Way back in July, I think, Black Agnes and I started talking about possible vectors.
Since a sample of less than 10 viruses can infect a human being, then it has to be what you’d now consider a likelihood that the virus can survive in a mosquito. Further, its also an excellent likelihood that this can be spread by mosquito.
If you are going to test one thing in a lab in the next two weeks or so, this is the thing I would test. I’d also test bedbugs, fleas, lice, and biting flies.
The only thing worse than its transmissibility via aerosol is its transmissibility via highly mobile parasites.
So riddle me this - man dies of Ebola and is left in the street, because nobody wants to be infected. Fine. Flies come and lay eggs, begetting more flies - all of whom are now potential supercarriers of Ebola Guinea. Blood runs into the sewer, which seeps into the water supply. Mosquitoes feast, etc.
Now, you are talking a potential R0 bump of scary proportions.
Nobody is talking about transmissibility via pest. There’s a Senator from I believe Tenn, or another southern state who is the point guy in the Senate on stuff like this. I saw him on the panel. He’d be able to get a question like this answered quickly.
No, it can't. The virus cannot survive inside mosquitoes, even when experimentally injected into their gut. Even if a mosquito were to feed on an Ebola patient and immediately go feed on someone else, the chance that it would carry a sufficient number of infectious virions on its feet to cause a new infection is minuscule.