Town urges curfew over mosquito-spread disease that kills up to 50% of people

[MercyA]

Yet another disease to track. 😞 Yes, it's very rare, but this is hella scary:

"A small town in Massachusetts is urging residents to stay indoors in the evenings after the spread of a dangerous mosquito-spread virus reached 'critical risk level'. The virus causes Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE), which kills between 30 and 50 percent of people who are stricken—who are often children under the age of 15 and the elderly. Around half who survive are left permanently disabled, and some die within a few years due to complications. There is no treatment for EEE. So far, one person in the town—an elderly resident of Oxford—has already become seriously ill with neuroinvasive EEE."

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/08/town-urges-curfew-over-mosquito-spread-disease-that-kills-up-to-50-of-people/

[mommyoffive]

Wow, never heard of this.  Scary.

[kbutton]

That is terrifying. Yikes! It would be nice to know if this eventually becomes endemic or tends to be self-limiting over time. 

[Bootsie]

This was first identified in horses in 1831.  The first known human case was almost a century ago.  Encephallitis is very serious and very scary.  But, I think the reality is different than the headline of this story reads.  Reading more about this, of the people infected with the virus, 4-5% develop Easter Equine Encephalitis.  According to the CDC, about 30% of those people die.  

[Elizabeth86]

I remember this thread and chose to ignore it because I don’t like worrying and I figured it’s up north, I’m good. Just heard of La Crosse Virus affecting kids in Knox co tn which isn’t too far from here. There goes my 1000 hour challenge. Ugh. I hate using bug spray. The mosquitos just need to stop.

Edited August 29 by Elizabeth86

[Frances]

2 hours ago, Elizabeth86 said:

I remember this thread and chose to ignore it because I don’t like worrying and I figured it’s up north, I’m good. Just heard of La Crosse Virus affecting kids in Knox co tn which isn’t too far from here. There goes my 1000 hour challenge. Ugh. I hate using bug spray. The mosquitos just need to stop.

I grew up in the area it was named for and during the course of k12 school, had various classmates or classmates’ siblings with it. None died, although a few were very sick, hospitalized, and recovering for a very long time and likely had long term health effects.

[Faith-manor]

This was not on my 2024 bingo card. Ugh.

Edited August 30 by Faith-manor

[YaelAldrich]

My friend have a summer home out that way (Plymouth County) but they don't seem too worried. I'm worried for them though.  We're in Boston so theoretically less in the danger zone. 

[Elizabeth86]

7 hours ago, Frances said:

I grew up in the area it was named for and during the course of k12 school, had various classmates or classmates’ siblings with it. None died, although a few were very sick, hospitalized, and recovering for a very long time and likely had long term health effects.

Yes, I’m thankful most recover from this one! Nothing like the one going on up north. Yikes though. Still looking to avoid it!

[HomeAgain]

DS and I were just having this discussion yesterday because it's very close to home.  Mosquitoes love us, there's something about our blood that makes them take a beeline for any open skin.  I keep a bottle of bug spray in my car right now for walks in and out of the rink. 

 

[Clemsondana]

health/other/what-is-la-crosse-virus-tn-sees-increase-in-mosquito-borne-virus/ar-AA1pwKIw?ocid=BingNewsSerp  

It seems a bit more cases than the past few years but within the typical range. I've been in the area for as decade and don't remember hearing about it, although I do remember them using trucks to spray for mosquitoes several years ago.  I think something else-maybe west nile?- prompted that. 

[wintermom]

That is scary! I wonder if weather patterns play a big role in how many people contract this disease in any given year. This summer was particularly wet, with lots of heat in between. 

Between the ticks and the mosquitoes it's becoming more challenging to be outside during the comfortable times of the day and in the nicest wooded areas. 😌

[mommyoffive]

https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/dont-let-mosquitos-drain-the-last?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=281219&post_id=148223898&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=q2z70&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

[Matryoshka]

On 8/23/2024 at 2:08 PM, kbutton said:

That is terrifying. Yikes! It would be nice to know if this eventually becomes endemic or tends to be self-limiting over time. 

