Today, Explained - The Covid Olympics

Episode Date: July 27, 2021

The 2020 Games were mired in scandal before they even started. Vox’s Jen Kirby explains how things are going now that the Olympics have finally begun. Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained. Support Today, Explained by making a financial contribution to Vox! bit.ly/givepodcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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The Olympics are experiencing major mayhem right now. Medical officials in Japan and across the world are clamoring for the Olympics to be canceled. Since the start of the pandemic, people in Tokyo have been protesting the Olympics, saying, Chushida, chushi? Just stop it. With the Tokyo Olympics just over 10 weeks away, IOC President Thomas Bach canceling a planned trip to Japan, citing the surge of COVID-19 cases there. Money really talks, and I think that's a good place to start to understand why we're trying to push ahead or why the International Olympic Committee is trying to push ahead. For me, I'm an athlete. And of course, my immediate thought is that I'd want to play the Olympics. But as a human, I would say we're in a pandemic.

Profligate spending, militarization, gentrification, forced evictions, environmental catastrophe. Why do it at all? On today's show, let the games begin. The Tokyo Olympic Games are off to a rocky start. But maybe that was to be expected. As you guys mentioned on a previous episode, the Olympics often have a lot of problems. Jen Kirby writes about the world for Vox. They are a sporting event, but they're also a massive spectacle, which involves bringing thousands and thousands of people together from all over the world. It often involves building or rehabbing a lot of infrastructure ahead of the games to host

the athletic events, to house people, to get them around. And when that happens, you also see issues around labor rights violations and poor working conditions and also the costs. It is freaking expensive to host the Olympics and they keep just getting more and more costly. And so we shouldn't really be surprised that we're seeing issues in the 2020 slash 2021 Olympics. And as we established in our prior episode, even if you put COVID aside, there were tons of issues going into these 2020 games in Tokyo, right? Yeah, absolutely. So for one, there were issues around labor rights or questions around labor rights. Leading international labor organizations said

workers were dealing with dangerous conditions and long hours. And the International Olympic Committee kind of failed to investigate some of these claims all the way back to 2019. There were also some reports in the lead up to 2020 that houseless people feared being removed from parks and train stations in an attempt to kind of bolster the city's image ahead of the Olympics. And of course, the cost. The Tokyo Olympics were already really, really expensive. And then the delay because of COVID meant that the games cost more than 20 billion. And of course, we're not having any fans come to Tokyo. So some of the economic benefits of people staying in hotels and eating in restaurants and even buying tickets means it's going to be hard to make up some of that money. Can you just walk us through the sort of laundry list of scandals and mishaps with these Tokyo 2021 games?

Yeah. I mean, putting aside the major one of COVID-19 for a second and the Japanese public's resistance to having the Olympics. According to a new poll, 70% of people in Japan say they want the Olympics to be canceled or delayed. Many people worry the event could help spur another wave of COVID cases. Tokyo 2020 sponsor Toyota says it will not run games-related TV commercials. It comes amid lackluster public support for the Olympics, with two-thirds of Japanese people surveyed, doubting organizers can keep the game safe during the health crisis. But even beyond sort of the big COVID elephant in the room, we've seen just kind of scandals and weird controversies erupt. In February, the former head of the Tokyo Organizing Committee created a controversy when he made some sexist comments, said women talk too much at the

board meetings. But a groundswell of criticism from sponsors, athletes, diplomats, and the Japanese public forced the former prime minister to resign. I think she's not seeing that game day. My inappropriate remarks cause turmoil. I'm sincerely sorry for causing trouble for so many, including organizing committees and everyone involved in the Olympics. This was like in the height of people questioning whether these games should happen. The guy in charge was like, also women talk too much.

Yeah, exactly. And in March then, the creative director of the opening and closing ceremonies also did a sexist thing by making some disparaging remarks about a Japanese female comedian. Creative director Hiroshi Sasaki had proposed that a popular plus-sized entertainer appear at the Olympics opening ceremony dressed as a pig. Days before the Olympics were supposed to begin, the music director for the opening ceremony resigned after there was social media outrage over him bullying kids with disabilities, specifically an allegation, well, he bragged about it,

that he made somebody eat their own poop. This was particularly sad for me because I am a fan of this musician. He goes by Cornelius and he makes like delicate, beautiful music. But apparently when he was a child and bullied disabled kids, a bit of

a monster. Yeah, even after that another opening ceremony director had to resign because he made past comments sort of dismissing the Holocaust. And then he went on to apologize himself. All of this very sudden, by the way.

