SNA (Chicago) — For most of the world, the Olympic Games serve as a point for celebration and national unity. This time, however, many Japanese are gripped by worries about how the Games may serve to intensify the pandemic, and the fact that some of these athletes are promoting anti-vaccination ideology only deepens these concerns.

Even as Japan prepared to host the Olympics, the Covid fifth wave was already in evidence. In what many have taken as a fulfillment of the warnings of critics, both Tokyo and the nation have been posting record numbers of new cases in recent days.

Additionally, a slow vaccine rollout in the spring and summer meant that while many other wealthy countries have fully vaccinated at least half of their population, only 28.8% of Japanese have received both doses of the shot and just 39.3% are at least partially vaccinated, according to the latest government figures.

For these reasons, many Japanese people have expressed concern about hosting the Olympics, both before and during the event.

Despite these red flags, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach declared that there was “zero risk” of athletes and staff transmitting the virus to Japanese or others within the Olympic Village. This is not a statement which has aged very well.

While most Olympic teams have made efforts to vaccinate their athletes, hundreds of competitors arrived in Tokyo with no protection against the coronavirus. On Team USA alone, at least one hundred athletes are still unvaccinated, some of them by choice.

Michael Andrews, a star American swimmer, went on Fox News to explain his decision to come to Tokyo unvaccinated. In the interview, Andrews, who has no plans to be vaccinated in the future, stated, “Going to the Games not only unvaccinated, but as an American, I’m representing my country in multiple ways and the freedoms we have to make a decision like that.”

On Team Great Britain, it has been revealed that a “handful” of athletes are still unvaccinated. While some athletes have legitimate health reasons for not getting the jab, many have not been vaccinated by choice despite the potential consequences for themselves and others.

Those who have refused to get the jab have arguably put both themselves and others at risk in a country that is already deeply worried about the trajectory of the pandemic. The decisions of these athletes may reflect their own individual attitudes and beliefs, but they are unlikely to be appreciated by the people who are hosting them in their capital city, the largest urban area by population in the world.

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