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Concerns for global spread of Zika mean Rio de Janeiro Olympics must not proceed

harvardpublichealthreview.org

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Re: Concerns for global spread of Zika mean Rio de Janeiro Olympics must not proceed

#121

Post by ChicagoBoy11 »

HillaryBriss wrote: post #111
ChicagoBoy11 wrote: post #45

This article is idiotic if the main reason for cancelling the game is actually some "global spread" of Zika. Rio is not some city in the middle of nowhere from which no flights are coming in and out of, and now suddenly this massive international influx of visitors will come in -- it is a world-class city, a financial hub of the largest country in the continent. If we take London 2012 as a benchmark, estimates there…

This is the claim: 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.

Agreed -- but this should have been the focus of the article, which it wasn't, and that's why I think it was irresponsible and poorly written. How much is 500k compared to normal travel to Rio, or to areas of Brazil and the rest of LatAm affected by Zika? What is the geographic distribution of Olympic visitors compared to regular tourists to Rio? What measures has the city taken to curb the impact of Zika that it may not take if the Olympics aren't held? etc.

Clearly you have to inspect that 500,000 number carefully, and that's all that matters for this argument. That would've been an honest discussion on this issue, but it is not what the authors chose to concentrate on.

Re: Concerns for global spread of Zika mean Rio de Janeiro Olympics must not proceed

#122

Post by 15155 »

HillaryBriss wrote: post #118
matwood wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That video is pretty bad. One, it looks like the same kids over and over so the cops clearly do not care. Two, I was wondering what the gun laws were there until some guy chased them with a hand gun. If someone is looking to go have some fun fighting it seems like walking around with a cardboard iPhone might be the ticket. I'm only sort of kidding. I know if some kid grabbed my wife while we were walking down the str…

>... what the gun laws were ... Almost 60,000 people were murdered in Brazil in 2014, most with guns. While some Latin American countries have higher per capita murder rates, in absolute numbers, Brazil is the deadliest place in the world outside Syria. Brazilians are far more likely to be shot to death than Americans, a more populous country where there are about 8,000 to 9,000 gun homicides each year. ... Right now…

They should just add some more laws, that will clearly solve the problem!

Re: Concerns for global spread of Zika mean Rio de Janeiro Olympics must not proceed

#123

Post by ghgfhgfhn »

roel_v wrote: post #59
15charlimit wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's an objective unit of measurement. You can't objectively measure (or assign a value to) human suffering.

Except that we do. We assign monetary values to human lives in actuarial models every day. The statistical value of a human live in the Netherlands when considering traffic safety was E700k in the last project I worked on, but this varies by purpose and over time. Furthermore, there are several international standard methods of quantifying the burden of disease, like the DALY and QALY. So yes, we can and we do 'objec…

sick

Re: Concerns for global spread of Zika mean Rio de Janeiro Olympics must not proceed

#124

Post by detaro »

ramon wrote: post #119
ceejayoz wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You presumably open your door at times, or even go outside. Access to hospitals is irrelevant. @mhurron pointed out these diseases can often present as a mild cold, for which you'd never go to the hospital. You may well have gotten them without really noticing.

This is a statement from someone that doesn't know Zika really, Zika the person feels really sick and feels their joints hurt a lot, is not like this is something that can go by without noticing! This is a really a statement from someone that doesn't understand what's Zika, people that don't understand what it's and what are the symptoms.

Source? The WHO information about it doesn't sounds like it has to feel all that bad http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/zika/en/

People with Zika virus disease can have symptoms that can include mild fever, skin rash, conjunctivitis, muscle and joint pain, malaise or headache.

[…] Treatment

Zika virus disease is usually relatively mild and requires no specific treatment. People sick with Zika virus should get plenty of rest, drink enough fluids, and treat pain and fever with common medicines. If symptoms worsen, they should seek medical care and advice.

Re: Concerns for global spread of Zika mean Rio de Janeiro Olympics must not proceed

#125

Post by takno »

cypherpunks01 wrote: post #27
bhouston wrote: post #3

I was wondering about whether this would happen. I am not enough of an expert to make a call on this either way of course, but if experts decided this was the right call would it even be possible to cancel/reschedule the Olympics? Imagine the financial impact on Rio.

Wikipedia lists the only previously cancelled Olympics as 1916 (WWI) and 1940 and 1944 (WWII). Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Cancelled_Olympic_Gam...

So it's happened 3 times out of a possible 30. Doesn't even seem that dramatic when you put it that way.

