The horror of the West Nile Virus has gripped California, where I'm now living. This disease is great for news coverage and it's fun seeing it played out again having lived through it when it swept through New York. The visuals for this disease are wonderful. First BIG MOSQUITOES. Nobody likes mosquitoes, but blow them up on the screen to 20 times their size? Scary! Dead birds are also good T.V. - a dead crow so symbolic of É um É death, or something. Next, revenge! Shots of driving through neighborhoods at night following the trucks spraying toxic shit into the air, maybe if you're lucky there are some ignorant kids on bikes trying to keep up. After a couple days of revenge spraying footage people start getting bored so another reporter, (usually the one who "gets answers") goes out to find out just what's in the "shit". Remember this is days after we've all been breathing it and liking it off the playground and having our dogs roll in it. These stories all end like this; "While environmentalists believe that breathing toxic shit may be bad for you and your children, there is no conclusive proof that it does any lasting harm." [images of swing sets and puppies] "But the effects of West Nile," [images of BIG MOSQUITOES and dead birds superimposed upon one another] "are undeniable!"

Here's the thing that you must never say about West Nile. It's not that big of a deal. So far this year in the US there have been 8 deaths from West Nile, compare that to 80 deaths by lightning. Of course there may be some people who are dying from West Nile and then get hit by lightning which would skew the stats somewhat. Or what if you caught the West Nile and then were sent to Iraq and then once you were there you got hit by lightning. Dang!
On the news here, during the teaser before going to a commercial break, the newscaster said "coming up next, the hidden secrets of West Nile Virus". Oh no! Hidden secrets! Turns out the Hidden Secret is that the CDC has no real idea of how far the disease has spread because people have the tenacity to fully recover without ever knowing that they had it. You tricky bastards.