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bv
Novak Djokovic: Tennis star to be deported after losing Australia visa appeal (BBC 16 January 2022)

Tennis star Novak Djokovic has lost his last-ditch court bid to stay in Australia and is set to be deported.

Judges rejected his appeal after the government cancelled the unvaccinated player's visa for a second time this month on public health grounds.

There has been much public anger in Australia over Djokovic's attempt to enter the country while unvaccinated.

The government has repeatedly said that no-one is above the strict rules in place to cope with the pandemic.

BV is correct.

I'll add something I've just read about this case...

> The Morrison Government’s own argument before the court was that Mr Djokovic’s visa should be cancelled because his presence here may foster anti-vaccination sentiment based on what he did and said before he was granted a visa.
>
> This must prompt the question, why did Mr Morrison’s Government grant him a visa to come to Australia in the first place?

If you're keen to read the original Court documents... see
[fedcourt.gov.au]

One cannot but be impressed with the fact that all hearings were streamed live - apparently 38,000+ watched Sunday morning's hearing, and that all Court submissions are readily available.

--
Captain Corella
60 Years a Fan

In December, Djokovic backed protests in Serbia against Rio Tinto mining lithium.

The Australian Prime Minister's current chief of staff used to be head of government relations at Rio Tinto.

Purely coincidental though...

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terraplane
In December, Djokovic backed protests in Serbia against Rio Tinto mining lithium.

The Australian Prime Minister's current chief of staff used to be head of government relations at Rio Tinto.

Purely coincidental though...

I’m kinda thinking that isn’t what pissed off the entire country of Australia.

Where did you hear the entire country was pissed off? Read some of the comments here:

The Project

Right on Australia. Send that arrogant turd back from where he came from.

[www.tennisworldusa.org]

“Anyone can behave like a Novak Djokovic.”

“But the world is a better place thanks to individuals like Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. The sad truth is that the Big 3 aren’t really the Big 3: they are the Big 2 and a very talented, misguided individual.”

A “very talented, misguided individual” — there’s one in every crowd.

Note the referendum in Switzerland. Its a democracy and majority voted for the mandate. Too bad majority can't do the same in US.


Europe's loud, rule-breaking unvaccinated minority are falling out of society

[www.cnn.com]

Politicians are just too slow to surf the waves of reality, the pandemic is receding, the vaccines are not efficient besides protecting the weak, this whole mandate thing should be taken off the table and life should get back to normal ASAP.

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skytrench
Politicians are just too slow to surf the waves of reality, the pandemic is receding, the vaccines are not efficient besides protecting the weak, this whole mandate thing should be taken off the table and life should get back to normal ASAP.

I think they're just trying to slow the rate at which people are admitted to hospitals at this point. Everyone is going to get exposed/sick. I'm starting to know lots of people that have it, not so 3 weeks ago.

This is strategic now. They've all but given up on the nonvaxx community...now it's about cleanly (as is possible) navigating to endemic stage. I think we'll see life getting back to normal starting mid-late February.

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treaclefingers
This is strategic now. They've all but given up on the nonvaxx community...now it's about cleanly (as is possible) navigating to endemic stage. I think we'll see life getting back to normal starting mid-late February.

Sounds good, if normality returns by mid-late February, I will be very happy and surprised at the speed of it. We still have countries trying to enforce mandates by February or otherwise wanting to make life miserable for the unvaccinated. I wonder how those politicians will be perceived, if their plans are swept away. Maybe it was all a tactic to get as many jabbed.

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skytrench
..., the vaccines are not efficient besides protecting the weak, ...

You are wrong. The vaccines are highly efficient in avoiding serious illness and death. Today hospitals are filled up with unvaccinated people.

Bjornulf

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skytrench

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treaclefingers
This is strategic now. They've all but given up on the nonvaxx community...now it's about cleanly (as is possible) navigating to endemic stage. I think we'll see life getting back to normal starting mid-late February.

Sounds good, if normality returns by mid-late February, I will be very happy and surprised at the speed of it. We still have countries trying to enforce mandates by February or otherwise wanting to make life miserable for the unvaccinated. I wonder how those politicians will be perceived, if their plans are swept away. Maybe it was all a tactic to get as many jabbed.

The 'jabbed' tactic worked, and is why we'll be able to move so quickly, that and the evolution to a less virulent and more efficient strain of the virus.

As we're heading into spring the timing would be good for cases to start heading down as well. Don't know how long it will rage in the unvaxxed countries, but as it is so communicable it will move through very quickly.

