MOSQUITOES IN ERIE COUNTY TEST POSITIVE FOR WEST NILE VIRUS

West Nile Virus (“WNV”) has been identified in a mosquito pool in Erie County, in the Town of Amherst. The New York State Department of Health (“NYSDOH”) regularly conducts this testing and recently identified this case.

In an effort to protect the public, the Town of Amherst, routinely conducts mosquito surveillance throughout the warm weather months of the year. While no other local surveillance is being conducted, the Erie County Department of Health (“ECDOH”) highly suspects that other areas also have similar West Nile Virus mosquito pools.

ECDOH strongly recommends that all residents protect themselves from mosquito bites whether close to home or traveling outside the Western New York area.

“We have not had a confirmed case of West Nile Virus in Erie County since October 2012 and we want to ensure it stays that way,” said Dr. Gale Burstein, Erie County Commissioner of Health. “I want to remind residents how to minimize exposure to mosquitoes: limit outdoor activities at times of high mosquito activity (dusk and dawn), cover as much as skin as possible with clothing when going outdoors and use an effective insect repellant that contains 25-30% DEET on exposed skin. These same precautionary measures will also help protect people from other insect-borne diseases.”

WNV is a mosquito-borne illness that is transmitted through a bite from an infected mosquito. There are no medications to treat or vaccines to prevent WNV infection. Fortunately, the majority of individuals infected with WNV will not have any symptoms. Approximately one in five people who are infected will develop a fever with other symptoms. Less than 1% of infected people will develop a serious, sometimes fatal, neurological illness.

“Mosquitoes are an unavoidable summertime nuisance. By taking a few simple steps, you can reduce your risk of being bitten and possibly contracting a mosquito-borne disease like WNV,” Dr. Burstein said.

Recommendations to Stay Healthy:
· Eliminate local mosquito breeding sites–mosquitoes develop in standing water
o Do not leave standing water for longer than two days before dumping it out
o Change water in birdbaths and planter bases every two days
o Clean clogged gutters to allow rainfall to drain freely
· Reduce exposure to mosquitoes–avoid mosquito bites by limiting outdoor activities during the times of high mosquito activity at dusk and dawn.
· Mosquito traps, electrocutors (bug zappers), ultrasonic repellers, and similar devices purported to prevent mosquitoes from biting people are not effective. Do not rely on them to reduce mosquito bites and do not waste money on them
· Use barriers to protect skin, like mosquito nets/screens for baby strollers/playpens, long sleeves/pants, socks/shoes, and hats
· Discourage mosquitoes from biting. Mosquitoes are attracted to people by odors on the skin so avoid wearing scented lotions or cologne/perfume.
· Mosquitoes are also attracted to the carbon dioxide exhaled from the breath, but we do not recommend you stop breathing
· Use an effective repellant with a concentration of 25 to 30% DEET during outdoor activities.
§ Spray on skin & then rub it in
§ Do not spray on face–spray on your hands and then rub it on your face
§ Reapply repellant after sweating or getting wet
§ Products with lower concentrations of DEET need to be reapplied more often
§ Do not use on cuts, irritated, or infected skin

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‘Never felt more betrayed’: MAGA rebels over Trump’s ‘treasonous’ Qatar base in Idaho



After years of advocating "America First," President Donald Trump's administration, the Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced on Friday, "I'm also proud that today we're signing a letter of acceptance to build a Qatari Emiri Air Force facility at the Mountain Home Airbase in Idaho."

It led to a swift meltdown from some of the president's top allies.

Constitutionalist and MAGA influencer "The General" was furious, calling it outright "treason."

"We are in the middle of rolling out military across the entire USA and then bringing in a non-NATO country military into the USA is TREASON. U.S. and Qatar sign deal to open a Qatari 'air force facility,' in the U.S., at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho," he wrote on X.

"Is this what 'shared defense goals' means now — or just the latest way our politicians get paid to sell out our country?" asked Amy Mek, the editor-in-chief of RAIR, an organization that advocates for the U.S. to return to a country run by Judeo-Christian values. "Twenty-four years after foreign nationals trained in our flight schools flew planes into our buildings, our leaders are inviting their financiers to train inside our bases. This is what happens when you gut national-security training, scrub every mention of Islam, jihad, and Sharia from the manuals, and let Obama- and Biden-era bureaucrats turn counterterrorism into cultural sensitivity class. We’re being led by officials who no longer recognize or refuse to name the enemy they’re inviting into our own backyard.'

Close ally to President Trump, Laura Loomer, lamented the news after advocating that the administration declare the Muslim Brotherhood an international terrorist organization.

"Well, I guess this isn’t going to happen since we just gave the Muslim Brotherhood an air base in Idaho. So much for my decade worth of hard work trying to protect Americans from the threat of Islamic terror," said Loomer about the new base.

"No foreign country should have a military base on U.S. soil," she also said. "Especially Islamic countries. I have never felt more betrayed by the GOP than I do now watching Islamic jihadists get away with implementing Sharia law in the US and now they are getting their own airbase where they will train to kill Americans."

She went on to warn that it would make America less safe by setting up "for America to be attacked by Islamic savages from Qatar, the biggest funders of Islamic terror in the entire world. So much so, the Saudis and Emiratis find Qatar to be TOXIC. I need to see how much more of my life I am going to dedicate to a party that won’t address the threat of Islam in the West. The betrayal stings. WE ARE LOSING OUR COUNTRY!"

Content creator and influencer Red Eagle Politics denied the reporting.

"We aren’t giving Argentina a free $20 Billion handout, and we aren’t building an Air Force Base for Qatar in Idaho. The amount of dishonest lunacy on this app is reaching new heights," he wrote on X.

Utah state Sen. Nate Blouin, a Democrat, pointed out that Idaho Republicans "have been crowing about" legislation similar to that his state enacted "blocking foreign ownership of land in their state."

Dan Caldwell, former senior advisor to Hegseth, wrote on X that it wasn't that big of a deal.

"The freak out around this is of course totally unwarranted since this is actually a pretty common practice with countries that buy and operate a lot of U.S. military aircraft. Singapore has a similar facility and detachment for its F-15 training unit at this very same airbase," he said.

Caldwell is one of the DOD aides who was forced out amid Hegseth's Signalgate scandal. He has denied any wrongdoing.