China says tickets for Winter Olympics will not be sold to general public due to Covid-19

[brooklynite]

Source: CNN

(CNN)Tickets for the upcoming Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Beijing will not be sold to the general public in response to Covid-19 but will instead be distributed by authorities, the Beijing Winter Olympics Organizing Committee announced Monday.

"In terms of the grim and complex situation of epidemic prevention and control [and] in order to protect the health and safety of Olympic personnel and spectators, we have decided to change the original plan of public ticket sales," the committee said.

Groups of spectators will be invited on site throughout the Games and will be required to "strictly comply with Covid-19 prevention and control requirements before, during and after watching the Games."

In a statement on Monday, the International Olympic Committee said those in attendance will be residents of China's mainland who have the required "Covid-19 countermeasures."

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/17/sport/winter-olympics-china-tickets-covid-19-spt-intl/index.html

[3Hotdogs]

1. Well the Chinese Olympics are fucked anyway. I just heard,

The United States isn't sending a diplomatic delegation.

That'll sure frost their cookies.

[lark]

2. They actually decided that weeks ago.

Our athletes are going, so that's what the people care about. Don't care what the chinese officials think about the lack of diplomatic folks from here.

[3Hotdogs]

3. That's the point ---- the absence of a delegation was promoted as a response to Chinese treatment

of Uyghurs. Big Fucking Deal.

1980 - kept the entire U.S. team out of Russia.

[lark]

4. I always thought Carter made a mistake, although for the good reasons.

I didn't think the athletes should be punished, even then, and I loved President Carter. However, Russia invading Afghanistan is a ton more provocation than what China is doing. I support Biden's decision wholeheartedly. As the mother of someone who was in Junior Olympics, I know how much work and dedication goes into this from both the athlete and her family!

[Effete Snob]

5. It's preferable not to have the government tell private citizens where they can or cannot go

People spend significant chunks of their lives aiming to compete in a particular event at a particular Olympics.

If the US government wants to use people's lives to make a point, then do it with people who signed up to be used as political chess pieces.

[turbinetree]

6. We'll lets just step back and ask why are there these "games in China....

they fucked over the people in Hong Kong, they are fucking over the Muslims and holding them in detention camps, they "built" an island in the South China Sea, they want to attack Taiwan, and to top it all off they have an authoritarian who really is a asshole...........and these "games" are suppose to show world unity.....

[Crowman2009]

7. Also bribery, the same goes with the upcoming World Cup in Qatar.

I've got a pile of movies & books to consume anyway. So I'm holding off any sports for now.

[turbinetree]

10. Second that motion....

[Raine]

14. EXACTLY, they shouldn't have been awarded these games IMO.

DISGRACEFUL after what they've done!

[GB_RN]

8. At This Point...

The whole thing should be cancelled. I know that people train for years to compete, but is it really worth it to go expose yourself to all those others at the Olympics and risk getting infected (or worse)?

I don't know, maybe having seen what happens to COVID patients (and other really sick people) as a nurse, I just have a whole different outlook on what's important. Then again, I'm not in my teens and 20s anymore, either. I remember thinking I was invulnerable back then, too. 🤷‍♂️

[madville]

9. At this point it's up to the individual to accept the risk

In their mind the reward outweighs the risk, and mostly vaccinated, under 40 year old athletes are not in much danger statistically from COVID anyway. Look at football stadiums around this country, almost no masks, millions and millions packing stadiums, more and more people are willing to move on and just live (or not) with it.

[GB_RN]

11. That's The Problem

Most of these people don't think that it IS a problem: "It's just the flu", etc. And the unvaxxed are killing not just themselves, but the rest of us (when we can't get hospital beds), too.

For example, Duke University Hospital has 957 beds. Right at this moment, it has 305 COVID patients. Of those 305, 208 are unvaxxed. Out of those 305, 59 are in the ICU. Of those 59, 47 are unvaxxed. Of those 59, 35 are on a ventilator. Of those 35, 30 are unvaxxed. 3 ICU patients are on ECMO (Extracorporeal Membranous Oxygenation - basically, an artificial lung. COVID patients who are on ECMO are almost guaranteed dead; you're just prolonging the inevitable). Those 3 are unvaxxed. 305/957 = 32% of the hospital's bed capacity is being utilized by COVID patients. 208/305 = 68% of those patients are unvaxxed. 80% of ICU patients are unvaxxed. 86% of the ventilator patients are unvaxxed. These numbers are from THIS MORNING. And that's just at Duke. Other hospitals in the area such as UNC, Rex, Wake Med, aren't any better. Nationally, it's just as bad.

These numbers are unsustainable, and it's just going to get worse as the Omicron wave continues, even if it's on its way down; that's because hospitalizations and deaths lag infections. The beds being taken up by the unvaxxed are causing those with needed surgeries (like critical cancer surgeries) not to be able to get them; those surgeries have been cancelled due to lack of bed space and for fear of infecting those patients. Right now, only emergency surgeries are being performed.

[madville]

12. It is a big problem but it's human nature also

Society as a whole and individuals will naturally adapt to surroundings, what is a horrible situation will gradually become the new normal. I just don’t think we can reverse the trend (short of a much deadlier variant emerging) and make people more concerned about it, if it stays like this or becomes slowly less dangerous people are going to continue to lose interest in worrying about it.

[FakeNoose]

13. It's all for the TV ad money, am I right?

They can't make anything from the ticket sales. No tourism boost to the hotels and restaurants in China.

They probably spent a $ billion building their Olympic venues, stadiums, ski and bob lines, the whole nine yards. There will be no profit at all unless they make it back in TV ad money.

Do communist countries even have TV ad money? I don't know, but this seems crazy.

[rpannier]

15. No General Public seating for the Genocide Olympics