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Harvard Scientist: Rio Olympics Could Spark 'Full Blown Global Health Disaster' (independent.co.uk)
An anonymous reader writes: Doctors have warned that the upcoming 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro could spark a "full-blown public health disaster" with the spread of the Zika virus. The World Health Organization has declared a health emergency in response to the disease's spread through Latin America. Rio has the highest number of cases of any state in the country. Dr Amir Attaran said in the Harvard Public Health Review the Olympic Games could increase the spread of the virus, suggesting the Games should be hosted by a different city in Brazil. "While Brazil's Zika inevitably will spread globally, given enough time, viruses always do -- it helps nobody to speed that up," he said. "In particular, it cannot possibly help when an estimated 500,000 foreign tourists flock into Rio for the Games, potentially becoming infected, and returning to their homes where both local Aedes mosquitoes and sexual transmission can establish new outbreaks." It's highly unlikely the virus will cause officials to take drastic action since the Games start on August 5th. With economic and political issues in the country, the Zika virus is just one more thing undermining confidence in the country's ability to host the Olympics. It was reported earlier this year that Rio has given up on its promise to eliminate 80 percent of the sewage found in the city's notoriously filthy water.
The games are two and a half months away. Preparations for hosting them take years. I can't see the point in this guy's comments, other than as an attempt to garner some cheap publicity.
#DeleteChrome
Who cares about the water and dying children? They have a good soccer team. Get your priorities straight. More stadiums!
Harmful to the host city? Check. (Currently impeaching their president for this among other things.)
Harmful to the people of the host country? Check. (Funds were diverted to fund Olympic construction.)
Harmful to the athletes competing? Check. (Zika and raw sewage, a tasty cocktail.)
Harmful to the spectators? Check. (Ditto.)
The IOC is a criminal organization.
Brazil is such a shithole, full of mystery meat.
The pollution, on the other hand, is indeed hazardous. And those are GMO mosquitoes from 2012 onward that are causing the microcephaly and miscarriages, not the virus.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Am I the only one who doesn't give a crap about the Olympics?
Human greed and self-interest at the expense of pragmatic decision-making. Wouldn't it be something if it were a new story.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
Better to stay away. Full of convicts and other lower lifes.
If there were time, then I wonder if Olympic training grounds could be used for the Olympics, like these training grounds in the US and Canada. They would have to accommodate spectators - food, lodging, parking, emergency services, plus a place to watch the olympic games. It's too late to get that set up now.
Or if all else fails, they could hold the Olympics in a healthy place (including clean water) without thousands of visitors, and just televise the games. It would be sort of weird for there not to be any crowds cheering and applauding.
There is the potential for 10's of thousands, or perhaps 100's of thousands of people to get infected in Rio alone. Then when they go home they'll infect others.
Shouldn't we have a say? It can't just be up to the up to the IOC or Brazilian officials. These people are going to come back to our countries and potentially infect everyone else. Tens of thousands of people coming back to our cities with this thing sounds pretty scary to me.
Chance favors the prepared mind.
Perfect is the enemy of good.
Don't cancel the Olympics. Instead, just ban spectators. No exposure of visitors to the virus, the crime rate, and the political rioting. No traffic mess. Security could concentrate on protecting the athletes and camera crews in a trouble-free bubble. The marine events would be held here: http://riotimesonline.com/braz...
Freed of the high costs of managing spectators, the Olympics would be purely a media event, with increased profits from the TV rights. This Olympics could net more than any its predecessors.
I lived in El Salvador for 2 years and Belize for 1, night and day as far as drinking water standards goes even though both countries are poor.
Pro tip, Belize has some of the best drinking water in that part of the world, even better than mexico (because it was a british commonwealth until the 60's or 70's).
I was obsessed with the Olympics last year... it ends up my city (Oslo, Norway) was bidding to host the Olympics.
We just spend 5-6 years building seven 10 story buildings and some other stuff around it. They're still not done. I think we used only one legged construction workers and took away their walking sticks for safety reasons.
Some dimwitted buffoon seemed to think it was a good idea to through this entire city into 6-8 years of sheer devastation and disaster on a scale that could only be considered criminal to host a few weeks of people playing games. This city would never be able to build that infrastructure in that time... we simply don't know how. In additional, we would never recover from it. 30 years (I think) later and this country still has trash from the Olympics laying around.
I was obsessed with convincing people to make sure the vote went against the Olympics. I don't mind people getting their rocks off on watching people (usually of their own gender) getting hot and sweaty. If they're into that, it's really not my problem. But I sure as hell don't want to spend an extra hour getting to work for 8 years so they can do so.
