People are starting to sound the alarm on the wisdom of holding the summer Olympic Games in Rio this year:
http://harvardpublichealthreview.org/off-the-podium-why-rios-2016-olympic-games-must-not-proceed/
Somehow it seems unlikely that the powers that be will listen.
I feel bad for the athletes. Can you imagine?
It should be moved, but there’s too much money at stake, so it won’t be.
Even if they wanted to move them, where would they move them to? Where could they scramble to get all the athletes housing and visas and so on?
The bad thing is that there were already massive problems in Rio even before Zika hit.
Yup, too late. It’s a reason why Olympics are every four years.
tough to move? Oh well, sucks for all the pregnant women this event may spread zika to. i guess priorities matter. /sarcasm.
I don’t think it would be all that difficult to move the Olympics if you postponed it a year and arranged for different events to take place in different locations. Cities that have recently hosted the world championships of each sport would probably be prepared to host an Olympic championship in that sport and to house the competitors. And why not have a worldwide Olympics? With modern communications technology, people can be brought together without having to physically be in the same place.
One expert (personal communications) said that Zika was being overblown by the media with the blessings of public health experts… because we need more money allocated to public health issues, and one way to do so is to create urgency. The $$ that go into research of new technologies for Zika detection and treatment will inevitably benefit other projects and the field as a whole.
I am concerned about other issues with the Rio Games as well, one of them being water quality. The city should have never been chosen in the first place.
^Another issue is the crime in and around Rio. Lots of wealthy visitors will likely be prime targets.
I’ve been saying that since the beginning, BB, and all my PH friends are saying the same thing… but people get mad at me when I suggest that it’s overblown. It doesn’t surprise me that it’s a money grab. And I have nothing wrong with that since eradicating Zika would also eradicate other, more serious issues related to the same mosquito.
Personally, I’m still far more worried about people getting Dengue down there.
(And yes, I do realize it’s still a major problem for pregnant women and they should avoid traveling to places with Zika.)
Another problem is the political crisis, what with the president of Brazil being pre-impeached today.
London could probably host, possibly jointly with Beijing.
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Because men who contract the Zika virus can transit it sexually – and continue to be able to transmit it for quite a while – pregnant or trying-to-get-pregnant women aren’t the only ones who need to be concerned about travel. A man whose female sex partner is pregnant or might become pregnant is also at risk.
There are lots of places that don’t have zika yet, but have one of the two types of mosquitos that spread it. So even if a pregnant woman never left Florida, or New Jersey, for that matter, visitors returning bring it back here, putting at risk pregnant women who never left the country. I’m not saying it will hit epidemic proportions, but it will happen to someone.
I thought it was over-blown at first, and yes, they’ve dialed the numbers back of microcephalic babies, but I don’t know why it wouldn’t spread here, given the way it spread so quickly in Brazil and other countries.
Rio’s water quality issue has been known for a long time, and promised improvements haven’t happened. And that (and Zika) aren’t the only issues!
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/04/27/sport/olympics-rio-2016-countdown-100-days-to-go/
Yup. As I said, water quality is not the only/main issue, but one of the many, like Zika. IMO, when it comes to health and other issues, Rio leaves Beijing with its air quality in the dust…
Beijing is a toxic dust bowl…not that zika is something that should be ignored.
Rio is a toxic dust bowl, too, plus it has the crime and mosquito issues that Beijing does not have.
I having been saying for months - if my daughter were an olympic athlete I would not let her go to Rio - nothing is worth your health and the health of your potential family! Countries should take a stand and say they are not participating.
It’s not just pregnant women who have to worry. Researchers are starting to believe there’s a link between Zika and Guillan-Barre.
Too many promises are accepted from future Olympic venues without question. The Brazilian government lied about cleaning up the water pollution. The athletes deserve much much better.
And then there’s the utter fiasco of the upcoming Qatar World Cup.