According to the “New York Times” report, in response to the Winter Olympics, Beijing has initiated “closed-loop management” and began to implement the most stringent epidemic control in the history of the Olympics. During the Winter Olympics, all competitions held in Beijing, Zhangjiakou and Yanqing will be held in a closed state.
The report said that the control of the CCP virus in the Beijing Winter Olympics is stricter than that of the Tokyo Summer Olympics last year, and the games will be conducted in a fully closed system called “Bubble”. During the entire competition, “thousands of athletes, coaches, team officials, Olympic staff, contractors, volunteers, and reporters will be separated from the outside world”, “the entire competition venue, hotels and other athletes’ residences, and media Neither the facilities nor the transportation network can have other people in, and no one can come out.”
Dr. Huang Yanzhong, a senior researcher for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations in the United States, told VOA that the emergence of new and more infectious strains poses a greater challenge to closed-loop management. “If there are fish that slip through the net and are not detected in time, the impact is not comparable to Delta (variant virus). There may be outbreaks in several places, and even continuous outbreaks. The existing zero-clearing policy may become more difficult, and The cost will also get higher and higher.”
He believes that so many people (foreign athletes) go to Beijing, and some of these athletes come from countries that have been affected by the new strain. Therefore, even if only one case is found, because of its high infectiousness, it may cause a large-scale outbreak of the epidemic. He said, “No matter how strict inspection and safety measures, no matter how dense, there is still a sparse…not only in the bubble, (the epidemic) may also spread outside, then this is more dangerous. Up.”
Dr. Sun Youkui, an American research scholar on “critical sports theory”, said that it is not only the issue of the Winter Olympics that may cause a large-scale outbreak of the epidemic, but also the “domino” effect caused by the issue of how the CCP government will clean up the situation and control the media. .
He questioned: “If a large-scale outbreak of the epidemic occurs during the game, how will he (the CCP) deal with it? In addition to suspending the Olympics, can the news be blocked to the outside world? The international media present can use the Internet, and their information must be open.” The consequences at that time are really hard to predict.
Agence France-Presse reported that French diplomats in Beijing are worried that because the Beijing Winter Olympics implements such an extreme anti-epidemic policy, they will not be able to provide appropriate assistance to citizens in the closed loop by then. Other countries will also face the same problem.
At present, more and more athletes in many countries around the world have been found to be infected with the new variant of the CCP virus, Omi Keron virus. The Swiss Olympic delegation leader Ralph Stöckli is therefore worried about Beijing’s continued hosting of the Winter Olympics. He said: “If the best players can’t compete, it will bring great difficulties.”
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