Olympics’ ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ vaccination policy makes Games riskier than needed

For any aspiring Olympian, the journey tends to be as much a part of the dream as the destination. So it has been for Leanne Wong, who for virtually her entire conscious life had been immersed in gymnastics on the way to a bittersweet result at the recent U.S. Olympic Trials in St. Louis.

That’s where Wong, the 17-year-old recent Blue Valley High graduate, and GAGE Center teammate Kara Eaker (Grain Valley) were selected to be among four Tokyo-bound alternates, on call in the event of injury or illness to any member of the six-woman starting team led by the ethereal Simone Biles.

The distinction still is something to appreciate, and in the case of Wong especially so given her resilience after taking two falls on the balance beam the first day.

But it’s a shame that this milestone for Wong, sweet sorrow that it might be in a reserve role, can’t be processed merely in that innocent space.

She was asked in St. Louis, shortly after being selected, if she’d been vaccinated. She truthfully said she had not, illuminating a confounding and controversial situation:

It’s no vaccination, no problem, if you want to be part of the Tokyo Olympics.

Since the International Olympic Committee, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and USA Gymnastics (among other governing bodies) don’t require vaccinations and aren’t directly tracking them, Wong is one example among, well, who knows how many, exactly?

Surely, she has plenty of anonymous company among Olympians and alternates across Team USA. As far as other gymnasts, Eaker was one of several others asked that night who said she is vaccinated, and Biles has said she intends to get the vaccine.

But USA Gymnastics last week declined to clarify anyone’s vaccination status … and may not know with certainty who is or isn’t vaccinated. The USAG did not immediately respond to a follow-up inquiry by The Star this week.

If there were any among the starting six without a vaccination, that would make for its own conundrum and internal issues.

But Wong also is a lightning rod because of the bizarre asterisk attached to her situation: Her very presence in Tokyo will be as part of the so-called replacement group that was expanded to four … out of concerns over COVID-19.

As such, regardless of precautions in place or whether other gymnasts are unvaccinated, Wong represents more of a risky variable than a reliable reserve. Especially since she will be housed with and train alongside what might be termed the starting team.

(It seems preposterous that such mingling is the strategy. And here’s hoping that the USAG sorts out a way to keep the groups separated before alternates are sent home, as they will be if they’re unneeded after the first day of competition.)

All of which is why the revelation launched a tempest in the days after, characterized thusly by Wong’s mother, Bee Ding, to The Star’s Cora Hall:

“They’re attacking her, saying she is risking the whole team and she shouldn’t be allowed to be on the team and to go to Tokyo,” said Ding, who like her husband, Marco Wong, is a scientist. “I think she’s being unfairly treated ... because it’s not a rule or required by IOC, or USOPC, to be vaccinated.

“I feel that it’s a private matter whether we want the vaccine or not.”

Now, there’s a lot to untangle in what she said and, actually, in all of this. But some elements of this looming scene are clear.

Including that the responsibility for an absurd broader situation stems from the IOC, the USOPC and USAG and their decisions not to mandate vaccinations for the Olympics.

Despite the volatility of COVID in Japan, where approximately 20 percent of the population is fully vaccinated and where the Games will be held without spectators as Tokyo re-enters a state of emergency.

Nevertheless, each governing body has failed to take a stand for the obvious need to insist that vaccinations are a prerequisite to compete in Games that surely are proceeding in part because of the estimated $26 billion expended in the effort.

I’ve covered 10 Olympic Games, and Tokyo will mark the first Summer Games I’ve not attended since Barcelona 1992. Which is to say I love the Olympics but am deeply worried that this could become a fiasco and a superspreader.

The international rationale to not mandating vaccination seems rooted in matters of access and pace of distribution in many countries, leaving the IOC and organizers in Japan acting on what The New York Times called the premise of proceeding “as if vaccines have not been made available to athletes, focusing instead on countermeasures like testing, masks and so-called bubbles in an attempt to create a safe environment for competition.”

