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750M genetically modified mosquitoes to be released in Florida

bbc.com

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Re: 750M genetically modified mosquitoes to be released in Florida

#11

Post by MrZander »

GloriousKoji wrote: post #7

Didn't they already try this somewhere else and it wasn't very effective?

Completely anecdotal: They apparently did this in my area a few years back and they are still spraying in my neighborhood as of last week after detecting mosquitoes carrying diseases. And it could be all in my head, but I swear there are 10x more mosquitoes than ever before.

Re: 750M genetically modified mosquitoes to be released in Florida

#13

Post by interestica »

supernova87a wrote: post #3

Does this even sound right numbers-wise? On Tuesday, officials in the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District (FKMCD) gave final approval to release 750 million of the modified mosquitoes over a two-year period. That would mean approx. 1M mosquitoes per day by this organization. Who is cultivating (?) or growing 1M mosquitoes per day. Isn't that like a pickup truck bed cubed size of mosquitoes, every day? Or is it bei…

This is a small commission that is making this decision which has potential implications outside the Keys.

Re: 750M genetically modified mosquitoes to be released in Florida

#15

Post by Fwirt »

Whenever this comes up I always find it interesting that nobody comments on the now 60-year ongoing program that eradicated the screwworm fly from the US by doing pretty much the same thing: releasing millions of genetically altered (sterilized by radiation!) screwworms that mate with the native population. I have no comment on the positive or negative outcomes of the environmental modifications that both programs cause, just that it's interesting that there's so much visible backlash against the mosquito program while nobody mentions the screwworm one.

Re: 750M genetically modified mosquitoes to be released in Florida

#18

Post by RcouF1uZ4gsC »

These anti-Gentically modified people are basically equivalent to anti-vaxxers. The scientific evidence is overwhelming that mosquito borne diseases are a huge public health problem and the studies are solid that using this technology to reduce mosquito populations is safe. Yet, there is always a catastrophe in the gaps type of paranoia.

Re: 750M genetically modified mosquitoes to be released in Florida

#19

Post by ppod »

An interesting aspect to this debate is: what kind of actions do we sort of instinctively judge to have very large tail risk, and should we trust those judgements? Of course, the argument here is about the precautionary principle. But the precautionary principle sort of assumes that we can correctly judge which actions have potentially disastrous (non-ergodic, to use Taleb's vocab) consequences. That in itself is an inexact science. Maybe these mosquitos are about to naturally cultivate some horrifying virus, and it's actually not genetically modifying them that would be catastrophic.

Taleb's ilk tend to respond with a kind of Chesterton's fence conservatism: things we haven't yet done, haven't wiped us out, so lets not do too much new stuff. But that's an anthropic argument, with weird Bayesian properties.

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