he says the shared mission of musicians is to ensure that these humanitarian ideals stay alive and relevant in these times of upheaval especially when art and science are being shown to be increasingly codependent you see in human al-jazeera chile. a reminder of our top news stories months testing is underway in hong kong so thousands of people in neighborhoods coronavirus people in $150.00 residential blogs in the 2nd day of lockdown the area accounts for half of hong kong's new cases over the past week has more from the corridor. how i can describe this area it's probably one of the lower socio economic groups who've got

a lot of minority groups and they live in these subdivided apartments so they crammed areas where thousands of people are forced to live together and as a result they've been able to adhere to these social distancing rules and as a result of the been tested and we've seen some of the. numbers at this particular district. and the last few weeks we've seen 70 to 100 cases on a daily basis out of hong kong as a result we've seen the tautness restrictions and put in place this mantra which is the 1st of the last 12 months. thousands of protesters in brazil have called for president tribal sonorities impeachment over his handling of the corona virus outbreak a resurgence of the virus has had amazonas state hard leading to a shortage of oxygen in overwhelmed hospitals the italian government says it's considering legal action against vaccine makers astra zeneca after it announced plans to cut its supply to the european union the company has reduced its offerings by 60 percent for the 1st quarter of the year claiming production problems it's

a major setback for the box vaccination program last week pfizer said it would delay its shipments of the vaccine for up to a month the u.s. and the u.k. have condemned what they call harsh tactics used against anti-government demonstrators in russia more than 3000 were detained nationwide protests demanding the release of kremlin critic alexi the valve. jenna's u.s. government has extended a nighttime curfew banning gatherings until mid savior it follows a week of protests against repression corruption and poverty activists say about a 1000 people were arrested since the demonstrations began on the 10th anniversary of the just and revolution those were the headlines you can follow those stories on our website at al-jazeera dot com back with more news in half an hour next it's inside story there is no channel coverage of the world news like we do this camp is like nothing you've ever seen. but we want to know how do these things affect

people we visit me today even when they're no international headline. al-jazeera really in bathin and that's a privilege as a journalist. will the games go ahead organizers dismiss reports the tokyo olympics may be postponed again or even cancel so should large sporting events be held and when the pandemic still is under control this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program i'm a homage enjoy him when the tokyo olympics were postponed last year organizers promise to hold it this summer as a symbol of victory over kobe 19 but the pandemic is far from under control 'd and people are again asking if the games can still be held with 6 months to go japan's government has rejected reports that it's considering canceling the world's biggest

sporting event tokyo is under a state of emergency to curb surging cases recent polls show 80 percent of japanese want either another postponement or cancelation but the head of the international olympic committee insists the games will go ahead. everybody is really determined to make these olympic games in 6 months from now the light at the end of the tunnel in which at this moment to be are all still in but all the prospects. are good to be a working hot. these games the 1st priority will be about to to make them safe and secure for all participants after a year of cancellations some major sporting events are happening again australia's state of victoria is being criticised for pushing ahead with the australian open tennis tournament in 2 weeks time players have been flown in from overseas and

that's when the early 40000 australians stranded abroad aren't able to return because of strict caps on international arrivals now 72 players are in strict warranty an after some people were found to be infected by covert $1000.00 on their chartered flights some locked in their hotel rooms are being creative with training the english premier league has resumed football matches but has issued strict rules on social distancing players have been reminded to avoid handshakes hugging and swapping shirts to celebrate scoring a goal. and organizers of the n.f.l. super bowl insist one of the most lucrative sporting events in the u.s. will go ahead next month so-called virtual fan zones are being set up the number of spectators allowed inside the stadium in tampa florida is limited to about $22000.00 but the n.f.l. says it won't be held legally responsible if fans catch covert 19.

all right let's bring in our guests in tokyo dan or lou it's a sports writer at japan times in milton keynes in the u.k. gail emms is a former olympic silver medalist in badminton and in reading also in the u.k. simon clarke is associate professor in cellular microbiology at the university of reading welcome to the program then let me start with you today i want to talk 1st about the tokyo olympics why is the prime minister in japan insisting that the olympics will go on what are the potential financial costs and the political costs at play if the olympics were to be canceled. well 1st of all thank you for having me the potential costs of not holding the olympics as schedule look the significant surge and which has spent billions new 'd infrastructure in terms of the news that he is preparing to receive tens of thousands of athletes

