Posted on 07/23/2021 9:33:02 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
A century ago, the 1920 Antwerp Olympics were held only a few months after the Spanish flu ravaged the world, killing at least 50 million people. In 2010, the Vancouver Olympics were threatened by an outbreak of H1N1. In 2016, the Zika virus prompted calls to cancel the Rio Games. And most recently in 2018, officials in Pyeongchang wrestled with an outbreak of the norovirus.
Mass gatherings like the Olympics, that bring together people from all over the world, have always posed a huge infectious disease risk. Visitors bring viruses which may not be endemic to the host country and may take viral souvenirs home to their own communities.
"The opportunities for the movement of infectious diseases are accelerated. We've seen this across Olympic Games, we've seen this in large gatherings like the Hajj or the World Cup," said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School.
To manage the risk, all Olympic host cities must have a public health plan.
Preparations begin several years earlier when officials start working with the Olympic Organizing Committee to form pandemic preparedness and epidemic surveillance plans. They start monitoring local infections to set a baseline and track viruses or any irregular infection patterns that could pose a threat.
But few Olympic organizers have had to contend with an outbreak of the size and severity of Covid-19. If nothing else, Tokyo 2020 will enter the record books as the Games that came closest to a last-minute cancellation due to rising case numbers.
Here's how other cities have fared.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
This covid garbage is moron ville
Screw this stupid bug. It’s just the flu bro !
And Wembley had over 70,000 for that Final game.
I remember the 1348 Olympics during the Black Death, the Mongol Hordes won the most medals that year, of course killing the other teams was not viewed as particularly sportsmanlike.
It’s not the Covid driving away viewers
It’s the marxist kneeling, virtue signaling, posing BS
The Woke Games will destroy the Olympics. NBC, with their woke advertising and woke sports reporting are certainly doing their part.
135,000 fans packed into Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Memorial Day Sunday for the Indy 500...no problems there.
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