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skytrench
Politicians are just too slow to surf the waves of reality, the pandemic is receding, the vaccines are not efficient besides protecting the weak, this whole mandate thing should be taken off the table and life should get back to normal ASAP.

Anti-vaxxers have been saying the same thing for a year. 20 20 hindsight demonstrates their blindness.

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daspyknows

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skytrench
Politicians are just too slow to surf the waves of reality, the pandemic is receding, the vaccines are not efficient besides protecting the weak, this whole mandate thing should be taken off the table and life should get back to normal ASAP.

Anti-vaxxers have been saying the same thing for a year. 20 20 hindsight demonstrates their blindness.

There's a need to distinguish between those who want:

1.mandates for everyone to be vaccinated
2.mandates vaccinating certain groups
3.people to choose for themselves
4.nobody to be vaccinated

I am for 3, but can accept 2, if the vaccines protect against transmission. Anti-vaxxers would be 4 in my world. What are you daspyknows?

New word of the day: "Frankenvariant" - when two or more variants mutate into one.

Expect more worrisome variants after omicron, scientists say

“People have wondered whether the virus will evolve to mildness. But there’s no particular reason for it to do so.
I don’t think we can be confident that the virus will become less lethal over time.” - Dr. Stuart Campbell Ray, Johns Hopkins University

COVID19

Get ready to learn more Greek letters. Scientists warn that omicron’s whirlwind advance practically ensures it won’t be the last version of the coronavirus to worry the world.
Every infection provides a chance for the virus to mutate, and omicron has an edge over its predecessors: It spreads way faster despite emerging on a planet with a stronger patchwork of immunity from vaccines and prior illness. That means more people in whom the virus can further evolve. Experts don’t know what the next variants will look like or how they might shape the pandemic, but they say there’s no guarantee the sequels of omicron will cause milder illness or that existing vaccines will work against them. “The faster omicron spreads, the more opportunities there are for mutation, potentially leading to more variants,” Leonardo Martinez, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Boston University, said.

Since it emerged in mid-November, omicron has raced across the globe like fire through dry grass. Research shows the variant is at least twice as contagious as delta and at least four times as contagious as the original version of the virus. Omicron is more likely than delta to reinfect individuals who previously had COVID-19 and to cause “breakthrough infections” in vaccinated people while also attacking the unvaccinated. The World Health Organization reported a record 15 million new COVID-19 cases for the week of Jan. 3-9, a 55% increase from the previous week. Along with keeping comparatively healthy people out of work and school, the ease with which the variant spreads increases the odds the virus will infect and linger inside people with weakened immune systems - giving it more time to develop potent mutations. “It’s the longer, persistent infections that seem to be the most likely breeding grounds for new variants,” said Dr. Stuart Campbell Ray, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins University. “It’s only when you have very widespread infection that you’re going to provide the opportunity for that to occur.” Because omicron appears to cause less severe disease than delta, its behavior has kindled hope that it could be the start of a trend that eventually makes the virus milder like a common cold. It’s a possibility, experts say, given that viruses don’t spread well if they kill their hosts very quickly. But viruses don’t always get less deadly over time. A variant could also achieve its main goal - replicating - if infected people developed mild symptoms initially, spread the virus by interacting with others, then got very sick later, Ray explained by way of example. “People have wondered whether the virus will evolve to mildness. But there’s no particular reason for it to do so,” he said. “I don’t think we can be confident that the virus will become less lethal over time.”

Getting progressively better at evading immunity helps a virus to survive over the long term. When SARS-CoV-2 first struck, no one was immune. But infections and vaccines have conferred at least some immunity to much of the world, so the virus must adapt. There are many possible avenues for evolution. Animals could potentially incubate and unleash new variants. Pet dogs and cats, deer and farm-raised mink are only a few of the animals vulnerable to the virus, which can potentially mutate within them and leap back to people. Another potential route: With both omicron and delta circulating, people may get double infections that could spawn what Ray calls “Frankenvariants,” hybrids with characteristics of both types. When new variants do develop, scientists said it’s still very difficult to know from genetic features which ones might take off. For example, omicron has many more mutations than previous variants, around 30 in the spike protein that lets it attach to human cells. But the so-called IHU variant identified in France and being monitored by the WHO has 46 mutations and doesn’t seem to have spread much at all.

