From The BBC Future: The new mosquito bringing disease to North America...

[abqtommy]

I saved this article on 1-19-21 since I didn't want to drop it when we were all busy celebrating
the inauguration. But here it is now and I think it's important to know.

From article: "The discovery of a novel mosquito on Guantanamo Bay reveals how globalisation is threatening to unleash the next pandemic.

During the night of 18 June 2019, on the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, an intruder was caught in a trap.

snip

The intruder was an Aedes vittatus mosquito. One of 3,500 mosquito species found across the globe, it is a new addition to the dozen or so species in North America that carry parasites or pathogens harmful to humans. Other mosquito species, like Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti, can transmit diseases like dengue, yellow fever and chikungunya. But unlike those others, Aedes vittatus is capable of carrying nearly all of the most dangerous mosquito-borne diseases, except for malaria.

“Being in close contact with these mosquitoes is not good news. They’re breeding in your bird bath and they’re feeding off your kids,” says Yvonne-Marie Linton, research director of the Walter Reed Biosystematics Unit and curator of nearly 2 million specimens in the Smithsonian Institution’s US National Mosquito Collection.

The Aedes vittatus is endemic to the Indian subcontinent and has never been seen in the western hemisphere until now. The mosquito is “a proven vector of chikungunya, Zika, dengue, yellow fever viruses and many other diseases”, according to the team of scientists who discovered it."

much more text and photos at link:

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20210115-aedes-vittatus-a-mosquito-that-carries-zika-and-dengue

Damn, I haven't even gotten my covid vaccine yet!

[SharonClark]

1. Oh, no! Mosquitos love me!

[CanonRay]

2. I've actually had a Yellow Fever vaccine

but of course not Covid yet.

[BannonsLiver]

3. Meh

[Binkie The Clown]

4. It is Mother Nature's job to continually try to kill us. Ask Darwin.

That's how natural selection works. Nature is our worst enemy. It knows a million ways to kill us, and keeps inventing new ways every day. It's a never-ending arms race. Deal with it.