“Regrettably, instead of discussing the alternatives, both the International Olympic Committee and the World Health Organization seem to be in deep denial”, said Attaran.
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Zika virus is now an epidemic that “terrorizes” some 58 countries in the world.
A Canadian professor of law and public health recently wrote in the Harvard Public Health Review that the Games should be postponed or moved to other venues because of the virus.
But Attaran dismissed the notion preemptively, arguing that there’s no way to know if Zika will slow down in the winter like most mosquito-borne viruses, firstly because Rio hasn’t experienced a winter with the virus yet, and second, because its spread could be similar to dengue, which slows down, but doesn’t diappear in the winter.
The Olympics are expected to draw about 500,000 visitors from overseas, a prospect that Attaran fears could spark new outbreaks elsewhere in the world and result in an increase in the number of brain-damaged babies born to infected pregnant women that might otherwise not have traveled to Brazil.
A total of 24 Singaporean athletes from badminton, shooting, rowing, swimming, and table tennis are now set to compete at the 2016 Olympic Games, which will be held in Rio from August 5 to 21.
There’s no move to cancel or postpone the Olympics in Brazil so far, and it may not happen at all, but certainly it’s causing more anxious times in a country already reeling from the suspension of its president for alleged corruption, rampant violence, and the most severe economic recession in a generation.
The International Olympic Committee says it does not plan on moving or postponing the games.
That means interim president Michel Temer is nearly certain to represent Brazil and declare the games “open” on August 5 at the Maracana Stadium, though organizing officials said he would not give a speech. In secretly recorded Skype conversations with Grigory Rodchenkov, the former head of the Moscow lab, Stepanov said he was told of a Sochi list of athletes who competed while doping, including four who won gold medals.
Rousseff lit the Olympic torch in Brasília on May 3 and was supposed to open the games, as is typical for the leader of the host country.
Women “pregnant or becoming pregnant should be careful of going to the Olympics”, said Demrovsky, who warns that travelers should “watch out for warnings” when “making the final decision” on going to Brazil.
Whitworth said it was WHO’s responsibility to make the health risks clear, even if that means issuing what could be very unpopular advice that could affect the Olympics. Rodchenkov said Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) officers served as doping control officers during the Games. The virus has also been linked to the paralysis-causing Guillain-Barre syndrome. You pick competition that is appropriate, you pick training that’s appropriate and it would be remiss of me not to listen to the athlete when they say, “This is a bit of a worry, I’m concerned about this”. This includes trying to quantify what the risk is for pregnant women and others.
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“At the Olympics, unlike the World Cup, you have a lot of events going on simultaneously”, Praca said.
