During the long hours he’s spent training, Dunfee has wrestled with the controversial question of whether Canada’s athletes should get priority access to thevaccine. You can hear the angst in his voice through the phone as he struggles with the idea.
Both of those officials – from Swimming Canada and Athletics Canada – saw plenty of feedback from Canadians on social media after their comments, both positive and negative. But both held firm. Atkinson stressed that the window is closing to get fully vaccinated before Tokyo and that the variants of concern have added urgency.“I think that it is reasonable to ask the athletes that represent the country, in an event that takes place every four years, that they’ve worked their life for, should be given the opportunity to go, and we leave nothing to chance,” Atkinson said. “We should take every measure ...
“I’ll get the vaccine as soon as I’m allowed to, but I don’t think that athletes should be a priority because many of us are young and healthy and we’d recover,” said Canadian weightlifter Rachel Leblanc-Bazinet. “Either way if I have the vaccine or not, I feel confident to go to Tokyo. I’m super comfortable.”In a statement, the COC reiterated its support for prioritizing front-line workers and vulnerable populations.
But they have no issue with competing in a regime that holds Canadians hostage, has multiple human rights abuses, crushed democracy, and is accused of harvesting organs from living “donors”.
Canada should set an example and not send any athletes to the Olympics during a pandemic
Good lord. Canadian hand-wringing about the cosmic offense of queue jumping is quaint and all that, but c'mon. Maybe they should get vaccinated once, but not twice, and compete with three masks while staying 6 feet from other competitors. Very Canadian.