# Public health expert advocates that the Rio Olympics be cancelled due to Zika virus **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 14, 2016, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-health-expert-advocates-that-the-rio-olympics-be-cancelled-due-to-zika-virus/754737 "2016-05-14T00:54:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-health-expert-advocates-that-the-rio-olympics-be-cancelled-due-to-zika-virus/754737/21 "2016-05-15T03:30:01Z")
I remember the “Swine Flu” scare of 1976. Run, run, hide!!! F\*\*\*\*ts. :rolleyes: In the 70’s people that got the inoculations passed out while driving and hit parked cars. They caused far more damage from that than they would have if they had gotten the virus. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-health-expert-advocates-that-the-rio-olympics-be-cancelled-due-to-zika-virus/754737/22 "2016-05-15T03:46:45Z")
> [@spamforbrains](#): > > Most infected people don’t even have any symptoms. It’s really only a problem if you’re infected while pregnant. In fact, it might be a good idea to get infected several months to years before getting pregnant. I presume you’ll have immunity to it and won’t be able to be re-infected later. Zika also causes [Guillain–Barré syndrome](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillain%E2%80%93Barr%C3%A9_syndrome), a rapidly progressing paralytic disorder. Most people recover but it requires months of serious work. Some people never recover. Furthermore, Zika is apparently a sexually transmitted disease, in addition to the mosquito spread version. It has not been determined how long after infection men are still capable of spreading Zika to their partners. The CDC currently recommends at least six months of condom usage by men who have traveled in Zika infested areas if their partners are women who might become pregnant. The CDC has a travel advisory for Zika which straight up tells pregnant women not to go to the olympics. Additionally, men and women who might have sex resulting in pregnancy are advised to use extra precautions. [http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices/alert/2016-summer-olympics-rio](http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices/alert/2016-summer-olympics-rio) The World Health Organization has declared Zika-hit regions to be a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern”. They also advise condom use and safer sex for people traveling too Brazil, as well as relying on mosquito control advice. > **[Zika virus and the Olympic and Paralympic Games Rio 2016](https://www.who.int/en/news-room/detail/12-05-2016-zika-virus-and-the-olympic-and-paralympic-games-rio-2016)** > > WHO on Zika virus and the Olympics. Athletes and visitors are seeking more information on the risks of Zika and ways to prevent infection while attending the Olympic and Paralympic Games Rio 2016. The argument in the OP’s article is that flooding a place of public health emergency with tourists is a bad idea. It’s inarguable, in my opinion, that increasing the number of tourists and the Olympic’s carnival atmosphere will help spread the epidemic. If it wasn’t for the IOC’s money, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-health-expert-advocates-that-the-rio-olympics-be-cancelled-due-to-zika-virus/754737/23 "2016-05-15T03:51:01Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > I remember the “Swine Flu” scare of 1976. > > Run, run, hide!!! > > F\*\*\*\*ts. :rolleyes: > In the 70’s people that got the inoculations passed out while driving and hit parked cars. They caused far more damage from that than they would have if they had gotten the virus. “Real men don’t need vaccines” might be the stupidest thing I’ve ever witnessed. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-health-expert-advocates-that-the-rio-olympics-be-cancelled-due-to-zika-virus/754737/24 "2016-05-15T04:10:26Z")
One frustrating thing about public health is the public almost always seems unwilling to follow experts’ advice. Until it’s too late, and then everyone wants to know why something wasn’t done to prevent it. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-health-expert-advocates-that-the-rio-olympics-be-cancelled-due-to-zika-virus/754737/25 "2016-05-15T05:34:47Z")
They need to get as many truck foggers out ASAP and start treating the area. May even need to get them out every night during the Olympics. Other things they can do is seek out the sources. Find any unused swimming pools. Any stagnate water throughout the area. Nothing should be left outside in the yard that can collect water. Buckets, pans, kids wading pools whatever. It’s a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Friends have told me they are very proactive in Florida in eliminating these sources of stagnate water. Brazil needs to do the same thing in the Olympic city. Mosquitoes can be controlled. We did it for a long time and pretty much eliminated malaria in the US. But we’ve grown complacent and lazy. We don’t consider them the public danger we once did. That’s got to change. NOW! ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-health-expert-advocates-that-the-rio-olympics-be-cancelled-due-to-zika-virus/754737/26 "2016-05-15T05:37:38Z")
