Disney's World War Z: Forget about scary gators; deadly mosquitoes are now confirmed in spreading a pandemic of Zika virus in Florida

The Zika virus is primarily transmitted by mosquito bites, and that may have occurred in Miami-Dade County
this week as public health experts fear the Zika virus has finally reached epidemic proportions in the U.S.
Update 09/05/16:

It's confirmed. Full-blown outbreaks of the infectious Zika virus are now a fact of life in Florida, and the virus has gained a foothold on U.S. soil as infected mosquitoes were found with the virus and the reason for spreading the virus.

The deadly Aedes mosquito: Germs gone wild in Florida 2016!
The Florida Health Department is now saying it has a total of 25 28 30 43 47 49 70 cases of non-travel related Zika viral infections—several cases have broken the original containment zone of Wynwood, Miami—all transmitted by mosquito bites in what health officials considered to be more than one epicenter in Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach, and Pinellas counties.

Given that only 1 in 5 Zika viral infections are detected, the numbers above suggest at least 215 people have been infected by the virus through mosquito bites.

More infections are expected as more mosquitoes will likely spread the virus.

A travel advisory has been issued in the U.K. for pregnant women not to travel to Florida, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and New York City health department have issued a similar travel advisory around the Miama area as precautionary measures.


The distance of the latest locally-transmitted cases as far north as Pinellas County in West Central Florida, which includes St. Petersburg and Clearwater, have been sounding the alarm bells for the virus knocking on the door within 100 miles to Orlando where the Walt Disney World Resort is located.

Florida and federal health officials have just been sitting on their hands for months waiting for an outbreak to happen in the U.S. as more travel-related cases have been coming back home to the U.S. from abroad without taking effective quarantine measures to stop an outbreak or issuing a travel advisory on all Americans not to travel to Zika-infested areas, including during the Rio Olympics.

Thus, we knew this outbreak was inevitable even as far back as in May. Now, there is no stopping the pandemic from coalescing in multiple epicenters throughout Florida and the rest of the Southern Gulf states where the Aedes mosquitos are quite dense.

Zika virus is thought to be transmitted primarily from Aedes mosquitoes bites which inhabit the southern continental U.S., but it has been recently discovered from Brazilian scientists that "the presence of the Zika virus" is also found in the more common Culex mosquitos which is much more widely distributed throughout the entire continental U.S.

It's also been recently discovered that the Zika virus may be transmitted from sexual contact of any kind and may even be transmitted from even kissing as the live virus can persist in saliva and other bodily fluids.

What's frightening most of all is that no one, not even scientists, knows how a Zika viral infection affects developing brains of young children over time. This is particularly concerning to Disney World because their primary targeted customers are young children.


Health officials have said all along that the confirmation of an outbreak of the virus through infected mosquitoes would be confirmed through establishing at least two confirmed cases of non-travel related infections, which were also not caused by sexual transmission of the disease.

Geographic distribution of Aedes mosquitoes in the U.S. which can carry the
virus as a secondary host and rapidly transmit the disease to humans
Now that several cases have been found that fit the bill for an infectious disease outbreak in Florida, there may be no way to get rid of the virus, which may soon be considered endemic to the region, without developing a vaccine to the virus.

That, however, may take many years—if it is even possible to find a vaccine—to successfully develop.

Florida's massive tourism industry is now in serious jeopardy of complete collapse, and the spread of the virus to the rest of the southern continental U.S. and eastern seaboard is imminent in the months to come.


All this is happening during a recess in Congress where lawmakers have put off any proposals on fighting the Zika virus while the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia takes precedence over any national pressing legislative issues.


Disney, which is notorious for being stingy on its refund policies, has not, to date, issued any clarifications publicly for refunds on theme park tickets or hotel reservations at Disney World or on Disney Cruise Line vacation packages.



Previous article:

The dams may have burst in Florida on Tuesday as it was reported that there may be a Zika viral epidemic spreading like wildfire in the State of Florida.

Disney World now faces its worst crisis as a Zika viral epidemic may be sweeping
across the state like wildfire as anyone visiting Florida could now be infected by
the Zika virus from infected local mosquitos carrying the virus
We've always said it was a question of "when" and not "if," but that time has now come where the Zika virus may have gained a permanent foothold in the state of Florida, and the virus may now be spreading throughout the general population in a widespread epidemic through Florida's massive mosquito population.

Late Tuesday, it was reported by the Florida Department of Health that the agency is investigating what could be the first homegrown case of a Zika virus infection in the continental U.S.—not counting from sexual transmission or travel aboard.

