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The World Health Organization is trying to ease concerns about spreading Zika as a result of this summer's Olympics in Rio de Janiero.
"Based on current assessment, cancelling or changing the location of the 2016 Olympics will not significantly alter the international spread of Zika virus," a statement released Saturday reads.
This comes a day after more than 150 scientists released an open letter to the head of WHO calling for the games to be moved or postponed, citing new research. "We make this call despite the widespread fatalism that the Rio 2016 Games are inevitable or 'too big to fail,'" the letter says.
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World Health Organization Spurns Calls to Cancel or Move the Olympics Due to Zika
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"I don't have to take this abuse from you -- I've got hundreds of
people waiting to abuse me."
-- Bill Murray, "Ghostbusters"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 30 2016, @10:20AM
So a new location would have a matter of months to prepare.
Not.
going.
to.
happen.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 30 2016, @12:18PM
That's possible in the entirely unthinkable possibility of hosting it at the same place as last time, or maybe 2-3 events ago. And Rio organizers working close with the new old location. It will also coincide with no big opening and lot's less fancy stuff, but after all we're still claiming it's all about the sports so nobody should care about that really.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 30 2016, @01:20PM
actually, they are given 8 years I think.
and there's a lot of preparation involved, yes.
and if people simply decide not to go because they don't want to get infected, then a whole bunch of businesses in brazil will go bankrupt.
which is perfectly fine as far as I'm concerned.
the real problem is that the people going to the olympics are not the ones who will suffer. I doubt pregnant women would travel there to sit in stands all day in the sun. so the people who are planning on going have nothing to lose, and they'll go. and then they'll transmit all the souvenirs back home, including the zika thingie.
if zika threatened adults, then nobody would need to cancel anything, because people would simply not go.
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Monday May 30 2016, @06:51PM
> if zika threatened adults [...]
It's suspected to cause neurological damage—Guillain-Barré syndrome—in a few of the adults who get it.
—http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(16)00562-6/abstract [thelancet.com]
Some other pages describe the possible connection:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/02/29/zika-can-cause-guillain-barre-syndrome-study-shows/81103754/ [usatoday.com]
http://www.cdc.gov/zika/about/gbs-qa.html [cdc.gov]
http://www.keysnet.com/2016/05/13/508364/cdc-looking-into-link-between.html [keysnet.com]
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/concern-haiti-emerging-condition-linked-zika-39310876 [go.com]
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/health/2016/05/29/zika-spotlights-paralyzing-effects-guillain-barre/84903538/ [desmoinesregister.com]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 30 2016, @08:17PM
That paper reports that none of the Guillain-Barré patients had the virus, but alot of them did have antibodies to it, which is interpreted as a recent infection. However they also found that many had antbodies to dengue fever and say this does not indicate an infection with that virus. Somehow Zika must have caused those antibodies too, they say.
Also the control group was patients without fever, rather than those who tested negative for Zika. This is an odd choice, it tells us they do not trust the test being used to support the claim of a relationship to Zika.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday May 30 2016, @08:43PM
I doubt pregnant women would travel there to sit in stands all day in the sun.
I wouldn't doubt that. The premiere global sporting event, but pregnant women won't show up? Yea, right.
Besides, it appears that the problem is more who catches Zika from the people who bring it back with themselves. After all, Zika didn't start in Brazil. A huge population of people spreading it around could cause a lot more trouble.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 30 2016, @02:15PM
So just cancel the damned thing. Perhaps host cities will stop breaking their promises to fix various things as conditions of being the host.
And the olympic committee itself needs to STOP entertaining bids from cities that don't already qualify. IE: if it's too polluted, don't let them bid on condition that they clean it up in time for the games. If you demand a particular level of openness for journalism during the games, don't entertain bids from known repressive countries. and the list goes on.
Hopefully they'll learn from this, but I'm not going to hold my breath.