I love the Olympics. As I type this, I'm watching the whitewater kayak slalom event with one eye and the keyboard with another so I'm only half responsible for whatever follows.
I find few things more inspirational than the hard work and dedication these people from all over the world put into their craft. I don't think you have to have been an athlete at a point in your life to appreciate this. If you've ever been passionate about something and wanted to do it at the best of your abilities, you should appreciate the Olympics.
I root for the home team and I'm guilty of wishing athletes from certain countries have bad days. If our team isn't doing well, I root for whichever underdog is shining. I admire whoever ends up on the medal stand, even the ones from those certain countries. I also celebrate whoever came in last, because at least they stepped into the...roll!!!
Sorry, one of the competing kayakers wrecked. He will not be on the medal stand. But he rolled his boat and fought on because that's what competitors do. He finished the race.
That's what I love about the Olympics. Individual dedication, effort, courage and sacrifice are the standards these athletes, coaches, trainers and crew live by. Always trying to be better.
Unfortunately, these Olympics come when a pandemic still ravages much of the world. Japan, a country where citizens don masks without hesitation during flu season or when air quality is low, is experiencing a Covid surge that has completely shut down Tokyo, the host city of the Olympics. Imagine an Olympics with empty stands.
Well here it is.
As of this week, barely 23% of Japanese citizens were fully vaccinated for Covid. That is because Japan didn't approve a vaccine until a full 2 months after the U.S. did and they've fumbled the process of innoculating their citizens in the meantime. In comparison, about 85% of athletes, coaches and staff who've come to Tokyo have been fully vaccinated.
Back here at home, Covid cases are also on the rise. As I type this, Pike county has creeped back into the orange zone having the 8th highest number of new cases in the state Tuesday at 32. Letcher and Floyd counties have both been in the red zone for several days.
The latest reports show 36.4% of Pike countians are fully vaccinated. Both Letcher and Floyd have slightly higher vaccination rates, so our time is probably coming. I'm pretty sure if Japan had approved that vaccine when we did and had the kind of roll out we had in Pike County (shout out to PMC and all our healthcare providers), the percentage of population vaccinated would be twice as high by now.
But in east Kentucky and a lot of other places in the U.S., we have not finished the race. Our population has basically quit. We made it through the preliminaries and acted like we'd already won.
We're not going to be on the medal platform. We'll be lucky to finish mid-pack once enough of us figures out there's a final.
The sad thing is how many of us won't even take the field.