Don't worry.  It's been here forever - like, centuries.  Every year around this time it crops up, and yes, a few people get it and IF one gets sick it's serious, but it hasn't ever seem to spread outside the few places it crops up every year (maybe because they drop a crap ton of poison on everyone as soon as it shows up every year?).  But yeah, usually total cases in a year are less than you can count on one hand, with even less fatalities.  Considering that there are currently 1.3 MILLION cases per DAY of Covid, yet no one is doing the slightest thing to prevent or avoid it, I find this level of panic over something this rare and also NOT at all new, a bit ... overblown.  

Wear bug spray if you must go out in the evening near swamps.

[kbutton]

1 minute ago, Matryoshka said:

Considering that there are currently 1.3 MILLION cases per DAY of Covid, yet no one is doing the slightest thing to prevent or avoid it, I find this level of panic over something this rare and also NOT at all new, a bit ... overblown.  

Agreed, but I had never heard of it that I remember, so I thought it was a potential “next thing.”

Still wearing my mask everywhere and trying to come up with one-liners who people who pretend to be confused about it.

[Matryoshka]

12 minutes ago, kbutton said:

Agreed, but I had never heard of it that I remember, so I thought it was a potential “next thing.”

Still wearing my mask everywhere and trying to come up with one-liners who people who pretend to be confused about it.

I've heard of it every,single.year for my entire life, so over half a century.  As someone else said, they first identified it about 200 years ago, but it was probably already endemic before then, we just didn't have the technology to identify pathogens before then. There are always a few cases in Plymouth county, especially.  This is not the first time, by far, that towns southeast of Boston have had dusk curfews on outdoor team sports practices for this reason.  

Even before the first case pops up, there are breathless news stories if they find it in any mosquitoes (they test tons of them every year around this time to get ahead of it).  I'm not sure why this is getting national news coverage - this is nothing new nor an increase in frequency or distribution over previous years' patterns.  But here where it's already been endemic forever, it's just another year same-old same-old.

They do similar stories on West Nile which is much newer (20 years?), which apparently here we had SIX cases last year, but no one died.

Edited August 30 by Matryoshka

[kbutton]

7 minutes ago, Matryoshka said:

Even before the first case pops up, there are breathless news stories if they find it in any mosquitoes (they test tons of them every year around this time to get ahead of it).  I'm not sure why this is getting national news coverage - this is nothing new nor an increase in frequency or distribution over previous years' patterns.  But here where it's already been endemic forever, it's just another year same-old same-old.

That would get old!

[KSera]

34 minutes ago, kbutton said:

Still wearing my mask everywhere and trying to come up with one-liners who people who pretend to be confused about it.

Lol. We should have a thread for this 😉. 

[kbutton]

34 minutes ago, KSera said:

Lol. We should have a thread for this 😉. 

Then we could start our own line of custom-printed masks and let them speak for us, lol! 

I get caught off guard, and it’s often one of those put together ladies just old enough to maybe be my mother who phrases it just so to seem polite but does indeed know it’s not polite. Chaps may hide every time. It’s always a question with an embedded but veiled dig/factoid/discussion ending snippet like, “now that Covid is over...” In front of people.

People my age wait until it’s a small setting and ask honest questions, sometimes with a self-own, such as “I am at risk because of xyz, and I probably should mask too, but xyz reason.” That doesn’t bother me.

If I don’t want to get into it, sometimes I remember to say that DH gets zero PTO. No vacation, no paid holidays (works 50% of them), and no sick time. We can mask, or we can go broke, thanks! 

[mommyoffive]

25 minutes ago, kbutton said:

Then we could start our own line of custom-printed masks and let them speak for us, lol! 

I get caught off guard, and it’s often one of those put together ladies just old enough to maybe be my mother who phrases it just so to seem polite but does indeed know it’s not polite. Chaps may hide every time. It’s always a question with an embedded but veiled dig/factoid/discussion ending snippet like, “now that Covid is over...” In front of people.

People my age wait until it’s a small setting and ask honest questions, sometimes with a self-own, such as “I am at risk because of xyz, and I probably should mask too, but xyz reason.” That doesn’t bother me.

If I don’t want to get into it, sometimes I remember to say that DH gets zero PTO. No vacation, no paid holidays (works 50% of them), and no sick time. We can mask, or we can go broke, thanks! 

How about a Tim Walz one?   "Mind your own Damn Business"

I once had someone one politely asking me for like the 10th time, when I was going to stop masking and having my kids mask?  That Tim Walz one would have been handy.   I mean you don't want my real explanation do you?  I don't think that I will ever stop masking in certain times and sickness levels.  

