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Covid cases have been on the rise every summer since 2020, and this season is no exception. A wave of Covid has once again swept through much of the world and has reached the Paris Olympics in 2024.
But the Games went on without interruption, despite at least 40 athletes testing positive for the virus, according to the World Health Organization. One of them, American track and field and boxing star Noah Lyles, ran the men’s 200 meters on Aug. 8 in despite testing positive for Covid two days earlier. After winning a bronze medal in the race, he got medical attention and got rid of the track in a wheelchair. Lyles, who also has a history of asthma, said he was short of breath and experiencing chest pain after the race and that Covid had “definitely” affected his performance.
The laissez-faire Covid strategy at the world’s largest and most prestigious sporting event is a far cry from the strict restrictions seen at the last Olympics, and raises questions about how society handles the virus, whether at public events or at public events. in everyday life to move forward.
“Covid-19 is still present,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, a WHO epidemiologist, at a press conference on August 6. Data from the organization’s surveillance formula in 84 countries shows that the percentage of positive tests for SARS-CoV-2 has been at the same level for several weeks.
There are no express regulations regarding Covid-19 at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, a stark contrast to the two Olympic Games held in the midst of the pandemic. Masking, testing and isolation were required at the 2021 Tokyo Games and the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022. Spectators were banned entirely at the Tokyo Games, which were postponed from 2020, and limited to Beijing. In Paris, organizers are allowing athletes and groups to decide for themselves how to continue in the event of positive cases.
In other words, they seem to treat Covid like the flu and the usual cold. This equivalence worries some public fitness experts.
“Covid-19 is still very different from other seasonal or circulating respiratory diseases,” says Mark Cameron, associate professor of demographic sciences and quantitative fitness at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. “The SARS-CoV-2 virus, which is constantly evolving, continues to generate variants that have an effect on public fitness beyond normal. »
Specifically, a new set of variants known as FLiRT has predominated in recent months and is driving the existing surge. Although those variants are more likely to cause more severe illness than previous strains, they appear to be more transmissible.
Brian Labus, an epidemiologist at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, says we take Covid more seriously than the flu and colds. “There the mortality rate is higher,” he says. “The illness can be much more serious and there is the additional challenge of long Covid. » At the end of June, about 5. 3% of American adults reported having had long Covid, meaning Covid symptoms lasted 3 months or longer.
In addition, Covid can increase the risk of inflammation of the center, which can be life-threatening, says Labus. Athletes are already more likely to suffer from core disorders due to strenuous exercise.
Still, Labus says he’s not sure Olympic organizers deserve to save athletes who test positive for the virus from competing. “It’s difficult to find a balance between someone because of the public health threat and allowing them to compete at that level,” he said. he says.
Given the lack of Covid precautions and the gigantic amount of virus circulating, it is not surprising that cases among athletes have increased during the Olympic Games, says Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.
“It’s not the flu. It is not a winter disease. This happens in all seasons and can be anticipated in a scenario where there are new variants and waning immunity,” says Osterholm. Immunity against Covid lasts for about six months after vaccination. or infection.
While Lyles’ competition was not affected by his Covid infection, Osterholm says the athlete still put spectators and others at the occasion at unnecessary risks.
The attitude towards the virus at the Olympics reflects a new general around Covid precautions and the perceived severity of the virus. The U. S. Centers for Disease Control and PreventionThe U. S. has reassurance about Covid-related recommendations and issued new rules in March that apply to Covid, influenza and other respiratory viruses. The firm now says it’s okay to return to your general activities if you haven’t had symptoms or fever for at least 24 hours. When resuming general activities, the firm recommends taking extra precautions over the next five days, such as ventilating indoor air or collecting outdoors, wearing a mask, physically distancing, or testingArray
However, while its symptoms might resemble those of the flu or flu, SARS-CoV-2 is still a unique virus and will continue to evolve as long as humans allow it to.
“We have to be informed to live with this virus,” Osterholm says. “We don’t know how to do it yet. “
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