The delayed summer Olympic are about to begin still with COVID and that now means there will be silence in the arenas, the stadium and at the Olympic swimming pools.
No spectators allowed…thanks to COVID. More specifically because Japan has failed to vaccinate anywhere near enough people to make it safe.
So the competition will go on, but so will COVID testing of athletes and social distancing measures to keep the virus from spreading among the competitors and the Olympic staff at a time when the spreading and more contagious Delta strain of the virus is spreading there and elsewhere including in the U.S., in California and here in San Diego, too.
While the number of delta variant cases has been very small in the county so far, fewer than 100, there is some concern among public health officials and they are sending out a warning to unvaccinated people, an amount that is close to 600,000 in the county who are eligible to be vaccinated but so far have not.
An infectious disease expert at UC San Diego, told the Union Tribune this week, “As more and more people are out and about without masks and as the Delta variant moves into San Diego, we’re likely going to see more hospitalizations, especially among the unvaccinated.”
And he adds, “Those who continue to procrastinate about getting vaccinated do so at their own peril.”
Just as Olympic athletes do what they need to do to prepare to compete during COVID, doing what we need to do to prevent getting COVID will make watching the Olympics from afar more enjoyable.
(Photo Getty Images)