The International Olympic Committee said Thursday that it had struck deals with two companies for coronavirus vaccine doses that will allow a significant proportion of athletes and officials traveling to the Olympic Games in Tokyo this summer the opportunity to be vaccinated before they arrive in Japan.
The committee announced the agreements with the companies, Pfizer and BioNTech, to distribute donated doses of the vaccine to Olympic and Paralympic Games participants in their home countries, where they would be administered by local officials and through domestic vaccination programs.
The effort is the latest attempt by Olympic officials and Japanese organizers to assuage the concerns of a skeptical Japanese public that has consistently told pollsters that it does not want the Games to take place during the pandemic.