The United Nations health agency says the 150 public health experts who wrote an open letter calling for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro to be moved or postponed because of the Zika virus are wrong. “Cancelling or changing the location of the 2016 Olympics will not significantly alter the international spread of Zika virus,” the World Health Organization said on Saturday. The WHO responded a day after the 150 public health experts said that moving forward with the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro would lead to “an unnecessary risk.”
The response by the WHO likely did not surprise those who wrote the open letter as they had warned that the global health organization suffers from a “conflict of interest” due to its partnership with the International Olympic Committee. That’s why the experts called on the WHO to “convene an independent group to advise it and the IOC in a transparent, evidence-based process in which science, public health, and the spirit of sport come first.”
All that, however, is unnecessary, according to the WHO, which pointed out the virus has already spread. “Brazil is 1 of almost 60 countries and territories which to date report continuing transmission of Zika by mosquitoes,” the WHO said. “People continue to travel between these countries and territories for a variety of reasons.”
The Olympics has never been moved for a public health reason, although the Women’s World Cup was moved to the United States from China due to fears over the Sars epidemic, notes the BBC.
