Holding the Tokyo Olympics on schedule as the local organizing committee and the International Olympic Committee advocate is "irresponsible," The Washington Post's editorial board wrote in a column released Friday.

In an editorial titled, "The Olympics must be canceled or postponed," the Post said the pursuit of an on-schedule July 24 start of the games during the current coronavirus pandemic has inspired some "magical thinking" by the IOC and the government of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The opinion piece said the "Summer Games have all the makings of an incubator for the coronavirus that will lead to its further deadly spread."

It quoted Stanford University infectious-disease specialist Yvonne Maldonado as warning, "You bring a lot of people together, and then you ship them back all over the world. That's the perfect way to transmit."

The Post attributed the IOC and Japan's entrenched stance of no postponement or cancellation to money and prestige. Abe, the editorial argues, has made the games a point of national pride, while Japan has spent heavily on the event, and the IOC is "banking on billions of dollars in broadcast rights."

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