IOC member says Tokyo 2020 could face 'cancellation' Canada and Australia bow out of games

TOKYO (AP) — Dick Pound, the longest-serving member of the IOC, estimates there's a three-month window to decide the fate of the Tokyo Olympics, which are being threatened by the fast-spreading virus from China.

Pound, in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, did not sound alarmist. But he did speak frankly about the risks facing the Olympics, which open July 24.

Pound has been an International Olympic Committee member since 1978, 13 years longer than current President Thomas Bach.

"You could certainly go to two months out if you had to," Pound said, which would mean putting off a decision until late May and hoping the virus is under control. "A lot of things have to start happening. You've got to start ramping up your security, your food, the Olympic Village, the hotels, The media folks will be in there building their studios."

And if it got to the point of not going ahead, Pound speculated "you're probably looking at a cancellation."

"This is the new war and you have to face it. In and around that time, I'd say folks are going to have to ask: 'Is this under sufficient control that we can be confident about going to Tokyo, or not?'"

China on Tuesday reported 508 new cases and another 71 deaths, 68 of them in the central city of Wuhan, where the epidemic was first detected in December. The updates bring mainland China's totals to 77,658 cases and 2,663 deaths. South Korea now has the second-most cases in the world with 977, including 10 deaths. Clusters of the illness are now appearing in the Middle East and Europe. This could signal a new stage in the spread of the virus with four deaths reported in Japan.

Pound encouraged athletes to keep training. About 11,000 are expected for the Olympics, and another 4,400 for the Paralympics, which open on Aug. 25.

"As far as we all know you're going to be in Tokyo," Pound said. "All indications are at this stage that it will be business as usual. So keep focused on your sport and be sure that the IOC is not going to send you into a pandemic situation."

The modern Olympics *SPAM* from 1896 have only been cancelled during wartime, and faced boycotts in 1976 in Montreal, in 1980 in Moscow and 1984 in Los Angeles — all in Pound's memory.

The Olympics in 1940 were to be in Tokyo, but were called off because of Japan's war with China and World War II.

Taken from Business Insider

 

Dick Pound is a great name. Too bad about the olympics though....but in truth, i prefer the winter olympics. Being a desert dweller, the winter sports have always held more mystique. Don't get to play with bobsleds or skis much out here.

 

Almost as traumatic as an O-2 P-3 training pilot whose name was Richard Short and he was all of 5'3". We used to put wooden blocks on the rudder pedals and a phone book in the pilot's seat. Good times. I'm surprised the didn't mention the huge costs associated with this if it is cancelled. Literally 10's of billions.

 

Under control.. it never was out of it.. media is making it and gov telling it to do stuff..

Ps
This crap was made in Chinese biochemical war lab, enough said. Enjoy the lies.

 

I am the very poiny of cancelling a wedding in May for the outbreak in Milan. The people there just went nuts, supermarket and gas stations with empty shelves.

Got some proof behind that? I am really asking, there is so much chaos already.

 

Google prof. Francis boyle & Wuhan. And right in wuhan there is a military lab doing these viruses..


And he warned about possible misuse back in 2015, and now this time came.. media is doing the rest to scare scared... lol.

 

The standard yearly influenza kills 80k people a year. Media hype is the main driver behind this new "pandemic".

 

That's not Google proof of your conspiracy. That is 'Google proof' of how they do research on new virus to learn how to make a vaccine. Sheesh.

 

The Italian ISS states there are usually like ~8000 to ~120000 death per year in Italy due complication of "seasonal" flu.
In less than a month there were like ~12 death due complication of COVID-19 infection. What is happening in Italy is a joke, hospitals are - as always - completely unable to "protect" very-weak/near-to-death people from external infections.

 

I was not aware that Hospitals are there to do that. There's an entirely different Health Service that deals with the spread of infections and treatments. Hospitals are not the front line. The govt should be promoting and providing free vaccinations for the elderly and at risk groups. Of course at the end of the day, the elderly and other at risk groups are going to die at higher rates. It's just an inherent part of nature.

 

In 2017, there were 49,157 deaths from pneumonia in the United States.

Wow, I did not know that.

 

You can be reinfected after being 'cured' making it way more scary:
https://news.sky.com/story/coronavi...erson-being-reinfected-with-covid-19-11944295

https://www.zmescience.com/science/a-startling-number-of-coronavirus-patients-get-reinfected/

 

In Italy flu-vaccines are already free for +65 ys old and many other categories of people (eg: MD and healtcare emplyers, police, firemen, toddlers, young people with health issues, blood donor, people with someone in the family who needs the vaccine etc..). The true fact is the public healtcare is indequate in this kind of issue.

 

Makes me wonder how coronavirus vaccine gonna help if there possibility of reinfection.
Whole purpose of vaccine is to help your body to create immunity against the virus.

A bit scary, since there too much assumptions and little answers.

 

Mortality rate something around 3-3.5%?

Means in 96.5% of cases people survive. That's what nobody thinks about apparently

 

Because nobody wants to draw the short stick, so they focus on losing rather than winning.

 

my uber driver aint even playin wit dis corona crap

 

But when about 40-80% of the people worldwide get it, it means hundreds of millions of deaths. Also check out those links I posted before, some people has gotten this virus again after being 'cured'.

That said a vaccine has made already so before things may get really bad everyone can get a vaccine hopefully on time for most (if this vaccine really works....).

 

There is not yet a vaccine. There is a potential candidate they are working on that may go into trials. A vaccination, is at least a year away from wide availability. That is assuming there's no change in the strain and this one is effective. We know none of that as of now.

Remdesivir, developed by Gilead Sciences Inc., is an investigational broad-spectrum antiviral treatment. It was previously tested in humans with Ebola virus disease and has shown promise in animal models for treating Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which are caused by other coronaviruses.


“We urgently need a safe and effective treatment for COVID-19. Although remdesivir has been administered to some patients with COVID-19, we do not have solid data to indicate it can improve clinical outcomes,” said NIAID Director and U.S. Coronavirus Task Force member Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. “A randomized, placebo-controlled trial is the gold standard for determining if an experimental treatment can benefit patients.”


Clinical trials of remdesivir are also ongoing in China. NIAID developed the current study taking those designs into account, and in accordance with consultations convened by the WHO on the development of a therapeutic trial for patients with COVID-19.


https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-clinical-trial-remdesivir-treat-covid-19-begins

 

So out of a group of a hundred of your friends, 3 or 4 of them die. Not even a sad face? I'm pretty sure they would not be so cavalier about your risk.
Put in perspective, if this were the typical flu, out of a hundred of your friends, ONE person would have a 10% chance of dying from the flu. That, and we really do not know.