Finding new ways to control diseases from mosquitoes, ticks, and flea bites
CDCFeb 19, 2021
The Facts
On Monday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sounded the alarm about malaria cases found in both Florida and Texas. The cases were identified as locally acquired, meaning the cases originated in the US and had no links to foreign travel.
The warning noted that the five cases detected between the two states are the first locally transmitted cases in the US in two decades. Roughly 2K cases are diagnosed in the US each year but are mostly comprised of travelers returning from areas where the spread of malaria is common.
The Spin
Pro-establishment narrative
The US takes the fight against mosquito-borne illness seriously. Through the CDC, the US has partnered with universities through the Vector-Borne Disease Regional Centers of Excellence to research and develop innovative solutions for the control and prevention of vector-transmitted diseases. The Centers continue to play a role in preventing and responding to outbreaks using those solutions across the country.
Establishment-critical narrative
While robust health protocols are important, there's also a political reason why the US has seen an uptick in previously-eradicated diseases. Unlike their law-abiding counterparts, illegal immigrants cross the border without being screened for dangerous diseases like tuberculosis, leprosy, polio, cholera, diphtheria, and smallpox, among others. As shown by decades of no alarming upticks, the government obviously knows how to keep these illnesses out, and that solution is stopping illegal immigration.
Narrative C
In 2020, the CDC reported 17 different vector-borne illnesses and nine pathogens new to the US since 2004. The West Nile virus outbreak of 2021 in Arizona proved that the US is unprepared for such events and it has experts very concerned. As climate change has accelerated, it's shifted the environments conducive to mosquito-borne illness to new areas of the globe. Not only is the government woefully unprepared but so are medical professionals and healthcare facilities.