Call for the Olympics to be postponed.

[Glaucus]

If 5m people annually from outside Brazil are already travelling to the region and being exposed to the virus, an additional 500,000 is not going to make much of an impact is it if risk of the virus spreading is already a significant risk.

Also if the risk of transmission is mainly via insects, I am not sure of the relevance of it being a compact event.

.

because most of the time you don't have a huge amount of people crammed into one event, one event that is held in a city, that despite attempts to control the infection is still spreading uncontrolled.
the more dense it is the easier it is for mosquitos to pass it on and thrive.

so yes it's likely to make a large difference. compared to vastly more spread out tourism, of which many will be in much lower risk areas.

 

[stopper]

Scientists pfft ... what do they know?

Some one else's theory, and their own best guess.

 

[wesimmo]

If 5m people annually from outside Brazil are already travelling to the region and being exposed to the virus, an additional 500,000 is not going to make much of an impact is it if risk of the virus spreading is already a significant risk.

Also if the risk of transmission is mainly via insects, I am not sure of the relevance of it being a compact event.



You misread the post.

Surely there's a difference between saying ,"It's not a great idea to go to Brazil." but people ignore that advice and actively encouraging people to go to Brazil?

And where did your 5m come from? Was that the historical rate of travel to Brazil before Zika was widely known about and it's affects confirmed? Has the amount of people travelling to Brazil not fallen away since the whole issue started?

 

[UTmaniac]

If the Brazil Olympics goes ahead as planned, the world could be facing a massive Zika crisis within months.

I don't blame some athlethes wanting to protect themselves to some degree by puling out earlier this year, especially those who compete in water events.

 

[Cosimo]

Scientists pfft ... what do they know?

A lot more then ...

 

[Participant]

I don't blame some athlethes wanting to protect themselves to some degree by puling out earlier this year

That might help, but it's no substitute for a condom.

 

[asim18]

Rio is far too risky; it should be cancelled, moved to another country, or postponed.

Haven't you been reading? High risk is the whole point

He said: "There is no public health reason to cancel or delay the Olympics.

Yep you've read it. 152 independent scientists are concerned while the director of a business known as the United States' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention seems happier and more content than he's probably ever been in his life.

Yeah that's not weird at all.

 

[scorza]

LOL they were never going to cancel or postpone the Olympics.

 

[asim18]

LOL they were never going to cancel or postpone the Olympics.

Exactly. Therefore, what better event for the propagation of an infection?

It's like hosting the Olympics right up the arse of an Ebola patient and telling everyone "we're not going to change it"

 

[helpimcrap]

Just screen anybody who goes to South America and quarantine them to protect the rest of us when they come back....

 

[Mr Jack]

As stated, insignificant then. If it is a genuine issue scientists should be advising on considerable limits on travel to the region generally rather than just postponing the Olympics. If a virus is going to spread, a 10% (one-off annually) reduction in visitors is not going to have much of an impact.

Why did you ignore what I said after the 10% figure. The largest group that comes to Brazil - in normal tourism - comes from Argentina, around a third of the total. The other South American countries account from abut another million. Tourism from other South American countries does little to spread the Zika virus, since it will spread to their vectored by mosquitos, anyway. The tourism we should be worried about is that from other mosquito zones - and Africa in particular - and that Tourism is going to be much increased.