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The Tokyo Olympics have officially begun in Japan despite spiking cases of COVID-19 in several countries.
Athletes from all over the world, including the United States, have left to compete for medals in Tokyo, and many of them were vaccinated prior to their departure.
According to Dr. Jonathan Finnoff, team doctor for the United States, 83% of U.S. athletes in Tokyo have been immunized with shots developed by Pfizer
PFE,
with German partner BioNTech
BNTX,
Moderna
MRNA,
or Johnson & Johnson
JNJ,
“Eighty-three percent is actually a substantial number and we’re quite happy with it,” Finnoff, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s medical chief, said about his group’s vaccination rate.
This would mean that roughly 100 of the 613 American athletes in Tokyo have not been vaccinated.
The 83% vaccination rate for U.S. Olympic athletes is much higher than the national vaccine rate in the United States of 59.7% for adults ages 18 and over, according to the CDC vaccination tracker.
See also: How the Tokyo Olympics ranks among the most expensive Games of all time
The Tokyo Olympics opening ceremonies have begun and can be watched exclusively on NBC.
