Harvard Scientist: Rio Olympics Could Spark 'Full Blown Global Health Disaster' (independent.co.uk) 147
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.
Not very realistic (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Re:Not very realistic (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Regardless of *if* the games occur (they will), he's telling people to stay away . That is the point of his comments.
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Regardless of *if* the games occur (they will), he's telling people to stay away . That is the point of his comments.
Maybe he's hoping to get some tickets cheap.
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From what I hear, it shouldn't be difficult. Advance ticket sales apparently haven't been this poor in decades.
"zika" sounds so exotic and festive (Score:2)
Sponsored by Soylent.
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Just bring your own water and wear a mosquito-proof suit (or just full hazmat) the entire time.
I'd love to see the summer games with all the athletes in hazmat suits. That would be fantastic.
Re:Not very realistic (Score:5, Interesting)
He's absolutely without a doubt correct about the possibility of the virus spread. He is kinda down to earth regarding "let's not be extremist". But in reality, unless the transcription is terrible, he seems to lack the ability to put his separate thoughts into something logical and coherent. Therefore, it's difficult for me to be overly interested in his perspective.
So... as you mention, the moral of the story is... shoot anyone you know who might be going to the olympics or may have been around someone who has before they get close enough.
Here's a thought....
- The Olympics will be in the southern hemisphere during mosquito low season.
- People who attend the games will be at a risk of being infected with Zika, though not as high of a risk as at other times since it will be a low season.
- The population of the city will be a minimum for 500,000 people greater during this event than normal.
- The life span of a mosquito at the expected temperatures should be approximately 14 days, 10 if it warms up... which simply increasing population by 500,000 may contribute to.
- There will be a much higher amount of trash and dirt in the city as well as viable food sources for mosquitoes
- By the end of the events, the mosquito population should have grown... maybe even a lot.
- More people will be at risk of infection due to simple population growth
- More people will be infected... even if the infection rate is as little as 1 in 500, that's still 1,000 infected individuals
- The people will travel home during summer in the northern hemisphere
- The mosquito population following summer should be near it's apex at the time.
It seems to me that there's more to consider on this topic.
1) Identify whether early detection is possible and require tests followed by possible isolation before boarding airplanes.
2) Offer quarantine at indoor spas in arriving countries for people who have been to the Olympics.
3) As seems most logical and has been suggested... suggest to people to simply not go. I can't imagine why anyone would want to go to the Olympics anyway. It seems an overpriced way to drag your knuckles.
4) How to exploit the American news networks to turn a profit on this... after all, in America's current "Fear Economy", the fear propaganda mills run almost 24/7 to ensure people keep their jobs. Zika is a great way to scare people... especially with the possible (even likely) link with birth related issues. There must be a way to turn a profit on this. Maybe a new fashion trend of veils and long gloves to reduce exposed body surface mosquitoes would find attractive?
More ideas: Being realistic about Brazil and Rio (Score:3)
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
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The write is from the University of Ottawa, not Harvard. Just so you know.
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I think he's right. There's something very iinsidious about that zika virus, and I haven't yet put my finger on it.. but they've recently confirmd that yes, it's the *virus* and not the spray causing the microencephaly, and the timing of the outbreak is highly suspicious...
Re:Not very realistic (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Canceling them would be the sane thing to do if they can't be moved elsewhere or postponed to move elsewhere. Having a completely arbitrary worldwide event in a practical plague area that causes horrible birth defects in the infected is fucking stupid. No sport is worth the risk of allowing people from your nation to risk others in your nation like that.
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I recommend a 6 month quarantine before letting anybody return, if Brazil doesn't have the sense to cancel. Or just leave them there.
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Fucking stupid is not using condoms in that situation.
Re:Not very realistic (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually, I understand a whole lot of fucking goes on at the Games. It's a veritable fuck-fest, or so I'm told. I know about a dozen folks who have participated or been an alternate and gone to the games. Almost all of them have mentioned the sex and I do recall it being also mentioned either in a news program or a documentary but I'll be damned if I can tell you which one.
It would appear that physically fit people, in their prime, like to fuck. Go figure?
At any rate, it's a good idea to use a condom. I want to say the documentary talked about them handing out condoms and (maybe) running out? But, my memory is toast. (Buttered with cinnamon and sugar.)
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It's more a connection like this.
People who like sports tend to have some sort of a need to gain an adrenaline rush of some type.
Men who watch sports are generally testosterone addicted as well. These people find their entertainment through generally primal and highly physical forms.
