The Olympics are upon us and so is a new state of emergency, not because the coronavirus situation got suddenly worse, but because it is obvious to the government that regardless of how bad it looks to hold an Olympics during a state of emergency, no one outside Japan will put a stop to it.
If it weren’t for a greater suspicion that the schizophrenic behavior of Japan’s oligarchy wasn’t driven by greed and corruption, one would have to wonder if institutional mental illness might be the cause.
No emergency here
Having avoided its worst-case scenario, losing the Olympics, Japan’s government this past week was suddenly freed up to consider that thing on the back burner, keeping the population safe from the coronavirus.
For nearly a year and a half, Japan’s government has avoided necessary measures to combat COVID-19 in favor of carrying an Olympic public relations torch. By the way, the torch relay itself in Tokyo has now become virtual, because well who cares. The Olympics are here, and it’s no longer important to put on a good show.
In February 2020, we were told to mask up, social distance and avoid unnecessary travel, so that the Olympics could be held when the pandemic ended in the summertime. In order for that to happen, Japan would have to convince the world that it was safe – by reporting few infections.
At first, the government refused to publish infection numbers. The Johns Hopkins coronavirus tracker site had to collect them from individual prefectures because Japan wasn’t helping–just like being tested. If you weren’t incapacitated for a prolonged period with a few prescribed symptoms, you were told, “Sorry, no test for you.”
Out of concern that a rigidly enforced state of emergency, with testing and tracing, might spoil the Olympics, Japan didn’t do those things. The first state of emergency didn’t happen until the United States’ athletics and swim federations spoiled Japan’s Olympic fantasy by refusing to attend, meaning the IOC had to pull the plug over a lack of U.S. TV money.
Come to think of it, COVID might be a problem
I’m sure it was just a coincidence, but within days of the postponement, the Japanese government suddenly decided a state of emergency WAS needed.
Still, the government and the IOC apparently assumed the Olympics would be COVID-free because “This thing CAN’T POSSIBLY last until August 2021.” When autumn came and the virus proved to be unconcerned with the oligarch’s Olympic fetish, more states of emergency were ordered, and the government and IOC began studying how to have an Olympics that can be sold as being safe and secure.
Safe and secure
I’m not the best person to evaluate their countermeasures, and organizers keep pointing to bubble-wrapped world championships and sporting events as success stories, but the Olympics are on an unimaginably different scale.
Japan’s efforts have caused the international swimming federation (FINA), epidemiologists, and public health experts around the world and in Japan to cringe at the countermeasures. Vaccinations are not a pre-requisite for any participant, official, volunteer, driver, or another person who may be exposed to deadly new variants, including any that might develop here because the Tokyo Olympics are going to be a kind of summit meeting for the world’s germs.
Three months ago, when there was still a fear the Olympics might yet be canceled, Japan once more held off on a state of emergency to stem the spread of the virus, waiting until the wheels were so far in motion that they could no longer be stopped. Now that we know they will go ahead regardless of any public health crisis in Japan or the risk to the population, it’s finally OK for Japan’s government to issue yet another state of emergency.
Perhaps in the future, social scientists and public health researchers will find a link between the Olympics and organizational symptoms that mimic mental health issues in individuals. Read the Mayo Clinic’s definition of schizophrenia and tell me it doesn’t sound eerily familiar.
“Schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder in which people interpret reality abnormally. Schizophrenia may result in some combination of hallucinations, delusions, and extremely disordered thinking and behavior that impairs daily functioning, and can be disabling.”
–The Mayo Clinic
