Zika in U.S.

[Malcolm]

Because this may not end any time soon.

Four individuals in Miami-Dade and Broward counties have been infected with the Zika virus by local mosquitoes, Florida health officials said Friday.

These are the first known cases of the virus being transmitted by mosquitoes in the continental United States.
"While no mosquitoes trapped tested positive for the Zika virus, the department believes these cases were likely transmitted through infected mosquitoes in this area," according to a statement from the Florida Department of Health.
...
It is possible that someone could have Zika without knowing, since 80% of those infected have no symptoms. When symptoms occur, they can include fever, rash, joint pain and red eyes, and they can last from a few days to about a week.
There is no treatment or vaccine for Zika. None of these four unidentified patients, which include a woman and three men, has needed hospitalization.

Awesome. A disease that usually isn't even bad enough to warrant a trip to the hospital, has a nice dormant period, and only unleashes its full wrath on your offspring after you overlook it. It's also spread by mosquitoes and sex, which is going to make life interesting if this shit isn't locked down by the time summer ends and all the usual Labor Day celebrations happen on the beaches. It also does a fine job of cockblocking any local blood donation centers.

[Malcolm]

Congress still useless.

Yet lawmakers left Washington in mid-July for a seven-week recess without approving any of the $1.9 billion that Obama requested in February to develop a vaccine and control the mosquitoes that carry the virus.
...
Republicans angered Democrats by adding a provision to a $1.1 billion take-it-or-leave-it measure that would have blocked Planned Parenthood clinics in Puerto Rico from receiving money.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, writing in USA Today on Thursday, did not mention that provision in blaming Democrats for blocking the legislation. Their obstruction, according to Ryan, R-Wis., is "a blatant ploy in an election year."

Fuckwits.

[Malcolm]

Florida's gov is bitching about lack of federal action. Gee, I wonder why. It's because the various Captains Ahab in Congress simply have to hunt their white whale ...

Republicans angered Democrats by adding a provision to a $1.1 billion take-it-or-leave-it measure that would have blocked Planned Parenthood clinics in Puerto Rico from receiving money.

... even as people like Marco fucking Rubio have been able to leave that shit at the door.

As for Zika, Rubio has voted for funding to combat the virus in Congress and was the first Republican to co-sponsor President Obama's proposed $1.9 billion Zika legislation.

[Leisher]

Imagine a country where every bill that went through Congress could only cover a single item. No provisions or add-ons.

Of course, that would require Congressmen work more than 20 days in a calendar year and it would really affect their ability to pad the pockets of special interests, and thus, would hurt their income.

[GORDON]

Then they can't say "SEE THE OTHER SIDE VOTED AGAINST X BECAUSE THEY ARE HEARTLESS."

[Malcolm]

Congress still useless.

Still useless.

Obama asked for $1.9 billion in funding to fight the virus. Republicans in Congress refused, offering counter-proposals with part of that funding, and finally offering a bill that would defund Planned Parenthood, a move calculated to torpedo the bill as Democrats refused to support it.

Because fuck your health, we have reelection bids to win. Fortunately, people who aren't major league dickheads for a living are on the ground actually fucking doing something instead of arguing over whose moral high ground is higher.

In Little Haiti, Liberty City, and a number of other neighborhoods in Miami, canvassers are now walking door to door to spread the word about the risks of Zika, one household at a time — hoping to reach 25, 000 people the next six weeks. In some neighborhoods, these workers aren't sponsored by federal or state health agencies, but by Planned Parenthood.

Lillian Tamayo, the CEO of Planned Parenthood of South, East and North Florida, told NPR that Miami-Dade County has the state's largest population of people without health coverage, which leaves these residents particularly vulnerable to Zika. "More than one-third of Florida does not have an OB-GYN," she said. "It also is among the worst states in the country for women's health and women's well-being. And it has staggering infection rates for sexually transmitted diseases. And now we have Zika."

Looks like PP seems to care a little more about the unborn than Congress.

[Malcolm]

Keeps getting better.

"During the weeks of Zika virus transmission, there were significant increases in the incidence of the Guillain-Barré syndrome, as compared with the pre-Zika virus baseline incidence, in (Brazil's) Bahia State (an increase of 172 percent), Colombia (211 percent), the Dominican Republic (150 percent), El Salvador (100 percent), Honduras (144 percent), Suriname (400 percent), and Venezuela (877 percent)," they wrote. "When the incidence of Zika virus disease increased, so did the incidence of the Guillain-Barré syndrome."