Edited August 30 by mommyoffive

[kbutton]

Just now, mommyoffive said:

How about a Tim Walz one?   "Mind your own Damn Business"

Well, I don’t mind sincere inquiries, but there are days, lol!

[mommyoffive]

1 minute ago, kbutton said:

Well, I don’t mind sincere inquiries, but there are days, lol!

I haven't had anyone do a sincere inquire. Not even doctors.  They have said snarky things to say the least.  Even the doctor who proceeded to cough the entire check up.  

[kbutton]

3 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

How about a Tim Walz one?   "Mind your own Damn Business"

I once had someone one politely asking me for like the 10th time, when I was going to stop masking and having my kids mask?  That Tim Walz one would have been handy.   I mean you don't want my real explanation do you?  I don't think that I will ever stop masking in certain times and sickness levels.  

Oh, I should add that it might not be church-friendly, lol!

Just saw the update—I expect to be masking before not-to-be-missed stuff forever even if we can get a handle on covid risk in some way. It just seems so sensible to not have to miss a big event!

[kbutton]

2 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

I haven't had anyone do a sincere inquire. Not even doctors.  They have said snarky things to say the least.  Even the doctor who proceeded to cough the entire check up.  

I can totally imagine my former family doctor being this way. DH’s coworkers rarely mask anymore, and they are all HCWs.

[mommyoffive]

1 minute ago, kbutton said:

I can totally imagine my former family doctor being this way. DH’s coworkers rarely mask anymore, and they are all HCWs.

That is nuts.  I can't imagine that you wouldn't bring so much stuff home.   I know wearing the high end masks are a lot to do all day long every day. But some kind of mask?  I can't imagine not doing anything at all.

[kbutton]

11 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

That is nuts.  I can't imagine that you wouldn't bring so much stuff home.   I know wearing the high end masks are a lot to do all day long every day. But some kind of mask?  I can't imagine not doing anything at all.

They might for a known Covid patient, but not much else. They are sick a lot. Many have little kids, and some have been pregnant multiple times during Covid and are not having easy pregnancies. I think it’s nuts! They are making people work short on personnel without a bump in pay, and they abolished the call schedule (and didn’t have pay differential for being called in). There is zero incentive to keep getting sick, but they keep doing it.

[kbutton]

15 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

I know wearing the high end masks are a lot to do all day long every day. But some kind of mask? 

And yes, the lesser masks do a lot! DH wears a KN95 mask unless the patient is obviously sick. Then he wears the N95. He hasn’t brought anything home the entire pandemic. We got Covid from our N95-wearing kid almost two years ago. It was dumb luck.

[KSera]

2 hours ago, kbutton said:

If I don’t want to get into it, sometimes I remember to say that DH gets zero PTO. No vacation, no paid holidays (works 50% of them), and no sick time. We can mask, or we can go broke, thanks! 

“I can’t afford to get sick” is a pretty good short one liner for some of those situations. I mean, what are they going to say? “Yes you can”? What I have found interesting is that people seem to respond much better to being told you have a high-risk family member than to being told that you are high-risk yourself. I can’t begin to understand what the psychology of that is, but I’ve seen lots of people report the same thing. Actually, I do have some ideas for why that is, but I’ve had enough rants here in the last couple days that I won’t go there 😂. I am basically pathologically unable to lie, so many of the comebacks that people use aren’t available to me because they require telling a lie 🙄. I think I shared this one before, but I also like just responding to any mask question with, “Oh, I’m good, thanks!” Total non sequitur, but also not a lie, and hopefully confuses them enough to move on.
 

[mommyoffive]

7 minutes ago, KSera said:

“I can’t afford to get sick” is a pretty good short one liner for some of those situations. I mean, what are they going to say? “Yes you can”? What I have found interesting is that people seem to respond much better to being told you have a high-risk family member than to being told that you are high-risk yourself. I can’t begin to understand what the psychology of that is, but I’ve seen lots of people report the same thing. Actually, I do have some ideas for why that is, but I’ve had enough rants here in the last couple days that I won’t go there 😂. I am basically pathologically unable to lie, so many of the comebacks that people use aren’t available to me because they require telling a lie 🙄. I think I shared this one before, but I also like just responding to any mask question with, “Oh, I’m good, thanks!” Total non sequitur, but also not a lie, and hopefully confuses them enough to move on.
 

