cBS News is breathlessly reporting this without asking important questions. They just do not teach Journalism 101 at the Ivy League schools anymore
Valley fever is on the rise in the U.S., and climate change could be helping the fungus spread
More than 500,000 Americans could be sickened each year by Valley fever, the disease caused by breathing in the fungus Coccidioides, according to preliminary estimates developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The draft figures, which were disclosed in a CDC presentation to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, suggest the toll inflicted on Americans by the fungus could be more than triple the size of widely cited previous estimates.
“There’s just not a ton of awareness or knowledge about the disease. We do see a lot of travel associated cases, we’ve seen reports of cases popping up in places where we wouldn’t have typically expected Valley fever to be endemic,” Samantha Williams, an epidemiologist with the CDC’s Mycotic Diseases Branch, told CBS News.
Williams is part of the team that has been refining these forthcoming estimates of cases of Valley fever, which scientists call Coccidioidomycosis. It is one of a range of new projects aimed at ramping up the agency’s response to the illness, which primarily occurs in the Southwest, from California to central Texas.
“Could.” In other words, they have no idea, they’re guessing.
Though only a fraction of cases each year are reported to the CDC these tallies have also been rising: preliminary figures topped out at 20,197 cases reported through the end of 2021, the most on record in a single year since the last peak of cases in 2011.
But sooooooon will be 500K. And this is your fault
“California’s dry conditions, combined with recent heavy winter rains could [result] in increasing Valley fever cases in the coming months,” California’s state health department warned in a news release Aug. 1.
The department cited recent research linking climbing transmission of the fungus to increasing cycles of drought across the Southwest — just one of several growing health threats linked to climate change. Other research has also linked upticks in the fungal infections to exposure to smoke from wildfires.
Warming temperatures and changes in rain patterns are also projected to substantially widen the map of where the fungus thrives, beyond the areas where cases are already mounting.
It took CBS till the end of the article to throw in ‘climate change’, almost like the article was written and then someone said “you have to include ‘climate change’!!!!!!! You cannot run an article like this without including the climate crisis! You know this! It was in the interoffice memo!”
BTW, it doesn’t sound fun. And if someone gets it they’ll probably classify it as COVID.
The distinguished Mr Teach quoted:
Well, if it’s caused by inhaling something, pretty soon we’ll get the word: we’ve all got to wear masks again!
Nah two masks one isn’t good enough. Then we’ll have to start with distancing and they’ll probably have to quarantine people in restaurants churches things like that. Of course communist rally’s, soccer games and BLM burnings of cities can continue.
I imagine this is all Trump’s fault.
Up to you! The fungus Coccidioides is NOT contagious, that is, is NOT spread human to human.
If the prevalence of the disease increases, one might choose to mask in areas where it’s endemic, especially if one is a chemo patient, transplant recipient, infants, immunosuppressed, treated with biologics for inflammation, older etc.
The concern is that the fungus environment is spreading.
But realize many, if not most of midwesterners, have been infected with the fungus Histoplasma capsulatum causing histoplasmosis, which is usually asymptomatic.
Mr Teach did not watch any of the National Academy presentation. How do we know? He didn’t mock the appearance of the presenters!!
Anyway, we should probably take seriously these emerging communicable diseases as global warming IS disturbing the environment and humans are spreading into areas previously sparsely inhabited.
BTW, “could” is science-speak. Mr Teach attacks the use of “could” as meaning the scientists no nothing. For example, dumping tons of CO2 into the atmosphere “could” cause the Earth to warm. It’s how scientists present hypotheses in lay terms.
notice how they plugged “Climate Change” as a health threat. if we extrapolate that little missive, we may assume that solving “Climate Change” will lead to immortality.
Living in the Phoenix area, I can say Valley Fever is on the rise because of all the soil being disturbed. The volume of construction is beyond comprehension. Hire a pilot to fly you around the Phoenix area so you can see for yourself. Cars washed in the afternoon, then put in the garage overnight, are covered with sediment the next morning.
“California’s dry conditions, combined with recent heavy rains…”. Uh oh-sounds like they’re to set up the un-falsifiable part. It comes with drought, it comes with rain…