Doctors are fairly certain that Zika can cause Guillain-Barré syndrome, a little understood reaction in which the immune system attacks the nerves. It can cause temporary but often severe paralysis. In extreme cases, patients must be put on ventilators to help them breathe until they recover.

Sweet. All the fun of being stung or bitten by something from Australia with none of the pesky bother of importing exotic animals.

Or we could just blitz the remaining honeybee colonies we have.

Although the insecticide was known to kill bees, to South Carolina beekeepers spraying had not been as significant a concern as parasites, disease and other hive threats. As South Carolina Beekeepers Association President Larry Haigh told the Post and Courier in June 2015, many counties will spray at night, when honey bees do not forage for pollen. Plus, given sufficient warning, beekeepers will shield their hives and protect the bees’ food and water from contamination.

Sunday was different. Summerville resident Andrew Macke, who keeps bees as a hobby, wrote on Facebook that the hot weather left bees particularly exposed. Once temperatures exceed 90 degrees, bees may exit the nest to cool down in what is called a beard, clustering on the outside of the hive in a ball. Neither Macke nor Stanley had covered their hives.
...
Instead, the dead heaps signaled the killer was less mysterious, but no less devastating. The pattern matched acute pesticide poisoning. By one estimate, at a single apiary — Flowertown Bee Farm and Supply, in Summerville — 46 hives died on the spot, totaling about 2.5 million bees.

Oh shit, you needed those bees to make a living?

It marked a departure from Dorchester County’s usual ground-based efforts. For the first time, an airplane dispensed Naled in a fine mist, raining insect death from above between 6:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. Sunday. The county says it provided plenty of warning, spreading word about the pesticide plane via a newspaper announcement Friday and a Facebook post Saturday.

Well fuck you. Should've been checking facebook.

[Malcolm]

Local US bloodsuckers found.

[Vince]

Congress still useless.

Still useless.

Obama asked for $1.9 billion in funding to fight the virus. Republicans in Congress refused, offering counter-proposals with part of that funding, and finally offering a bill that would defund Planned Parenthood, a move calculated to torpedo the bill as Democrats refused to support it.

Because fuck your health, we have reelection bids to win. Fortunately, people who aren't major league dickheads for a living are on the ground actually fucking doing something instead of arguing over whose moral high ground is higher.

In Little Haiti, Liberty City, and a number of other neighborhoods in Miami, canvassers are now walking door to door to spread the word about the risks of Zika, one household at a time — hoping to reach 25, 000 people the next six weeks. In some neighborhoods, these workers aren't sponsored by federal or state health agencies, but by Planned Parenthood.

Lillian Tamayo, the CEO of Planned Parenthood of South, East and North Florida, told NPR that Miami-Dade County has the state's largest population of people without health coverage, which leaves these residents particularly vulnerable to Zika. "More than one-third of Florida does not have an OB-GYN," she said. "It also is among the worst states in the country for women's health and women's well-being. And it has staggering infection rates for sexually transmitted diseases. And now we have Zika."

Looks like PP seems to care a little more about the unborn than Congress.

This is stupid. PP is to Zika what McDonalds is to healthy eating.

Don't be daft.

[Leisher]

PP is to Zika what McDonalds is to healthy eating.

McDonald's offers salads and doesn't hold a gun to people's heads making them order a Big Mac.

Super Size Me was about as honest as Hillary Clinton.

[Malcolm]

PP is to Zika what McDonalds is to healthy eating.

No. It's a matter of reproductive health, which is exactly their area.

[Malcolm]

Merry-go-round still turning.

Democrats have accused Republicans of inserting language targeting Planned Parenthood into the Zika funding legislation to bait them into blocking it. The measure would primarily withhold funding from two Planned Parenthood clinics in Puerto Rico that do not offer screening for the virus, but to Democrats, any limitation on Planned Parenthood sets a dangerous precedent that Republicans could exploit.

The measure is so vague that after multiple votes on the legislation, few from either party seem to clearly understand what the provision — which does not mention Planned Parenthood by name but places limitations almost exclusively on those two clinics — would do. Yet, in a demonstration of just how politicized Planned Parenthood has become, both sides have shown they are willing to wage war over it.

Congress needs a Moe.

[Malcolm]

Shrinks balls and lowers sperm count in male mice.

[TheCatt]

Shrinks balls and lowers sperm count in male mice.

Well, time to get serious about a vaccine.

[Leisher]

Plot twist: It kills brain tumors.