New York Times on bed bugs and travel, etiquette, health, finance; why not ask the big question?

The Social Q’s etiquette column in the New York Times covered a bed bug issue Thursday. The anonymous letter writer said,

My brother has bedbugs. He told our mother and made her promise not to tell me. But she called me immediately. Apparently, he hasn’t told his landlady or called an exterminator, or done anything to contain their spread.

We are all going on a family trip soon. The bedbugs will surely be among his belongings and will set up camp in the home of the relative we’re staying with, and perhaps find their way back to my place.

Although the answer from columnist Philip Galanes was more about the issue of mom spilling the beans on the brother’s secret than anything else, the answer was clear: brother’s refusal to deal with bed bugs (and therefore the possibility he would infest everyone on the upcoming trip) was not acceptable, and the letter writing sister needs to step in and help him grab the bed bug bull by the horns.

See: Social Q’s – A Secret, Itching to Be Told – NYTimes.com.

Bed bugs also appeared in in the Business column On the Road on Monday , and in the Patient Money column last Friday.

Given how concerned the New York Times seems to be with bed bugs right now (bed bugs in hotels, bed bugs and etiquette, bed bugs and health/finance), why won’t someone in the “official” media mention the tiny issue of the still-unfilled NYC Bed Bug Advisory Board?