Zika Babies: No Real Impact on US Tobacco Taxes

Zika baby from the linked Ars Technica article

This Ars Technica article among many outlines the dangers of the Zika virus from the world:

Around 4,000 confirmed and suspected cases of microcephaly in 2015, up from 147 cases in 2014 - a twenty seven (x27) fold increase in one year.

Suggestions that women put off having children until 2018 in Brazil and other parts of South America.

Zika spreading in Columbia according to the CDC.

The dangers of microcephaly include:

• Seizures
• Developmental delay, such as problems with speech or other developmental milestones (like sitting, standing, and walking)
• Intellectual disability (decreased ability to learn and function in daily life)
• Problems with movement and balance
• Feeding problems, such as difficulty swallowing
• Hearing loss
• Vision problems

These problems are not speculative.  The exist in thousands of South American children today.  No doubt more will be born soon: there and here.

And what has the CDC does about this since it is now active in Florida (note that Ars Technica map excludes the USA)?

Basically nothing up until now though just recently the CDC issued a warning about traveling to Miami - at the behest of the poor bastards living where Zika thrives...

The map below, again from the Ars article, shows what's happening.  No doubt we'll begin to see this across the souther USA very soon.

So what does this all have to do with vaping?

Well, for one thing, like vaping (supposedly) its a danger to children.  Unlike the CDC warnings on vaping Zika is an objective (proven, actual) danger for children in the womb as well as for the elderly.  Four thousand children harmed...

Yet the CDC has done absolutely nothing to prevent the spread of Zika in the US.

Nothing.

No quarantine.

Nada, er, well, maybe helping out by telling people to drain standing water and use bug spray.

The CDC has known about this for a long time.

It's been all over the news for many weeks because the Olympics start in Brazil in a few days and athletes are choosing not to go rather than risk exposure.

Vaping, to my knowledge, at least so far has harmed a very few people, mostly due to battery issues.  And certainly its not given 4,000 children anything like microcephaly.

So it would seem from the CDC perspective that its completely OK to let something like Zika into the US regardless of the potential harm.

All in the name of political correctness and fattening the DNC voter rolls.

Oh, and I guess that babies with Zika don't really impact the US Cigarette Tax structure.

So we can let them Zika in.

People can get sick.  The elderly will die.  (Remember Ebola - no danger there - just ask those who are 'still recovering'...)

God forbid we restrict travel...

(Thank God that there's no active plague ravaging some poor country right now...)

Vaping, on the hand, a far, far, far less dangerous activity, is now practically banned by the FDA.

All in the name of saving the children...

Remember the "children" when you think about the new cases of Zika here in the US.

Think about Dr. Tom Frieden, CDC director, and his compassion for the "children" when you fire up your vape.

Vaping, unlike Zika, will save lives, will help people breath better, need less medical care...

(Oops! Better scratch that last one... can't have any union healthcare workers out of a job... Hell, Zika here in the US will probably mean more and better union jobs in the crappy Obamanomic disaster of an economy.)

There will be many cases of Zika here; its already spreading to unlikely places and band-aid quarantines will do little to hold things together.

(Unlike SARS - remember how SARS was going to kill us all - when the government doesn't trumpet fear to the heavens you know there is real danger.  SARS will kill us according to the CDC - remember?)

Thanks, Tom.

Thanks for keeping our collective priorities straight.

Thanks...