Tokyo Deliberately Left Deadly New COVID Variant Out of Press Briefings During Olympics

OLYMPICS FIRST

Even after a Lambda case was conclusively identified at the airport, the government omitted the findings from two press releases, reluctant to raise alarms during the Olympics.

Published Aug. 10 2021 12:24AM EDT

210809-Adelstein-Press-conference-Tokyo-COVID-tease_hyyvpb — Yusuke Harada/NurPhoto via Getty

On July 20, three days before the Olympics began, a woman in her 30s from Peru tested positive for COVID-19 at Haneda Airport in Tokyo and was immediately flagged as a probable carrier of the highly infectious Lambda variant of COVID-19.

However, The Daily Beast has learned that Japan’s Ministry of...

Jake Adelstein

Chihiro Kai

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Tokyo Deliberately Left Deadly New COVID Variant Out of Press Briefings During Olympics

Even after a Lambda case was conclusively identified at the airport, the government omitted the findings from two press releases, reluctant to raise alarms during the Olympics.

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Jake Adelstein

Chihiro Kai