West Nile Virus is spread by Mosquitos?

One of the issues with the belief that malaria is spread by mosquitos is the willingness of many to believe that other diseases are spread by mosquitos. Over the recent labor day weekend in USA there was a scare about West Nile Virus covered sensationally in main stream media. The news articles are the usual fear porn so popular during COVID with the added twist that Anthony Fauci tested positive! There is a belief that the disease is spread by mosquitos. But what is the evidence for this?

Dr Sam Bailey did a deep dive on West Nile Virus in her weekly blog this week. She pointed out that the original diagnosis of the disease was Rockefeller funded research in which blood from a febrile 37 year old woman in Uganda in 1937 was injected directly into the brains of mice (Smithburn et al, 1940). The PCR sequence of the virus itself was supposedly isolated from the brain of a Chilean flamingo (Phoenicopterus chilensis) that died in a zoo in North Eastern USA  in 1999 by Lanciotti et al, who completed genome sequencing of a flavivirus. Most subsequent tests use PCR (Polymerase chain reaction) to find this sequence in the blood of birds, in mosquitos and in mammals (Not unlike the use of PCR and the genomic sequence from one pneumonia patient in Wuhan as the basis for the COVID scare).

Sam Bailey’s article addressed the likely non-existence of the virus and not how it is supposedly spread by mosquitos. And try as I might I could find no references to prove the West Nile Virus mosquito transmission story either. According to CDC (with no evidence)

West Nile virus is most commonly spread to people by the bite of an infected mosquito. Mosquitoes become infected when they feed on infected birds. Infected mosquitoes then spread West Nile virus to people and other animals by biting them.

In nature, West Nile virus cycles between mosquitoes (especially Culex species) and birds. Some infected birds can develop high levels of the virus in their bloodstream and mosquitoes can become infected by biting these infected birds. After about a week, infected mosquitoes can pass the virus to more birds when they bite.

Mosquitoes with West Nile virus also bite and infect people, horses, and other mammals. However, humans, horses, and other mammals are ‘dead end’ hosts. This means that they do not develop high levels of virus in their bloodstream, and cannot pass the virus on to other biting mosquitoes.

Beyond the circumstantial evidence that the PCR sequence is found in mosquitos, birds and some mammals, can anyone direct me to a research article with stronger evidence that this ‘disease’, probably another fictional virus, is spread by mosquitos?