  I'm blogging the trip over at urlLink the Same River Twice , in case anyone wonders where we've gone. Here in Colorado everyone is unduly worried about West Nile. Just in case this fear is going further than CO, I want to help get the word out on 1) West Nile is not very dangerous at all, in fact it acts like the flu, as it's really dangerous only to the immuno-compromised, and 2) the sprays for West Nile are actually worse for the population on the whole than the virus. urlLink Blowing the Whistle on West Nile 8/31/02 : "DEET, Anvil, and other toxic pesticides are aggressively promoted to protect the public from a mosquito bite that appears to be, statistically, less dangerous than a dog bite or bee sting. And the CDC seems to agree. On its website it says, 'Human illness from West Nile virus is rare, even in areas where the virus has been reported.
The chance that any one person is going to become ill from a mosquito bite is low. ' Since 1999 only a handful of deaths per year have been associated with West Nile, even though the virus has been found in 33 states. The fact that this 'health crisis' has been exaggerated, and that chemical spraying is usually the least effective yet most toxic way to control mosquitoes, has deterred some state officials, but not others. The New York State Health Department backed away from recommending wholesale spraying after finding that more people got sick from the pesticides than from the virus. " 
