Althouse: A squirrel in L.A. tests positive for plague.

July 6, 2010

A squirrel in L.A. tests positive for plague.

A squirrel.

In L.A.

Plague.

51 comments:

virgil xenophon said...: Thanks to the "open-borders" crowd we're going to see more of this. The infectious disease problem/dimension of the unfettered influx of illegals from 3rd-world places has been entirely covered up by the Govt and ignored by the MSM. There have been several localized out-breaks of TB, etc., among immigrant populations that have been largely ignored or po-pooed by the CDC and the MSM. Brave New World indeed. Brave New *PC* World, that is...; 7/6/10, 12:35 PM
James said...: That shouldn't be that surprising or alarming. Plague is rampant among prairie dogs all over the west (I recently saw them all over the suburbs of Denver), and it's not hard to imagine an infected flea hopping from a prairie dog to a squirrel. Besides, a little shot of penicillin and you're good.; 7/6/10, 12:36 PM
mesquito said...: Is it not easily treated with antibiotics? I mean, this ain't 1348. Not even in Los Angeles.; 7/6/10, 12:41 PM
Moose said...: Plague on a squirrel insufficiently medieval for you? We need to roll out Monty Python here?

wv: ovabloa - what happens when reproductive "rights" are discussed.; 7/6/10, 12:42 PM
Leland said...: Save the squirrel! It's carrying an endangered disease.

Alas, James is right...; 7/6/10, 12:42 PM
Joe said...: I'm betting this is pointless as "Comments" are probably still broken.

"Plague," or should that be PLAGUE is endemic within the Southwestern portion of the United States. It’s STILL carried by fleas, and the fleas by rodents, and rodents thrive in the southwest. So Plague thrives, to an extent in the southwest. This is probably BUBONIC Plague…the real killer was PNEUMONIC Plague. “Primary pneumonic plague results from inhalation of fine infective droplets and can be transmitted from human to human without involvement of fleas or animals. Untreated pneumonic plague has a very high fatality rate.” It was Pneumonic plague that killed 1/3 of Europe from India to Iceland.

This is one of those stories, Child drowns in pool.” Tragic yes, but not entirely news…..it happened all the time. People just think “Plague”=Middle Ages=Archaic=”cured.” And it’s not, it’s CONTROLLED, via antibiotics. Absent those and a good public health regime and “the Plague” could easily kill 1/3 of the Developed World, again….People take “Civilization” too much for granted.; 7/6/10, 12:42 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/6/10, 12:47 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: [typo fixed]

Numerically, one sick squirrel does not a plague make.

Okay, okay, FINE>

This reminds me. True item from a few years back. *points* This guy in New Mexico catches a mouse. To dispose of the live mouse the guy tosses it into a pile of trash burning in his back yard. The mouse ran out of the fire with its fur in flames back into the man's house, into the house's walls, where its nest amounts to tinder whereupon the whole house burned down. Revenge of the immolated mouse.; 7/6/10, 12:49 PM
Wince said...: Does that mean I'm gonna have to wear a condom for "muskrat love"?; 7/6/10, 12:58 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Around 2005, I remember seeing warning signs in Lake Tahoe area that cautioned visitors to be wary of lingering malaise, fever, etc due to the black plague. How the heck did they know [back then] we would elect Obama?

[I am kidding about the Obama part!].; 7/6/10, 1:01 PM
chickelit said...: There's been a sign up at Palomar State Park for years now warning that certain wild animals have tested positive for the plague.

At least we don't have bears foraging for trash anymore. :)

Just wait until the new found love for chickens in urban areas out here brings in some avian flu. That will be dramatic. Those people mostly don't have healthcare.; 7/6/10, 1:03 PM
OldManRick said...: No big deal. It's routine in the campgrounds in California to find warnings about plague carrying squirrels.

Moral of the story: Don't play with squirrels - even in the comments section of your blog.; 7/6/10, 1:05 PM
traditionalguy said...: The death by illnesses comes very fast when people are starving, which comes very fast when war cuts the supplies transported by oil supply based transport from farms with oil supply based machinery, which comes very fast when Obama gets his energy Plan for us in place. The latest Obama Legislative Priority is a matter of Death Panels from then lying Obama all over again. The man is a Muslim Murderer with a smile.; 7/6/10, 1:05 PM
OldManRick said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/6/10, 1:07 PM
Big Mike said...: Story needs more details. Is this Yersinia Pestis, Y. pseudotuberculosis, or hanta virus? The former two are bad, but respond to antibiotics (the CDC's fact page is here.) But hanta virus is really scary since it preferentially attacks the young and healthy.; 7/6/10, 1:11 PM
NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...: Big deal. It's endemic to the American Southwest. There are a few human cases a year in New Mexico.; 7/6/10, 1:13 PM
Unknown said...: I hope the limousine liberals are happy.; 7/6/10, 1:19 PM
Chris said...: Nothing to worry about. The state of California has a robust and well-funded program of ...ooops, never mind.; 7/6/10, 1:27 PM
1775OGG said...: Speaking of California, how much does a well paid state civil service worker make these days? Federal minimum, you've got to be kidding?

