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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!
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!”
Human greed and self-interest at the expense of pragmatic decision-making. Wouldn't it be something if it were a new story.
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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.
Heh. You're an old bastard. Even older than I by about 4 years.
Remember when we were young and always wanted to be the oldest? *sighs*
"Man, I can't wait to turn 14 so I can get my permit!" "Man, I can't wait until I'm 18 and can drink!"
Aging, not all it's cracked up to be.
Having said that... I don't watch TV really so it's very unlikely that I'll watch the Olympics. I do actually, sort of, not really mind watching some of the Winter Games. I'd absolutely love to try bobsled or luge. Err... 30 years ago - that is. I'd bust a hip and be out of commission if I tried it today.
I'm also not really that fond of the newer events. I don't know if it's because I'm an old fuddy-duddy or if that's because they actually kind of suck. Synchronized swimming? Really? Did they ever put skateboarding in? I'd probably watch that. I was thrashing back before there was a Thrasher magazine. Again, not an activity for the old.
So, I am also unlikely to watch any of the events. If it's online then I might put a few of 'em on just for the novelty sake but I don't think that's likely. I'm also not worried overly much about this pandemic potential. I guess if they all turn into zombies and go on a brain eating rampage then I'd probably watch that. Barring that, I doubt I'll pay much attention. Meanwhile, I'll wait for Dubai to host the Winter Olympics.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Phrasing, dude.
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.
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!
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