
Zika Is Coming - aaronbrethorst
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/09/opinion/zika-is-coming.html
======
kafkaesq
I take the top-level comments so far as an indication that -- if they aren't
exactly afraid -- deep down inside, people are definitely feeling a certain
amount of anxiety about the sudden rise of the Zika virus, and more the the
point, what it really means about this new world we we're lurching into. A
world which isn't coming to an end -- but slowly but surely, from one day to
the next, it's a world which is _changing_ , and generally for the worse. And
in which ideas we might have taken for granted until now -- like "Hey, I could
just move to Miami, and start a family, if I wanted" \-- suddenly become quite
complicated, indeed, and fraught with uncertainty.

And unfortunately, the only tool they know of to defend themselves with is
snark.

~~~
jeremysmyth
_it 's a world which is changing, and generally for the worse_

Ah, but this is objectively wrong, by almost every metric (crime, security,
murder, health, longevity, happiness, poverty). What _is_ getting worse is the
general level of fear, and this comes from the fact that we can hear bad news
faster and more generally than ever before, combined with our evolved nature
to implicitly feel that everything that we hear about might personally affect
us (see Dunbar's number), and clickbait tactics of news editors and the need
to fill the 24 hour news cycle with sensationalism. Fear causes stress, and
both fear and stress cause physically and socially damaging effects.

To wit: I never met anyone affected (directly or indirectly) by the recent
Ebola outbreak in any social environment (online or offline) to which I
belong, but almost everyone I spoke to about it was afraid of it. That's not
to diminish the effect on the (globally) few people it impacts, which is
horrible and terrifying, so the imbalance is not at all universal. However,
it's a fair assumption that _fear_ of Zika is considerably more dangerous to
the average person (globally) than the risk of the virus itself. Multiply this
across all the other things that people are afraid of but that are actually
less dangerous now than at any time in our recorded past, and you end up with
_fear_ being the most damaging change for the worse.

------
brianmcconnell
Notice that the hot zone spans across jurisdictions that deliberately opted
out of Medi-Cal, and generally opposed public health measures in general. Sad,
because if Zika gets rolling there, the people who will most need access to
health care will be the working poor.

------
dogma1138
Have they actually proved that Zika is even causing microcephaly?

------
ddt_Osprey
It's either DDT or Ospreys. One comes with micro-cephalic children. The other
dooms an endangered species to extinction.

Speak now, or forever hold your peace.

~~~
antiquark
DDT is still used in the third world, and mosquitoes are evolving resistance
to it. So choosing DDT will eventually end with extinct ospreys, and DDT-
resistant mosquitoes.

------
debacle
This isn't news. It's fear-mongering.

------
StanislavPetrov
If you are so worried, don't have a kid. The world is overpopulated enough as
it is.

------
unclebucknasty
Am I the only who's noticed that there is always one and exactly one major
disease of which we should all be mortally afraid?

~~~
DannoHung
Because health agencies pour tons of work and money into preventing their
spread before the next major disease can hit us.

Or would you rather a modern Spanish flu pandemic kill half a billion people?

~~~
douche
We're probably due for a good culling. There'll be eight billion of us before
long.

Time to go play Plague, Inc, again...

~~~
unclebucknasty
It's OK. As long as we are all morbidly afraid, we will be immune.