To curb the emergence of variants, scientists stress continuing with public health measures such as masking and getting vaccinated. While omicron is better able to evade immunity than delta, experts said, vaccines still offer protection and booster shots greatly reduce serious illness, hospitalizations and deaths. Anne Thomas, a 64-year-old IT analyst in Westerly, Rhode Island, said she’s fully vaccinated and boosted and also tries to stay safe by mostly staying home while her state has one of the highest COVID-19 case rates in the U.S. “I have no doubt at all that these viruses are going to continue to mutate and we’re going to be dealing with this for a very long time,” she said. Ray likened vaccines to armor for humanity that greatly hinders viral spread even if it doesn’t completely stop it. For a virus that spreads exponentially, he said, “anything that curbs transmission can have a great effect.” Also, when vaccinated people get sick, Ray said their illness is usually milder and clears more quickly, leaving less time to spawn dangerous variants.

Experts say the virus won’t become endemic like the flu as long as global vaccination rates are so low. During a recent press conference, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that protecting people from future variants — including those that may be fully resistant to today’s shots — depends on ending global vaccine inequity. Tedros said he’d like to see 70% of people in every country vaccinated by mid-year. Currently, there are dozens of countries where less than a quarter of the population is fully vaccinated, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics. And in the United States, many people continue to resist available vaccines. “These huge unvaccinated swaths in the U.S., Africa, Asia, Latin America and elsewhere are basically variant factories,” said Dr. Prabhat Jha of the Centre for Global Health Research at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. “It’s been a colossal failure in global leadership that we have not been able to do this.” In the meantime, new variants are inevitable, said Louis Mansky, director of the Institute for Molecular Virology at the University of Minnesota. With so many unvaccinated people, he said, “the virus is still kind of in control of what’s going on.”

_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......

thank you for all the different points of view
i live in florida
we are 50 50 some mask some dont
at this point you cant stop someone who going to do what they want even if it
screws other people
does anyone know what the $$$ will be when all is said and done
this is 2022 shouldn t the world be moving forward
i mean solutions
is it going to be 2008 again can people afford whats coming

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skytrench

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daspyknows

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skytrench
Politicians are just too slow to surf the waves of reality, the pandemic is receding, the vaccines are not efficient besides protecting the weak, this whole mandate thing should be taken off the table and life should get back to normal ASAP.

Anti-vaxxers have been saying the same thing for a year. 20 20 hindsight demonstrates their blindness.

There's a need to distinguish between those who want:

1.mandates for everyone to be vaccinated
2.mandates vaccinating certain groups
3.people to choose for themselves
4.nobody to be vaccinated

I am for 3, but can accept 2, if the vaccines protect against transmission. Anti-vaxxers would be 4 in my world. What are you daspyknows?

Between one and 2. By certain groups it means airplanes, indoor public events, mass transit etc. Public health is how to preserve the health of the public. Drunk driving is a public health issue. Should that be ok too because some drunk behind the wheels doesn't want his or her right to drive infringed? I know, you will tell me it is a nonsensical comparison. I will disagree pre-emptively.

She has Stage 4 cancer. But as Omicron delays her surgery, all she can do is wait and worry

Since Cassandra Di Maria stopped chemotherapy, she has had her surgery delayed three times, and now has no date for when it can be performed.

Jeremy Nuttall
By Jeremy NuttallVancouver Bureau

As she waits for word on when she may be able to get into surgery, Cassandra Di Maria worries the cancer inside her is growing.

The 30-year-old Woodbridge resident has Stage 4 colon cancer and stopped chemotherapy in October after 17 rounds of treatment. She was expecting to undergo an operation to remove a tumour from an ovary as well as spots, including on her liver.

After the operation, Di Maria planned to focus on her recovery and organize her wedding, scheduled for later this year.

Then Omicron came to Canada, filling hospitals to the brim with COVID-19 patients, and dealing a vicious blow to Di Maria’s hopes of leaving her cancer in the past and moving on with her life.

“I’m young and I’m trying to do a lot of things and this has affected that,” she said. “I was excited to get this over with and start living my life again, but, no.”

Since Di Maria stopped chemotherapy, she has had her surgery delayed three times, and now has no date for when it can be performed. In the meantime, she said, she hasn’t been able to book a scan to see if her cancer is spreading.

An email from Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital, where her surgery is to be performed, specifically said the delay is due to the “situation with COVID” and that she would be contacted as soon as they know when they can set a new date.

Not starting chemo again, in case a slot for her surgery comes up, Di Maria sits, waits and worries the progress she has made fighting cancer since November 2020 might be undone.

