The IOC continues to act as if it is a nation.
His Excellency is due in Tokyo on July 8th. His Excellency? That would be the International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach and like any other major world governmental leader it is a state visit that will take place. The International Olympic Committee acts as if it is a sovereign nation, after all it has permanent observer status at the United Nations and only the IOC can cancel the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, not the sitting government in Japan. It says so in the contract the IOC and the Tokyo bid committee negotiated that allowed a Tokyo Olympics. The 2021 edition of the sports event is scheduled to open on July 23rd which is why Bach is headed to Japan. Bach was supposed to be in Japan in July 2020 but the global COVID-19 pandemic got in the way. Bach and the IOC reluctantly rescheduled the event after various national Olympic committees in mid-March 2020 said they were not sending athletes to Japan for the July 2020 Olympics because of COVID-19.
Bach has been vaccinated in the battle against COVID-19 and its variants. Bach estimates that 84 percent of national committee delegates will be vaccinated. Japan is getting people to take shots as its vaccination roll out has increased with more than 40 million doses having been put into the arms of people since the start of May. Japan has 15.3 million people or 12.1 per cent of the population fully vaccinated. Japan is now administering more than a million doses per day. Bach will play the role of a world leader, visiting Hiroshima on July 16th to remember the atomic bomb dropped on the city to end World War II to promote peace because that is what world leaders do.
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