According to foreign media reports, after dozens of Tokyo Olympic athletes tested positive for COVID-19, the U.S. gymnastics team left the Olympic village to a hotel to avoid contracting the virus. The head of the Olympic Games Organizing Committee said that it is still possible to cancel the game at the last minute. .However, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday that the Tokyo Olympics can “inspire” and “bring the world together.”
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WHO Director-General Tedros Tedros said on Wednesday: “I sincerely hope that the Tokyo Olympics will be a success.” He said that zero cases are impossible, and the most important thing is to isolate people, trace contact traces and prevent the spread of the virus.
His optimism about the Olympics is in stark contrast with the Japanese medical community calling for the cancellation of the Olympics. COVID-19 cases are on the rise in Japan, and only about one-third of medical providers have been vaccinated. The Olympic Games provide an opportunity for the spread of the virus and pose a risk to the health of athletes and people in the community. Despite this, the WHO seems to believe that this risk is reasonable, although Ghebreyesus said that in the face of the rising number of cases, the government should commit to public health measures. He also said on Wednesday: “If we leave caution behind, it will blow to our faces again.”
The close relationship between the WHO and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) can be traced back decades. The two organizations signed the first memorandum of understanding in 1984. The two parties reaffirmed this partnership in a 2010 memorandum aimed at promoting healthy lifestyles and signed another memorandum in 2020.
Experts expressed concern about the relationship between the two organizations before the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, when the Zika virus was spreading in Brazil. The WHO refers to Zika virus as a “public health emergency of international concern”. A group of doctors called for the Olympics to be rescheduled or rescheduled and stated in an open letter that they believed that the WHO had not properly assessed the risk of the virus. “We are worried that WHO will reject these alternatives because of conflicts of interest,” the letter reads.
MacIntosh Ross, assistant professor of sports management at Western University of Canada, wrote in The Conversation that WHO’s support for the Tokyo Olympics also created the appearance of conflict. He wrote that hosting the Olympics during the pandemic is a high risk for the Japanese, but if they continue to hold the Olympics, the IOC will benefit financially-if they do not, they will lose billions of dollars. The WHO’s concerns are not directed at Tokyo’s communities first, which is disturbing. Ross added: “When the IOC and WHO support large-scale global events during the pandemic, it’s hard to believe that the well-being of the host country is still a priority.”
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