“Being off chemo gives the cancer the opportunity to possibly spread further,” she said. “I’m concerned that things have gotten worse since my last treatment.”

As Di Maria calls on “all parties involved” to rethink how they are balancing resources in the midst of COVID, her plight is not unique.

A number of surgeries have been cancelled across Ontario as hospitals struggle to make room for COVID patients and the Omicron variant ravages the province. As of Friday, Ontario had more than 3,800 people in hospital with the illness...

Editor’s note: Late last week, a patient advocate working on Cassandra Di Maria’s case was told a date had now been set for surgery. On Saturday morning, Di Maria found out that, barring any further delays, her operation will take place on Jan. 26

Full article here:
[www.thestar.com]

(Context: a 1-2 month break from Chemo is generally required before surgery can be performed.)

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daspyknows


Between one and 2. By certain groups it means airplanes, indoor public events, mass transit etc. Public health is how to preserve the health of the public. Drunk driving is a public health issue. Should that be ok too because some drunk behind the wheels doesn't want his or her right to drive infringed? I know, you will tell me it is a nonsensical comparison. I will disagree pre-emptively.

Define vaccinated. 2 jabs, 3 jabs or as many as someone else decides for you? Should it be mandated that the obese lose weight as they put a drain on the medical system.

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daspyknows
Right on Australia. Send that arrogant turd back from where he came from.

No djoke

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terraplane

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daspyknows


Between one and 2. By certain groups it means airplanes, indoor public events, mass transit etc. Public health is how to preserve the health of the public. Drunk driving is a public health issue. Should that be ok too because some drunk behind the wheels doesn't want his or her right to drive infringed? I know, you will tell me it is a nonsensical comparison. I will disagree pre-emptively.

Define vaccinated. 2 jabs, 3 jabs or as many as someone else decides for you? Should it be mandated that the obese lose weight as they put a drain on the medical system.

Not my job to define that. I will leave it to the scientists. Being obese isn't a contagious disease and doesn't jeopardize the public health of others. Why do you think it is your right to infect someone else with a communicable disease?

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daspyknows

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terraplane

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daspyknows


Between one and 2. By certain groups it means airplanes, indoor public events, mass transit etc. Public health is how to preserve the health of the public. Drunk driving is a public health issue. Should that be ok too because some drunk behind the wheels doesn't want his or her right to drive infringed? I know, you will tell me it is a nonsensical comparison. I will disagree pre-emptively.

Define vaccinated. 2 jabs, 3 jabs or as many as someone else decides for you? Should it be mandated that the obese lose weight as they put a drain on the medical system.

Not my job to define that. I will leave it to the scientists. Being obese isn't a contagious disease and doesn't jeopardize the public health of others. Why do you think it is your right to infect someone else with a communicable disease?

It does because it leads to heart issues and puts a drain on the hospital system. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S. (in certain age groups) from the statistics I have seen. I don't think it is my right to infect someone else. You can be infected by unvaccinated or unvaxxed. Makes no difference. I have never had COVID (as far as I know). You say you have. You have been a greater danger to the community than me.

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terraplane

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daspyknows

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terraplane

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daspyknows


Between one and 2. By certain groups it means airplanes, indoor public events, mass transit etc. Public health is how to preserve the health of the public. Drunk driving is a public health issue. Should that be ok too because some drunk behind the wheels doesn't want his or her right to drive infringed? I know, you will tell me it is a nonsensical comparison. I will disagree pre-emptively.

Define vaccinated. 2 jabs, 3 jabs or as many as someone else decides for you? Should it be mandated that the obese lose weight as they put a drain on the medical system.

Not my job to define that. I will leave it to the scientists. Being obese isn't a contagious disease and doesn't jeopardize the public health of others. Why do you think it is your right to infect someone else with a communicable disease?

It does because it leads to heart issues and puts a drain on the hospital system. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S. (in certain age groups) from the statistics I have seen. I don't think it is my right to infect someone else. You can be infected by unvaccinated or unvaxxed. Makes no difference. I have never had COVID (as far as I know). You say you have. You have been a greater danger to the community than me.

Blah blah blah with your whataboutism. Let's play the same game. So if a woman has a right to refuse a vaccine but she can't refuse a child that she doesn't want. My body my choice should apply in both cases, don't you think? Yes I had Covid. Explain how I am a greater danger to society than you or anyone eles who refuses to get vaxxed.

If a woman doesn't want to have a kid then that is nothing to do with me. Really between her and the father.