While I agree with your sentiment... they way you present it leads me to say that the answer is clearly no.
"Shouldn't we have a say?"... the world doesn't work that way. If you want a say, you simply have to say it. If you need to ask it first, then your opinion is too passive and is utterly irrelevant and carries no power.
Are you seriously suggesting that when voicing your opinion in what would be perceived as opposition to an event focused entirely on measure of strength and physical prowess that your passive voice will mean anything? You will be simply unrepresented which you simply always are. Do not feel bad, so am I. I haven't been represented in government since shortly after I was born.
You can choose to live in fear and anger. You can feel bitter about it and whine and say things like "Shouldn't we have a say?" as if you're trying to rouse the rabble to your passive voice. Or you can simply live your life each day.
I have no interest in religion beyond personal entertainment in the same way I like The Three Stooges but I've always had a warm spot for the Serenity Prayer which goes something like this :
Pizza Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.
I'll add :
And the intelligence to live my life without the fear Fox, CNN and NBC are trying to force down my throat 24/7
P.S. Thank you Pizza Lord for giving us Elon Musk. He's a fucking asshole but at least the "Doom New Networks" will take an occasional break from their broadcasts of "Hell and damnation is here" long enough to share one of his Shitter Twitters with us.
Phrasing, dude.
Should of been Chicago!
Zika appears to be the best proof that God exists and watches this world. Either that, or the writer of Plague Inc is a seer.
This Olympics is a disaster on many levels. The Olympics is nothing but a giant graft/corruption machine using athletics as a front anyway. There are many reasons to boycott the Olympics and this Olympics really makes it an easy decision for those tempted to go. If you go, I hope you get pick-pocketed as is the Rio way.
More ideas: The Olympic Games will be in August, which is winter in the southern hemisphere. In Rio and most of Brazil, winter is still warm.
From the Slashdot story summary: "It was reported earlier this year that Rio has given up on its promise to eliminate 80 percent of the sewage found in the city's notoriously filthy water."
I've only been in Rio, at separate times, for maybe 3 weeks total. I haven't seen "notoriously filthy water". The heavily polluted area is in Guanabara Bay, I understand. This is a mostly true but sometimes exaggerated discussion of beaches in Rio: Beaches in Rio de Janeiro. (The article mentions where it exaggerates.)
The Brazilian media constantly emphasizes violent events in Brazilian cities. However, the murder rate in Rio de Janeiro was, the last time I checked, less than two-thirds of the murder rate in the U.S. capital city, Washington, D.C.
Discussions of the song, The Girl From Ipanema, are usually examples of cultures outside of Brazil not reporting Brazilian culture accurately. The author, Antonio Carlos Jobim, was sitting in a restaurant, I suppose, writing that song. If he had wanted to talk with that woman, she almost certainly would have been happy to talk with him. That's been my experience, and I'm not as physically attractive as was Jobim.
Many people live in the area surrounding Guanabara Bay, Go there. People from the U.S. will see that the people everywhere in Rio are generally far more healthy-looking than people in the United States.
I live in Rio and the Olympic games should not have been held here, for several reasons, but Zika is not one of them.
The summary is phrased in way that give the impression the guy is a medical doctor, when actually he has a doctorate in law, and although he writes for the health review, he doesn't have a medical research background.
Zika has already spread pretty much to everywhere that has the mosquito (aedes aegypt and others) and the olympics will not cause much of an impact, specially because it will happen in the winter, when the mosquito borne diseases almost disappear, because the mosquito population drops sharply due to the smaller amount of rain. And by the way, Rio is NOT the place with the highest amount of cases of any state, of either Zika or microcephaly.
Further more, Zika is a very mild infection for the great majority of people infected, with most (~80%) not even being symptomatic, and did not grabbed the headlines until Brazilian health and safety authorities connected the increase of microcephaly cases to Zika infections.
The only risk for the guests is if they are women, pregnant or planning to get pregnant at the times of the games, or if they fuck everything that moves (in that case, call me ^-^) and the risk of getting pregnant can be easily avoided by either not coming (as suggested) or by simply using anti-conceptional methods.
Reminds me of Tom Clancy's novel "Rainbow Six", in which a small clique of conspirators plot to slash the global population so they can rule over a pristine world with more natural resources for themselves. In that novel the terrorists arrange to distribute a specially tailored virus at the Olympic Games. While lethal to anyone who has not previously been inoculated against it, the virus has a latency period of three weeks or so, allowing visitors to the Olympics to reach their homes all around the world before they fall sick - and transmit the virus to everyone around them. Luckily natural pathogens are self-limiting to a greater or lesser extent.
