Where can one move to escape the Zika virus?

For about the third time during my 52 years, human life on Planet Earth is coming to an end. First it was nuclear war, then it was AIDS, now it is the Zika virus.

Perhaps a vaccine will be found one day, unless it turns out that this virus, like most others, is smarter than humans. Killing all of the world’s mosquitoes with a massive one-time dose of DDT would be great, except the mosquitoes also turned out to be smarter than humans (see this paper on genetic resistance to DDT).

Here’s a question for readers: Are there long-term effects from this virus? (New York Times says “no” but the paper has been known to be wrong…)

Given that the virus is spread by mosquitoes, where could a person go to escape the virus? Hawaii would have been ideal, except that Europeans began trashing the place in 1826 with this pest. (Pregnant women should watch out, though, because child support is quasi-capped at $72,000 per year.)

Can the virus survive if the mosquito population is dormant for most of the year? If not, that would make mostly tax-free Alaska a potential choice, except that one human visitor from the Lower 48 in May could reinfect the state? (Pregnant woman: watch out that you don’t end up like Bristol Palin as an actual target of a child support lawsuit under Alaska’s gender-neutral laws.)

How about a desert? There were no mosquitoes at Burning Man! Unfortunately, it seems that there are some in income tax-free Las Vegas (source). (Pregnant women: Nevada has the least lucrative child support system in the United States. Though more profitable than in Europe, the cash value of a child in Nevada might be 1/10th or even 1/100th of the potential revenue in Massachusetts or California.) Arizona and New Mexico have plenty of areas that seem too dry for mosquitoes, but pregnant women whose income is or might become higher than the fathers’ would need to be aware that they could become child support lawsuit targets in Arizona due to the 50/50 shared parenting default.

What about staying cold all year? Spend the winter in Alaska or in Jackson, Wyoming (neither state has an income tax). Spend the Northern Hemisphere summer in southern Chile or Argentina?

Go to a true desert? Take a job working on a telescope in the Atacama Desert? Or head to the South Pole?

Can we invest on this trend? Even if Las Vegas is not completely mosquito-free, could this be what finally gives a lift to Vegas real estate? Can we short Brazilian Olympics tickets?


  1. arrdub

    January 30, 2016 @ 2:38 pm


    Bermuda? They have an aggressive prevention team that actually goes door to door to confront citizens with standing water on their property. Fresh water is precious and they gather quite a bit of rainwater with cisterns on almost every house. Last summer visit I made I encountered zero mosquitoes.

  2. Sam

    January 30, 2016 @ 5:04 pm


    Re: child support in different states. If I owe tax…I mean child support in Alabama, then move to Nevada, will I stay out of debtor’s prison long as I don’t return to Alabama? Could Nevada extradite me to Alabama?

  3. Bill Swersey

    January 30, 2016 @ 6:02 pm


    There are mosquitos and there are mosquitos. According to the BBC, only two cases of the virus have been confirmed in Uganda (where it was first discovered) in the past seven decades, owing to a type of mosquito there, Aedes aegypti formosus, which apparently are not that interested in humans. But in Brazil, the virus is carried by the sub-species, Aedes aegypti aegypti, which does like us.


    So rather than find completely mosquito-free places to live, it might make sense to find places where the mosquitos are less likely to carry this virus.

  4. Anon

    January 30, 2016 @ 7:49 pm


    @Sam if U owe pussy tax they will hunt u down in any state and most countries.

  5. David K.

    January 31, 2016 @ 9:20 am


    This is actually the 4th mass extinction. You forgot bird flu.

  6. Barak Pearlmutter

    January 31, 2016 @ 3:13 pm



  7. GermanL

    January 31, 2016 @ 7:18 pm


    Re: pussy tax

    In some women’s (and even men’s) minds, it’s just the cost of doing ‘business’.

    “They all sell it. Some sell it for ten dollars. Some sell it for a house and a car and a swimming pool and two children and a lifetime contract.”
    – Andy Canfield

  8. John V

    February 1, 2016 @ 10:41 am


    Wasn’t ebola supposed to kill us all about 18 months ago?

    I’m confused by Zika. Supposedly it is harmless, unless you are pregnant. And once you have it, you are immune. So why don’t all the women make sure they aren’t currently pregnant, and then get it?

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