Good news! The groundwork has already been laid to science the shit out of the mosquitoes. Not only do we have GMO mosquitoes ready to cut the population of mosquitoes by 90% ... http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda…
... our very own Bill Gates has invested a lot into understanding how we can prevent mosquitoes from spreading infectious diseases. http://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_unpl…
And let the anti-science crowd begin declaring this a conspiracy.
No you should not freak out, you should get an iud or implant. I hate how these all but foolproof methods are never mentioned when some guy is blathering about how ineffective BC is (see linked NYT article).
Of the fraction of women left over that are pregnant or actively trying to be you have a right to be a bit freaked.
The messed up part is that many of these countries outlaw contraception and abortion but blithely tell women not to get pregnant.
@9 thanks for that. I laughed pretty hard. @14 no countries in the Americas outlaw contraception. Abortion yes, pretty restricted everywhere s. of the USA.
So... On a scale of Mad Cow (everyone but the vegans are all going to die!) to Ebola (nothing to worry about you racist fuck!) what is the Stranger approved level of freak-out for Zika?
Yes that was badly phrased. Contraception like implants are just out of reach for many. Abortions are illegal under any circumstances in some (but not all) countries.
Zika is from the same family of viruses as west nile, yellow fever, dengue, and others. It's primarily a vector born disease. Unlike west nile, its not spread by a mosquito that covers most of the US. The range of Zika's vector is restricted to the deep South, so you're safe in Seattle. Also, it doesn't seem to have a reservoir here other than humans, which should restrict its spread. Is Zika a big deal? Yes, and we should do something about it for no other reason than to help people in affected areas. But it's not an imminent threat to most people in this county.
Worth noting, once you've had Zika, you *probably* can't get it again, and pregnancies at that point are probably safe. That doesn't help anyone who is pregnant now or might be soon, which is a scary situation. But this is not some kind of microcephaly End Times like I've seen it on Facebook.
Not really. But I'm a gay male and I don't have, want, or like children and this doesn't seem to have much of an effect on adults who aren't or won't be pregnant.
Thinking about the implications is what is chilling. What will happen if a large percentage of all human babies are born with this horrible deformity? What if humans have to have fewer and fewer babies? The social and economic implications of a possibly severely negative population growth? Generations lost or born deformed?? This is why I'm concerned by this virus.
Sure hope BigPharma can get their heads out of the lifestyle-drug-asshole it's buried in to come up with a remedy.
you could move to Stanley, Idaho. it's always cold there.
http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda…
... our very own Bill Gates has invested a lot into understanding how we can prevent mosquitoes from spreading infectious diseases. http://www.ted.com/talks/bill_gates_unpl…
And let the anti-science crowd begin declaring this a conspiracy.
But ... Don't freak out.
Of the fraction of women left over that are pregnant or actively trying to be you have a right to be a bit freaked.
The messed up part is that many of these countries outlaw contraception and abortion but blithely tell women not to get pregnant.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/22/world/…
http://deadinsects.net/Giant-mountain-be…
Modern rodents these days. I pity their fleas.
Keep calm and get vaccinated.
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/he…