VERIFY: Squash the fear. Mosquitoes not known to spread COVID-19

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Itching to squash the anxiety about COVID-19? Concerns about summer insects are swarming around the gossip mill, so the VERIFY team is here to vet the truth in a mission to bring facts, not fear.

VERIFY QUESTION

Good Morning Show viewer Julie R. asked if a mosquito can bite a COVID-19-positive individual and then pass the virus when biting another person. She explained she is highly allergic to mosquito bites, and with all of the rain this spring, mosquitoes are out "in full force."

VERIFY SOURCES

• Centers for Disease Control
• Frank Fowler - McNeely Pest Control
• National Pest Management Association

VERIFY PROCESS

To VERIFY, WFMY News 2's Meghann Mollerus looked at guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and talked to Frank Fowler, the vice-president of McNeely Pest Control based in Winston-Salem.

Fowler explained his pest company has received a lot of questions about this topic, and the answer is no.

"The good news is the COVID-19 virus can't be transmitted through any of the vector pests, which is good news for us. The mosquito and the tick are both known worldwide for being able to transmit a wide variety of really bad, deadly viruses and diseases. Thank goodness COVID-19 is not one of them," Fowler emphasized.

The CDC agrees. On the CDC website, under "commonly-asked questions," the CDC explains it has no data to suggest this new coronavirus or similar coronaviruses are spread by mosquitoes or ticks. The main way COVID-19 spreads is from person to person.

The National Pest Management Association explains even though mosquitoes are the leading vectors responsible for infection transmission to humans throughout the world, COVID-19 is a "zoonotic coronavirus," meaning it already jumped the species barrier from animal hosts to humans. COVID-19 is not spread by vector pests. 

VERIFY CONCLUSION

Vector insects like mosquitoes and ticks aren't known to spread COVID-19, which is largely a respiratory illness.

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E-mail: Mmollerus@wfmy.com

Twitter: @MeghannMollerus