But as far back as May, as reported in the Times, the IOC “struck deals with two companies for coronavirus vaccine doses that will allow a significant proportion of athletes and officials traveling to the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo this summer the opportunity to be vaccinated before they arrive in Japan.”

Even understanding that not all vaccines are equally effective and that access to them remained haphazard in many other countries, even knowing that there are no sure things when it comes to the virus, the prime directive should be safety over maximum inclusion.

Because at a time when there is more and more evidence of the effectiveness of vaccinations (more than 99 percent of U.S. deaths from COVID-19 in May were people not vaccinated), not requiring it in these circumstances is a matter of neglect that could contribute to health issues and disrupt opportunities to perform that were more avoidable and preventable if all involved were vaccinated.

The ineffectual “don’t ask, don’t tell” has enabled the unnecessarily hazardous and curious circumstance lurking over Team USA, whose members have had abundant access to vaccines but may or may not have chosen to get one.

It might be wondered how this would be playing out for any and all if it had been made clear from the start that vaccination is a prerequisite for these Games amid a pandemic that has taken the lives of nearly 4 million people around the globe and more than 600,000 in the United States.

The statement could have been this:

If vaccination is a private matter to you and your family, or if you’ve determined not to get it, sure, OK, you have that personal freedom … no matter how it may disregard others. But, sorry, then you can’t go to the Olympics, where what’s personal to you lurks as an infringement on the health and freedom of others — including a vulnerable host nation.

Instead, with more than 10,000 athletes from some 200 countries or more anticipated in Tokyo, including 800-plus from Team USA, the emperor wearing no clothes is riding on the elephant in the room.

“We are not tracking, we will not mandate the vaccine either for Team USA athletes nor for any other members of the delegation,” USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland said during the Team USA virtual media summit in April. “But we are encouraging it.”

USA Gymnastics echoes that notion, while noting “unique individual circumstances.” And each reflects the approach of the IOC and president Thomas Bach, who has emphasized encouragement and vaguely hoped that athletes would thus send “a powerful message that vaccination is not only about personal health, but also about solidarity and consideration of the wellbeing of others in their communities.”

We understand the appeal of encouragement over strong-arming, especially when it comes to organizations facing what might either be called impediments or checks and balances to work through, such as pro sports leagues and the NCAA.

But competing in the Olympics is the privilege of a lifetime, not a right, and no amount of playbooks, bubbles or protocols offers the opportunity to help keep the Games and others safe like a vaccination does. Especially given that there are experts who find the playbook lacking, as Dr. Annie Sparrow wrote in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Whatever the reasons anyone may cite in not getting vaccinated, however valid or invalid any one of us might consider those to be, it simply ceases to be a private matter or mere personal choice when it comes to the implications for everyone you’re around.

Well beyond what that could mean for competitions or teammates.

No matter how much is being done to insulate and isolate visitors, the fundamental needs of eating, transportation, Games administration and medical treatment means exposure and the possibility of rampant infections even as variants spread in Japan and back home.

Against this backdrop, though, outrage directed at Leanne Wong is misguided.

She is 17 years old, after all, and surely under the protective sway of her parents regardless of the fact Ding said they left the choice to her. No doubt that’s true, but also no doubt she is inclined to defer to the approach of her highly educated parents.

Meanwhile, even if you believe like me that vaccinations are vital not just for ourselves but for their impact on all others in the circle of life, it should be surmised that Wong’s parents are guided by what they believe is best for their daughter from the data, or lingering questions, they consider most relevant. Marco Wong declined to comment this week.

But perhaps their hesitance includes such matters as the CDC receiving what it calls “increased reports of myocarditis and pericarditis in adolescents and young adults after COVID-19 vaccination.” (The CDC adds that the “known and potential benefits of COVID-19 vaccination outweigh the known and potential risks” and continues to recommend COVID-19 vaccination for anyone 12 or older).

At any rate, it’s their right and their choice and sanctioned by official rules.

Trouble is, what they deem best for their daughter isn’t happening in a vacuum. And, alas, this dynamic empowered by these policies could have a bleak impact on something bigger than just her own dreams.