You had COVID. You possibly gave it to others. I have never had it is so I could never have given it anyone. When I go out, I social distance, wash hands, wear a mask. Seems maybe like you didn't?

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terraplane
If a woman doesn't want to have a kid then that is nothing to do with me. Really between her and the father.

You had COVID. You possibly gave it to others. I have never had it is so I could never have given it anyone. When I go out, I social distance, wash hands, wear a mask. Seems maybe like you didn't?

You are delusional if you think because I caught Covid after being vaccinated and I stayed in after I believed I had it by the CDC's recommendation I am more a risk to society.

No its not when abortion is defacto illegal. It matters at least as much as the Covid vaccine in that woman's life.

Vaccinated can pass on the rona. You got tested because you were symptomatic, no? Therefore, for a period you were quite possibly spreading it. Do you have repressed guilt? You shouldn't. It isn't your fault.

Again, I have no opinion of abortion.

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terraplane
Vaccinated can pass on the rona. You got tested because you were symptomatic, no? Therefore, for a period you were quite possibly spreading it. Do you have repressed guilt? You shouldn't. It isn't your fault.

Again, I have no opinion of abortion.

Your guilt trip isn't working. Those vaccinated do not get seriously ill. The hospitals filled with unvaxxed, so are the morgues. If you are unvaxxed, eventually you run the risk of one or the other. I will say I told you so.

Whether YOU have no opinion on abortion doesn't mean those in power who seem to be against vaccines are against a woman's right to choose. My body my choice should be treated the same way. Don't you think so, regardless whether you care about abortion yourself.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022-01-17 00:34 by daspyknows.

If I were a woman or had a fathered a child with a woman who wanted an abortion I might have an opinion. Neither of those situations relate to me.

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SomeTorontoGirl
She has Stage 4 cancer. But as Omicron delays her surgery, all she can do is wait and worry

Since Cassandra Di Maria stopped chemotherapy, she has had her surgery delayed three times, and now has no date for when it can be performed.

Jeremy Nuttall
By Jeremy NuttallVancouver Bureau

As she waits for word on when she may be able to get into surgery, Cassandra Di Maria worries the cancer inside her is growing.

The 30-year-old Woodbridge resident has Stage 4 colon cancer and stopped chemotherapy in October after 17 rounds of treatment. She was expecting to undergo an operation to remove a tumour from an ovary as well as spots, including on her liver.

After the operation, Di Maria planned to focus on her recovery and organize her wedding, scheduled for later this year.

Then Omicron came to Canada, filling hospitals to the brim with COVID-19 patients, and dealing a vicious blow to Di Maria’s hopes of leaving her cancer in the past and moving on with her life.

“I’m young and I’m trying to do a lot of things and this has affected that,” she said. “I was excited to get this over with and start living my life again, but, no.”

Since Di Maria stopped chemotherapy, she has had her surgery delayed three times, and now has no date for when it can be performed. In the meantime, she said, she hasn’t been able to book a scan to see if her cancer is spreading.

An email from Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital, where her surgery is to be performed, specifically said the delay is due to the “situation with COVID” and that she would be contacted as soon as they know when they can set a new date.

Not starting chemo again, in case a slot for her surgery comes up, Di Maria sits, waits and worries the progress she has made fighting cancer since November 2020 might be undone.

“Being off chemo gives the cancer the opportunity to possibly spread further,” she said. “I’m concerned that things have gotten worse since my last treatment.”

As Di Maria calls on “all parties involved” to rethink how they are balancing resources in the midst of COVID, her plight is not unique.

A number of surgeries have been cancelled across Ontario as hospitals struggle to make room for COVID patients and the Omicron variant ravages the province. As of Friday, Ontario had more than 3,800 people in hospital with the illness...

Editor’s note: Late last week, a patient advocate working on Cassandra Di Maria’s case was told a date had now been set for surgery. On Saturday morning, Di Maria found out that, barring any further delays, her operation will take place on Jan. 26

Full article here:
[www.thestar.com]

(Context: a 1-2 month break from Chemo is generally required before surgery can be performed.)

How many stories like this out there...very sad.