The department is only describing a woman who contracted the virus in Miami-Dade Coutny as a "possible non-travel related" infection of the virus in Miami-Dade County and has asked the U.S. Center for Disease and Control and Prevention (CDC) for assistance in investigating the exact cause of the transmission.

No further details were given, as officials are now tight-lipped about the case as widespread panic has now spread throughout the Gulf coast states with news of what may be patient zero of the U.S. pandemic.


"Today the Florida Department of Health announced that it is conducting an investigation into a possible non-travel related case of Zika virus in Miami-Dade County," the health department said in a statement.

The biggest complication from being infected with the Zika virus is to pregnant
women, causing severe neurological birth defects such as microcephaly
"The department is actively conducting an epidemiological investigation, is collaborating with the Centers for Disease Control and will share additional details as they become available."

The case already seems to discount sexual transmission as the cause of the viral transmission. 14 others in the U.S. have already contracted the virus through sex, so this is not likely the reason why this story is so newsworthy.

If true, then this could be the most devastating news for Florida as much of their commerce is tied to tourism—notably Disney World in Orlando and Disney Cruise Line in Fort Canaveral—but the terrifying news may also lead to a mass exodus of young families trying to conceive a child for years to come as the virus is linked to severe neurological birth defects, most notably microcephaly.


If this case is confirmed that the virus was acquired locally and transmitted by a route other than by sex, then it would confirm Florida's worst nightmare that the virus has gotten a foothold in the indigenous Aedes mosquito population and is now being spread by bites from infected mosquitos and may race across the U.S. in a pandemic.

This goes without saying, but a travel advisory must be issued
to anyone thinking about conceiving to avoid the state of Florida
Many experts, including ourselves, have predicted this would happen as early as this summer as the temperature got hotter and summer rains swept through Florida with the summer tourism season in full bloom in the coastal Gulf states (Florida, Louisiana, and Texas.)

Florida health authorities report that the number of people infected from the virus, presumably from traveling aboard to endemic areas, have swelled to 283 in the state, with 88 cases in Miami-Dade County alone. There are about 1,300 cases reported across the country.

This does not reflect the total number infected as only one-fifth of cases are usually diagnosed.

Much like malaria, the Zika virus is primarily transmitted through mosquito bites, but unlike malaria, it can, less commonly, be transmitted through sex from infected males, and there's even very recent evidence that it may be spread through sex with infected females.

The virus usually causes mild flu-like symptoms in those infected, which is why in the vast majority of cases it is not detected; however, the virus is most dangerous to pregnant women because it causes severe neurological birth defects in unborn babies, most notably microcephaly.


43 pregnant women are infected with the virus in Florida to date, and nine cases of birth defects have been noted in babies born to infected women with the virus in this country. Another six cases resulted in either miscarriage or abortion.

The animal vector known to transmit the ZIka virus, Aedes aegypti is widespread
in the Gulf coastal states of Florida, Louisiana, and Texas
In other cases, Zika can cause rare severe complications in anyone infected, such as paralyzing Guillain-Barre syndrome, or sometimes death as in the case of an elderly man in Utah reported last week.

Zika virus has been found in blood, urine, semen, and saliva from those infected with the virus.

The news could not have come at a worst time for Disney. They have already seen a drop in attendance in its Florida theme parks this summer due to a decline in South American tourists, scare from terrorist threats, anticipation of competing with the Rio Olympics later this summer, and from a price increase in its tickets.


Now that the spread of a full-blown Zika epidemic may soon be confirmed, that may be it for tourism for years to come to Walt Disney World and Disney Cruise Line, which were already hurt by the news of Zika epidemics in its previously popular tourist destinations to the Caribbean and South America, where the virus is already considered endemic.


How serious is this crisis? Never mind how the news will send Disney stock prices down. In years to come, it could potentially bankrupt The Walt Disney Company if both its Florida theme parks and Disney Cruise Line divisions falter and could most certainly make the Empire of Mouse vulnerable to take over bids in the near future.


Disney stocks were already down this morning, before news got out about the Zika crisis, going down 1.48% after security analyst Benjamin Mogil of Stifel Nicolaus downgraded Disney's rating from "buy" to "hold." To no one's surprise—especially ours—he cited problems of flat growth in its media networks division, especially ESPN, as a cause for the stock downgrade.

After the impact of this news is felt on Wall Street, who knows how much more Disney stock will plummet in the days to come as investors decide what to make of this major tourism killer.


There's no doubt, after hearing the horrifying news, thousands of tourists are already cancelling their bookings to visit Florida as we speak in order to go somewhere else where Zika isn't going to be a scare this summer. That's how serious it is. When it rains, it spreads.


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