I mean, the opening ceremony is in 24 hours. And this was all happening before things even got started. That's right. And there were other concerns before the Olympics got started, one being the summer. Tokyo is extremely hot and humid. So there's been a lot of concern about, you know, the athletes who have to perform outside, how much they could withstand. And, of course, the reason for the timing is because of the broadcast schedule.

It's a good TV window. The games of the 32nd Olympiad on NBC are brought to you by Comcast. So, you know, got to get those those ad dollars. Now there's a concern about the weather because there's apparently a typhoon on the way that could disrupt the games. With maximum sustained winds, maybe about 45 mile per hour gusts, and rain could total up to six inches. And it's a little confusing because there's all this weather stuff going on, but there's also a bear on the loose? There was a bear spotted a few days ago, which apparently is a thing because of the pandemic. He was wandering around the

softball field, if I'm not mistaken. But I just say let that bear be. What do you mean it's a thing because of the pandemic, Jen? Are there more bears in Tokyo because of the pandemic? The bear sightings have increased, you know, like nature reclaiming its territory. Yeah, so nature's healing, but at the cost of the Olympics. I mean, the bear seems like the least of their problems. Last I heard, it has not been caught. But, you know, maybe if someone tests positive for COVID, they could give them a spot on the team.

That's great. This is actually the plot of the movie Bad News Bears. It was a dumb idea anyway. I mean, you wouldn't have helped the team much. I mean, you were great when you were nine, but girls reach their peak athletically about that age. But with an actual bear. There you go.

Okay, so all of that happened before these Olympics started. We should note, there's actual sport happening now. How's it going? You know, so far, the Olympics are going on. You know, we've had some disappointing showings. Yes, I'm OK. Just super frustrated how the night played out. But the world champions, United States, are thrashed in their opening game.

Let's get back to the Olympics. We've told you about some of the historic firsts for Team USA. And one of those athletes scored a bronze medal for the U.S. in the first ever Olympic skateboarding competition. Don't even get me started. But yeah, the Olympics are happening, except for this fact that we are in the middle of a pandemic and people are testing positive for COVID and the pandemic is hovering around the edges of the games. More with Jen in a minute. Support for Today Explained comes from Ramp. Ramp is the corporate card and spend management software designed to help you save time and put money back in your pocket. Ramp says they give finance teams unprecedented control and insight into company spend. With Ramp, you're able to issue cards to every employee with limits and restrictions

and automate expense reporting so you can stop wasting time at the end of every month. And now you can get $250 when you join Ramp. You can go to ramp.com slash explained, ramp.com. Ramp.com. Cards issued by Sutton Bank. Member FDIC. Terms and conditions apply. So Jen, the Olympics have been canceled before because of, like, you know, World Wars. But this was the first time in the history of the games that they were postponed. What was done to prepare for a pandemic Olympic Games?

The International Olympic Committee promised that these would be safe and secure Olympics. And one of the ways they did that was kind of lay out this pandemic playbook with all of these COVID protocols. Athletes in the Olympic Village specifically would have strict rules and face penalties if they break them. And those rules are around masking and social distancing and, you know, no hugging and kissing, which is why there was that rumor about those anti-sex beds. Apparently, they were meant to break at any sudden movements. It's fake. Fake news. It was really just a sustainable cardboard bed. Are the beds pro-sex?

Well, we should note that Japan still did hand out condoms because, you know, the Olympic Village, you put a lot of fit young people together. So lots of antics happen. Safety first. Beyond sex, there were other social distancing requirements. Things like plexiglass barriers were put into cafeterias and chairs removed. And the idea was to kind of create this, you know, protective measures against the pandemic, as well as encouraging vaccination, but not mandating it. And of course, there are no spectators at these Olympic Games, but how have all these precautions worked out so far amongst athletes and Olympic staff?

Well, the results have been pretty mixed. So far, we've had more than 150 people testing positive for COVID-19, and more than a dozen of them have been athletes. The others have been contractors or volunteers or Tokyo 2020 employees. And we haven't really, at least so far, according to reports, haven't had any really serious cases. And of the athletes who have tested positive this far, do we know if they're vaccinated or unvaccinated? So far, it seems to be kind of a mix. For example, one U.S. gymnast, an alternate member of the team, tested positive for COVID in

Tokyo and her camp said she was vaccinated. There was a Dutch rower who actually competed and then tested positive, who was also vaccinated. But it hasn't really been totally clear yet in all of the reports. But, you know, we've seen seen people who at least said they've been vaccinated, who've gotten positive COVID tests. Essentially, ahead of the Games, the International Olympic Committee encouraged athletes to get vaccinated, but it did not mandate them, which some experts thought the IOC should do for this very reason. But they did work with Pfizer to help distribute vaccines to Olympic delegations who might not otherwise, you know, have easy access to vaccines.