Clap, don’t chant: China aims for ‘Zero COVID’ Olympics

COVID19

Athletes will need to be vaccinated — or face a long quarantine — take tests daily and wear masks when not competing or training. Clapping is OK to cheer on teammates, not chanting. Anyone who tests positive for COVID-19 will be sent into isolation and unable to compete until cleared for discharge. Welcome to the Beijing Olympics, where strict containment measures will aim to create a virus-proof “bubble” for thousands of international visitors at a time when omicron is fueling infections globally. The prevention protocols will be similar to those at the Tokyo Games this summer, but much tighter. That won’t be a stretch in Beijing, with China having maintained a “Zero COVID” policy since early in the pandemic. Still, China’s ability to stick to its zero-tolerance approach nationally is already being tested by the highly transmissible omicron variant, which is more contagious than earlier variants of the virus and better able to evade protection from vaccines. With just weeks to go before the Feb. 4 start of the Games, more than 20 million people in six cities are under lockdown after recent outbreaks.

Here’s how the Games will work.

DO ATHLETES HAVE TO BE VACCINATED?

Yes, athletes and other participants including team staff and news media need to be fully vaccinated to be allowed in the designated Olympic areas without completing a 21-day quarantine. Those areas will consist of the Olympic Village, game venues, other select spots and dedicated transport. That’s different from the Tokyo Games, where participants didn’t have to be vaccinated. Participants are considered fully vaccinated according to the definitions outlined by their countries. Before boarding their flights, everyone also needs to provide two recent negative tests from approved labs. The threat of being sidelined by a positive test is adding to the pressure for athletes. Mogul skier Hannah Soar said she’s avoiding contact with people indoors and behaving as if everyone has the virus: “We’re basically at the point of acting like it’s March 2020.”

WHAT ABOUT DAILY LIFE?

Upon arrival at the airport in Beijing, participants will have their temperatures taken and be tested with throat and nasal swabs. An Olympics official who recently arrived on site said at a press briefing the process took him 45 minutes, though organizers note times might vary. A bus will then take people to their designated lodging, where they’ll wait up to six hours for test results to clear them to move about in approved areas. Restrictions on movement within that “closed loop” are intended to seal off any potential contact between Olympic participants and the local population. Throat swabs for testing will be required daily for all participants. In Tokyo, participants spit into vials for antigen tests. Standard prevention measures are being encouraged, such as ventilating rooms and keeping a distance of about 3 feet (1 meter) from others – or 6 feet (2 meters) from athletes. Masks that are N95 or of a similar caliber will also be required in indoor and outdoor areas with few exceptions, such as when people are eating or drinking. Dining halls will have partitions and seating capacity will be reduced to help maintain distancing. In spaces where distancing isn’t possible, such as elevators, talking isn’t allowed. Staff will be stationed in key areas to help guide people and ensure protocols are being followed.

WHAT HAPPENS IF AN ATHLETE TESTS POSITIVE?

In Tokyo, organizers say 33 athletes tested positive during the Games. Of those, 22 were withdrawn from competition. Even with the tightened precautions in Beijing, experts say some positive tests are likely, especially with omicron in play. If an athlete or other participant tests positive but doesn’t have symptoms, they’ll need to go into isolation in a dedicated hotel. They’ll be provided with meals and can open their windows for fresh air but won’t be able to leave their rooms, which organizers say will be about 270 square feet (25 square meters). Athletes can request fitness equipment for training. People with no symptoms can leave isolation after two days of negative tests. Organizers say those testing positive will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis, but it might still be too late for athletes to compete. As a general rule, organizers say the panel will review those who keep testing positive for more than 14 days. Those who test positive and have symptoms have to go into isolation in a hospital. They’ll also need to two days of negative tests to be let loose, as well as three days of normal temperatures and symptoms subsiding. Organizers have said athletes who recover after testing positive ahead of the Games will also be assessed on a case-by-case basis in a “more flexible manner.”

WILL THERE BE FANS?

Spectators from overseas won’t be allowed. As for local fans, Beijing organizers say they’re finalizing rules for their attendance. It’s not clear how the recent outbreaks around China will factor into the decisions. But organizers of the Tokyo Games had also planned to allow some domestic fans, before scrapping the idea because a surge in local cases. The result was surreal scenes of athletes competing in empty stadiums. Even if some fans are allowed in Beijing, their presence will be muted. Everyone is being asked to clap instead of shouting or singing, as had been the plan in Tokyo.

CAN IT WORK?

Despite the omicron-fueled surge hitting many parts of the world including China, organizers may still be able to pull off the Olympics without as much disruption as some fear. Olympic athletes are highly motivated to avoid infection so they can compete, noted Dr. Sandro Galea, a public health expert at Boston University. And even if it’s harder with omicron, he noted it’s no mystery what people need to do to avoid infection — take prevention measures, such as limiting exposure to others.

_____________________________________________________________
Rip this joint, gonna save your soul, round and round and round we go......