LAUSANNE, Switzerland—Vaccine developers Pfizer and BioNTech will donate doses to inoculate athletes and officials preparing for the Tokyo Olympics, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said Thursday.
Delivery of doses is set to begin this month to give Olympic delegations time to be fully vaccinated with a second shot before arriving in Tokyo for the games, which open on July 23.
It’s the second major vaccination deal for the IOC. An agreement was announced in March between the IOC and Olympic officials in China to buy and distribute Chinese vaccines ahead of the Tokyo Games and next year’s Beijing Winter Games.
The new Pfizer offer gives the IOC greater coverage worldwide ahead of Tokyo with most countries yet to authorize emergency use of Chinese vaccines.
“We are inviting the athletes and participating delegations of the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games to lead by example and accept the vaccine where and when possible,” IOC President Thomas Bach said in a statement.
The Pfizer donation followed talks between the firm’s chairman and CEO, Albert Bourla, and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga.
“Following this conversation, the Japanese government had a meeting with the IOC and now the donation plan has been realized,” Pfizer said in a statement.
The IOC said any vaccination program must be done “in accordance with each country’s vaccination guidelines and consistent with local regulations.”
The IOC-China vaccine deal includes two doses being made available to the general public for each dose received by an Olympic participant in that country.
The Spanish Olympic Committee said Thursday the nearly 600 members of its delegation traveling to Japan will start being vaccinated with Pfizer doses this month. Other countries, including Australia, South Korea and Italy, have also been making arrangements to vaccinate their teams.
Tokyo Olympic organizing committee P resident Seiko Hashimoto, meanwhile, said Friday that a visit to Japan this month by Bach seemed unlikely with a state of emergency order being extended by the government to Tokyo and other areas until May 31.
Canceling the trip could be embarrassing for the IOC and local organizers who say they can hold a “safe and secure” Olympics in the middle of a pandemic as cases surge in Japan—particularly in Tokyo and Japan’s second metropolis of Osaka.
The postponed Olympics are to open in only 11 weeks, on July 23, followed by the Paralympics on August 24.
“Frankly speaking, I personally think it would be quite tough for him to come now,” Hashimoto said at a weekly briefing, adding that “nothing had been decided.”
“But the extension of the state of emergency and having him visit during that time will mean that President Bach will be visiting in a quite a difficult time,” Hashimoto said. “I think that would be a very difficult thing for him.”
Bach said recently he hoped to go to Hiroshima to meet the torch relay—and presumably to Tokyo—on May 17 and 18. But he has said his plans were not finalized.
Coincidentally, powerful IOC member Sebastian Coe is in Tokyo for a track and field test event on Sunday at the new $1.4-billion national stadium.
Coe is the president of World Athletics, the governing body of track and field, and was also the head of the 2012 London Olympics. He is seen as a potential successor to Bach when the German’s term ends in 2025, and is also a two-time Olympic gold medalist in the 1,500 meters.
Coe has been laudatory about a half marathon test event run earlier this week in Sapporo. He’s also sympathetic with Hashimoto trying to pull off the Olympics. AP
Read full article on BusinessMirror
