🤢 Don’t read this if you’re a hypochondriac

Hello! It’s Thursday, June 11, and I’m embarrassed to say that I missed Fast Forward’s birthday. She turned 10 on June 1, and is entering puberty and getting sassy to boot. (You don’t want to know.) Thanks to all of you who subscribe, especially those who have been here from the very beginning! If you’re a free subscriber, here’s a special Birthday offer for you:

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The sun rose in Boston at 5:07 a.m. and set at 8:21 p.m. for 15 hours and 14 minutes of sunlight. The waning moon is 14% full.

The Old Farmer’s Almanac says there are at least 214 known moons in our solar system, and given how obsessed we’ve become with the NASA missions to our one and only moon, it’s interesting to find out more about its relatives. Here’s more.

🔥 What’s it like outside?

⚽️ Hey, sport: The men’s soccer World Cup officially kicked off (so to speak) today with two matches in Mexico: In the first, Mexico defeated South Africa, 2-0. Next up: South Korea vs. Czechia at 10 p.m. ET. The first match for the US, which is in Group D, is Friday against Paraguay at 9 p.m. ET in Los Angeles.

Here’s the full schedule from FIFA.

The first match in Foxborough at the renamed Boston Stadium is Saturday, when Haiti meets Scotland at 9 p.m. Here’s the Globe’s list of the Boston matches. (🎁)

All of the matches are broadcast on Fox or FoxOne or FS1 or Peacock or Telemundo or a few other channels. But if you prefer to watch with a rowdy group, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu has extended bar and restaurant alcohol serving hours by one hour through the end of July. (This will also accommodate celebrations for our 250th.) There are community watch parties all over the state, and most of them are free. Here’s a list.

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🤒 And now we have to worry about … screwworms?

Viruses, parasites, infections … things aren’t looking great on the public health front. Here’s an update.

SCREWWORM: When I first heard this term, I couldn’t figure out if it was referring to Trump the Serial Abuser or Pistol Pete Hegseth. Then I found out it is an actual worm. Well, sort of. The New World screwworm is a parasitic fly that lays its eggs on any open wounds and other body cavities (eyes, nose, mouth, ears) of warm-blooded animals like cattle, deer, horses, goats — even dogs. About 12 to 24 hours later, those eggs become maggots that burrow into and feed on that healthy tissue. They rip and devour the tissue, causing so much destruction, blood loss, and infection that the animal can die within a week.

It is a dangerous, insidious, deadly parasite.

Some background: Although New World screwworms are native to South America, parts of Central America, and the Caribbean, their natural range has extended into the southern and southwestern US. It’s been seen in the US off and on since the mid-1800s, but in 1966, the government declared that the screwworm was eradicated here.

In 2023, the screwworm apparently broke through a biological barrier in Panama that had successfully kept them out of Central and North America for decades, and started heading north. In November of 2024, the Biden administration enacted a ban on live cattle and livestock imports from Mexico to stop the advance.

Ah, but then the merry band of nincompoops took over.

Not long after Trump’s second inauguration in January of 2025, Elon Musk’s DOGE bros slashed USAID to bits, including eliminating hundreds of millions of dollars that had been allocated to monitor and contain — you guessed it — New World Screwworm, as well as avian flu here and in Asia, swine fever, and more nasty stuff.

Then Trump inexplicably lifted Biden’s ban on live cattle and livestock imports from Mexico. And sure enough, the little screwworm found its way to Texas and New Mexico this month, where there have been at least seven cases involving cattle, goats, and a pet dog. The move has been aided by cattle being smuggled into the US.

So Trump scrambled to re-impose Biden’s ban, and now his minions are trying to blame Biden for the outbreak. But not the Texas agriculture secretary, who is quite unhappy with the Trump administration’s moves so far.

Anyway, this parasite can infect humans. Treatment for animals involves sprays, powders, and injections; for humans, it can involve surgery to manually remove and kill each egg or maggot. Officials are releasing millions of sterile flies in an attempt to stop the reproductive cycles.

There’s another big concern: Livestock numbers are already down, and if this turns into a bigger outbreak and causes those numbers to drop more, the already high cost of beef could skyrocket. It’s not just the dead cattle; cattle that are underweight can’t be brought to market either. Plus the government could be forced to impose quarantines.

TICKS: Blame Biden the super El Niño we’re experiencing for this one. This climate pattern creates unusually warm ocean surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean near the equator, and that warm water moves east toward the Americas. That disrupts global weather patterns by making winters milder and longer-lasting — meaning a longer tick season. In fact, researchers are finding them from mid-March through mid-October, and have even found some that survived the winter in southern Canada. They’re also being found in new places because of planetary warming.

The most common illness that ticks can carry is Lyme disease, but there’s been a surge of alpha-gal syndrome transmitted by lone star ticks. That bizarre syndrome makes you allergic to red meat, possibly for the rest of your life.

Experts recommend that you don’t go for a walk in the woods or grassy areas. In your own yard, keep grass and bushes trimmed back. Every time you go out, thoroughly check yourself, your kids, and your pets for ticks. Wear long pants and sleeves that are light-colored so you can spot the critters. Consider applying a repellant like permethrin to your clothes. (It’s effective against mosquitoes, too.)

By the way, if you do find a tick that has embedded itself, after you pull it off, save it in a sealed bag or container in the freezer so that if the person or animal develops symptoms, you can bring the tick to the doctor for identification.

EBOLA: Congo officials say the country is up to 598 confirmed Ebola cases with 115 deaths, and the outbreak is expanding rapidly. The Lancet estimates that the actual number of cases is more than 1,300, and the World Health Organization’s latest assessment says the risk of transmission in Congo, Uganda and neighboring countries is high. Mo