Wednesday, October 05, 2016

The theory of Hurricane Matthew is all rhetorical. It has been proven wrong by previous Hurricane Hermine.

Breitbart is exaggerating the danger. It isn't about facts to date, it is about fear and the November election.

5 October 2016
By Chriss W. Street 

When Hurricane Matthew strikes Florida, (click here) it is expected to boost the volume of Zika-infected mosquitos in the U.S., wipe out the effectiveness of anti-Zika pesticide spraying, and potentially spread the so-called Zika “danger zone” up the East Coast. 

The monster Category-4 Atlantic hurricane, packing winds of 140 miles per hour, is on a path to strike Southern Florida on Friday morning, then drive up the center of the state. The storm appears to have more than enough power to veer right to hammer Georgia and the Carolinas, then move north, bringing torrential rain and flooding to the East Coast....

This is the track (click here) of Hermine from 28 Aug - 03 September 2016.

Theoretically, the issue could be real when adding the potential of the climate crisis adding an important element to the dynamics of Zika's characteristics.

Zika is not found anyplace except tropical and subtropical climates. It does not survive at higher latitudes. When adding the potential of the climate crisis there is a defined equation that applies. However, Zika more of less appears to depend on an ecosystem and not just temperature and moisture. That is a valid reality. Specialty organisms need an ecosystem and not just simply portions of it.

The CDC:

It is easy (click here) to reach false conclusion from this map IF one did not look at all the facts that went into making it.

Laboratory-confirmed Zika virus (click here) disease cases reported to ArboNET by state or territory — United States, 2015–2016 (as of September 28, 2016)§

I think it is great Breitbart is advocating for public health. Please don't stop. However, there are fatal mistakes that end the advocacy if the facts behind the issue are not taken into account.

Had Breitbart looked at the facts from the CDC regarding Zika, Breitbart would have realized where the CDC came up with the blue map above.

There are two columns. The first one to the left states "Travel associated cases" No. (% of cases in states)  (N=3566). 

Said differently, "Travel associated cases" by number of cases and in parenthesis the percentage of the cases in that state of the entire county. N equals the total number of cases in the USA.

Second column 
"Locally acquired cases" No. (% of cases in states) (N=59)

Said differently, "Locally acquired cases" Number of cases with percentage of overall cases in that state in parenthesis. N equals the number of total locally acquired cases that is 59 in the USA.

In the second column the number of cases of locally acquired cases is 59 in Florida and that is 100 percent of locally acquired cases.

Who knows if there was the potential for locally acquired cases after Hermine because the governors of those states took preventive actions to ward of any potential for the virus to infect their state's mosquito population. They did the best thing possible because whether it was climate or prevention; it worked ! 

So, considering the country is protected from locally occurring Zika virus it isn't going to hurt to repeat those preventive measures. Why mess with success! 

Breitbart is now peer reviewed and it is a positive process to lead to expertise and not simply rhetoric and misinformation. But, that may not be the goal of Breitbart. They should consider themselves peer reviewed no matter their methodology.