A Big Problem with the Spread of Zika in Miami? Hipsters. Seriously.
I have some friends heading to Miami today for a week in South Beach and I’ll bet that half their baggage allowance has been taken up with DEET mosquito spray. Zika has become a serious issue in Miami, prompting fogging operations and travel warnings from other countries–and even from within the US itself.
Got it. But what does this have to do with music? Well, it turns out that hipsters are a big problem with the spread of Zika.
One of the worst-infected areas of Miami is Wynwood, a warehouse district that has been remade into a cool art-and-music area filled with cool coffee shops and restaurants, many of which are patronized by the aforementioned hipsters. From The Daily Beast:
According to Joseph Conlon, a technical adviser for the American Mosquito Control Association (AMCA), the Aedes aegypti mosquito carrying the virus could not have picked a better spot.
“There are a lot of coffee shops, and other shops and restaurants outside, and those could provide areas where Aedes aegypti mosquitoes are not only breeding but are feedingupon people,” he told The Daily Beast. “Aedes aegypti mosquitoes like to feed on your lower extremities. They’ll feed on your legs.”
That’s bad news for the legions of sundress-wearing Instagrammers who flock to Wynwood to snap a selfie in front of the Maya Hayuk mural, and for businesses like The Wynwood Yard, an outdoor food truck gathering spot which decided to close indefinitely on Tuesday. As the South Florida Business Journal noted, nearly 30 percent of tourists who stay overnight in Miami-Dade County peel themselves off the beach long enough to take a trip through Wynwood.
Oh, dear. Read more here.