The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality issued a public warning Friday for several communities and cities on the outskirts of Houston, telling them to avoid drinking or using their household tap water, as it had been found to be contaminated with naegleria fowleri.

What the hell is that exactly??? Oh, nothing ... just a brain-eating amoeba that takes its sweet time munching away at your noodle. Just another day in the life of 2020.

In all seriousness ... it's pretty horrifying news. The Commission said 11 municipalities from Lake Jackson to Rosbenburg, Brazoria and tons of other towns in between should avoid drinking tap water, or even using the shower for the time being -- this after the Brazosport Water Authority informed officials that naegleria had been detected in their supply lines.

The one thing they said folks COULD still do safely and without worry ... flushing the toilet.

The good news is that by Saturday, several of those above-mentioned cities had been removed from the list as being at risk, and only Lake Jackson residents were still under the advisory's red alert. According to them, they'd flushed out the amoeba and enough scientific testing had been done to ensure it was gone in all those other areas.

Not to cast doubt, but if we were living in those other cities that were supposedly affected at first -- we might opt for bottled water for a solid minute or two ... just sayin'. Oh, and BTW, signs that the amoeba has infiltrated takes about 5 days on average to show up.