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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)

#191
post #128
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suspect dogs aren’t particularly deadly, it’s just that there are so many of them and they collectively spend so much time near humans. Sharks on the other hand almost never interact with humans.

The only reason housecats aren't at the top of the list is that they are so small.

Or they cover their tracks very well!

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

#192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure. Plenty of people swim in waters where sharks are regularly observed. And still the attacks are low. And further, with many attacks, I think in particular great-whites, they back off after the first bite, which allows for much greater survivability. So the ratio of "shark contact" to "sharks win" is probably low. And if you also add in fishing for sharks (such as for fins) humans probably kill a lot more…

Hm. Not convinced. Contact with sharks vs contact with mosquitoes, or with dogs, or anything else on that list? Most people spend maybe hours a year in shark ecosystem. Vs 365 days a year in dog country, or mosquito etc.

> Contact with sharks vs contact with mosquitoes, or with dogs, or anything else on that list?

Swimming with reef sharks vs taking a hike in a malaria infested jungle? Swimming with reef sharks please.

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

#193
post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The human category is limited, I believe, to intentional killing. Otherwise you open up a whole can of worms about macroeconomic trolley problems. (Am I killing people right now by making insufficiently-optimal donations to charity?)

It doesn’t have to be this abstract, though. This will likely change in the next 20 years. Consider the move from horse drawn carriages to vehicles. It was an acceptable risk that anyone might be permanently disabled due to being kicked in the head or trampled by a horse. This might be a horse you are simply walking past. Or one that is spooked and running down the street. The owner of the horse beared little to no r…

I don’t disagree with the principles you’re standing up for here; but we’re not having an ethical argument, we’re talking about what went into the author’s analysis. And AFAICT, in said analysis, they just took for “human deaths caused by humans”, the set of deaths where one human thought “I want that other human to die”, and then caused that to happen. Situations with legal mens rea for killing.

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

#194
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Poor sharks, they get one of the worst raps for how little damage they do to humans. I'm surprised to see dogs so high up on that list.

I suspect dogs aren’t particularly deadly, it’s just that there are so many of them and they collectively spend so much time near humans. Sharks on the other hand almost never interact with humans.

I am not sure about that. In developing countries, rabies kill a lot of people. They might not directly kill people as much but their bites sure do.

https://www.newindianexpress.com/lifestyle/health/2020/jan/1...

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

#196
post #160
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...

0 Traffic 1,350,000 Sort of weird to limit the Human category to, apparently, conflict, war, murders, and acts of terrorism. Also, it's horrible that conflict, war, murders, and acts of terrorism are in the same ballpark as traffic deaths. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-r... (2016)

Personally I think they should just skip the human category. I mean, if I die of old age aren't I sort of being killed by a human? ok maybe that is a stretch, but how about if I catch the flu from another person? Is it the flu or the other person that got me?

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

#197
post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your pushback against the HN downvoter cowards, especially when you've questioned the status quo and planted a seed of dissent against the grain, is quite appreciated by this particular HN user. Honestly, I find the dialogue here toxic and coarse, and I'm sure I'm a part of that, too. Ideally I'd just delete my account, and never come back... But HN won't allow me to delete my account, so, in spite, I'll keep coming…

Years ago it wasn't like this, and I recall reading mostly hardcore tech nerdery on here. Now... I don't even know. HN and Reddit are pretty well useless, and the only thing that keeps me around Reddit are automotive and industrial/machining subs. Seems strange that it was only 8 years ago. Member when HN was overwhelmingly pro meritocracy? I member. I really miss reading King Terry's diatribes in showdead. You'd pro…

The same thing happened to Russian IT hub, Habr.com. Today it's nothing but a propaganda outlet aimed at those who spin the cogs of this technocratic machine (and especially at the suggestible teens who will spin them in the future). The same thing over and over again all over the internet and society as a whole. No choice, no dissent, no free will. We know better. You get muted and ridiculed. Silently. Efficiently. Yes you can but you can't.

People today seem to be scared to death to think different (not as in apple).

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

#198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Latest estimates are 0.5-1 percent fatality rate I read just a couple of days ago that the IFR (infection fatality rate) is only ~0.25%-0.3%? Still ~four times higher than that of the flu, but not ten times greater.

The current CDC "best estimate" is ~0.4%, assuming an R0 of 2.5, with estimates of ~0.2% if the R0 is actual ~2 in the US and ~1% if the R0 is actually 3.

Pretty sure that 0.4% is "among people who develop symptoms" and 35% of infections are asymptomatic. So 0.4% of 65% of infections, or ~0.26% of infections.

[0]: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/planning-scena...

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

#199
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...

This is unfair because Mosquitos don't kill anyone. They are a vector for pathogens that kill.

Humans are also vectors for pathogens, we just don't count them as such.

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

#200
post #177
post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

0 Traffic 1,350,000 Sort of weird to limit the Human category to, apparently, conflict, war, murders, and acts of terrorism. Also, it's horrible that conflict, war, murders, and acts of terrorism are in the same ballpark as traffic deaths. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-r... (2016)

The human category is limited, I believe, to intentional killing. Otherwise you open up a whole can of worms about macroeconomic trolley problems. (Am I killing people right now by making insufficiently-optimal donations to charity?)

A million people killed by cars prevents five million from dying how?
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