Fryday is the day for my weekly COVID post, but this week there was no update from BCM’s Dr. Paul Klotman. I think that Good Friday trumped the COVID report. No matter. I haven’t read any dramatic COVID news this week.
I did read that Dr. Peter Hotez and his colleagues at Stanford medical center have expressed concern that Yellow Fever, gone from the US for a century, may be returning because of climate change. Yellow Fever is the result of a mosquito-borne viral infection like Dengue, Chikungunya, West Nile, Zika, and other such diseases that are not transmitted from person to person but rather from mosquito to person. I hate it when that happens.
Yellow Fever is so called because it can cause severe liver disease that manifests as jaundice. The virus itself is categorized as a flavivirus from the Latin Flavus which means yellow. Dengue, Zika, and West Nile are also viruses in the flavivirus family – FWIW.
Anyway, as the climate changes, the mosquitos and viruses from Central and South America move northward. We can expect outbreaks of viral diseases that have been unknown here for a hundred years. Sigh.
There is a vaccine for Yellow Fever, but I expect that the MAGA and the anti-vaxxer contingent will forego it. I think of it as a form of cosmic Natural Selection.
Since I have nothing else to report regarding COVID or other viruses, let me offer you a bit of food porn. I made a shrimp scampi with Bucatini pasta for dinner yesterday, and it was quite tasty.
Bon appetite!