The phrase “out of an abundance of caution” is so 2020, but here we are in 2021, seeing it again. It’s “out of an abundance of caution” that the United States won’t play Australia in men’s basketball on Friday, after Bradley Beal was ruled out for the Olympics and Jerami Grant entered health and safety protocols. Meanwhile, Thursday brought a couple of dueling headlines: “COVID-19 infections in Tokyo hit 6-month high as post-Olympics surge feared,” from Kyodo News, and “Risk of COVID spread is ‘zero,’ IOC chief says, amid rising cases” from Reuters, a headline in which the protagonist is undermined, appropriately, before you can even take a breath. “Risk for the other residents of the Olympic village and risk for the Japanese people is zero,” Thomas Bac…