113 of the 149 experts are from the US and Canada. 3 are from South America. Dunno, but it seems that a large portion of the rest of the world's experts doesn't care or doesn't see it this way.
Also, the Olympics are a billion dollar business. Billions of dollars VS faster spreading of Zika. Billions. They aren't going to postpone it.
But you are accusing a bunch of scientist,s just because they're from the US and a Canada, is doing the same thing you're accusing them of (except you have no proof, and in fact it probably has more to do with social connections and organizations than anything.)
If anything, I would be more skeptical if any Brazillian scientists said "It's fine, Zika is not a problem, come to the Olympics." Because as you said, Billions. (And note, I'm not saying this is happening, just explaining an idea).
And health care is a trillion dollar business, so don't cancel the Olympics, instead buy call options on the various pharma companies that might provide a vaccine soonest and invest in any lab that is working on a fast blood test for keeping the blood supply clean.
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Random questions I don't see coming up in the news coverage, does anyone know how long Zika remains in the blood stream post infection? Are you immune once you've had it once? What are the risks to pregnant women a year after they have been infected?
But clearly the neurological disorders are rare, as Brazil has had saturation level Zika exposure and a noted uptick in birth defects, it has not had a similarly sized (or even noted that I can find) uptick in neurological disorders.
This is made even more interesting because the set of people who have contracted the virus and have brains, is significantly larger than the set of people who have contracted the virus and are pregnant (which is a proper subset of the above group). So from a risk perspective it seems less of an issue than West Nile in men/non-pregnant women.
The time from infection to clinical presentation is likely to be a lot longer in the case of a neurological disorder which effects adults than in utero consequences.
If there is a substantial increase in neurological sequelae, we're likely to only see this uptick several years from now.
If it means it will be a 10s of millions of dollars business this year instead of a billion dollar business because of concern of travel to the olympic site then it might. Although most of the money isn't coming from visitors, but from television. I would definitely stand with athletes concerned with their personal health if they were to boycott. At least a few have expressed concern and intent to avoid this year's olympics.
Also, the Olympics are a billion dollar business. Billions of dollars VS faster spreading of Zika. Billions. They aren't going to postpone it.