Malaria is a parasite isn't it?
Wouldn't that mean that Malaria is killing that many people and the actual numbers are lower?
If we are including diseases why not count bats?
Mosquitoes kill more than 700k people every year (2017)
321–330 of 411 posts
Re: Mosquitoes kill more than 700k people every year (2017)
#322Earlier quoted context omitted.
Curious as to why we haven't evolved tougher skin then. Mosquito resistant skin would appear to be a trait that would allow you to live longer.
Evolution doesn’t care about longevity or quality of life: it’s all about passing genes on. If some kind of mosquito resistance didn’t lead to increasing the number of children you have there’s not going to be much selection pressure for it.
Would it not, if the individuals that are not bearing the anti-mosquito skin die off?
Re: Mosquitoes kill more than 700k people every year (2017)
#323One of my classmates came back from Africa to Europe this March without any symptoms. 10 days later she got high fever, dizziness, and unfortunately she could not even recognise her family. Everyone thought its COVID, and doctors recommended her to stay home to not spread the "virus". Unfortunately when she got the the hospital, the diagnostics was too late to and she died in malaria 1,5 days later. Please beware of…
Makes you wonder how many people have actually died so far this way. Being told to stay home and not spread covid, meanwhile something else is actually terribly wrong.
150,000 people typically get diagnosed with cancer each month in the US. With hospitals shut that isn't happening.
https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/understanding/statistics
Re: Mosquitoes kill more than 700k people every year (2017)
#324Earlier quoted context omitted.
Pathogens aren't animals, so the mosquito is the one counted. They don't count humans the same as other animals, instead, they count homicide/war (intentional killing), and you can just consider it a point of reference. Are you going to count accidents? Suicide? Anything that can be traced to human decisions? Anything that can be traced to human biology? Any way you count humans, it just isn't going to be equivalent.
In the chart, the humans vs. mosquitos are not fairly comparable. First - if you're going to say 'mosquitos kill humans because they transmit disease' and then include humans for a completely different reason (i.e. homicide) makes for an odd comparison. For example, what if human transmission of the communicable disease results in some massive amount of death, which could very well be the case? Second - mosquitoes ar…
Well I said elsewhere that they should probably skip the humans since it is so different, but I got pretty well downvoted.
Malaria is almost exclusively spread by mosquitos, so there is a certain logic to saying "mosquitos kill a lot of people." But you are right that most times you are bitten by a mosquito, it is nothing but a minor annoyance. It's a bit different from a lion.
Some people include deer in such charts, because people die by crashing their cars into deer. But that is pretty different too.
Re: Mosquitoes kill more than 700k people every year (2017)
#325Earlier quoted context omitted.
Makes you wonder how many people have actually died so far this way. Being told to stay home and not spread covid, meanwhile something else is actually terribly wrong.
150,000 people typically get diagnosed with cancer each month in the US. With hospitals shut that isn't happening. https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/understanding/statistics
The indirect fallout from this will be huge.
From delayed diagnostics, to "elective" surgeries that can't take place, to suicides. It's going to be on the order of the direct deaths at least.
The only real measurable indirect improvement is a lot less people dead in traffic accidents.
Re: Mosquitoes kill more than 700k people every year (2017)
#326Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your aim isn't to kill anybody. A careless maintenance worker in a factory also doesn't intent to kill someone when he intentionally skips a job. Or a shopkeeper when he sells cigarettes to a customer. You would end up including nearly all deaths as caused by humans if you go down that road. The bus driver who gave an overweight person a ride instead of making them walk.
Well, my point was that most automobile collisions aren't 'accidents' in the true sense of the word, and most automobile related injuries (and deaths) occur when someone does something negligent. The vast majority of collisions are caused by some combination of being distracted, intoxication, speeding, or just being reckless. Deaths (or serious injuries for that matter) rarely occur at low speeds, it's most often in…
But how do you exclude all those other causes? We know that cigarettes kill people too so if you intentionally sell them to somebody, you're being reckless or negligent too. It's a continuum so where do you draw the line? At breaking the law? That's arbitrary and depends on the country.
Re: Mosquitoes kill more than 700k people every year (2017)
#327Earlier quoted context omitted.
Cars are obviously important for the economy which provides money for all life saving things. Stopping all driving would certainly cause many deaths.
American has three times the traffic death rate of the Britain and six times of Norway’s. What’s the benefit?
Inventing just about everything ever? America also has 50% more GDP per capita than the UK. Perhaps the extra 200% traffic deaths are needed to provide that boost.
Re: Mosquitoes kill more than 700k people every year (2017)
#328Quick - lock it down. Double unemployment payments. Wait it out in your basement with the light out.
Re: Mosquitoes kill more than 700k people every year (2017)
#329>"But the deadliest animal in the world, in terms of how many people it kills every year, is by far the mosquito. As nicely illustrated in an infographic by gatesnotes, mosquitoes kill at least 725,000 persons every year"
And yet, we never seem to hear this fact on the News...
Yet we do get stories of the form "X killed Y people", where X is some person/group/phenomenon, and Y And usually, Y is not just less, but several orders of magnitude less -- than 725,000...
Also... if you happen to leave a window open at night (accidentally, not intentionally, I might add!), and a mosquito should happen to get in -- does that make you an "accessory to murder" ?
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Re: Mosquitoes kill more than 700k people every year (2017)
#330Earlier quoted context omitted.
Someone always pops up to save "pitbulls have a bad rep" but they also account for > 80% of all bites and deaths by dog. That's not an accident.
I used to belive that, but I have since come to believe that the explanatory variable in vicious dog attacks are the type of owners, and the breeders who supply those owners, not dog breed. If you banned pitbulls they would just switch to buying and abusing alsatians.
Why did you change your belief? I've heard both beliefs too but never seen evidence for the blame-the-owner one so I'm never sure.
I hope your logic is not: "I can imagine how A might cause X, therefore I believe B cannot possibly cause X." Easy way for people too fool themselves into believing unsupported ideas.