Japan to stage Tokyo Olympics without overseas spectators

Aside:

I think that having the Olympics in one place for each season would be most 'entertaining', and better for the IOC.

Let's take the summer Olympics, likely to be in Athens as the spot. 'Top' countries would then pay pretty good money to have practice locations around Athens, so that the athletes get used to the area and are comfortable with the event locations. Heck, you could have them use the actual facilities as well.

Now, as is usual with Olympic coverage, the lead-up is all about how terrible things are going, and the ~two weeks of it are all about how the Olympic Village is running out of condoms. Not to be too crass, but having many athletes in Athens all the time would be a 24/7 discussion about very fit young people's intimate relationships and national pride.

It's a TV goldmine. And one the IOC can license.

Think about it: something like a HS-teen drama, with very beautiful/fit people, all in a crowded space, all competing together in disparate events, all with national pride on the line, and with a four year deadline for the 'show'. The relationships, of course, would be a big part of the idea, to further amp up the drama that the competition provides. Language barrier mishaps, tall-dark-hansomes, different dating customs, distant parents, coaches yelling, slipping out at night to abscond with a new relationship, national pride, crossing national barriers in friendship, creating new rivalries, the pressure cooker, etc. And then, at the end, the actual events and the epilogue that is a gold-medal ceremony after four years of hype.

And all of it being done with the IOC getting a cut, possibly making even more cash so they go along with it.

I think it would be great TV.

Everything you've written here is consistent with what I'm seeing out of Japan (not terribly surprising, but it's good to see confirmation that I'm not getting a biased sample).

I think there is a problem with the method though, if you’re selectively testing and changing the number of tests per day, then you’re going to have trouble establishing a useful positivity rate, or am I wrong? There should be some consistency.

If the results presented are hourly, daily or weekly, that’s just the resolution of said metric.

Maybe you’re arguing there isn’t much point in having higher resolution metrics than weekly but I don’t see how taking more frequent measurements matter, it doesn’t change the outcomes.

Are you potentially confusing the concept of "dollars" with the concept of "money". While there are multiple currencies named "dollars" the term "dollars" is not generally interchangeable with the word "money".

Under your scheme, if a Polish person exchanges Euros for Yen in Japan and then buys a beer in Tokyo, did Japan just "earn dollars"? Because I think it's pretty clear that nothing referred to as a "dollar" moved hands here.

Based on your replies, my own experience living in Japan, conversations with Korean people, and conversations with my sister who is living in Korea, I believe the the reduced spread of the virus in Japan & Korea compared to western countries is because of many behavior differences of Japanese & Korean people. For example:

1. In USA, few restaurant workers have job security. If they take sick leave, they lose their jobs. So when they get sick, they go in to work and spread it. In Japan & Korea, most restaurant workers can stay home when sick.

2. In USA, most people don't have the idea of staying home from social events when sick. When they have a cold, they will take medicine to suppress symptoms while they visit family & friends, go to church, etc. This happens much less in Japan & Korea.

3. In USA, before the pandemic, nobody wore a mask while socializing when sick. Even now, it is rare in many parts of the country. In Japan & Korea, wearing a mask when sick in public is expected, like wearing clothing over your underwear. So a Japanese or Korean person who feels a little under the weather will opt to keep their mask on when attending a maskless gathering, but an American in the same situation will likely take theirs off.

4. Smoking was banned in restaurants & bars in Korea in 2015 and Japan in 2020. So most restaurants in those countries still have powerful ventilation systems designed to handle cigarette smoke. They can turn them up to reduce Covid transmission risk. In USA, most places banned smoking in restaurants & bars about 10-20 years ago. Since that time, many restaurant ventilation systems have been replaced or reconfigured to reduce the air exchange rate.

These and other differences add up to a large reduction in virus spread.

I have heard many Americans write essentially, "People are maskless in restaurants in Japan and Korea and there's no spike, so we can do it in my country too and not get a spike." I think this conclusion is incorrect. It is based on incomplete knowledge of the differences between their country and Japan & Korea.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_smoking_bans_in_the_Un...