
In my latest editorial for China Focus, I examine why the National Hockey League is not sending any of its players to the 2022 Winter Olympics.
If you accept the stated reasons, then the league and the players had no choice but to call off plans to take part in the Olympics. According to the Washington Post, roughly 15 percent of the league’s players are currently quarantined because of coronavirus and 50 games have been postponed. League officials and the players believe they might not be able to complete the 2021-22 season on time if the league continues forward with plans to shut down for more than two weeks in February while top players take part in the Olympics.
That conclusion seems rather dry, but it is frankly a byproduct of a more bitter reality that exists in the United States, Canada and throughout many nations in the West: Not enough people have taken the virus seriously, and, therefore, they have refused to get fully vaccinated. Their selfishness continues to damage the economic, social, cultural, political and medical well-being of their societies. They do not care and they will not accept that fewer vaccinated people increase the risk of everyone contracting the virus.