At least 100 U.S. athletes are unvaccinated as the Olympic Games begin in Tokyo, Japan, amid protests.
U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s medical chief Jonathan Finnoff told the Associated Press that he is “quite happy” that only 83 percent of the athletes are vaccinated.
The Hill reports that vaccinations are not required:
The Olympics did not require athletes to get vaccinated before arriving in the country and have taken measures such as removing all spectators to help curb the spread of the virus...
Japanese citizens have been protesting the Olympics out of fear the big event that has caused thousands to flood into the country will lead to an increase in cases.
Satoko Itani, associate professor of sports, gender and sexuality at Kansai University, told Democracy Now about the protests:
I’m standing right outside of the Olympic Stadium, where the opening ceremonies are happening. And hopefully you can hear the protests as they’re happening just right now. And yeah, people — you can see the interview of the people. People are angry and are frustrated. And the opening ceremony is happening despite [inaudible] the rising cases of the COVID. And we are in a forced state of emergency. And the positive rates of the testing, the COVID testing, is above 20%. So, this is a very scary moment.
(Sources: Associated Press, The Hill, Democracy Now)