More than 100 prominent physicians, bioethicists, and scientists from around the world posted a letter Friday urging World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan to exert pressure on Olympic authorities to move the Olympics from Rio de Janeiro or delay the Games because of public health concerns over the Zika virus.
Brazil, which is hosting the Olympics and the Paralympics, is at the epicenter of the rapidly evolving mosquito-borne epidemic.
The letter is signed by 150 individuals from more than a dozen countries, including Brazil, Japan, Israel, Russia, Sweden, South Africa, and the United States. It calls on the WHO to convene an independent group to advise it and the International Olympic Committee and for authorities to reconsider the decision to hold the Games in Rio.