Rio 2016: What Next?

Bags have been packed, athletes and tourists alike piled into planes departing Rio, and now, finally, everything is quiet. The Summer Olympics are over — two weeks of medal counts, world records and media noise may have stopped for the moment, but the world keeps turning.

Only weeks ago news of the Zika virus loomed large in the media, tourists and athletes alike were being advised ‘don’t put your head underwater’. Add on top of that news of the dangers of other mosquito-borne diseases and you had a real, global worry about what might happen in Rio.

But then — not a lot happened. The Olympics took over, as they tend to do. The news was dominated by medal tallies, justifications of those tallies, and endless sporting replays. While pools did turn green, and confusing reports of a mugging came out, the Olympic spirit remained strong — finally culminating in Japan’s Prime Minister’s appearance as Mario to accept the 2020 Olympics.

And so now the dust has finally settled, we can look back and say what next? Problems that were real two weeks ago are still real today. The thrill of the Olympics may have temporarily overshadowed them, but now the excitement has died down, and the tourists left, Rio is the same city it was a month ago. But the rest of the world may be different.

Diseases in Rio may still spread to the rest of the world - whether accelerated by the Olympics or not. And then what? Disease has shaped the world we live in today . From the Black Plague to AIDS to the common cold, humanity’s path has been shaped by what seeks to destroy it.

Up next: More Than Plague