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US government approves 'killer' mosquitoes to fight disease

nature.com

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Re: US government approves 'killer' mosquitoes to fight disease

#11

Post by freeflight »

joering2 wrote: post #3
nvahalik wrote: post #2

This sounds like one of those headlines that shows up before one of those movies like 28-days later. I'm all for trying to fight disease but how deeply do we actually understand what we're trying to solve. How do we know that we actually aren't going to make things worse down the road?

We make things worse down the road all the time. Its only that while the time goes by, we advance technologically to tackle on solving those things we made worst in the first place. Of course that makes things worse downER the road...

Solutions breed new problems

Re: US government approves 'killer' mosquitoes to fight disease

#12

Post by jordan801 »

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #10
nvahalik wrote: post #2

This sounds like one of those headlines that shows up before one of those movies like 28-days later. I'm all for trying to fight disease but how deeply do we actually understand what we're trying to solve. How do we know that we actually aren't going to make things worse down the road?

http://www.who.int/whr/1996/media_centre/executive_summary1/... Mosquitoes are responsible for millions of deaths every year, and hundreds of millions of infections often with severe disability. We understand stuff pretty deeply now. According to https://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html eliminating mosquitoes would not cause major ecological issues. So when you have millions of people dying every yea…

I'm excited to see what this does to the food chain. Will it collapse? Will it kill billions? Find out on the next episode of humans trying to manipulate everything.

Re: US government approves 'killer' mosquitoes to fight disease

#13

Post by notyourday »

nvahalik wrote: post #2

This sounds like one of those headlines that shows up before one of those movies like 28-days later. I'm all for trying to fight disease but how deeply do we actually understand what we're trying to solve. How do we know that we actually aren't going to make things worse down the road?

> This sounds like one of those headlines that shows up before one of those movies like 28-days later.

Maybe we will finally get better movies....

Re: US government approves 'killer' mosquitoes to fight disease

#14

Post by [deleted] »

jordan801 wrote: post #12
RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://www.who.int/whr/1996/media_centre/executive_summary1/... Mosquitoes are responsible for millions of deaths every year, and hundreds of millions of infections often with severe disability. We understand stuff pretty deeply now. According to https://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html eliminating mosquitoes would not cause major ecological issues. So when you have millions of people dying every yea…

I'm excited to see what this does to the food chain. Will it collapse? Will it kill billions? Find out on the next episode of humans trying to manipulate everything.

[deleted]

Re: US government approves 'killer' mosquitoes to fight disease

#15

Post by dqpb »

learc83 wrote: post #8
nvahalik wrote: post #2

This sounds like one of those headlines that shows up before one of those movies like 28-days later. I'm all for trying to fight disease but how deeply do we actually understand what we're trying to solve. How do we know that we actually aren't going to make things worse down the road?

Right now we're indiscriminately spraying pesticides that definitely have a harmful effect on the environment. All the evidence points to this being a better solution.

It's important to keep these two questions separate:

1. Is it probably better than the current solution

2. What could go wrong

The first being (probably) true does not negate the need to ask the second.

The new option may have a completely different risk profile

Re: US government approves 'killer' mosquitoes to fight disease

#16

Post by pagnol »

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #10
nvahalik wrote: post #2

This sounds like one of those headlines that shows up before one of those movies like 28-days later. I'm all for trying to fight disease but how deeply do we actually understand what we're trying to solve. How do we know that we actually aren't going to make things worse down the road?

http://www.who.int/whr/1996/media_centre/executive_summary1/... Mosquitoes are responsible for millions of deaths every year, and hundreds of millions of infections often with severe disability. We understand stuff pretty deeply now. According to https://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html eliminating mosquitoes would not cause major ecological issues. So when you have millions of people dying every yea…

> We understand stuff pretty deeply now.

Case in point... this is the mindset that worries us.

Re: US government approves 'killer' mosquitoes to fight disease

#17

Post by bsbechtel »

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #10
nvahalik wrote: post #2

This sounds like one of those headlines that shows up before one of those movies like 28-days later. I'm all for trying to fight disease but how deeply do we actually understand what we're trying to solve. How do we know that we actually aren't going to make things worse down the road?

http://www.who.int/whr/1996/media_centre/executive_summary1/... Mosquitoes are responsible for millions of deaths every year, and hundreds of millions of infections often with severe disability. We understand stuff pretty deeply now. According to https://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html eliminating mosquitoes would not cause major ecological issues. So when you have millions of people dying every yea…

We don't have millions of people dying every year in the US from mosquitoes and this is only about US policy. Millions die every year globally, but this decision will only impact a minuscule portion of those deaths.

Re: US government approves 'killer' mosquitoes to fight disease

#18

Post by [deleted] »

bsbechtel wrote: post #17
RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://www.who.int/whr/1996/media_centre/executive_summary1/... Mosquitoes are responsible for millions of deaths every year, and hundreds of millions of infections often with severe disability. We understand stuff pretty deeply now. According to https://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html eliminating mosquitoes would not cause major ecological issues. So when you have millions of people dying every yea…

We don't have millions of people dying every year in the US from mosquitoes and this is only about US policy. Millions die every year globally, but this decision will only impact a minuscule portion of those deaths.

[deleted]

Re: US government approves 'killer' mosquitoes to fight disease

#19

Post by jackhack »

jordan801 wrote: post #12
RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

http://www.who.int/whr/1996/media_centre/executive_summary1/... Mosquitoes are responsible for millions of deaths every year, and hundreds of millions of infections often with severe disability. We understand stuff pretty deeply now. According to https://www.nature.com/news/2010/100721/full/466432a.html eliminating mosquitoes would not cause major ecological issues. So when you have millions of people dying every yea…

I'm excited to see what this does to the food chain. Will it collapse? Will it kill billions? Find out on the next episode of humans trying to manipulate everything.

The last episode, where the honeybee population collapsed, left me on the edge of my seat. I can't wait to see what happens next.

edit: Seriously, wouldn't it be best to solve existing problems with direct threat to food production than to go off tinkering with new ideas and unknown side-effects?

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