Re: Concerns for global spread of Zika mean Rio de Janeiro Olympics must not proceed

#126

Post by 1bm »

shaggy wrote: post #74
ChicagoBoy11 wrote: post #45

This article is idiotic if the main reason for cancelling the game is actually some "global spread" of Zika. Rio is not some city in the middle of nowhere from which no flights are coming in and out of, and now suddenly this massive international influx of visitors will come in -- it is a world-class city, a financial hub of the largest country in the continent. If we take London 2012 as a benchmark, estimates there…

Yes, Rio sees many visitors regularly. What Rio does not see is an influx of visitors from nearly every country on earth. It's that spread that is the problem. The financial impact on hosting the games is already negative for host cities. That's no longer debatable without ignoring fact. Your argument that all the experts studying the Zika epidemic and drawing the ever more cemented conclusion that this is a very ser…

The negative financial impact of the games comes mostly from building and maintaining the Olympic infrastructure. Cancelling the games doesn't solve this problem, on the contrary as it denies the country the income and touristic reputation boost. Public health concerns go first of course, but it's not gonna be a financial win.

Re: Concerns for global spread of Zika mean Rio de Janeiro Olympics must not proceed

#127

Post by tluyben2 »

rsync wrote: post #73
blowski wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a middle-income tourist who has had multiple holidays in Rio, the closest I've come to being robbed was by a taxi driver that wanted $200 to travel from Corcovado to Pao de Acucar. Seriously, it's like any other city in the world. If you walk around a dodgy area talking on an iPhone, by yourself, especially late at night, then you're asking for trouble. Be sensible and cautious, and Rio is a lovely place to go on…

"Seriously, it's like any other city in the world. If you walk around a dodgy area talking on an iPhone, by yourself, especially late at night, then you're asking for trouble. Be sensible and cautious, and Rio is a lovely place to go on holiday." I generally espouse this view ... that being sensible and street smart are the important parts to visiting different cities and that, in general, they are all fairly safe. H…

Shanghai feels incredibly safe and i've walked around in a lot of places where my colleagues thought it was dodgy (it wasn't; just poorer). I have not one time felt unsafe in Shanghai and I go there a lot. That's quite different from say, Fort Lauderdale, which was the first time in many years I really felt threatened when we stupidly went to a very dodgy gas station. Actually that was second time in that same business trip when actually on the Orlando Disney area in one of the Disney hotels two crackheads got in the lift with us, pretended not to know eachother and followed us to our room.

Never had anything remotely look like violence, robbery or even weirdos like that in Shanghai/Suzhou.

The time before this US thing (where nothing happened but it made the hairs on my neck stand up and we did realize we were close to getting robbed) was about 10 years ago when I got robbed at knife point in a small town under Barcelona. While feeling completely fine walking through weird neighborhoods in Belize. So you never know...

When I was around 8 my teacher in school said 'if you go to Amsterdam, you die; this city is so dangerous that when you go there, you will most surely get robbed, raped and murdered'. Apparently in a certain part of the Netherlands this idea was prevalent as when, 10 odd years later, I went to the university of Amsterdam my grandparents had something like 'Ok, this is it, this is the last time we saw him. He dead.'. Then I lived there and I actually lived in the neighborhood which was 'known' to 'everyone' that you will die there; de Bijlmer. Ofcourse, it was great; all these murderers and thieves offered me beer and food before going to uni in the morning; they invited me to the bars under the flats at night. I walked through that place (and other 'you'll die' places) in the middle of night and never felt anything resembling fear.

I want to go to Brazil and I will because of a client soon, but he, born and raised in Sao Paulo, says even he doesn't like it because of the crime. And he knows this city well. I'm not sure what to believe but we'll see... Not bringing any iPhone that's for sure.

Re: Concerns for global spread of Zika mean Rio de Janeiro Olympics must not proceed

#128

Post by 15155 »

mhurron wrote: post #14
ramon wrote: post #2

I think this is a stupid statement made by people that are not in Rio. I live a longtime in Rio and never had Dengue, Zika or whatever.. right now it's cold in Rio de Janeiro so mosquitos are dead or dying, how are you going to get Zika with dead mosquitos right now? Stupids and racists from Harvard, search more references first!

> I live a longtime in Rio and never had Dengue, Zika Don't be so sure about that. Most people who contract both of those don't know that they have them as the symptoms are so mild they are mistaken for a simple cold. But no, it's just racists pretending that diseases can spread. You can relax anyway, there is too much money to be made by those running the games in Rio to have it canceled. No one actually cares if pe…

> it's just racists

Is "Brazilian" a race now?

Re: Concerns for global spread of Zika mean Rio de Janeiro Olympics must not proceed

#129

Post by big_youth »

tomp wrote: post #25
giarc wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I imagine Rio would be given the 2020 Summer Games. And then Tokyo would be moved to 2024 and so on. Just my guess though.

Well, the fair outcome would be that Tokyo was cancelled altogether, if the allegations of corruptions [1] are true. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/may/11/tokyo-olympics...

Wow, Japan is generally known as being clean and corruption free. I can only imagine the type of bribes Brazil and Russia handed out.

Re: Concerns for global spread of Zika mean Rio de Janeiro Olympics must not proceed

#130

Post by transfire »

What? Are they planning a culling, on which they will blame Zika and the Olympics? Otherwise, this make zero sense.

Despite all the hype, Zika is not the end of the world. Most people who get it hardly notice and get over it in rather short order just as one gets over a cold.

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