An event from this past summer has finally made the New York Times, a time lag likely due to the fact that it happened in Italy and not in the U.S. But someday soon, it could.
People began getting sick from a mystery illness in a small village in Italy. Symptoms were serious, some who had it died, and some who survived had lasting symptoms of arthritis. The virulence and unknown cause might have prompted panic had the outbreak lasted longer, but it caused a lot of fear and mistrust.
The disease turned out to be chikungunya, a tropical disease carried by tiger mosquitoes. These mosquitoes had never been seen anywhere near this village before. And this is its significance, according to the Times story:
“This is the first case of an epidemic of a tropical disease in a developed, European country,” said Dr. Roberto Bertollini, director of the World Health Organization’s Health and Environment program. “Climate change creates conditions that make it easier for this mosquito to survive and it opens the door to diseases that didn’t exist here previously. This is a real issue. Now, today. It is not something a crazy environmentalist is warning about.”
The time to prepare for such events here would reasonably be now, though according to the character of the past few years--dominated as it has been by decadence, greed, deliberate deception, willful stupidity and political cynicism--it will take a major outbreak of a tropical disease like dengue in the U.S.--possibly in L.A., contracted by Paris Hilton--for anyone here to pay attention. And if there is the subsequent relevation of a public health system unable to cope, panic may be a mild word for the reaction.
Of course we could act, we could prepare, just on the strong possibility that this will happen in the next five or ten years, if not tomorrow. But can you even imagine any presidential candidate talking about this, or even stranger, anyone in the media asking?
5 days ago
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