Women who watch sports are generally highly competitive in nature and are more likely to revert to primal states as well. Even my
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I just did a quick Google and you might want to as well. You offered an "Actually..." So, I went and took a look with the query of "sex at olympic games."
If the four links, fairly randomly clicked, are to be considered truth then there's significantly more there than there are at other functions.
I guess it's down to this... Err... Where'd you come up with that response? I open every reply with a mental note to say, "Thanks, I learned something." Or, "You have a good point." (I find it helps. I literally con
Re:Not very realistic (Score:5, Informative)
Competed at last few Olympics personally...
Yes a lot happens, but the village also provides free condoms. Most people use them, as such, the village becomes the highest consumption of condoms ever. Easy to google and verify this. Although some of this number is people hoarding these for future use.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new... [dailymail.co.uk]
Long story short, all athletes going to Rio have been warned many times over and advised that men should use protection for at least a month, and should not try for children for at least 6 months post games. Similar for women (but I think they only need wait a month for some reason).
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Spectators of sports seem to have some sort of illness that makes them irrationally believe that other people doing something more or less benign like kicking a ball around has something to do with them. They seem to believe at both an emotional and physical level that if some hairy tattooed guy with limited cognitive capacity jumps over a stick... this persons action effects them somehow.
Yikes... well, aren't you the superior being...
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Certainly doesn't sound like it.
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Except Zika is not just sexually transmitted - it can be transmitted by mosquitoes, too. So even if you decided to go wild and use protection, you can still come back infected by being bitten by an infected mosquito.
Then you return home, and a local mosquito bites you, and it's now infected, which then goes to in
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Yes, canceling it would be the sane thing to do in the interests of public health. However, the Mammon Machine must be fed. It doesn't matter how many human sacrifices must be made. Just think of the economic impact if the event were abandoned at this stage! Surely there's nothing more important in life than serving Mammon!
Call me a misanthrope (you wouldn't be wrong), but I'm sort of hoping that Zika is finally the plague we've been freaking out about since SARS. It seems that was really when this nev
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I probably agree with you. The one exception I can think of is if, for some reason, having the Olympics significantly reduced the likelihood of war in the following years. If it did, we could weigh the two scenario's impacts on human suffering.
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The games are two and a half months away. Preparations for hosting them take years
...and will be inadequate no matter how long they take.
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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.
Oh yes, we shall have none of that cheap publicity.
Instead we should opt to support obscenely expensive publicity, as represented by a gaming tradition that has become an economic sinkhole for the majority of host countries these days. Nothing like bolstering a financial plague with a real one.
Unfortunately the Olympics have become a tradition wrapped in a gilded cage. And if the risk of a global pandemic isn't enough to rethink this, then perhaps humanity deserves what it brings upon itself. Ignorance w
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Disease resistance is a new Olympic event. Maybe they'll give out gold medals for the strongest immune system.
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Right because its more important to play some games, than prevent a global epidemic that will have life altering consequences for many.
Remember though the technocrats tell us recreational international travel and open boarders are a good thing. Frankly the modern Olympics are a travesty. The IOC has proven over and over again that scandal and graft are the only things they know how to do well. The coaches cheat, the athletes cheat; at least someone gets caught practically every games. The athletes have t
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There's always the "plan B" of moving the games to some other city that's hosted before and therefore already has the infrastructure (e.g. Los Angeles, which I use as an example because they didn't build new stuff last time [gizmodo.com]).
Filthy drinking water? (Score:4, Informative)
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The truth is, every time people travel, there will be illness associated. I can't get anywhere near most South American countries without spending at least one day close to a toilet. This is mostly due to having been forced to grow up in the anti-bacterial country called the USA. It took me over 10 years after leaving America to build an immune system which works fairly well in
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Most countries have a city and rural areas. The city has a visible pollution problem. The rural areas often have a hidden pollution problem, because rural areas may not have the resources to dispose of hazardous products. So there is PFOA in the water, trash everywhere. But we look at the trees and think it is all nice and clean. A City, even if kept cleaner than a rural area. Looks a bit more polluted.
More and more evidence against the Olympics (Score:1)
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.
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> The US should do the world a favour and bomb the shit out of the IOC once and for all.
All they have to do is place the IOC headquarters in a Doctors Without Borders clinic somewhere in the middle east. the rest takes care of itself.
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More to poor leadership - globally
The problem with the Olympics isn't the Olympics but the poor leadership of the host government. Because of all the media focus the politicians get now, they are pressured to make their country/city look better than all the rest. All this focus on visual appearance can suffer at the cost of the hidden infrastructure needed. However the leadership needs to survive the next set of tweeting wars, not plan out and lead.
