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Zika Outbreak Means It Is Now Time To Cancel Rio Olympics

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by Arthur L. Caplan & Lee H. Igel

It is beginning to look like the time has come to call off the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. The reason is simple: young women cannot travel there safely. While polluted water and security issues have already made things tough for anyone who would be a visitor there, now Brazil is on the front line of the mosquito-borne Zika virus epidemic. To host the Games at a site teeming with Zika, an outbreak the World Health Organization has labelled a “public health emergency of international concern,” is, quite simply, irresponsible.

Who is going to go to Rio in the middle of a Zika outbreak? Not young women fans, who might get pregnant and risk giving birth to a child with a birth defect. Not male fans who are sexually active and risk transmitting the disease to a partner. Maybe the athletes, coaches, and other members of national Olympic teams will travel to Rio.

Imagine playing a sport so well that it earns you a spot on your country’s Olympic team. All of the time, sweat, and money you’ve dedicated to the pursuit have paid off in an opportunity to compete with the best in the world in your chosen sport. If you are one of those gifted and fortunate enough to be called on to head to the Rio Games, sure you want to go. This may be your only chance to participate in a Games.

Several athletes who are preparing to compete in Rio didn't feel a need to wait for a WHO advisory. They've already started stocking up on bug spray, thinking about how to bide their time holed up in living quarters, and plotting ways to evade and repel mosquitoes.

So, athletes may still want to go to Rio. But there is no way the International Olympic Committee should let them. At the same time, corporations and media organizations need to think along the same lines, that is, putting safety ahead of their bottom lines.

Virus-carrying bugs attacking people in a city hosting a sports mega-event sounds like the basis of a Hollywood plot line. But this is no sci-fi or action movie. And it’s certainly not the stuff of comedy or B-movies, either. The Zika virus is real, of course, and its widespread transmission requires a coordinated response from government institutions, health care organizations, and local and regional communities. Brazil is going broke even without paying for the Olympics. Where should its financial priority be in the middle of an epidemic?

WHO officials said the virus is “spreading explosively,” and could infect between 3 million to 4 million people within one year. Adding to the anxiety is that the particular type of mosquitoes that transmit Zika are the same ones that help spread diseases such as dengue, yellow fever, and chikungunya.

The IOC is advising national Olympic committees to keep tabs on and follow WHO guidance. IOC officials aren’t overly concerned about the Games taking place as planned in light of the Zika outbreak. Organizers in Rio are of the same mindset, though are reportedly taking closer looks at venues to reduce the possibility of mosquito infestation.

This is a risky—maybe even crazy—approach.

By the time the Games roll around, many fans aren't likely to attend. The media will report on nothing but mosquitos and birth defects, more than a few athletes and coaching staffs will balk at competing in Rio, and Brazil will be sinking further into debt trying to battle an epidemic while paying for the Games.

The IOC needs to either move the Games, postpone them, or cancel them. Prevention is the best course in the face of a serious threat to humanity.

Arthur L. Caplan, PhD, is the Drs. William F. and Virginia Connolly Mitty Professor and head of the Division of Bioethics at New York University Langone Medical Center. Lee H. Igel, PhD, is associate professor in the Tisch Institute at New York University. Both are affiliated with the NYU Sports and Society program.