just to be Devil's Advocate...about these hantavirus cases that may have been exposed in Yosemite in mid-June:
symptoms appear 1-6 weeks after exposure...so...is it just a statistical guess that the commonality of those 2 people visiting Yosemite is how they attribute Yosemite mice to the disease, or...could they have caught it somewhere else from other infected mice (yes) and we just don't know where? I just found out that hantavirus pulmonary syndrome was once called "Four Corners Disease" so these travellers might just have been exposed somewhere else on their western journey, and all roads lead to Yosemite for many of them.
Some of this sleuthing done by the CDC and other agencies is statistical and retrospective. Being wagga-like, I am suggesting "no picture-no proof", it may be all statistical probability. I suppose some type of genetic testing of the deceased persons hantavirus and cross-testing with the hantavirus in Yosemite mice would be the only proof positive. I wonder....
There are hundreds of tents, thousands of visitors (incl me) who have stayed there .We have no public knowledge of the unfortunate deceased person's immune systems, either, and that may have been a huge contributing factor.
from CNN (not CDC):
The two recent hantavirus cases bring the 2012 total in California to four. About one-third of the 60 cases reported in the state since 1993 have been fatal, the department said. Yosemite National Park saw one hantavirus case each in 2000 and 2010
I hope they don't throw out the baby with the bathwater, ie, Curry Village.
edit:
PS from wagga's link
All the victims stayed in the cabins between June 10 and June 20, and all four known cases were contracted by people who stayed within 100 feet of each other but not necessarily in the same cabins.
This of course makes it sound much more statistically likely, but I make the case here for care in interpreting ANY scientific conclusion (such as climate, for example) as sometimes more difficult than it seems at first glance.