When the Olympics had less coverage and less recourse f
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Large Stadiums 40,000+ specatators - Yankee Stadium, Citi Field, Meadowlands, Aqueduct
Smaller stadiums like the Belmont Raceway, minor league ballparks in LI, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Red Bull Arena, Arthur Ashe Stadium
Larger indoor arenas like MSG, the Barclay Center, Nassau Collesium, Prudential Center
tons of smaller ones.
Many of these venues regularly host major events - World Series, US Open (Tennis), Super
The virus isn't the problem there (Score:2, Funny)
The pollution, on the other hand, is indeed hazardous [theguardian.com]. And those are GMO mosquitoes from 2012 onward that are causing the microcephaly and miscarriages, not the virus.
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And vaccines cause Autism right?
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No, it's the lizaroids. True fact.
I lost count; does that come before, or after jellybean?
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Bullshit! Autism causes fluoride. Everyone knows that.
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Pft! Hardly, fluoride causes Autism.
What do you think is in the chemtrails?
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No, autism causes vaccines. [smbc-comics.com]
Re:The virus isn't the problem there (Score:5, Interesting)
"And those are GMO mosquitoes from 2012 onward that are causing the microcephaly and miscarriages"
You have the story scrambled. The GMO mosquitos are going to be introduced to kill off the natural organic free-range progressive mosquitos which are spreading the virus.
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You have the story scrambled. The GMO mosquitos are going to be introduced to kill off the natural organic free-range progressive mosquitos which are spreading the virus.
I think the GP was probably referring to the belief that Zika was caused by GMO mosquitos [snopes.com].
Am I the only one.. (Score:1)
Am I the only one who doesn't give a crap about the Olympics?
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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 - th
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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.
Youth is wasted on the young.
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Nobody is asking you to give a crap. Diarrhea is caused by other diseases, not Zika. You're being asked to not give a puke, by Brazil not giving you Zika via a pandemic.
Please, don't give a crap. Please, don't give a puke.
Stay healthy, stay safe.
I do... not so much... but I REALLY DID (Score:2)
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 cr
Lay the blame at the proper set of feet (Score:5, Insightful)
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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Lets see, desert heat, government corruption, and Zika virus. Which of these can be spread by returning tourists?
Relativism fail.
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Are there deserts in Brazil? I thought it was tropical, but geomancy was never my strong suit.
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Qatar isn't even in Brazil. Not your strong suit, that part I believe. But you didn't quite find the right question to clear up your confusion, either.
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There is no question that could clear up my confusion.
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Qatar isn't even in Brazil.
So where's Dubai?
painting with the broadest brush (Score:2)
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Qatar isn't even in Brazil.
So where's Dubai?
Not in Brazil.
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Lets see, desert heat, government corruption, and Zika virus. Which of these can be spread by returning tourists?
Relativism fail.
Your perception is a subjective value worthy of some consideration...
...
...
no, you're just being hateful.
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Don't forget to include an idea with your insults next time. I mean, two insults, and not a single idea, no analysis, not even an attempt to identify what you're complaining about.
For example, you use the word "hateful." What was it you thought I was "hating?"
I accused you of engaging in moral relativism in an inappropriate context. How is that "hateful?" Don't be afraid to use a dictionary to check what the words mean.
You don't even show know what relativism means; you made no attempt to support your state
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Don't forget to include an idea with your insults next time. I mean, two insults, and not a single idea, no analysis, not even an attempt to identify what you're complaining about.
I have no complaints. I could not deign to imagine a more vulnerable adversary.
For example, you use the word "hateful." What was it you thought I was "hating?"
For example, and I don't want to appear overly sensitive, but it appears as if you were being hateful towards me... and I know, that is definitively me-centric.
I accused you of engaging in moral relativism in an inappropriate context. How is that "hateful?" Don't be afraid to use a dictionary to check what the words mean.
The dictionary....ahhh-oohhh... Is that allowed? Damn my trailer park understanding of these arbitrary rules.
You don't even show know what relativism means; you made no attempt to support your statement, or disagree with my analysis.
Damn your cleverness, son of William Wallace!
Maybe you just "hate" that the girl is no one called you on a bullshit attempt to claim that a desert being hot is the same type of thing as an outbreak of disease?
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Yeah, he seemed to miss the point that he was missing. About the mill part...did Odgen Nash get popular again?
