They'll quite possibly delay the Beijing Olympics

 There is now talk that the Tokyo Olympics will be cancelled. 

This is bad news. All the effort put into the preparation.  The money, the time, and of course the prestige.  Bottom line is less than 1% of Japan's population(as of this writing), had been vaccinated.

There are 100 days to go folks.  Meanwhile, 75% of Japanese want the Games postponed.  I do not believe they will be cancelled.  Simply pushed back a year perhaps? Afterall, why even hold them in an odd numbered year?

And who can travel to the Games?

The irony of ironies is that America, with its rather competent roll out in full swing, will have no where for its people to go.   

But in my view things are going to actually get worse.  Nevermind the meltdown in Brazil(which could have been America perhaps if Trump were still in charge?), or India, the news has just come out that the American Moderna vaccine will need a booster shot in the Summer/Fall timeline.

Which means with the possible exception of Pfizer, all current vaccines out there will also need a booster shot down the road. 

Seriously?

Methinks Americans will by then definitely have "shot fatigue".   Which is why it is important to get vaccinated now by any means necessary.  'Cause by the Fall, the variants will definitely be taking over.  

So now we come to China.  That fleeting mistress, skirting in and out of my heart.   China just isn't very popular now, folks.  No friends, with the exception of Mother Russia(we don't count Cambodia and Laos, well, because no one cares what these two pebbles in the sand think).

Robert Louis Stevenson had a sailor in his book Treasure Island.  The sailor was washed overboard.  No one tried to save him.  That sailor could be China today. 

We'd love to blame the Heavenly Kingdom for the virus, we'd just love to give it a nice, nasty comeuppance, except.....we ourselves were so abhorrently incompetent(especially America),  that we really have nothing to say.  

Democracies suck at solving urgent problems when the alternative is keeping your population under literal house arrest.  China excels at this type of game.   But if the Human Race really goes on with the Tokyo Games that will be not only  be bad form, but caustic at best.   The Japanese themselves won't want us there.  The ignorant constantly speak of American racism.  For the upteenth time I will snarkily say let us give you 20 million black men and 15 million hispanics, sprinkled upon your population, and let's see how utopian your society remains.  Nothing against black men or hispanics, but the odds are your country doesn't have them.   Then throw in 40 million of our most ignorant white men that themselves don't know how to read, but somehow can quote the 2nd amendment from heart(without comprehending its meaning), and let us see how harmonious your society becomes.

I read somewhere within the past week  the American Media news reports are 90% negative.  No surprise there.  America is not a "Good News Society".  We excel at telling ourselves how much we suck.  And after awhile it is hard not to believe it.   We broadcast from fear.  Fear sells.  When we say we want to be "informed", what we really mean is want to be "informed" of what lies outside the city gates, ready to devour us in our sleep.  

As such we refuse to understand America is a much better place than we are led to believe.  It's just our neverending chase for the perfect society that keeps us paranoid of "backsliding". 

My point is the Japanese seeing a non Japanese amongst their midsts during the Games will think we all have COVID, nevermind we couldn't even get inside the country unless we are properly vaccinated.  If that's not racism what is?  Homogenous Asian Societies have two things in common:  extreme overt racism and a ticking population timebomb with soon too many elderly people to look after. 

So I think the Summer Games will just not go down. 

And should that happen, just around the corner are the Winter Games.  And nations will go out of their way NOT to go to Beijing.  Indeed, they'd love nothing more to even pretend China doesn't exist.  Delaying the Tokyo Games would give everyone the cover they need.

China should welcome this respite.  China needs time to make friends.  Except wait, China has one good trait I really admire, which I am constantly teaching my own children;  don't try and be everyone's best friend.  China excels at this.  It's as if they want to rub your disdain for the Heavenly Kingdom into your own face.  Splendid!

But despite the effective job China has done managing the virus, it has been effective with the regular Wuhan variant only.  What of the other variants?  Will they somehow find a way into China?  How will that look if these variants are raging throughout the countryside while the Olympics are on display?

Something tells me the Chinese are in danger of letting their guard down here. Just apparently as Europe and America both have done. 

And of India? 

With each cataclysmic day India endures, the Chinese look on smugly at their own management skills.  And I must say, when the result is saving lives, it's more about the result then the process.   Regarding China, this is a country where people hit cops all the time, argue with cops all the time.  Cops even fight each other.  I read a book last year detailing the history of US-Sino relations.  I was astounded to read what the first American visitors to China said in the 1700's and early 1800's;  China is not a country ready for Democracy.  Folks, that was when they had one third the population they have today.

Still, China simply isn't ready for any of these new variants. The speed and ease of transmission.  China will be dealing with this virus for years, as long as they don't have a provable vaccine.  Ask yourself this:

If China holds the Winter Games, will there be anyone from the West attending?  What if they have to get self-isolated for two weeks before entering Beijing?  And what if you've already gotten the proper WHO certified vaccination?

You will notice none of the Chinese vaccines are WHO certified.  The WHO's reputation has been so badly tainted as overtly Pro-China that it will be a long, long day before it certifies anything from China. 

Nevermind the Olympics.  How many Westerners will be willing to self isolate in China after having received a WHO certified vaccination?  As such, nations can't wait to "take China down".  There will be a great push to thus delay the Beijing Olympics.