coaches specials and of course fans this was supposed to be the centerpiece of what has been a massive effort over the last decade to really get the countries tours of infrastructure into gear to create these new sports facilities to modernize a lot of things so to not have the olympics happen it would be a significant blow to the economy and to the nation's morale gayle as a former olympian i want to ask you about the effect that this is having on the athletes how is this disrupting their training routine or how is this affecting them on a mental level how difficult is all of this. it is incredibly difficult i'm so glad i'm not a professional athlete right now because i it's hard enough being a normal person in this situation that we're in this horrible global pandemic there and let alone being an athlete his jewelry his goal for such

a long time has been competing for that country and potentially winning a medal at the greatest sporting events in the wild so not only has the. for one year but spitz hunting now it could not happen as an elite athlete you know exactly dates when your competition is going to be at the limpid games 4 years in the fonts it's like preparing for the biggest exam of your life you know the exact date the exact time and your sketch show its plans your tournament your training everything is planned for that one moment in time so not only has been put back year so you've got to readjust everything like that as well training but not only physically but mentally as well but now with $200.00 less than $200.00 days to go and you'll still like well is it going ahead is it not and to that motivation it can be just a little rapidly to degrade saying full stop said you know that want to go out

there in on the nz train as hard as they possibly can it's just horrible situation is just you know your hopes and dreams are fading basically simon from a public health perspective at a time of so much uncertainty when the pandemic is still raging when covert 19 is ravaging so many different parts of the world. should major sporting events like this really be happening. well it depends of course how you do that and i think to to attend that we can have a law sporting event with a large crowds is a bit of an on stock so that's just not going to work in the current climate i think you can make an argument that when you can have the event maybe televise it but that requires a really strict quarantining in control of all the participants the athletes in this case and they've rebuilt the who they might come into contact with and they

come really be any chinks in the alma anywhere for the entire program because all the software that might come in contact with the athletes might make contact with potential sources of infection so just quarantining and isolating athletes won't be enough gail i want to try to pick up on what on what simon was saying there i mean how dangerous is it for athletes right now you have these bio secure bubbles as they're being termed which are being implemented for athletes in different countries and for different tournaments different sports are those effective i mean is this a way really to help reduce transmission and how dangerous is it right now for athletes. well i think you know every iraqi can do whatever the best they can you know you can only control the controllable is that if what they can only do what the current team and the rules allow them to but when you all can pay saying you've also got to compete against the potence you've got so many different effects fatsis

and you got to go out there and train if you're in a swimming pool if you're a swimmer you was going to train in a swimming pool there's so many different things that you called control everything and that is the problem and this is where you have simon is absolutely right that you've got to be absolutely 100 percent such that there was going to be nothing that's going to affect everyone now actually it's all in the you know with the fitz healthy young. you know sort of. you know somebody in that. wood was a tiny little person you know that you know we're not going to be you know we're not the ones that are going to affect me die for them you know coronavirus but it's about that transmission and here we coming to contact with and post it on and so on and so on so that the proper. you don't have that 100 percent certainty and then the actually we you know do you will not play on your mind you don't want that you just want to go out there before your sport you'll race you'll you know if your

country and i have to worry about anything owsa now is where we get the best way that it's not just about sports it's a is becomes a big social social question really then when it comes to the tokyo a lympics 1st i want to ask you what is the prevailing sentiment from the japanese population when it comes to the possibility of canceling the games and secondly i want to ask you what are the logistical hurdles of keeping players and coaches and spectators safe at an event this massive. currently i think public sentiment is negative recent public opinion polls 'd by kyoto news and others have shown that only about i believe 20 percent of the public expects the games to believe that the games should go on as scheduled with the remainder are split roughly evenly between postponing them again and canceling them

altogether so currently majority of the public does believe the game should go on in some form or another but certainly there is not that much confidence that they can go on in july as far as being the logistics of being able to safely keep everyone quarantined and safe. it's a massive undertaking we've had professional sports in japan since june they started behind closed doors quickly transitioned to limited crowds of about 55000 eventually moved 'd up to 50 percent of stadium capacity and then quickly as cases really accelerated in early january late december we saw the limits for sporting events go back down again and now we're seeing the rugby top league has been postponed we're just a league of supposedly going to start next month and it's massive just to do that

for one stadium for one day you need cleaning crews you need everyone to adhere to safety protocols you need to test everyone the athletes the team officials the referees and in the j.v. they've been doing that once every 2 weeks roughly in terms of how often individuals are tested so to test athletes officials coaches media fans on a regular basis or would be i can't even begin to really speculate on have. much effort that would take but suffice to say that it will be a mess undertaking. and it's going to be something that they'll strongly have to consider in some form or another simon from from your perspective have the protocols that have been introduced when it comes to sports and sporting events do you believe that they've been successful in suppressing transmission around training around matches well i think we saw good will that may have suppressed

