Abbreviated Pundit Round-up

The nature of APR is such that nearly every Sunday, I launch straight into one of this week’s editorials, generally from either the New York Times or the Washington Post. But this morning, I’ve come across something dire enough that it seemed worth communicating even though it falls outside the editorial page.

Amrith Ramkumar has some unpleasant news about something already very unpleasant.

Zika may pose a danger for far many more of us than pregnant women and babies, a new study suggests.

Mosquitoes have now transmitted the virus in a second area in South Florida, officials announced on Friday, as they advised pregnant women not to travel to the zone in Miami Beach. As the virus spreads in the Americas, with more than 10,000 cases confirmed in the United States, researchers are working to understand its subtleties and develop a vaccine.

In addition to causing the birth defect microcephaly, Zika can wreak havoc in our brains' stem cells, researchers from Rockefeller University and La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology found in a study published in the journal Cell Stem Cell Thursday.

Zika virus has been around for some time in Africa. Luckily, the version of the virus that originated there has not been noted to bring either the birth defects, or the neurological damage of the strain that has appeared in the Americas.

Unfortunately, it’s the nastier strain which is now spreading locally in the area around Miami Beach. So, especially if you live in the Southeastern United States, start taking precautions now. Check around your home and neighborhood for items that could hold standing water—which includes things as small as disused water bowls for pets and that cup you left setting next to the shed when you were painting the trim, circa 1997. Mosquitoes breed prolifically in very small containers.

When you’re outside, light-colored clothing seems to help, and even if you normally shun harsher insect repellents like DEET, rethink your position. At least for now.

Work on a vaccine for Zika is underway, and if the Republicans will stop treating a deadly, spreading disease like leverage they can use in the umpteenth attempt to sink Obamacare, things could change quickly. Next summer this threat could be over.

But right now, a single bite, from a single mosquito, can ruin your life. Even if you’re not pregnant. Worse still, it can turn you into a vector to carry the disease to many more people. So take some damn precautions. Please.

Right now, I’m feeling ready to get after not just the Culicidae (mosquitoes) but the Vespidae. I’ll tell you about my gripe with them in a minute.

First, let’s do some pundits…