On Monday, CBS News leapt (or leaped, if you wish) onto the alarm bandwagon, writing (emphasis mine):

So far, the biggest outbreak has taken place on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, but the fungus has since spread past the order [sic] into Oregon where it’s become a "a major source of illness in the region," according to the online journal PLoS Pathogens.

Not to be snarky (translation: Imma snark (translation: sarcasm coming)), but besides misspelling “border,” the CBS News writer failed to read either my previous post here (highly forgivable) or my comment on the PLoS Pathogen article’s discussion page (less forgivable, being that there are only two comments on the article).

It’s interesting to think about where in the scientific peer review process a clinker like “major source of illness” should have been caught. (I’ll think to myself.)

For the record, a publications assistant at PLoS Pathogens who handled my comment deserves thanks. He offered helpful feedback on a first draft of my comment, and he followed up to suggest that PLoS Pathogens cares when their articles are misinterpreted.