transmission but i'm not sure you could say they've eliminated it i mean there have been plenty of examples in the u.k. of having track i think probably around the world where there have been instances all well sports teams being affected quite badly and sentenced says that outbreak and the coronavirus so. possible to do it i'm not sure that it's been a successful was really for a large scale event it needs to be gil i want to step back from it look specifically at football turn our attention to english premier league you know there's been over 200 positive cases of coban 1000 since the start of testing in august clubs have been reminded that handshakes and hugs and high fives should be avoided you know there is some growing anger about the behavior of fans and the behavior of players and some are calling for consequences that they should face

consequences for not adhering to protocols do you believe that we will start seeing consequences being met it out because of this behavior. yes on the ship they. actually have a role to play you know they all so lucky the premier league players they are getting to do that job they get into play football they get in say entertain us and as you know i think as a result if they have as a thank you in a way that you are you will the lucky ones getting to do us full and many many people are not able to do that job so i've lost their jobs in this situation we are in lockdown so in a way it should be a representation to say thank you we are going to do our job properly and we're going to respect the rules properly the choppiness exactly it's a big space that program we just you know we you know sport is that we don't grow up we are in

a very lovely bubble you know sort of coaches that is manage to do everything for us and we like to have a great side visit playing sports so that's the problem is that mentality maturity and i think if they if the football is that have not attained to the rules should get punished you know if you guys are like kids we're going to be like teaches or authorities and you're going to get that should pay the consequences so yeah do you think it's just not. a people that all respected the rules accordingly then is an interesting point that gail's is making there you know and some are saying that you know the fact that football can go on right now in the fact that you know players can train and they can play while so many in society are locked down that that's really starting to wear a bit thin that people are starting to lose their patience when they see you know well paid highly respected athletes not adhering to the rules that we're all expected to adhered to would you say that's right as well. i certainly agree

with gayle sentiment in japan we have not had as many cases athletes have been generally very good about following the various code protocols that have been set up by their respective leagues fans for the daily in particular have cooperated by it hearing to a number of rules active support essentially isn't allowed in the j league right now fans aren't allowed to chant they're not allowed to cheer they're not allowed to sing they are allowed to clap they are allowed to hold up flags but not wave them whole litany of restrictions and they've gone along with it and i think that that is certainly credit to japanese sports fans here and to the leagues that have instituted these regulations 'd or gotten them to be followed however speaking as someone who covered the rugby world cup here in 22019 that's going to be

a very hard task for the fans coming for the olympics and that's going to be a real challenge i think that athletes are in a very high octane very emotional state of mind when they're competing so it's hard to tell them to say well you can't high 5 you can't hug you can't celebrate so how are you going to do that for thousands of athletes as well as the thousands of fans who are potentially in the stadium watching them i think that that's a very difficult question look to me like you were reacting to some what dan was saying did you want to jump in there. yeah i just want to say if it's a really be lympics if you can't say that was if that be lympics without emotion you know what this is why it's like painting me in my heart you know this is this is what about one thing you know fully opportunity is where we get all that sporting montage of the tears the the hugs the stories you know this is what we got

why everyone is glued to the t.v. for that time because we love those moments it won't be an olympics without the how can you have that without the atmosphere and you know the hugs from the crowd and you know i suppose in a oh-i is just no more the reason what maybe look it's see my mom in the crowd you know that my family has supported may who helped me get to where i am you know so representing great britain at that if you guys if they're not in the crowd is that really an olympics you know this is maybe we might just have to sort of think of it that way. is it really is it just be a tournament of exporting tournament it won't be elin pickens simon when we're talking about the olympic games i mean is there a calculus that's going on right now when it comes to organizers or more science is that they're speaking with or epidemiology is where the questions being asked what

is an acceptable level of risk when it comes to an event like the olympics. well i think an acceptable level of risk isn't a question for the organizers or politicians really scientists could advise them on how best to to achieve that and of course it does rely on. those organizers and those politicians following through on the advice not just saying there are but i think really you know something like the olympic games that most prestigious. event of a full year is that you can argue that you don't want any tell you see it's any outbreaks of trying to get more into a because of course it will spread so quickly so that i don't think organizes really. couldn't risk that sort of minimum. member of infections if you like because it won't happen it will spread great

athletes need in a village they live cheek by jowl way mixed with the organizing stoff. it's just not possible to be able to to shield everybody else compartmentalize everybody if you need to do. i mean then you're at simon talking there about you know how much risk there is when it comes to spreading cover $1000.00 transmission of coban $1000.00 you know an event as massive of the olympics you also heard gayle and her previous answer talk about the fact that you know with the olympics really be the olympics without that kind of emotion of having the people in the crowd and having so many people packed together witnessing this sporting history. is it a possibility that the olympics could be potentially held in tokyo without the fans what would the fall out from that be i think that there is certainly a possibility that a closed door games could happen i think that it's a possibility that we could have. a less stick than is allowed and they for.

