Thread by @broadwaybabyto

I can’t stomach the Olympics anymore. I don’t remember any games with this many sick athletes, people unable to compete or underperforming/withdrawing. These are young folks in their prime - yet many are suffering due to Covid.

Do they understand the risk they’re taking? 🧵 /1

The Games, coaches and team doctors don’t seem interested in preventing infection or long term disability - and I question if the athletes understand the danger they’re in. Do they know it’s more than “just a respiratory virus”? /2

Do they know everyone is vulnerable to long term complications - that it’s not “only the elderly/disabled” who need to worry?

Do they know that pushing through when they’re sick drastically increases their odds of Long Covid? /3

We live in a culture that rewards performance and looks down on people for being sick. We deride people for prioritizing their mental or physical health. We give out attendance awards and punish students & employees for absences and sick days. /4

Most people are never taught that it’s ok to slow down. Ok to rest. Ok to admit they’re sick.

Athletes train their whole lives for this - of course they won’t willingly sit it out. They also trust their doctors who I doubt are telling them they need to rest. /5

Then there’s the lack of masking. Every day we hear of more people testing positive for covid - and yet masks aren’t mandatory. We know Peaty felt sick during his swim and yet accepted his medal mere inches from Princess Anne’s face and did not mask.  /6

Lyles competed in his event despite KNOWING he was covid positive - and didn’t disclose his status until the race was over and he had collapsed. They don’t even have plausibly deniability anymore - they know they’re sick & they’re risking the health of everyone around them. /7

These Games would look very different if they had clean air and mandatory masking. We would see far fewer sick athletes - and likely better performances. If they KNEW they could stay healthy by wearing a respirator - I suspect they would do it. But they’re being told it’s over /8

In my opinion the bare minimum you can do when you know you’re sick is mask up. Why are we normalizing infecting someone with a virus that could kill or disable them? People should be isolating - but if unwilling or unable … wear a mask! /9

When you go out in public KNOWING you’re covid positive and you take no precautions? You’re directly contributing to the deaths and disability of others. You just don’t have to face it because the person you potentially infect is likely a stranger you will never see again.  /10

I don’t know why we’ve given up caring who we infect or hurt … but we need to start caring again. This is an airborne virus and incredibly transmissible - if you don't take steps to stop the spread you will eventually harm someone.  /11

I often wonder if people were forced to confront the person they infected who ended up disabled… or the family of someone who ended up dead… would they take it more seriously? 5 years ago I would have said absolutely. Now? I genuinely don’t know. /12

It’s a dark thought that keeps me up at night. We’ve simply become too cavalier about condemning people to a life of total isolation and/or death and disability. We turn away from the suffering of others and we are terrible at accepting responsibility.  /13

I genuinely believe we can still do better. I think there are more good and caring people out there than not - but like the Olympians who may not be getting adequate information to protect themselves … perhaps people simply don’t understand the risk. /14

I want to believe with aggressive and honest public health campaigns - with grassroots efforts from caring people who want to help their communities - we can still turn the tides. /end