> [@Merneith](#): > > “Real men don’t need vaccines” might be the stupidest thing I’ve ever witnessed. Nobody said don’t get vaccines. But shut down everything is twice as stupid. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-health-expert-advocates-that-the-rio-olympics-be-cancelled-due-to-zika-virus/754737/27 "2016-05-15T05:46:54Z")
Timing is another consideration. IIRC aren’t mosquitoes the most active in the late evening? I can’t go out on my deck after 6pm. Those mosquitoes are vicious. That’s when the fogger trucks used to come through the neighborhoods. They need to schedule outdoor events early morning or mid day. Whatever times mosquitoes are the least active. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-health-expert-advocates-that-the-rio-olympics-be-cancelled-due-to-zika-virus/754737/28 "2016-05-15T06:43:41Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > F\*\*\*\*ts. :rolleyes: So tell us what you were going here for other than “faggots.” ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-health-expert-advocates-that-the-rio-olympics-be-cancelled-due-to-zika-virus/754737/29 "2016-05-15T07:48:03Z")
Don’t you remember, Eyebrows? All those faggots who stupidly got the Swine Flu inoculations because they were scared of a few germs and believed the medical experts and went on to cause The Great Automobile Holocaust of 1976? It was a nightmare, I tells ya. ---
**Author:** ![Randolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Randolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Randolph)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-health-expert-advocates-that-the-rio-olympics-be-cancelled-due-to-zika-virus/754737/30 "2016-05-15T13:07:02Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > So tell us what you were going here for other than “faggots.” Implausible deniability. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-health-expert-advocates-that-the-rio-olympics-be-cancelled-due-to-zika-virus/754737/31 "2016-05-15T15:29:56Z")
> [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > I remember hearing a theory that the Parade of Tall Ships in New York for the Bicentennial in 1976 was one way that HIV/AIDS spread further, with sailors from around the world in one place. Epidemiology shows the real reason was release of the song Y-M-C-A in 1978. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-health-expert-advocates-that-the-rio-olympics-be-cancelled-due-to-zika-virus/754737/32 "2016-05-15T16:05:56Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > WTF are some of you yammering about? Brazil is neither impoverished nor third world. I’ve been there a couple of times, in fact I was just there a few months ago. It is a modern country with an up to date infrastructure. > > I’ve been in several of their large cities and there were far less pan handlers than there are in the U.S… We walked through the city streets of Rio @ midnight and had no problems. > > Almost all countries have rich people, poor people, and middle class people. Brazil is no exception, but it certainly is not a third world country. To be fair there’s quite a bit of extreme inequality and the progress has not spread uniformly at all beyond the major business centers. But by those standards _Russia (earlier the USSR)_ should have never ever been considered for Olympics and World Cups. I do get your point, a lot of people say “third world” meaning anything short of G7+Australia/NZ standard. But also, _at the time the site was awarded_ Brazil had spent quite a few years doing smashingly well on the social and economic improvement front; the World Cup and Olympics were to be the events that announced its arrival at the Big Boys’ Table. They weren’t counting on things becoming quagmired by a longer-than-expected economic downturn and a more-incompetent-and-corrupt-than-expected government administration. And on top of that now there’s zika, that is making the would-be travelers in the Temperate Zone lose their minds about the tropic. It has easily topped flash-in-the-pan chikingunya and prior pandemic menace bird flu as the up-and-coming dread plague. If I were President Roussef I’d be asking for the impeachment to drag out so I did not have to be in charge for this cluster\*\*\*k. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-health-expert-advocates-that-the-rio-olympics-be-cancelled-due-to-zika-virus/754737/33 "2016-05-15T17:01:28Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > So tell us what you were going here for other than “faggots.” fuck it. The S was a typo. ---
**Author:** ![Silophant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Silophant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silophant)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-health-expert-advocates-that-the-rio-olympics-be-cancelled-due-to-zika-virus/754737/34 "2016-05-15T18:42:29Z")
You felt the need to self-censor “it”? ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-health-expert-advocates-that-the-rio-olympics-be-cancelled-due-to-zika-virus/754737/35 "2016-05-15T18:49:29Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > I remember the “Swine Flu” scare of 1976. > > Run, run, hide!!! > > F\*\*\*\*ts. :rolleyes: > In the 70’s people that got the inoculations passed out while driving and hit parked cars. They caused far more damage from that than they would have if they had gotten the virus. I do too. I think a lot of it was because it was on the heels of the outbreak of a newly identified illness called Legionnaires’ Disease. I remember how frightened people were of this thing taking over the world and killing people, etc.; that fear was unwarranted because LD is not transmissible person-to-person. Yes, I was 12 years old but I was interested in things like this and followed the story closely. This is also around the time that Ebola was discovered and identified, but I don’t recall learning about that until some years later. My parents were always diligent about us kids getting our shots, and they refused to get them. They have a friend who had Guillain-Barre syndrome (unrelated to this) and that is some nasty stuff. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-health-expert-advocates-that-the-rio-olympics-be-cancelled-due-to-zika-virus/754737/36 "2016-05-15T19:37:12Z")
From a workshop I attended, the World Cup was considered the reason it spread to Brazil. Olympics would spread it wider. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-health-expert-advocates-that-the-rio-olympics-be-cancelled-due-to-zika-virus/754737/37 "2016-05-15T20:42:59Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > fuck it. The S was a typo. Sure you were. Because the S is right near those other letters on the keyboard. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2016, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-health-expert-advocates-that-the-rio-olympics-be-cancelled-due-to-zika-virus/754737/38 "2016-05-15T23:22:18Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > I remember the “Swine Flu” scare of 1976. > > Run, run, hide!!! > > F\*\*\*\*ts. :rolleyes: > In the 70’s people that got the inoculations passed out while driving and hit parked cars. They caused far more damage from that than they would have if they had gotten the virus. This is a warning for you for hate speech. Your posting privileges will be under discussion. ---
**Author:** ![spamforbrains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@spamforbrains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spamforbrains)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2016, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-health-expert-advocates-that-the-rio-olympics-be-cancelled-due-to-zika-virus/754737/39 "2016-05-16T01:42:35Z")
> [@](#): > > Zika also causes Guillain–Barré syndrome, a rapidly progressing paralytic disorder. Most people recover but it requires months of serious work. Some people never recover. > > Furthermore, Zika is apparently a sexually transmitted disease, in addition to the mosquito spread version. It has not been determined how long after infection men are still capable of spreading Zika to their partners. The CDC currently recommends at least six months of condom usage by men who have traveled in Zika infested areas if their partners are women who might become pregnant. > > The CDC has a travel advisory for Zika which straight up tells pregnant women not to go to the olympics. Additionally, men and women who might have sex resulting in pregnancy are advised to use extra precautions. > [http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices/...r-olympics-rio](http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices/...r-olympics-rio) > > The World Health Organization has declared Zika-hit regions to be a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern”. They also advise condom use and safer sex for people traveling too Brazil, as well as relying on mosquito control advice. > [http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/...a-olympics/en/](http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/...a-olympics/en/) Yeah, I’ve looked at the stats and so forth and I just can’t really bring myself to panic. In comparison to the yellow fever epidemic going on in Angola right now and the recent Ebola epidemic it just seems kind of a non-event. How many pregnant women were planning on traveling to the Olympics anyway? ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2016, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-health-expert-advocates-that-the-rio-olympics-be-cancelled-due-to-zika-virus/754737/40 "2016-05-16T02:23:41Z")
> [@spamforbrains](#): > > Yeah, I’ve looked at the stats and so forth and I just can’t really bring myself to panic. In comparison to the yellow fever epidemic going on in Angola right now and the recent Ebola epidemic it just seems kind of a non-event. How many pregnant women were planning on traveling to the Olympics anyway? Athletes’ wives, other tourists, and possibly some of the athletes themselves? Yes, there have been pregnant women, whether they knew it or not, who competed in the Olympics. I vaguely recall reading about one of them winning a medal in IIRC track & field; she wasn’t showing yet and her doctor said it was OK to compete as long as she didn’t get overheated. :eek: Women can also participate in sports like archery at any stage of pregnancy, although travel would be an issue in the last few weeks. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-health-expert-advocates-that-the-rio-olympics-be-cancelled-due-to-zika-virus/754737.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/public-health-expert-advocates-that-the-rio-olympics-be-cancelled-due-to-zika-virus/754737.md?page=3)