international fans coming in and i think it's a possibility that the games could be postponed again i think that there's a possibility that they could be called up. there's a lot that could be on the table. in terms of a an olympics without fans that would obviously make the i.o.c. very happy as they would still have their games they would still have their broadcasts they would still get the revenue from that it would be a huge blow to japan which as i mentioned earlier has poured so much into this month long period for both the olympics and paralympics where fans from around the world coming to tokyo and visiting to sit and exploring and go across japan this was supposed to be the country's shining moment on the international stage. really the biggest event that we will have held since the 2002 world cup and then

of course the $964.00 olympics before that so took to lose the fans and to have took a 2020 be remembered for those empty stands salute would be a huge blow and yes the games would take place but there would be a very large asterisk at the end of them gayle there are those of course who believe that you know for fans to be able to watch sporting events you know from the comfort of their own homes that brings about a sense of normality a very you know troubled and uncertain times when a pandemic is raging and they argue that that's the case to be made for sporting events to continue to be held whether or not they're actually spectators out there watching the games live but then there are others who say that it's just too much of a risk do you think that we're going to be seeing more sporting events being canceled in the months ahead and what kind of effect would that have. yes i think we are

going see i think now because of we've going to hearing more and more about new strains way that vaccination isn't public as far along as that we want to it's at this stage i think many people thought we would be further ahead in the fascination process you know even if you could all get back leaps and sportspeople get in the vaccination before you nice of some people is that mom really rights so there's so many questions then sexy and if there's a new strain war happens if you then cause another way because of a sporting event can you really live with yourself with. that risk and moral is the ethics of the. and that's what you've got to keep they say you know if you cause another wave of death because of a sporting event is it worth it i love sports i love it with all my even my whole body my whole mind is about sports it's my passion it's been my my dreams and my how i live since i was

a little go. when it becomes when something becomes more than a sport you have to are safe questions and it's at the end of that just to sporting events but if you're going to do it you do it properly i need to do it because everyone has dedicated and it's because it's the right reasons to do it and you can say that 100 percent the best pitching a sporting event on is what i say it's i'm right now we call and say that and decisions going to have to be made say it's going to the what do you not want to be in that position because like i'm conflicting all the time a conflict and yes a woman limp is to go ahead because i'm all that you know that you know exactly said i want to stick to my armchair and i want to cheer great britain and i want to see people win medals and i will seize full. you know there's also your head going . to be really big there in this you know is this really the right thing to be doing so yeah it's a horrible situation and every organizing committee whether it's the euros whether

it's even limpets wimbledon no you know whatever splitting event going on that is what they have to ostend sells is worth it simon i saw you nodding along somewhere gail was saying we only have about 30 seconds left let me just ask you are there sports and sporting events that you believe pose a higher risk when it comes to the spread of course in $1000.00. but yeah anything that involves a close it's personal contact rugby would be a really good example. that they are the most active risky sports i mean you can always remove spectators is them pleasant as that is but ultimately even something like formula one where that could be the competitors don't actually meet one another face to face on the grid they were absent their opportunities folded to mix with other people away from the actual events but that's no less important to the actually going to alright we've run out of time so we're going to have to leave the conversation there thank you so much to all our guests dan or lou

it's gail m's and simon clarke and thank you too for watching you can see the program again any time a visiting our website al-jazeera dot com and for further discussion go to our facebook page that's facebook dot com forward slash a.j. inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter our handle is at a.j. inside story for me i am a gentleman the whole team here by for now. february on al-jazeera under strict access to iran's nuclear program is about to end will u.s. president joe biden overturn trump sanctions and help rebuild relations al-jazeera said so to the journey to the heart of what it means to be a true supporter of the beautiful game the u.s. has the highest covert 1000 count in the world the new administration has promised to turn that around we'll have extensive coverage the big picture reveals how

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traditional allies we talked to malta foreign minister for the view from the in the . counting the cost on al-jazeera. to. must testing on quarantine centers in hong kong and china infections seoul beijing is a people to scale back on travel ahead of the lunar new year holiday. plans . so raman you're watching al-jazeera life my headquarters here in doha coming up in the next 30 minutes as hospitals are overwhelmed in brazil protesters called for president. to resign over his handling .