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The Olympic Games have been political tools since 1956 (a bunch of western countries stayed away from Melbourne, Australia to prosted against Russia) or 1976 (african nations protested against New Zealand by not going to Montreal, Canada) or, of course, the famous 1980 boycott of the Moscow games where most western nations stayed away after pressure from the US government.
The mess is that we, the "good guys" in the west abused the games to make political statements instead of seing them in the spirit they a
In a safe place with no spectators (Score:2)
If there were time, then I wonder if Olympic training grounds could be used for the Olympics, like these training grounds in the US [teamusa.org] and Canada [www.cbc.ca]. 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 [slashdot.org]) without thousands of visitors, and just televise the games. It would be sort of weird for there not to be an
Shouldn't others have a say? (Score:3)
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.
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Then when they go home they'll infect others.
I suppose there's an argument to put them all in quarantine when they get back, but that has logistics issues too.
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The easiest thing to do would be to ground all the airline flights going to/from Brazil. It won't stop everybody (people could still go by boat, or fly to Paraguay and drive), but it would significantly reduce the number of carriers returning with the virus.
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Then when they go home they'll infect others.
I suppose there's an argument to put them all in quarantine when they get back, but that has logistics issues too.
Oh, I dunno, it worked for Ebola, and that included a great many people whom traveled to African countries which are nowhere near the affected countries.
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Oh, I dunno, it worked for Ebola, and that included a great many people whom traveled to African countries which are nowhere near the affected countries.
But it didn't work with Ebola. You had folks like Kaci Hickox [wikipedia.org] who thought she knew better than everyone. When she was put under 21-day quarantine after coming back from treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, she called it a human rights violation (like being thrown in jail without committing a crime) and publicly broke quarantine.. and no one did anything. Maine courts ruled that if someone doesn't WANT to abide by a quarantine and they show no symptoms.. then they don't have to abide by it. And this was
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The Olympics is a large surge of incoming people, but consider that Rio receives 2.82 million international tourist visitors per year (source: Wikipedia). I'd imagine the tourism numbers have come down since the heartbreaking pictures of those microencephalic babies appeared, but even a 50% decrease leaves a mess of people who could carry the virus home with them.
Whatever is going to happen with Zika is going to happen with or without the Olympics. And with global warming proceeding apace, the mosquitos a
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I'll say no (Score:2)
"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 pas
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Shouldn't we have a say? It can't just be up to the up to the IOC or Brazilian officials.
Your country would be totally within their sovereign rights to deny travelers which passed through Brazil from returning to the country. You need to get your government to take action.
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In about 3 months Rio had 25 000 cases of Zika virus. Thats 278 cases a day.
278 is 0.0017% of a population of 16 millions.
Add 500k tourists and your chance of getting Zika is even lower... the chance of a international visitor getting Zika must be infinitesimal.
Zika is only a topic in Rio among people planning on having kids or pregnant woman, i don't see any other group of people taking any extra precautions because of Zika.
Temperatures are already going down, and although it will not go much lower during
Make it a sound stage Games (Score:2)
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... [riotimesonline.com]
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
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The ONLY good thing about the Olympics is that the local shop owners will have 2-3 week
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The people still benefit from infrastructure built for the Games, and this is not limited to the venues themselves. Athens got a whole shiny new subway system from its Games.
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MOST local shop owners will be screwed since we will have more holidays, thats less people on the streets having lunch, shopping... it was like that during the World Cup, the Olympics will be even worse since its concentrated in one city.
Editing is fundamental (Score:5, Insightful)
Phrasing, dude.
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I had two reactions to this.
1. You're a terrible person, and should be ashamed of yourself.
2. Trying to clean Diet Coke off my monitor when it's also filling my sinuses sucks.
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I report, you decide.
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Should of been Chicago! (Score:2)
Should of been Chicago!
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Said practically nobody who lived in Chicago and didn't own a hotel.
Ignorance (Score:2)
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
Tom Clancy echo? (Score:2)
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 be
Move the damn Olympics! (Score:3)
..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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Because Zika is a virus original from Africa thats presumed to arrive to Brasil with tourist from the World Cup last year, So 1 year has passed and I don't see a zombified Brasil (besides the current political drama)
They can't move the Olympics, but YOU CAN like NOT GO right?, where you planning on going in the first place? Were you planning on impregnate an Olympic athlete? So yeah most of the people in this website are even allergic of sports in the tv why do you care
Why not use irradiated mosquitos? (Score:2)
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?
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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.
According to Oxitec [oxitec.com], irradiated mosquitos have trouble getting laid.