Sioux Falls

UPDATE: Covid Prevention and West Nile

l3wis September 2, 2021 5Comments

Lately the city has been posting like mad men on Facebook about how spraying for mosquitos is safe, the problem is they still have failed to explain to citizens why they are spraying pesticides on people in broad daylight. One citizen even nicely asked in the thread, “What is the name of the product or the chemicals you are using?” The city rep responded, “We will get back to you.” I checked yesterday and not only has the question NOT been answered the question was deleted. Interesting.

UPDATE: The city did respond, the Active ingredient Permethrin, which can cause health issues.

According to Health Canada, it “may pose a risk to aquatic organisms, bees, beneficial insects and birds.” 

Inhaling Permethrin can irritate the nose, throat and lungs. â–º Exposure to Permethrin can cause headache, dizziness, fatigue, excessive salivation, muscle weakness, nausea and vomiting. â–º Permethrin may affect the liver.

But this isn’t about the censoring efforts on the city’s FB page, this is about the comparison of West Nile prevention to Covid Prevention.

The city spends oodles of money each year spraying for mosquitos for the prevention of West Nile. So far this year, one person has died from the disease (not sure if they were a SF resident). While these prevention measures are appreciated, in reality there is a lot of things you can do to protect yourself without the city blanketing our vegetable gardens with pesticides and killing beneficial bugs. The irony of all the prevention we do with skiters and a disease that kills very few compared to what we have done in our city for Covid prevention. Even though the FEDS handed us $50 million to do something about it,  we are going to spend that money on butterflies instead (but not the butterflies we kill with skiter spraying).

As we are going to peak again, the city’s health director, Dr. Chima said in a press conference yesterday (in which Mayor Poops did NOT attend-must have been rearranging his medals and trucker hats in his garage) that only 50% of SF residents are fully vaccinated and another 6% have at least one dose. So what has been going on with the covid vaccination education program? While citizens have NO SAY on whether they can spray us down with pesticides  they have been doing very little to encourage people to get a FREE and EFFECTIVE and SAFE vaccination, in which they have a choice to get. TV, radio, billboards and YouTube should be cluttered in this town with PSAs about the importance of vaccinations. Cricketts (they apparently are not affected by skiter spraying).

Seems bizarre to me all the energy and treasure we are spending on a disease that kills very few* while blowing Covid money on play things. The city has probably spent more money combatting EAB (Emerald Ash Boer) then combatting Covid.

I am still baffled how Covid and vaccinations have become so political and it doesn’t help that the people who have made it political (the Trumplicans) are running our city and state. It’s too bad there isn’t a vaccination for elected officials preventing ignorance, that would likely save more lives then a Covid vaccination.

*I do support West Nile prevention, I just think we can do it more organically and take on some individual responsibility.