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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)

#101

Post by slg »

ravenstine wrote: post #86
slg wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These numbers are weird. Why do we count mosquito-borne diseases under mosquitoes but don't put communicable diseases under the tally for humans? It is especially curious considering mosquitoes don't know any better while humans have both the knowledge and ability to dampen how disease spreads through our population.

That's kind of like saying that it's not the shark that kills people but the blood loss.

You missed my point. I am asking for consistency in the metrics.

We get malaria from a parasite that is spread by mosquitoes.

We get tuberculosis from a bacteria that is spread by humans.

TB kills more than three times as many people every year as malaria. Why is malaria counted as a death caused by mosquitoes but TB isn't a death caused by humans? Either you count both or you count neither.

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

#102

Post by jakeogh »

optimiz3 wrote: post #57
clairity wrote: post #54

700K per year. ok let's let the elephant out of the bag: why haven't we been in lockdown every year until this deadly scourge has been exterminated? and no, it's not that the current pandemic was more uncertain. even by january/february, it was clearly less contagious and deadly than the 1918 flu. we had good bounds on potential trajectory by early march, when many lockdowns were being implemented.

> 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.

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/health_policy/influenza-and-pn...

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

#103

Post by bryanrasmussen »

slg wrote: post #101
ravenstine wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's kind of like saying that it's not the shark that kills people but the blood loss.

You missed my point. I am asking for consistency in the metrics. We get malaria from a parasite that is spread by mosquitoes. We get tuberculosis from a bacteria that is spread by humans. TB kills more than three times as many people every year as malaria. Why is malaria counted as a death caused by mosquitoes but TB isn't a death caused by humans? Either you count both or you count neither.

I think it's because the only really meaningful experience you have with a mosquito is when it kills you via malaria.

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

#104

Post by enchiridion »

seph-reed wrote: post #68
epicureanideal wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, I am in favor of exterminating every last mosquito. I’d rather deal with any results than the mosquitos themselves. Also I had a long conversation with a specialist in a company working on this and they convinced me that it wouldn’t actually be a big problem like some say.

Super down for this. First test it on a small isolated island. I think the main reason people don't like camping or nature is because of mosquitos and biting ants. This dislike of outdoors converts directly to a lack of environmentalism. I don't know the conversion rate, so who knows how much more we'd care for nature minus mosquitos, but if we're destroying the planet either way, we should at least enjoy some part o…

Let's take care of ticks whole we're at it!

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

#105

Post by yyyk »

3pt14159 wrote: post #94
yyyk wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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,…

Destroying every member of a specific species is ridiculous. In the next couple decades we'll solve the majority of the illnesses that these things cause and we can roll out the cures around the world without the permanent damage to these ecosystems. I also lived for a time as a child in Manitoba and my grandfather got live altering malaria, so I don't share any love for these insects but we're part of something bigg…

"In the next couple decades", oh, a couple million would die, until maybe we'll have something else (or not). You have no right to make that choice.

The only reason people are even thinking about it, is because it doesn't affect the West. That's callousness masquerading as environmentalism. %$#@! the ecosystem* . People are more important.

* Nevermind no one has even shown any way that anything aside from the target would be harmed. Or that we could reintroduce the species once the parasite is gone.

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

#106

Post by _iqha »

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...

How about polar bears or orcas - and how would you know?

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

#107

Post by dubcanada »

ravenstine wrote: post #86
slg wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These numbers are weird. Why do we count mosquito-borne diseases under mosquitoes but don't put communicable diseases under the tally for humans? It is especially curious considering mosquitoes don't know any better while humans have both the knowledge and ability to dampen how disease spreads through our population.

That's kind of like saying that it's not the shark that kills people but the blood loss.

Not it's not.

They're saying that 1,000,000 is the number for mosquitos, not because they kill people but their a carrier of disease.

What they are asking is do we consider other animals in the same capacity, such as, does the number beside humans include human transmittable diseases (HIV for example).

Seems like a reasonable question.

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

#108

Post by ravenstine »

slg wrote: post #101
ravenstine wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's kind of like saying that it's not the shark that kills people but the blood loss.

You missed my point. I am asking for consistency in the metrics. We get malaria from a parasite that is spread by mosquitoes. We get tuberculosis from a bacteria that is spread by humans. TB kills more than three times as many people every year as malaria. Why is malaria counted as a death caused by mosquitoes but TB isn't a death caused by humans? Either you count both or you count neither.

Ah, I see.

It is probably fair to count TB deaths in the "human kills" category, but I think we usually make a differentiation between human to human disease and disease caused by contact with an animal. It's just the way we see ourselves as separate from the rest of the animal kingdom.

Although I get what you're saying, I don't think that human deaths caused by TB is necessarily what people are interested in when you aggregate all of the of humans at the hand of other humans, which may be why those deaths are omitted.

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

#109

Post by ravenstine »

dubcanada wrote: post #107
ravenstine wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's kind of like saying that it's not the shark that kills people but the blood loss.

Not it's not. They're saying that 1,000,000 is the number for mosquitos, not because they kill people but their a carrier of disease. What they are asking is do we consider other animals in the same capacity, such as, does the number beside humans include human transmittable diseases (HIV for example). Seems like a reasonable question.

> Seems like a reasonable question.

Just to be clear, I think it's a perfectly reasonable question. A rational question can still contain a potential flaw.

But I did misunderstand what they were asking.

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