Finally, someone says something intelligent.

Asked by KARE11 about bed bugs, Dr. Stephen Kells said:

“Although they don’t transmit diseases, they could almost be considered like a disease themselves.”

You can tell when someone is compassionate and thoughtful about bed bugs and their absolutely deleterious impact on our society.

Here’s a bit more from the article—see the site for the video:

They’re tough and expensive to get rid of. That’s why Kells worries about outbreaks in low income housing because residents often can’t afford to hire an exterminator.

Here’s more Kells on this subject, from Bed Bugs: A Systemic Pest Within Society (2006, PDF):

When I began discussing the bed bug problem with colleagues in Canada, I heard disturbing news that some administrators in low-income housing were claiming that the elimination of bed bugs was too costly; instead, they began talking about suppressing infestations below threshold levels. Considering the hitchhiking ability of this bug, permitting reservoir sites to exist provides a continual source of bed bugs for temporary sites and a constant risk of dispersion through society.

By the way, there are other free articles from that issue of American Entomologist that are interesting.

And, yeah, of course I have thoughts on the JAMA juggernaut. I’ve now finished reading the paper. Reading. I guess that’s too much to ask from the people who are writing those pesky but harmless headlines. Honestly, who says pesky in the context of bed bugs? And where do they live? How can people still be so oblivious to the suffering this pest causes?