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

harvardpublichealthreview.org

141–150 of 213 posts

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

#141
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've thought this too. They pick some of the weirdest places to try to host this stuff. I guess they're trying to bring the areas up or something but if the place can't handle daily life what makes anyone think they can handle a big event like this?

How is Rio a "weird place"? They're in a bad situation right now, as any city with an outbreak of a virus and with a political crisis would be, but it's major world metropolis of 12M people with plenty of international business visitors and a GDP of 200 billion USD. They accommodate 900k tourists during Carnival alone.

I presume that the parent is referring to the locations of the Olympic venues around Rio, which are scattered around the outskirts of the city.

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

#142
post #61
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure about the tone of that message, but I have lived in several cities where this was the case: Oslo, Singapore, Helsinki, Stockholm come to mind as places where even “dodgy” areas have had until recently very little instances of systematic robberies.

Most if not all of Switzerland is the same.

There are still some incidents that happen from time to time. In Geneva I've heard of someone going out for a smoke from a hotel accros from the main train station, and getting everything robbed; I've also heard of someone being beat up to the point of loosing an eye in Nyon (a town near Geneva). We also had the famous case of a guy who picked up hitchhikers, assaulted them before killing and abducting their bodies. Did so 11 times before he got caught [0].

[0] https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Peiry

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

#143
post #76
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…

My colleague had his phone stolen as he was talking on it by two guys on a moped - that was in Bond Street, London.

Lol indeed. I witnessed a lady with huge shopping bags in Bloomsbury getting her iPhone stolen from a bicycle. The guy acted like it was the most normal thing in the world, just snatched the phone while speeding down a cycle lane. Tons of other cyclists around, going as fast as this guy, and nobody cared.

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

#144
post #138

Ever since the news of Zika causing microcephaly came up I have been wondering whether it's a net benefit to humanity/homeostasis if we were to exterminate Aedis Aegypti. Can Zika spread among humans already? It would seem like a huge risk to the future of humanity if this infectious disease interferes with reproduction. What's the worst-case scenario for letting Aedis Aegypti live? Is it better than the worst-case s…

is this link actually confirmed yet? from what I heard, other nations which Zika has spread to have not seen an increase in the rate of microcephaly.

(I was curious what the status was so searched)

The CDC has weighed in:

http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2016/s0413-zika-microcepha...

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

#145
post #119

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.

http://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal...

"Historically, adult human infection with Zika virus has presented with mild, non-life threatening symptoms in 20% of infected patients, with 80% being clinically asymptomatic during initial infection."

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

#146
post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>... 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!

Pass new important law

Hold press conference about it and pat self on back

Fail to enforce the law uniformly -- or at all

Shield politically-favored violators of law

Get re-elected because you're tough on crime

Society remains unchanged

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

#147
post #132
post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually RJ does have an influx of visitors from nearly every country on earth. source (see page 97): http://www.dadosefatos.turismo.gov.br/export/sites/default/d...

Those numbers aren't particularly compelling, especially for the countries the author listed as not having the resources to deal with an outbreak: Nigeria: 265 India: 4,522 Indonesia: 0

Considering the number of olympic athletes from these countries, what evidence there is that these numbers will increase?

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

#148
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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 busine…

> two crackheads got in the lift with us, pretended not to know eachother and followed us to our room.

Wow, what did you do? Keep walking? back in circle? If they get to your room it's game over...

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

#149
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd say the same for Vancouver or Victoria.

too many bicycles are stolen in vancouver to wholeheartedly agree with you on that one.

Property crime is commonplace in Vancouver, given that we've always been the heroin capital of North America. Violent crime like muggings, however, are very rare. The addicts are not confrontational.

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

#150

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…

Ill panic once Madaagascar closes its ports.
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