The Harvard Public Health Review Says The Rio Olympics Should Be Moved Because Everyone Is Going To Get Zika And Die
Harvard - Brazil’s Zika problem is inconveniently not ending. The outbreak that began in the country’s northeast has reached Rio de Janeiro, where it is flourishing. Clinical studies are also mounting that Zika infection is associated not just with pediatric microcephaly and brain damage, but also adult conditions such as Guillain-Barré syndrome[1] and acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, which are debilitating and sometimes fatal.[2]
Simply put, Zika infection is more dangerous, and Brazil’s outbreak more extensive, than scientists reckoned a short time ago. Which leads to a bitter truth: the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games must be postponed, moved, or both, as a precautionary concession.
Third, while Brazil’s Zika inevitably will spread globally — given enough time, viruses always do — it helps nobody to speed that up.[14] 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.[15] [16]
All it takes is one infected traveler: indeed phylogenetic and molecular clock analyses establish that Brazil’s cataclysmic outbreak stems from a single viral introduction event likely between May and December 2013.9 A few viral introductions of that kind, in a few countries, or maybe continents, would make a full-blown global health disaster. Scientists can disagree on how much the mass migration of 500,000 foreigners will accelerate the virus’s global spread and make the pandemic worse—but none can possibly argue that it will slow it down or make things better.
Which leads to a simple question: But for the Games, would anyone recommend sending an extra half a million visitors into Brazil right now? Of course not: mass migration into the heart of an outbreak is a public health no-brainer. And given the choice between accelerating a dangerous new disease or not—for it is impossible that Games will slow Zika down—the answer should be a no-brainer for the Olympic organizers too. Putting sentimentality aside, clearly the Rio 2016 Games must not proceed.
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Well shit. Looks like we have a decision to make- do we go on with the Olympics in Rio, or do we welcome a new plague into the world? I go with the latter. It’s about time we got a new plague. Too many damn people running around these days, we could use an outbreak where only the strong/bloggers that don’t leave their house survive. If you go to Rio for the Olympics, good on ya. Have a blast. But don’t complain to me when you come down with Zika virus because you thought watching women’s decathlon was more important than not dying. Wouldn’t be shocked if by the end of August the entire city of Rio looks like Jonestown.
I will say though, in Brazil’s defense, none of these hyped up diseases ever do shit. Remember Ebola? That shit was supposed to bring the world to it’s knees. Like 4 people* got it and we all moved on (*people in countries that don’t have running water not included). So who is to say this zika isn’t also a bunch of malarkey? Seems like all these disease centers and Harvard Public Health nerds are the doctors that cried wolf. Making up new diseases every year like they are trying to be the medical version of the song of the summer. Zibka is this year’s Bruno Mars- overrated but in your head at all times.
The bigger issue here, of course, is as Chief put it so nicely on Twitter this morning, we just need to stop putting these major events in 3rd world countries to begin with. There’s no fucking reason to have the olympics in a poor ass place like Rio where crime is through the roof, the people are lunatics, the political corruption is ridiculous, and the city is the Grand Central Station of Zika disease. I know that bribe money is legit, I can’t blame the IOC or the FIFA for taking them, but we as the United States of America and our rich country friends have to put our fists down and say “no more!”. Qatar having the World Cup? Get the fuck out. Let’s keep this shit in house or in China where they had the perfect Olympics because they just throw all the poor people in the trash. No need to go to places where “will the lights turn on today and will I drink poop water” are legitimate concerns.