In Sicily, in 1943, my dad, an 82nd ABN DIVN paratrooper, was bitten by a mosquito. That mosquito gave my dad malaria. (An Army Captain, a "90 day wonder" physician" claimed he was infected in North Africa in 1942, as if my dad did not know when he was infected by malaria!) Dad recovered in Army hospitals, but we saw dad suffer lifetime effects. Likewise, Dr. Rudy Xue, Director of our Anastasia Mosquito Control District of St. Johns County, was bitten by a mosquito in China in his youth. The most dangerous deadly animal on Earth is the mosquito. Our way of life in St. Johns County and Florida would not exist without mosquito control. Our tourism economy would be wiped out if mosquitoes infected us with mosquito-borne diseases, which once caused Memphis to cease to exist as a city in Tennessee. Global climate change is increasing mosquito-borne diseases, a clear and present danger to our Florida economy and way of life. That's why I'm running for seat 1 on our Anastasia Mosquito Control District of St. Johns County. Let's bet this right. More here:
BTW: Vulgar crass title of a NY Times opinion column with sexual reference to fellatio, like inarticulate bullies of another era. So sad. But perhaps some people will read this column, whose title cheapens the quality of debate in our country, typical during the time of DJT. From The New York Times:
Opinion Columnist
Anthony Fauci recently disclosed that he was hospitalized after catching the dreaded mosquito-borne West Nile virus, telling Stat News, “I really felt like I’d been hit by a truck.”
Well, mosquitoes suck. And mosquito-borne illnesses — malaria, yellow fever — have long sucked for humanity. Cases of eastern equine encephalitis, another mosquito-borne illness, have recently popped up in Massachusetts. Some outdoor events in high-risk areas, such as Oktoberfest celebrations in Vermont, are being canceled.
Mosquito-borne diseases like these are widening their range partly because of climate change, but they’re still relatively rare in the United States.
This wasn’t always the case. Yellow fever, for example, caused multiple major epidemics in the United States, changing the course of history. But advances in science led to better understanding of its transmission and the development of a vaccine, as well as a public health response to eradicate mosquitoes in urban areas. The United States hasn’t had a major yellow fever outbreak since the one in New Orleans in 1905. And that history also points to what Americans need to do now, when faced with other mosquito-borne illnesses: We need a widespread public health response to eradicate mosquitoes in more densely populated areas and to place a renewed focus on developing new vaccines.
In addition, the best individual defenses are to use nets and screens to keep mosquitoes from entering indoors, to properly cover up as much as possible when outside — stuff those hiking pants into socks! — and to use a proper insect repellent. In many studies, DEET, Picaridin and PMD top lists of effectiveness.
I personally stick with DEET — it’s been around the longest, and thus is most studied. Yes, DEET has an unpleasant odor at first, but I’d rather smell that than contract a mosquito- or tick-borne illness, like Lyme. (Picaridin seems like a good alternative, too, and lacks the odor.)
With time, I do truly hope that we will develop new vaccines. It’s easy to forget what it took for past successes against terrible illnesses, but the price of public health is constant vigilance.
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