2021 Tokyo Olympics vs. COVID-19

[megansothername]

I honestly think this is their best shot at successfully pulling off the event.

I do wonder whether, as the time draws closer if things are improving, they might consider allowing limited family spectators from athletes if they are vaccinated, or travelers from places like Australia and New Zealand where COVID rates are extremely low.

 

[jorge29]

i think maybe the idea is rational but no logical because how can go the coaches and all the teams staff? , i hope that no happens like the Australian open that even couldn’t train and 14 days and like militar base quarantine . if wants really want just Japanese citizens can go to see it for compensate the decision release the official olympics games tv signal free also free live streaming from official source ,is fair that due to the wrong decision

 

[irichluck21]

I think NBC has too much invested in the Olympics to allow it to be cancelled outright.

They are the ones that pull the strings of the IOC if we are being honest.

 

[irichluck21]

NBCUniversal has good reason to place emphasis on Olympics sales. NBCU and its parent company, Comcast, paid $4.4 billion rights for a rights deal that allowed them to cover the Olympics in the U.S. through 2020, and have already agreed to pay $7.75 billion for broadcast rights to the Olympic Games between 2021 and 2032. NBCU came away from its 2016 Rio Summer Olympics coverage with approximately $250 million in profit.

After Unwinding Tokyo Olympics Ad Sales, NBC Will Start Them Again

NBCUniversal is returning to negotiations with Madison Avenue for advertising time in the now-delayed Tokyo Olympics,

variety.com

It’s a good read.

 

[Denn]

That 87% decline actually comes from real data. You can do the math yourself: take the peak cases per day and the daily case number from when that post was made, and yeah, you do get 87% drop.

The reason, though, is that the peak was so catastrophically due holiday socializing.

There is really cognitive dissonance about COVID levels vs. restrictions, and part of the problem is that there two brands of COVIDiots. People who are having parties at home or sitting around in bars are asking for trouble, and they very often get it. Meanwhile, you’ve got people defending unnecessary actions like full-out lockdowns and masks when walking around outside. And frankly, I suspect that the two sides feed into each other’s misconceptions, too.

Someone literally said to me the other day “Well, grocery stores are the number one place that people are getting COVID.” Another person was talking about some of the risky things he was going to do on spring break. Sigh…

 

[JaJa]

That 87% decline actually comes from real data. You can do the math yourself: take the peak cases per day and the daily case number from when that post was made, and yeah, you do get 87% drop.

I think we all understood that Denn. The point is 87% drop from what point??? It really does not mean anything to say we had an 87% drop. Drop from what? It was an 87% drop from a specific point in time when cases were I believe at their highest. And yes due largely to holiday socializing. But if you look carefully at the data and look at the rises and falls and then compare them to both human behavior (holiday socializing, spring break etc) AND restrictions there is still another factor. This virus seems to have a damned mind of its own. It rises and falls in states in similar time frames with or without restrictions to some degree at least.

I think we should all be wearing masks outside – if for no other reason than to develop a culture where masks are the default-- and I think full lockdowns, if limited in duration, are an unfortunate necessity with this virus. They do stop spikes. The trick is to find a balance.

 

[irichluck21]

One of the reasons several Asian countries got ahold of Covid quickly was because of the Asian culture, where people wear masks in public during cold and flu season to protect others.

Not Just Coronavirus: Asians Have Worn Face Masks for Decades

People from Japan into Southeast Asia cover their mouths to deflect exhaust, pollution and cold air, Some are hiding their faces

www.voanews.com

Additionally, Americans have been asked to wear masks if they have the flu or suspect they have the flu. At school parents would pick up their kids and some had masks on because they were potentially contagious. It just never became the norm.

 

[JaJa]

One of the reasons several Asian countries got ahold of Covid quickly was because of the Asian culture, where people wear masks in public during cold and flu season to protect others.

Absolutely. I live in a suburb of NY and our offices are in NYC. Pre-pandemic if you rode the subway (which I often did to get to court or elsewhere while in Manhattan) you would regularly see Asians wearing masks. Everyone laughed. No one is laughing anymore.

But the bottom line is one of the few things the experts agree on and are certain of is that masks are very effective in stopping or at least cutting down on transmission. What’s the big deal about putting a mask on before you leave the house? Creating a culture of public mask wearing is one thing i deeply appreciate about Pres. Biden and VP Harris. This is not something that individuals should be left to decide for themselves.

 

[Denn]

We need closures, restrictions, and mask wearing. We need them wherever/whenever they help. But I strongly feel that if you go too far, it can:

1. affect people adversely in various ways
2. hurt certain demographics more than others
3. confuse people trying to make sense of why
4. lead people to throw the baby out with the bathwater and do nothing
5. muddle science literacy and numeracy
6. breed distrust and lead to big mouth morons getting elected

BTW, Jaja, I was responding to Rich’s question about where the 87% came from. Also, the “from what point” thing is what I was trying to say about the peak being catastrophic (to begin with). Sorry, that might not have been clear.