Still, that's all part of Obama's plan to depopulate California and allow Mexico to annex it!

Cheers, and enjoy!; 7/6/10, 2:45 PM
Anonymous said...: Bedbug reappearance is a bigger problem; 7/6/10, 2:46 PM
Anonymous said...: Read William McNeill's "Plagues and Peoples." You won't be surprised by this.; 7/6/10, 2:59 PM
Opus One Media said...: was Michael Steele in town?; 7/6/10, 3:05 PM
Joe said...: was Michael Steele in town?

Racist...apologize, RIGHT now.; 7/6/10, 3:20 PM
victoria said...: Traditional guy, are you sure you are not the one with the plague? Sounds like you are foaming at the mouth with all of your rightie rhetoric. You must be sick. You and virgil xenophon. Sounds like you two are suffering from terminal stupidity.

Vicki; 7/6/10, 3:42 PM
Anonymous said...: This is just the beginning... You'd better watch out for any of your neighbors getting that spaced-out look, and moving around all slow and shambolic-like.

The oil spill? The heat wave? All these Mexicans suddenly popping up everywhere? Althouse's comment system going down? Stephen Hawking's warnings of ultimate doom once the the alien civilization receives the signal of our Saturday morning Bugs Bunny cartoons from thirty years ago?

Put two and two together and you'll see what's happening here...

ZOMBIES!

Remember, folks, once the invasion starts, the attackers can be neutralized by removing the head or destroying the brain. I'll say that again: Removing the head, or destroying the brain.

It happened in the U.K. about 6 years ago, so don't lull in a false sense of complacency and think that it can't happen here too.; 7/6/10, 3:55 PM
LonewackoDotCom said...: Why is Althouse surprised about this? It happens occasionally, and the plague isn't what it used to be. There are other things that are more dangerous.; 7/6/10, 3:58 PM
former law student said...: Everyone be sure to check your crotches for buboes.; 7/6/10, 3:59 PM
Triangle Man said...: @LWDC

I read her post with a Shatneresque cadence. More emphatic than surprised.; 7/6/10, 4:16 PM
traditionalguy said...: Victoria... Do you dispute my reasoning that cutting off oil supplies is a step designed to to stop the agricultural abundance that makes food cheap and plentiful here instead of scarce and so expensive as to be beyond reach of unemployed men? Oh yeah, stopping oil has to be done to prevent Global Warming, and any other consequence is unavoidable. So what if it leads to deadly epidemics among the starving. The culling of useless population is a necessary goal for social order says Thomas Malthus, the founding philosopher of the Green Party.; 7/6/10, 4:33 PM
Anonymous said...: @t-guy-

Wait a sec... Who wants to stop Americans using oil? Doesn't everybody agree that it would be a good thing to import less oil, and pay nasty countries less money for it, at some appropriate point in the future? It's not just a Green New Age idea.

If using oil doesn't pollute the environment and we buy it from Norway, I don't think anyone will have a problem.

On the other hand, I can totally see how a shortage of oil makes transportation, and therefore escape, more difficult when the zombies invade.; 7/6/10, 4:47 PM
blake said...: Los Alamos campground is in Lebec.

Kern County.

Not Los Angeles, even though it is the Angeles National Forest.; 7/6/10, 4:50 PM
traditionalguy said...: Julius...The lack of effective action during the last 73 days have finally convinced me that Obama is planning for both oil and coal usage in the USA to be stopped. Your calling their usage a pollutant surrenders to his plan. We have all seemed willing for China to manufacture for us the goods that use energy from oil and coal, but we have not discussed the fact that growing and harvesting and transporting food here is also based upon oil and coal energy. Obviously smiling Obama has thought of it.; 7/6/10, 5:00 PM
YoungHegelian said...: As has been pointed out in other comments, the plague is endemic to the the American SW, so doctors in the SW are always on the lookout for plague symptoms among their patients. Not so doctors in other areas of the country.

This had tragic consequences when the daughter of the college president of my alma mater in Santa Fe went horseback riding near Taos, and then flew back to NYC the next day. She had been bitten by plague infested fleas while out riding, but by the time her doctor in NYC figured out she had plague, it was too late.; 7/6/10, 5:05 PM
Anonymous said...: @t-guy-

I didn't call oil a pollutant. I said that if it doesn't pollute then I think nobody would have a problem with it.

But what would you call the oil in the Gulf of Mexico right now? Is it a "guest"? An "enhancement"? A "natural by-product of industrial activity"?

Nah... I guess I'll go with "pollutant" after all.

I have a theory too; here it is:

The Federal Government cannot do anything effectively, and that holds whether it is being run by a Democrat or a Republican. It is too big, too complex, and it is built on cronyism and corruption instead of anything having to do with getting the job done.

My theory, part #2:

This ineffectiveness is due to the fact that it has been taken over by zombies. The Establishment must be destroyed. If some non-zombies get caught up in the purge, well, so be it.

Makes more sense than your theory IMHO...; 7/6/10, 5:20 PM
Anonymous said...: mesquito: Is it not easily treated with antibiotics?

