The city is spraying my neighborhood to combat west nile virus. I can think of lots of things I'd rather see the city spend its money on, but what the hell do I know?
Oh, I remember. I've read about natural selection. Anti-bacterial soaps and other things that supposedly combat these dangerous bacteria and diseases are not helpful. You can never kill them all, and the ones that survive are resistent and will pass their surviving genes to their offspring.
Getting rid of standing water, informing the public, and all that other stuff is a good idea. Certainly we don't want anyone else to die of this disease. However, how many of us will have our health compromised because of these sprayings? How safe can Anvil be if we're told to stay indoors with the windows closed while they drive up and down our streets and alleys spraying?
I hate to ask this, but why is it that the less affluent areas of town are the ones getting sprayed? Do they all have squeaky-clean gutters in Wrigleyville? Have no dead birds been found in the areas that aren't predominantly African-American, Puerto Rican, or other non-Anglos? If it's so safe and so important to protect the public, why not spray the whole city? I can only wonder.
As Joe knows, I rescind my earlier comment about the relative smallness of the targeted area in the north half of the city. There's some conflicting informtation on the City's site, namely that the sprayed area depicted on the map does not correspond to the area described verbally. Which begs the question...why?
Posted by Lisa at September 10, 2002 4:27 AMMongo say: "it's 'resistant,' not 'resistent.'"
I don't particularly support the spraying either, but in fairness to the city they do claim that the sprayed neighborhoods are one where "clusters" of cases have been reported. Of course, a "cluster" that apparently spans 90% of the south half of Chicago is sort of suspicious. Their story's easier to buy in the north half, when you consider that the target area is less than 1.5 miles East-West and about 6 miles North-South -- no more than a sliver of this urban sprawl; plus which I'm not sure that the socioeconomic / ethnic argument would apply to this sliver, though I haven't seen enough of the neighborhoods north of us to be certain. In any case, I think the money would be better spent opening a free West Nile clinic for affected individuals without health insurance. But then, I'm one of those weirdos who thinks everyone should get free health care.
Posted by Lisa at September 9, 2002 4:13 PM