‘Here we go again’ — why a mosquito-borne illness is reminding some people of COVID-19

As health officials in a Massachusetts town recommended a 6 p.m. curfew because of the risk of the mosquito-borne virus known as EEE, a mantra began to appear on social media: “Here we go again.”
In using these words, people were likening the response of public health officials to Eastern equine encephalitis to the response during the onset of COVID-19.
As CNN put it, “The idea to end outdoor activities near sunset to protect people from a deadly mosquito-borne virus is not new. This year’s public outcry about the measure is.”
The network reported that similar measures had been taken in Massachusetts and Connecticut in 2005, 2012 and 2019 when high levels of EEE in mosquitoes were detected. Those restrictions, however, caused “little fanfare or attention,” CNN said.
But with many Americans newly sensitive to measures that they see as governmental overreach, parents have turned out in some towns to protest voluntary curfews and closures of athletic fields, which they equate with the effects of lockdowns. Health officials have conceded that the measures are “unpopular,” particularly since EEE is most likely to affect people with weakened immune systems, usually only a few cases are reported each year, and most people who contract the virus experience no symptoms.
Older people and children are most at risk for adverse effects, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention call it a “rare but serious disease.”
“Approximately 30% of people with eastern equine encephalitis die, and many survivors have ongoing neurologic problems. Symptoms of eastern equine encephalitis can include fever, headache, vomiting, diarrhea, seizures, behavioral changes, and drowsiness,” the CDC says.
Health officials in Massachusetts towns where high levels of EEE have been detected in mosquitoes say the small but real risk justifies the closure of sports fields and, in some towns, the recommendation that people stay inside after 6 p.m. until the first frost kills mosquitoes. But parents pushing back said they can keep their families safe with preventive measures such as bug spray and appropriate clothing, and noted the importance of exercise and outdoor time for their children.
“My children lost so much of their time already because of Covid,” one mother wrote on a petition protesting athletic field closures in Oxford, a town about an hour from Boston. “I am an ER nurse and understand the potential risk of EEE however with spraying, proper dress and (limiting) how late we are out with the children practicing we can keep our children safe.”
EEE was first recognized in horses, the reason for the “equine” in the formal name. It is not related to West Nile virus, another mosquito-borne disease that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the face of public health during the pandemic, recently contracted.
“I really felt like I’d been hit by a truck,” Fauci, who is 83, said in an interview with STAT. “I have to tell you, I’ve never been as sick in my life. Ever. By far, this is the worst I’ve ever been with an illness.” (Fauci contracted COVID-19 in 2019, but The New York Times reported then that he only experienced “mild symptoms” — he has since tested positive for COVID-19 two other times.)
It’s unclear where Fauci lives, but he said he believes he contracted the virus after being bitten by a mosquito in his backyard. Doctors originally thought “he had a bacterial infection, or had been infected with a tick-borne disease,” STAT reported.
While curfews can be upsetting to people, the news has been a reminder of the need for families to take precautions outside to prevent illness that originates with insect bites.
At least two people in New England have died recently from infections resulting from tick bites — one in Massachusetts and one in Maine. And health officials said this week that a 41-year-old man from New Hampshire died Aug. 19 after contracting EEE. His family has said he was otherwise healthy and they do not know how he could have contracted the virus.