Yep. And fortunately our far-seeing leadership class would never allow us to become vulnerable in this critically important area of antibiotic production. Oh, wait.

I mean, this ain't 1348. Not even in Los Angeles.

Well, let's hope things never get that down and dirty in LA. Though I hear the post-plague years in Europe were pretty good, wage-wise, for the surviving workers. Hey, that's one way to get wages in line with housing costs, eh?; 7/6/10, 5:25 PM
traditionalguy said...: Julius... Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository has also been ordered stopped by The Lawless Obama. So Nuclear Power has also been checkmated with a Presidential smile. If you live in Wisconsin, maybe peak electricity for air conditioning is optional, but here in Atlanta we cannot live a normal life without it. Under Obama's plans we will be poor, underfed and miserable in the summer. I just want to know why that makes him smile so much.; 7/6/10, 6:11 PM
Wally Kalbacken said...: Quick - shoot the bloody rabbit!; 7/6/10, 6:35 PM
Ritmo Re-Animated said...: Thanks for the injection of sanity, James (and Joe). Detracts from the sensationalism and all, but knowledge isn't a bad thing for most people.; 7/6/10, 6:52 PM
Synova said...: There is plague all the time in New Mexico. People don't get it often but there are always posters at the vets office.

Which reminds me... gotta get the flea stuff for the dogs.

There aren't many fleas here. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen fleas on my animals. In California, though, it was a constant problem. Plague in a squirrel in California might be a much bigger problem just because fleas out there are so rampant.; 7/6/10, 7:44 PM
Mutnodjmet said...: California harbors a rodent population that is infected with the plague bacteria, Yersinia pestis. In the Pacific states, California ground squirrel fleas are the most common source of the bacteria.

There are 10-15 America cases of the plague every year, usually in the rural areas of the nation.

http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/plague/; 7/6/10, 8:52 PM
Anonymous said...: Sanctuary cities have their ups and they have their downs.

Knowutimsayin'?

WV:misteam,you can kill the plague with a mist of steam...and a backbone.; 7/6/10, 9:23 PM
Cedarford said...: The plague in the American West is actually a human to animal historical transmission. The infection was traced to lice-infested Chinese railroad workers. The infected Chinese worked out in the boonies and transmitted the disease to the ground squirrels - which weren't affected by it, but became a huge reservoir population.

This was well understood by the late 19th century. Tourists in the 1890s were warned to avoid the squirrels. The notion of Chinese as disease-bearers and a danger played an important part in their deportation...and the adaption of the Ellis Island, San Fran, and Hawaiian immigrant med clearances, delousing, and quarantine quarters.

Also led to legislation that set immigration limits and slight to no immigration from lands where certain communicable diseases were endemic - to protect the jobs and the health of general public.

The whole line of shit about America as the beacon of immigrants, the land of immigrants and the obligation to accept any and all "wretched refuse" was all manipulative early 20th century propaganda. By the first wave if organized groups that wanted Open Borders to enhance their own power and wealth from mass immigration.; 7/6/10, 9:59 PM
John Stodder said...: California harbors a rodent population that is infected with the plague bacteria, Yersinia pestis.

Thank you for the dose of sanity.

This might be the first squirrel found with plague since the arrival of the blogosphere, but any longtime Southern Californian has heard this headline many times. The impact of this will be on a few campers who will be warned away from the areas where infected critters are found.

You folks on the immigration kick -- take a pill. Not everything relates to that issue. You're the right-wing equivalent of the global-warming alarmists who see Big Oil and Bush/Cheney behind every weather anomaly.; 7/6/10, 10:57 PM
bagoh20 said...: Ahhh, it's Bucky! Please bring Bucky home. We're offering a reward. We miss him sleeping on our pillows and eating from our cereal bowls.; 7/6/10, 11:07 PM
bagoh20 said...: "You folks on the immigration kick -- take a pill. Not everything relates to that issue."

Bucky is not a citizen...and he's a Muslim squirrel.; 7/6/10, 11:11 PM
1775OGG said...: "A Muslim squirrel?" So, that's NASA's domain then! No problem, eh! Just sent it back into space!; 7/6/10, 11:14 PM
Fred4Pres said...: Plague is actually fairly common among rodents. Modern Europeans, Asians and Africans, are the survivors of numerous outbreaks of plague. So the danger of this disease, while not insignificant, is less than you would imagine. Plus plague responds to antibiotics.; 7/7/10, 1:32 AM
Clyde said...: Speaking of squirrels in L.A., Lindsey Lohan is going to jail for 90 days for violating her probation. Fortunately for her, she's already a lesbian, so she won't be having to learn anything new behind bars.

WV: reeamed. Well, at least she won't be having to worry about THAT!; 7/7/10, 1:56 AM
Fred4Pres said...: bunnies carry plague.; 7/7/10, 2:06 AM
Opus One Media said...: well i still think that the Steele guy is at the root of this....just a hunch.

ya'betcha; 7/7/10, 7:26 AM
Issob Morocco said...: With Apologies to The Smiths.

Squirrel Friend In A Coma.; 7/7/10, 9:41 AM