculation of the athletes will not come at the expense of the people who are in line. They will probably be right, but it leaves a bad taste. Nobody likes queue jumpers.

3 ( +5 / -2 )

In the US, TWO MILLION being vaccinated a day. In Japan? barely over 1 million. Period. Less than 1% of the population, when other countries are from 25% to 40% or more. By the time your average Joe can get them the mutations here will have rendered them useless. Why are they so "surprised" by the anger and outrage?

3 ( +4 / -1 )

We go on and on about Japan/IOC should have cancelled the game.

Even western news, etc... Go on about it.

But why haven't these other countries complaining not just pulled out?

Let's face it if the EU countries, USA, Australia Canada, etc... Say they are not sending Olympic teams, others will follow then the old farts running the government will have no choice but to cancel the games.

It is one thing asking why Japan doesn't cancel. But we never ask if everyone wants the games cancelled, why are they still send their teams?

2 ( +4 / -2 )

Or more likely it was, and they stepped back when the excrement from the senpuki started hitting them in the face.

My daughter's friend's father is a trainer for a team of a certain Olympic even.

Her friend told her that her father was asked if the team members were interested in getting vaccinated, that was right after the water polo thing happened.

Was it just an inquiry to see how many or who would or was it a serious proposal from the top.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

A quick and wise drawback....

1 ( +2 / -1 )

In the US, TWO MILLION being vaccinated a day. In Japan? barely over 1 million. Period. Less than 1% of the population, when other countries are from 25% to 40% or more.

Don't be so complacent, and don't forget that the US has outnumbered many other countries by death tolls and case numbers.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Mods wake up, Russian propaganda Bot on site.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

A Kyodo news agency report, citing government officials, said Japan has begun looking into the possibility of ensuring its Olympic and Paralympic athletes are all vaccinated by the end of June.

Yesterday, Kyodo's primary report noted "a" government official, without cross-checking from other sources. Have JT and posters here been trolled (BTW, I haven't :) ) ?

-5 ( +0 / -5 )

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