Viral

Prologue

Although mosquitoes cause more than two thousand human deaths every day, their pernicious impact doesn’t necessarily stop there. The deaths they cause can result in further serious societal complications. Such a story of a sad serial tragedy started in the summer of 2020 as the result of a cascading series of events that began in the idyllic town of Wellfleet, Massachusetts, nestled on the bay side of Cape Cod. It all started within the confines of a discarded automobile tire leaning up against a dilapidated, freestanding garage. Inside the tire was a bit of stagnant rainwater where a pregnant female Asian tiger mosquito had deposited her raft of eggs.

On the twentieth of July this clutch of eggs hatched, starting the mind-boggling ten-day metamorphosis from larvae to pupae to adults. The moment the mosquitoes emerged as adults, they could fly, and within three days they followed the irresistible urge to reproduce, requiring the females to obtain a blood meal. By using their highly evolved sense organs, they detected a victim and zeroed in on an unsuspecting blue jay. Unknown to the mosquitoes and to the blue jay, the bird had been infected earlier in July by the eastern equine encephalitis virus. Neither bird nor the mosquitoes cared since birds such as blue jays are a normal host for EEE, meaning they live together in a kind of passive parasitism, and in a similar fashion, the mosquito’s immune system keeps the virus at bay. After getting their fill of blue jay blood, the mosquitoes flew off to find an appropriate place to deposit their eggs.

Several weeks later the infected band of mosquitoes had moved eastward toward the Atlantic Ocean. They were now considerably reduced in number from having been prey to numerous predators. At the same time, they were now more experienced. They had learned to favor human victims as easier targets than feathered birds or furred mammals. They also learned the beach was a promising destination in the late-afternoon/early-evening because there were always relatively immobile humans with lots of exposed skin.

At three-thirty on the afternoon of August fifteenth, this cluster of EEE-carrying female Asian tiger mosquitoes awakened from their daytime slumber. They had found refuge from the midday summer sun beneath the porch planking of a building on Gull Pond. A few moments later, ravenous for a blood meal, the swarm became airborne en masse with their characteristic whine. Save for several unlucky individuals, they avoided the many sticky and dangerous spiderwebs and emerged into the sunlight. Regrouping, they set off like a miniature fighter squadron. Instinctively they knew the beach was six hundred yards to the east beyond a forest composed mostly of black oak and pitch pine. Barring being eaten on the way or having to navigate a stronger than usual headwind, it would take the swarm around three-quarters of an hour to reach a crowd of potential targets.