Dear Editor,

Recently, a group of about 100 eminent scientists called for the 2016 Olympic Games, scheduled for Brazil, to be cancelled or at least moved. These scientists made the call because they are worried that as Brazil is now the epicentre of the Zika outbreak, having so many foreigners exposed to the virus could spell doom for their countries of origin when they go back home.

Now, while the concerns of these scientists, who one would suspect must know what they are talking about, have some merit, I really don’t think that those games can be called off now – even if the organisers wanted to.

Ever since the modern version of the games began, they have only been called off twice — during both world wars. So, unless world war three should start between now and the commencement of the games, it seems very likely that nothing will prevent the games from being held.

After spending so many billions of dollars building all sorts of infrastructure to host the games, there is no way anyone will take the calls of these scientists seriously.

However, the scientists who made the call do have at least one valid point: Many parts of the world that now do not have a Zika problem may have one soon after the games, and many of these countries lack adequate means to deal with the problem. So, maybe instead of calling for the games to be halted, these scientists probably should have called for these Zika-free countries to skip the games.

In fairness to Brazil, that country has been doing all it can to get to grips with the mosquitoes that are responsible for spreading Zika.

These scientists should not be seen as a set of quacks. What they fear is that the 2016 Olympics may prove to be the springboard that Zika needs to be a truly global problem.

Let’s hope that all will go well for the games and Zika will not be the stronger because of them.

Michael A Dingwall

michael_a_dingwall@hotmail.com