I’m More Than a Bit Terrified of the Petri Dish of Diseases Found in Florida

2 min readDown in Florida, which is still governed by Ron DeSantis, the Man Who Beat COVID. Unfortunately, the state is now a playground for invasive bacterial and viral diseases of all sorts, the same way that the Everglades are now lousy with abandoned pythons. From WPEC:According to the Florida Department of Health, there were more cases of leprosy in 2025 than in any other year in the state's modern disease database. Thirty-six cases were reported last year, which tops the previous high in Florida of 29 cases in 2015. A preliminary 2026 case has been reported in Okeechobee County in our viewing area. The outbreak is being blamed primarily on the influx of nine-banded armadillos, which function as kind of walking Petri dish for the bacterium that causes leprosy. There are also some dark murmurings about immigrants bringing in exotic diseases, which has been a go-to strategy for xenophobes since the dawn of the Republic. And according to this report in Science, the disease was native to this country long before that, even before the illegal aliens arrived on these shores from Europe.In 2018, researchers screening troves of existing ancient DNA from around the world for genetic signatures of pathogens got a hit for M. lepromatosis in a 1,000-year-old skeleton near what today are the Lax Kw’alaams and Metlakatla First Nations, on the northern coast of British Columbia. Further screening revealed two more skeletons from Argentina of a similar age who also were infected with this mysterious type of leprosy. Comparing mutations in modern and ancient M. lepromatosis genomes allowed researchers to estimate approximately when this strain emerged: around 9,000 years ago, well before Europeans arrived, they report in Science. So, while colonists did indeed bring their own form of leprosy to the Americas in the guise of M. leprae, a homegrown sort of the disease had already been spreading on the continents for thousands of years.Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Sunshine State, here come the diseases of the tropics. Also from WPEC:Health officials issued a mosquito-borne illness advisory Monday after confirming a locally acquired case of dengue fever in Palm Beach County. The Florida Department of Health in Palm Beach County said it is working with Palm Beach County Mosquito Control to conduct surveillance and prevention efforts following the confirmed infection. A locally acquired case means the person was infected by a mosquito in the area rather than while traveling to a place where dengue is more common. ... The department said it continues to monitor mosquito-borne illnesses statewide, including West Nile virus, Eastern equine encephalitis, St. Louis encephalitis, malaria, chikungunya and dengue.Holy hell. I certainly am glad that public health in this country is in the hands of a crackpot who has doubts about the germ theory of disease. If we manage to get through this era without a major outbreak of a disease more serious than Covid-19 was, it will be a small miracle of biology.