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October might feel like a strange time to worry about mosquitoes. But Florida is in the midst of an outbreak of dengue, a mosquito-borne disease that’s not typically found in large numbers in the continental U.S. |
In her new piece for TIME, Veronique Greenwood explains what to know about the outbreak and why scientists are closely watching this one. And later in this newsletter, Veronique talks to a researcher about why vaccination isn’t an option in the U.S. |
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TODAY’S TOPICS |
Finding humor with a devastating diagnosis The dengue vaccine dilemma How we relaxed this week The measles death toll grows
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FROM THE ARCHIVES |
Finding the funny |
Brooke Eby, who attracted hundreds of thousands of followers online by documenting her ALS with humor and candor, died yesterday at 37. |
When I interviewed Eby in 2025, I asked how she managed to communicate with grace and humor in the face of her devastating disease. She told me it all started at a friend's wedding, just two months after her diagnosis. —Angela Haupt, Editor, Health & Wellness |
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. |
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Gesi Schilling—The New York Times/Redux |
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You really didn't want to go to this wedding. What happened when you got there? |
I knew I wanted to be there, but I didn't want anyone to see me. I was using a walker, and I'd basically been living in bed eating M&Ms for two straight months. I walked in using the exact same walker as the bride's grandmother—we both had the tennis balls on the bottom—and I remember turning to my best friend and saying, “We gotta go. I can't do this.” I thought it was going to be way too embarrassing. |
What did your friend say? |
She said it could be really embarrassing, or we could try to make it really fun—and either way, I'd get a really good story out of it. Two or three hours later, the bride was limboing under my walker, and I was giving people walker rides all over the dance floor. Nobody was really asking questions. They were laughing with me and having fun, and suddenly I felt much more comfortable. |
Is that what eventually led you to start posting online? |
After that, I started compiling all the things that had made me laugh since being diagnosed. There were so many weird moments. People say weird things—not intentionally, nobody really knows how to react. I wrote them all down, and the same friend told me, “You've got to do something with these.” Eventually I thought: I guess I could try TikTok. So I started posting. |
Was being funny something you had to work at after your diagnosis? |
Humor has been my coping mechanism for as long as I can remember. There are definitely times when I don't want to be funny—hours where I just want to be quiet. But when I'm sharing, the jokes tend to come naturally. |
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HOW WE RELAX |
I let pictures wash over me without words |
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kieferpix—Getty Images |
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This week I re-read The Arrival by Shaun Tan, a beautifully illustrated book that tells a story that needs no text. A man arrives in a new place, and right from the beginning, our expectations are subverted, as we watch him take his first steps towards belonging. I won’t spoil it—see for yourself! —V.G. |
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QUICK CHAT |
Why isn’t there a dengue vaccine in the U.S.? |
South Florida is currently facing a dengue outbreak with the largest number of locally transmitted cases ever recorded in the state. |
In my new story for TIME, I spoke to epidemiologist Michael Johansson about what the future of dengue might look like in the U.S. and why people aren’t being vaccinated. —V.G. |
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. |
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What would it take for dengue to become endemic in South Florida? |
We don't really know. The key ingredients are there. If you look at dengue endemic areas, one of the characteristics is that there's lots of Aedes aegypti [the dengue-carrying mosquito], and it's a warm, tropical climate. South Florida ticks those boxes, but we have seen a lot less transmission than you’d imagine. One of the things that we think is going on is that there's less contact between the people and the mosquitoes than you'd expect. |
There's lots of people spending all their time in air-conditioned spaces, which are not great for mosquitoes. So the mosquitoes have little access to them, and that results in more mosquitoes feeding more on a concentrated number of people. So it's harder for long transmission chains that affect lots of people. |
Why isn’t there a vaccine available for dengue in the U.S.? |
There's only one that's been authorized for use in the U.S., and the production has been discontinued. That’s because of the secondary infection problem, where the second exposure can result in a much worse illness. It's a little bit of a complex story, but basically, using the vaccine on people without knowing their infection background could act as a primary infection, setting them up for trouble later. |
There were different recommendations about how to deal with that, and it was eventually recommended to do testing prior to administering the vaccine, which really complicates the vaccine delivery program. Basically, using the vaccine became much more difficult, even though it was effective for those people who'd already been exposed once. |
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