While the doctor's motives may be the best, his suggestion is completely impractical. It takes years to prepare a city to host the Olympics, and most of the preparations (such as stadiums and housing) cannot be moved elsewhere at short notice.
I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
The lack of common sense of some of the folks here is mind boggling.
Rio has over 2 million visitors annually, Olympics or not.
Two things.
One, Rio is by far not the most infected state in Brazil, that is plain wrong.
Two, by the time of the Olympics, it will be much cooler (winter in the southern hemisphere is in June), which may affect mosquito popullations.
Hey, the first banana republic Olympic games. Where the rich and privileged further bankrupt the country to shove aside the poor in a squalid 21st century hell-hole.
Sponsored by Soylent.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
This Zika threat is no Amateur Night shit. Zika reads like something from an action-adventure movie, where the evil mastermind weaponizes a virus and releases it into the world to bring about an apocalypse. Transmission via mosquito is just the beginning, it can be transmitted from person to person, and in an adult it's mild enough that anyone who isn't specifically diagnosed with it could easily shrug it off as nothing to worry about. I could see it wrecking an entire generation (or more) if not stopped. Where the games are planned on being held is literally where Zika is the worst and you're going to have hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world show up and congregate in one place? Madness. Move the goddamned Games to some other country. We don't need to help the Zika virus spread all over the goddamned planet.
..and before some asshat accuses me of it: This ain't about 'brown people' or any such bullshit; if Zika became a pandemic, it would affect all people from all ethnic backgrounds. We'd have microcephaly cases in newborns all over the place, white, black, brown, yellow, or what-have-you. Let's not, OK? Move the damned Olympics!
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
They're all damn dirty Earthers. The place is disgusting and they're all 110% corrupt. Leave them down there.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
What I would like to know is why not use another technology, irradiated sterile mosquitos, to bring down the mosquito populations, which would avoid the whole GMO issue, at least until more research can be done on it. Why must they use GMO skeeters when you have the irradiated technology which it appears would work just as well?
Dont Panic!!
Now we have a minister of health who is an engineer, politician and his party has 90% of the politicians involved in corruption !!!!
Looking for some country to exchange !!
Excerpted from the article:
“All it takes is one infected traveler, a few viral introductions of that kind, in a few countries, or maybe continents would make a full-blown global health disaster.”
Quote ends.
We all know this is the inevitable to happen. Again one disaster on the list mentioned by Gods prophet Moses in the Holy Bible:
”If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law, which are written in this book, and do not revere this glorious and awesome name—the Lord your God— the Lord will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses. He will bring on you all the diseases of Egypt that you dreaded, and they will cling to you. The Lord will also bring on you every kind of sickness and disaster not recorded in this Book of the Law until you are destroyed.”
Deuteronomy 28:58-61
”harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses...every kind of sickness ” - Zika can be included in this category. Humanity already gone through AIDS, Mad Cow disease, Black Death, Tuberculosis and some are prevailing or coming back and the new ones arise among the climate gets warmer and conditions will be ideal for then to emerge pandemic. It is not the nature producing all time new plagues but those viruses are set in advance by God and will erupt as a consequence of our disobedience to His commands and statutes. It is clearly said all the law of God is already written in the Books of Moses;
”If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law, which are written in this book” - This proves the writings of apostles and followers of Jesus in the so-called New Testament lies. Also, the founder of Islam, Muhammad claimed the word of God is now in the Book (Quran) he wrote and it proves him as a liar and false prophet. What can we say about Jewish scribes? They also added their own writings into the Bible and this is the word by one prophet of God;
“‘How can you say, “We are wise,
for we have the law of the Lord,”
when actually the lying pen of the scribes
has handled it falsely?
9 The wise will be put to shame;
they will be dismayed and trapped.
Since they have rejected the word of the Lord,
what kind of wisdom do they have?”
Jeremiah 8:8-9
”the lying pen of the scribes” - This is the truth concerning the prevailing lies that postpone our hearts and minds from understanding and taking heed the true word of God. God only tells His plans through His Prophets;
”Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing
without revealing his plan
to his servants the prophets.”
Amos 3:7
And:
”I spoke to the prophets,
gave them many visions
and told parables through them.”
Hosea 12:10
The word of God is only told to the prophets! Did Jesus know this?
”He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms.”
Luke 24:44
Yes! Jesus told us where to search the truth and religious preachers hide this from us and took away our understanding, the wisdom we have but understanding the word of God is what we need. Where is the understanding if gather in the place buzzing with disease carriers? These athletes and spectators in stadiums are just one sting away and they will come to you.
Yeah, people are blinded by religious preachers! What did God command us to do?
”I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. If anyone does not lis