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Mosquitoes kill more than 700k people every year (2017)

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Re: Mosquitoes kill more than 700k people every year (2017)

#71

Post by yyyk »

ahelwer wrote: post #32

I grew up in Manitoba so have a very healthy hatred of mosquitoes - 50 of them once followed me into a car during the https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/1120044775024013312

The issue is very well studied - Mosquitoes are an invading species in most areas; Only a few subspecies are harmful to humans, and they'll be replaced by similar mosquitoes that aren't.

Besides, there's a very wide gap between what the West is and was willing to do when an infectious disease happens.

When Malaria hit the West, we drained entire swamps (and their ecosystems) without a second though. When corona hits, we justifiably lockdown entire countries. When Malaria hits poor people, it's think about the Mosquitoes. I can't help but think there's a very ugly thing behind this double-standard.

Re: Mosquitoes kill more than 700k people every year (2017)

#72

Post by the_af »

creaghpatr wrote: post #25
Koshkin wrote: post #18

To put this in a perspective, 1 Mosquito 1,000,000 2 Human 475,000 3 Snake 50,000 4 Dog 25,000 5 Tsetse Fly 10,000 6 Assassin Bug 10,000 7 Freshwater Snail 10,000 8 Ascaris Roundworm 2,500 9 Tapeworm 2,000 10 Crocodile 1,000 11 Hippopotamus 500 12 Elephant 100 13 Lion 100 14 Wolf 10 15 Shark 10 https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-animals-that-kill-mo...

I had never heard of Assassin bug but apparently they are all over North America. https://www.insectidentification.org/insect-description.asp?... Wonder if those Murder Hornets will make next year's list?

The assassin bug is called "vinchuca" in my country, Argentina, and it's a real problem here. There are ways to combat the bug, but once you catch the Chagas disease, there's no cure and you have to live with it. There is only symptomatic treatment as far as I know.

Re: Mosquitoes kill more than 700k people every year (2017)

#73

Post by lostmsu »

Koshkin wrote: post #18

To put this in a perspective, 1 Mosquito 1,000,000 2 Human 475,000 3 Snake 50,000 4 Dog 25,000 5 Tsetse Fly 10,000 6 Assassin Bug 10,000 7 Freshwater Snail 10,000 8 Ascaris Roundworm 2,500 9 Tapeworm 2,000 10 Crocodile 1,000 11 Hippopotamus 500 12 Elephant 100 13 Lion 100 14 Wolf 10 15 Shark 10 https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-animals-that-kill-mo...

Huh, venomous spiders are not on the list?

Re: Mosquitoes kill more than 700k people every year (2017)

#74

Post by dheera »

mac01021 wrote: post #27

Just as a curiosity, humans kill hundreds of trillions of insects annually. [1] https://www.quora.com/How-many-insects-die-from-people-stepp...

Insects, however, reproduce so much that without population control, the ecosystem would be in imbalance very quickly, and they can't be educated to have less children. Insects were "designed" into the system such that a large number of them are expected to die.

I wouldn't be surprised if birds and spiders kill far more insects than people.

Re: Mosquitoes kill more than 700k people every year (2017)

#75

Post by thawaway1837 »

clairity wrote: post #61
optimiz3 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> why haven't we been in lockdown every year until this deadly scourge has been exterminated? Probably because 700k/year is globally, while the US alone has suffered 100k deaths in 3 months.

currently ~350K global deaths for covid, in 6 months, since december.

In about 3 months. For a disease that was growing exponentially before action was taken and even now is only just stopped growing in countries where action was taken.

And no mosquito outbreak has caused entire hospital systems to collapse in various parts of the world.

Re: Mosquitoes kill more than 700k people every year (2017)

#76

Post by ahelwer »

lucisferre wrote: post #52
ahelwer wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe you didn't click the link, so I guess I'll ask you: how many humans would die if we did exterminate the mosquitoes? More or less than 700,000? Do you know? You have no way of knowing how ecological systems would react.

Several of the comments responding to him do address this and at least some of the people commenting do appear to know, or at least know more than Nassim Taleb appears to. Besides, his statement isn't an argument, and present no facts or information. > Imbecilic remark. Do you know how many humans would die if we eliminated mosquitos? Any idea? petters also appears to be correct on what would happen if we had these i…

Taleb's position in general is one of extreme conservatism when meddling with ecological systems (for example he is also against GMOs). The basis for this conservatism is his general concern with risk in a nonlinear world. He does indeed put forth an argument, which is: can you predict the effects of this? No, you cannot, and possible effects include ecological collapse.

Re: Manitoba, spraying to reduce mosquito populations in urban areas is a whole different ball game from extermination.

Re: Mosquitoes kill more than 700k people every year (2017)

#77

Post by thawaway1837 »

macintux wrote: post #70
throwaway894345 wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm of the impression that in March and perhaps even in April "experts" (whoever they are) thought the US alone could see death tolls in the millions?

Without a lockdown, it’s still possible. Latest estimates are 0.5-1 percent fatality rate, which maps to 2-3 million people here in the US, and if everyone got ill in a short succession, because it is very contagious, the death toll would certainly be higher. Recent birthday party, 20 people, every single one caught the disease.

The 0.5-1% fatality rate would be a LOT higher if all those people did fall sick at the same time.

Hospital systems would collapse because of the number of sick people. Doctors and nurses would be missing because they would almost all likely fall sick.

And people who would not die of COVID would die of other stuff because healthcare systems would have collapsed.

This is what happened in Italy. This is what was happening in NYC for a few days at its worst. This is what is about to happen in Brazil and possibly in India.

Re: Mosquitoes kill more than 700k people every year (2017)

#78

Post by ahelwer »

yyyk wrote: post #71
ahelwer wrote: post #32

I grew up in Manitoba so have a very healthy hatred of mosquitoes - 50 of them once followed me into a car during the https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/1120044775024013312

The issue is very well studied - Mosquitoes are an invading species in most areas; Only a few subspecies are harmful to humans, and they'll be replaced by similar mosquitoes that aren't. Besides, there's a very wide gap between what the West is and was willing to do when an infectious disease happens. When Malaria hit the West, we drained entire swamps (and their ecosystems) without a second though. When corona hits,…

Nature doesn't care about how something looks politically. Those decisions were bad and aren't vindicated because nothing went wrong (there are other cases where things went very very wrong, as another commenter mentions with DDT). In a nonlinear world you can never know whether you were right or just lucky.

Re: Mosquitoes kill more than 700k people every year (2017)

#79

Post by macintux »

clairity wrote: post #66
thawaway1837 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Umm, for one thing because going into lockdown wouldn’t do anything to prevent death by mosquito? You do know that mosquitoes have wings and can move from place to place without humans right?

you know that the most effective preventative for mosquito bites are mosquito nets, like staying inside, with screens on your windows and doors, right?

The lockdown isn't intended to protect the people staying inside, although that certainly helps; it's designed to protect everyone who they'd otherwise be infecting unknowingly.
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