The head of a Japanese doctors’ union warned on Tuesday that holding the Olympic Games in Tokyo this summer, with tens of thousands of people from around the world, could lead to the emergence of an “Olympic” strain of the coronavirus.
Japan has pledged to hold a “safe and secure” 2020 Olympics in Tokyo after a year-long postponement but it is struggling to contain a fourth wave of infections and preparing to extend a state of emergency in much of the country.
Japanese officials, Olympics organisers and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have all vowed the Games will go ahead, albeit under strict virus-prevention measures. Foreign spectators have been banned and a decision on domestic ones is expected next month.
But even with those steps, worries remain about the influx of athletes and officials into Japan, where a vaccination drive remains glacially slow, with just over 5% of the population having had a shot.
With people from more than 200 nations and territories set to arrive, the Games, due to begin in eight weeks, pose a danger, said Naoto Ueyama, head of the Japan Doctors Union.
“All of the different mutant strains of the virus which exist in different places will be concentrated and gathering here in Tokyo. We cannot deny the possibility of even a new strain of the virus potentially emerging,” he told a news conference.
“If such a situation were to arise, it could even mean a Tokyo Olympic strain of the virus being named in this way, which would be a huge tragedy and something which would be the target of criticism, even for 100 years.”
But Kenji Shibuya, director of the Institute of Population Health at King’s College, London, who has recently been helping the vaccination campaign in Japan, played down dangers specific to the Games.
“Mutation takes place when virus stays in immunocompromised or partially immunised people for a long period of time,” Shibuya said.
“So the current situation in Japan is more dangerous than (during) the Tokyo Games, in my opinion.”