So odd.  

[Harriet Vane]

4 hours ago, KSera said:

“I can’t afford to get sick” is a pretty good short one liner for some of those situations. I mean, what are they going to say? “Yes you can”? What I have found interesting is that people seem to respond much better to being told you have a high-risk family member than to being told that you are high-risk yourself. I can’t begin to understand what the psychology of that is, but I’ve seen lots of people report the same thing. Actually, I do have some ideas for why that is, but I’ve had enough rants here in the last couple days that I won’t go there 😂. I am basically pathologically unable to lie, so many of the comebacks that people use aren’t available to me because they require telling a lie 🙄. I think I shared this one before, but I also like just responding to any mask question with, “Oh, I’m good, thanks!” Total non sequitur, but also not a lie, and hopefully confuses them enough to move on.
 

Yes, this. I hate this. For myself, when people look at me, they see that I appear to be healthy and strong, and they may even know that I exercise a lot. I wonder if they feel as though I don't look sick or frail, so that may be why they're not real sympathetic to my concerns. 

I've also had the experience conversing with someone who is waaaaaay more frail than me but who doesn't believe "all the covid paranoia." This person felt that if they can "handle it" with their autoimmune condition then what's my problem. 

[East Coast Sue]

On 8/23/2024 at 10:48 AM, MercyA said:

Yet another disease to track. 😞 Yes, it's very rare, but this is hella scary:

"A small town in Massachusetts is urging residents to stay indoors in the evenings after the spread of a dangerous mosquito-spread virus reached 'critical risk level'. The virus causes Eastern equine encephalitis (EEE), which kills between 30 and 50 percent of people who are stricken—who are often children under the age of 15 and the elderly. Around half who survive are left permanently disabled, and some die within a few years due to complications. There is no treatment for EEE. So far, one person in the town—an elderly resident of Oxford—has already become seriously ill with neuroinvasive EEE."

https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/08/town-urges-curfew-over-mosquito-spread-disease-that-kills-up-to-50-of-people/

Someone who lives nearby (Philadelphia) was just diagnosed with EEE and West Nile. He’s in the hospital and not doing well. 

Edited August 31 by East Coast Sue
Spelling!

[kbutton]

18 hours ago, KSera said:

“I can’t afford to get sick” is a pretty good short one liner for some of those situations. I mean, what are they going to say? “Yes you can”? What I have found interesting is that people seem to respond much better to being told you have a high-risk family member than to being told that you are high-risk yourself. I can’t begin to understand what the psychology of that is, but I’ve seen lots of people report the same thing. Actually, I do have some ideas for why that is, but I’ve had enough rants here in the last couple days that I won’t go there 😂. I am basically pathologically unable to lie, so many of the comebacks that people use aren’t available to me because they require telling a lie 🙄. I think I shared this one before, but I also like just responding to any mask question with, “Oh, I’m good, thanks!” Total non sequitur, but also not a lie, and hopefully confuses them enough to move on.
 

All of this, down to not being able to use the little white lie stuff, lol! 

[Arcadia]

18 hours ago, KSera said:

What I have found interesting is that people seem to respond much better to being told you have a high-risk family member than to being told that you are high-risk yourself. I can’t begin to understand what the psychology of that is, but I’ve seen lots of people report the same thing.

 

18 hours ago, mommyoffive said:

So odd.  

It is part of coping psychology for some people. It is easier to “distance” and be sympathetic when it is not the person in front of you.
Some people also genuinely don’t know how to react. For example, when I was volunteering at the children’s ward, people could offer words of sympathy to the parents but are loss for words when talking to the child with terminal illness. 

[mommyoffive]

https://www.today.com/health/news/dad-fighting-deadly-mosquito-viruses-west-nile-eee-rcna169417?utm_campaign=trueAnthem_manual&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwY2xjawFLDD5leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHVjxKn3HsBLBTE_SR_k_KBqUPTt6v8nSTVXT01BpnKO0Resu5h7V32-MJQ_aem_qaC6Cd3femCJrNlsuJgTXw

 

Wow, that is horrible that he got 3 viruses from them.

[Halftime Hope]

I keep seeing on social media that mosquitos abhor vanilla mixed with water and sprayed on. I need to see if it works.