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

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111–120 of 411 posts

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

#111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Evidence for what claim? That hydroxychloroquine is safer than Tylenol? I don't know why you connected what I said with anything to do with COVID-19. I didn't say that it helped, in fact, I think it was bad science that lead to that belief. But the fact that hydroxychloroquine is safe is beyond argument. This is from the CDC: Hydroxychloroquine is a relatively well tolerated medicine. The most common adverse reaction…

I think replying with a sardonic “Wrong.” and then making an unsubstantiated claim made it pretty clear what the pretext of your comment was. But sure...I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. Regardless, no it’s not “safe beyond argument”. Let’s try again. FDA: > ”Hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine: - should be used for COVID-19 only when patients can be appropriately monitored in the hospital as required by the EUA…

Your reference conflates hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to try to prove your point. Chloroquiine is a different drug with stronger side effects, which I explicitly mentioned.

How about finding information about hydroxychlorquine on its own? This is from the FDA itself:

https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2007/00...

I suggest you actually try to do some deeper research besides just reading politicized versions of information. First and foremost, educate yourself on the differences between hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, they are two different chemicals. Just like how "dihydrogen monoxide" and "hydrogen sulfate" are two different chemicals, even though they have the word "hydrogen" in them.

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

#112
If you want to reduce the number, consider donating money to the cost-effective Against Malaria Foundation

https://www.givewell.org/charities/amf - review by GiveWell, and independent charity evaluator

$2 donation results in 1 net that lasts 3-4 years protecting 1.8 people on average from malaria $3

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

#113

This is why Verily's https://debug.com/ project is so interesting. The idea is to create modified mosquitoes that can't bite or breed and release them to "breed" with the general populous thus neutralizing them.

What's to say something strange doesn't happen with these "modified mosquitoes" and we somehow engineer a super mosquitos or kill off 4 other species accidentally.

I really want to believe that doing this would be something that humans should explore, but I think the chance of something going wrong is fairly high. Considering our rather terrible track record with stuff like this (weapons, pesticides, etc).

It often takes decades to truly see how it works, so while we may end the mosquitos problem we may make ourselves a worse one.

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

#114
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"why haven't we been in lockdown every year until this deadly scourge has been exterminated?" One does not simply question the official corona narrative here without being censored by downvoting or flagging. But answering your question: that's because such scenario was not developed and funded. Yet.

i'm happy to pay that (tiny) cost if it makes even one person stop and question the narrative honestly for even a second.

So am I, my friend.

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

#115
post #87
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Make no mistake, the West would do DDT all over again if that was the price for getting rid of Malaria. But a very targeted intervention is off limits due to 'well, we don't know, something might go wrong'. Nature doesn't care if humans all die. Nature doesn't 'care' at all. Humanity does. And this looks very ugly and very hypocritical.

"The West" is doing DDT all over again. This time it's neonicotinoids, and just like with DDT, they're being pushed by ag conglomerates as a way to increase profits, with a side of "cigarettes give you healthy skin!" style propaganda to make them look innocent.

Last time, we "merely" almost wiped out a whole class of apex predators and caused a collection of trophic cascades. This time, with a menu of unintended consequences only the most obvious of which is the "colony collapse disorder" that's been imperiling pollinators worldwide, we might just end up managing to break modern agriculture entirely and cause famines worldwide, too.

So, yeah, "targeted interventions" merit extreme skepticism, because we as a species suck at them. If you want to look at that through a lens of anti-Westernism, you're welcome.

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

#116
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> %$#@! the ecosystem* . People are more important.

You do know humans need a functioning ecology in order to survive, right?

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

#117
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...

And, in the United States - the most lethal animal of all is the ... Deer. (about 120 deaths/year, which shows how safe most Americans are from animals)

https://www.askmen.com/news/entertainment/deers-kill-more-pe...

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

#118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Common side effects may include vomiting, headache, changes in vision, and muscle weakness. Severe side effects may include allergic reactions, vision problems, and heart problems." Sure, these side effects may be uncommon, but they're a hell of a lot more common than they are if you don't take hydroxychloroquine. Incidentally, it's an open secret that a lot of the popular NSAIDs wouldn't be OTC if they were discove…

Yes, so what you said didn't contradict anything I said. Hydroxycloroquine is safer than acetaminophen which is available openly at doses that can destroy the liver. Here is what the CDC says about hydroxychloroquine. To call it "unsafe" is ridiculous and spreading misinformation. Hydroxychloroquine is a relatively well tolerated medicine. The most common adverse reactions reported are stomach pain, nausea, vomiting,…

> Yes, so what you said didn't contradict anything I said. Hydroxycloroquine is safer than acetaminophen which is available openly at doses that can destroy the liver.

My point is, that even if it's safer than acetaminophen (which is not in evidence) that's doesn't mean it's safe. Which is a direct contradiction to your glib, "Wrong."

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

#119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you going to cite any actual evidence for that bold claim? Here, like this: > We were unable to confirm a benefit of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine, when used alone or with a macrolide, on in-hospital outcomes for COVID-19. Each of these drug regimens was associated with decreased in-hospital survival and an increased frequency of ventricular arrhythmias when used for treatment of COVID-19. https://www.thelanc…

Evidence for what claim? That hydroxychloroquine is safer than Tylenol? I don't know why you connected what I said with anything to do with COVID-19. I didn't say that it helped, in fact, I think it was bad science that lead to that belief. But the fact that hydroxychloroquine is safe is beyond argument. This is from the CDC: Hydroxychloroquine is a relatively well tolerated medicine. The most common adverse reaction…

> I don't know why you connected what I said with anything to do with COVID-19.

Well, I'm just gonna quote that so you can't change it.

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

#120
post #73
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?

They rarely kill, just 'really annoy' for a month or so.
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