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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 public. daily life to move forward.
“Covid-19 is still here,” said WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove at a press conference on August 6. Data from the organization’s surveillance formula in 84 countries show that the percentage of tests to detect SARS-CoV-2 has been expanding 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 usual cold and flu. 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 population and quantitative fitness at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. “The ever-evolving SARS-CoV-2 virus continues to generate variants that have an effect on public fitness beyond normal. “
Specifically, a new set of variants known as FLiRT has been prevalent in recent months and is driving the existing surge. While those variants are more likely to cause more severe disease 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. “The mortality rate is higher there,” he says. The disease can be much more severe and there is the added challenge of long Covid. » At the end of June, about 5. 3% of U. S. adults reported having 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 large number of viruses circulating, it is not unexpected that cases among athletes have increased during the Olympics, says Michael Osterholm, director of the University’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. of Minnesota.
“It’s the flu. It is a winter disease. This happens in all seasons and you can anticipate it when you put yourself in a scenario where you have new variants and waning immunity,” says Osterholm. Immunity against Covid lasts about six months after vaccination or infection.
While Lyles’ competition was unaffected by his Covid infection, Osterholm says the athlete still put spectators and others on the occasion at unnecessary risk.
The attitude towards the virus at the Olympics reflects a new general around Covid precautions and the perceived severity of the virus. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reassured Covid-related recommendations and issued new guidelines in March that apply to Covid and the flu. and other respiratory viruses. The company now says it’s OK to resume general activities if you haven’t had symptoms or fever for at least 24 hours. As general activities resume, the company recommends taking extra precautions over the next five days, such as ventilating indoor air or collecting it outdoors, wearing a mask, physically distancing, or testing.
However, although its symptoms may resemble those of the flu or the flu, SARS-CoV-2 remains 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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