And some countries did prioritize vaccinations. The IOC says 80 to 85 percent of the people in the Olympic Village were expected to be vaccinated ahead of the Games. But we don't know from which countries or what delegations. But that being said, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee has said that of the 613 athletes in Tokyo, 100 of them are not vaccinated, which is not a great rate considering that vaccines were widely available in the U.S. ahead of the Tokyo Games. And obviously, all these athletes in Tokyo are not in a true NBA-style bubble, right? They are interacting with people in Tokyo. Yeah, that's right. So it's a very easily burst bubble. The athletes in the Olympic Village are under sort of strict protocols. They're

not supposed to leave except to go to their events. But of course, at the events, they're going to be interacting with people who are not staying in the Olympic Village, volunteers and media and coaches. And some of those people, for example, are staying at hotels. Everyone is discouraged from taking public transit, but they're going to have to get to the game somehow. And so it's not kind of a sealed bubble, like everyone is just staying on campus and not leaving. And so it's very, very, very leaky. And so it's really not that surprising that cases have started to crop up. The other huge issue with this is Tokyo is under a state of emergency until mid August. And it's been seeing a rise in COVID cases. And the vaccination rate across Japan is still relatively low.

It's a little over 20% of fully vaccinated people. And most of those shots have gone to health care workers and elderly people. And Japan in particular has a pretty high elderly population. So they only recently opened it up to people under the age of 65. So there was a lot of questions of whether, you know, Japan would be able to withstand people coming from all over the world, potentially bringing variants with them and sort of what kind of disaster would be left behind. I mean, even if things get really bad in Tokyo, like we're already in too deep.

These games aren't going anywhere. We're going to see them through. Yeah, I think it would take something fairly shocking to cancel the Olympics at this point. The International Olympic Committee mostly calls the shots. So I think we're going to see these Tokyo Games and likely the Paralympic Games in the next few weeks go forward. And of course, we're just like less than a year away from the next Olympic Games somehow. The Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 will be a great moment to bring the world together in a spirit of peace, but we got a Winter Olympics in 2022 in Beijing, which is already causing its own controversies because of China's human rights abuses, specifically the genocide against the Uyghurs. There's a real kind of conversation that's been happening as to whether we can just let the games go on when we're seeing some of the worst human rights violations since World War II.

And if the IOC decides to go ahead with them, will Beijing and China have learned anything from Japan's experience with the Tokyo Games in a pandemic? It's interesting because the IOC has kind of tried to stay out of the political debate by saying, you know, the Olympics are just about sports, but they're never really just about sports. And I think what the Tokyo Games going forward in the pandemic makes it harder to use the pandemic as a reason or an excuse to potentially change the games. And for China specifically, they have a lot riding on these games because, you know, the pandemic, based on what we know, originated in China. And so if China can pull

off a spectacular Winter Olympic Games in the tail end of the pandemic or in the middle of the pandemic, it's a way for them to show the world that, hey, we defeated this thing and we're back on top. And so this is a real pride thing for them in more ways than one. I mean, all told, this just feels like it's been a really fraught couple of years for the Olympics, like even more so than games in recent memory. Has the world sort of changed its mind about how much we love these things? I think people are paying attention to them a lot more because we are just sort of a more interconnected world.

And these issues are harder to ignore. With climate change, does it make sense to sort of be bringing all these athletes around the world to one place and building all this infrastructure? And will we even be able to host the Summer Olympics in 40 years or something like that? And there have been discussions as to whether this model of, you know, picking a host city and having them build all the infrastructure, if it's even a good idea. There's talk about potentially finding a permanent location, like, say, going to Athens. Where it all began. Right, exactly. And so I think we're definitely coming to think about how we do the Olympics. And in a

lot of ways, Tokyo would have been a good opportunity to try something different, you know, perhaps spacing it out over many weeks, which would have been more COVID safe, but also like proven if whether we can do the Olympics differently at a different pace. But we won't know. And for now, the Olympics seem pretty locked in. Just pretty recently, the IOC announced that Brisbane, Australia will have the 2032 Olympics. So for at least the next decade, it doesn't really look like anything's changing. If we make it to 2032. I mean, we just have to survive a pandemic, a warming climate, and the bears. The bears. Thanks, Jen. Of course.何人もなきゃいけない食べ物なんてどこにでもある

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