 

[Doug1233]

@JaJa Absolutely I can see that mask wearing, particularly in urban centres like NYC, will become very normal during the winter months. I hope that companies will also support working from home as a new normal model of office work. Now is not a great time to be in the business of owning/managing office blocks in the centres of cities. And I can see “hot desking” becoming much more accepted as it is a win-win for employer (lower office cost) and employee (who doesn’t like a few days a week working from home?)

The reduction in flu deaths this year has shown how insanely effective mask wearing and WFH is. The productivity gains alone make it a strategy that I can see being pushed hard in the decades to come.

 

[irichluck21]

Yup!

From an education standpoint, teachers have been less sick in my building, other than half the staff who caught Covid. In my school staff attendance is the best it has ever been with about twenty or so that have perfect attendance (quarantine sessions at home do not count as sick days due to Covid protocols). I haven’t been sick at all this school year, which is highly unusual as I always get a cough/cold or sinus issues two-three times a year. I had to quarantine twice due to close contact and take a half day to get tested due to a positive parent knowing he was positive came to school to meet me and refused to wear a mask. So other than those days working from home I would have been in person every single day.
The mask wearing helps a lot but it also helps that 10,000 or so students are virtual learners and only 7,000 are actually in person. Funny how small class sizes also was beneficial to behavior issues which from September to February there were 0 disciplinary concerns/referrals.
With technology now available, I am hoping for longer breaks during the winter months with students working remotely for a few weeks at a time. It will help student attendance dramatically I think, especially those in the inner city who have to walk to school and often times in very cold weather will just stay home.

 

[Doug1233]

“I had to quarantine twice due to close contact and take a half day to get tested due to a positive parent knowing he was positive came to school to meet me and refused to wear a mask.”

I’m sorry but that should literally be a crime.

 

[makam]

There might be productivity gains, but there are also still undefined losses. I am an engineer and a good portion of my ability to design a product requires easy access to my co-workers to pick their brains. We can try to do it on computers, but it just isn’t the same (especially since there are currently 15 different programs being used to chat/collaborate with new ones being added all the time so trying to pin someone down on a single one is a crapshoot). That said, I remember seeing figure skating events in Asia where a good portion of the audience was wearing masks and I thought that was something that would be nice to have over here. Now that masks are better looking (crazy how long it took for black to become a common color) and everyone has at least one, I too hope people, if they can’t/won’t stay home while ill, will at least wear masks (or not look at anyone who is wearing one like “what are you, trying to be Michael Jackson?”).

 

[irichluck21]

I was furious.

He didn’t even tell me until 2 days later when I told him to come back to school to pick up his son’s device which IT fixed. That’s when he told me that he was too sick with Covid to come to school. I’m like, you just came here two days ago!

Due to me meeting him outside, myself masked up, wearing gloves, and insisting he stay within arms length away from me I was very lucky.

Totally irresponsible. If he had given it to me I would have been walking around school spreading it to students and staff.

 

[Doug1233]

It’s the refusal to wear a mask for me. I can almost see why some people make emergency trips when they’re supposed to be quarantining. But if it was me, I’d feel so guilty about doing it, I’d want to fucking Hazmat myself and make sure I didn’t go close to anyone

 

[irichluck21]

Nope. He was totally oblivious. I let him have it and he didn’t even apologize to me or even seem to care. I asked if he had called the nurse to inform her of him being positive and he was sarcastic and said “Why? I don’t go to school there.” and laughed. I said, “You have CHILDREN that go to this school and were present this week.”

Totally clueless.

 

[Doug1233]

It’s people like that that makes me worry for democracy. Maybe China has it right.

 

[JaJa]

t’s people like that that makes me worry for democracy. Maybe China has it right.

Don’t say that even jokingly. We do pay a certain price for Democracy. But believe me you do not want to live under some totalitarian rule.

 

[JaJa]

I had to quarantine twice due to close contact and take a half day to get tested due to a positive parent knowing he was positive came to school to meet me and refused to wear a mask. So other than those days working from home I would have been in person every single day.

I am sorry you had to experience this. I had a similar experience – was exposed through someone who had been exposed to someone who had tested positive and knew it and did not bother to tell me . In spite of my own actually fairly extreme safety measures I developed symptoms 5 days later and then tested positive. During my own quarantine – which I extended beyond the 14 days by 5 additional days – I stayed in total isolation. Human selfishness and irresponsibility can be shocking. But it is nothing new. Only its specific behavioral manifestation is new under different circumstances.

 

[irichluck21]

The problem lies in that everyone thinks WE HAVE FREEDOM, I DO WHAT I WANT BECAUSE THIS IS AMERICA!

However, fail to see the irony in your lack of respect and responsibility interferes in other people’s freedoms.

It is so hypocritical to refuse to wear a mask, shout “free country, my choice”, and talk about living in the UNITED States of America.