The New World Screw Worm is getting close, within 70 miles of the US border as of September.
This is a fly that spreads rapidly and whose maggots eat LIVING flesh. So, they can devastate a healthy cattle population, deer population, etc...There's a meme saying that DOGE cuts caused this, and I don't know that this is true. The Trump administration has more than quintupled funding to fight the screw worm, but only after mostly ignoring it in 2025. If DOGE had an effect, it was just the, "We're not spending money to help MEXICO!" attitude overall, and not necessarily because it cut funding available to fight the screw worm (as far as I have found).
I do think this administration's petulance, impoverished ethics and morals, awful behavior, and overall bad reputation internationally, has kept us from partnering with Mexico the way we should have. The Biden administration began fighting the worm in 2024 to the tune of around $140 million. But Trump all but ignored it till June, and as of August had only invested $21 million to fight it.
But once it became very clear in September that it was at our doorstep, the Administration announced an $850 million investment. But it's not like that money can be spent immediately to fight this imminent threat. It will build facilities intended to act as laboratories, etc...I'm sure some of the money will be put to immediate effect, however.
This fly can move about 10 miles a day. It's 70 miles from our border (AS OF SEPTEMBER). Its larvae can travel on HEALTHY wildlife, feeding on the animal's living flesh. It's a thing of nightmares. But although we eradicated it in the 1960s, like other pestilences we've eradicated in the last 100 years, under Trump it's rallying.
This administration doesn't understand the "ounce of prevention/pound of cure" concept. It flies right over their heads.
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