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Zika Infection May Affect Adult Brain Cells

newswire.rockefeller.edu

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Re: Zika Infection May Affect Adult Brain Cells

#61

Post by will_brown »

JosephHatfield wrote: post #56
will_brown wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Beyond your question of ecological impact of killing all mosquitoes, as others mentioned they don't all need to be killed. Historically, South Florida engaged in annual mosquitoe controlling campaigns. Essentially aerial spraying during the Summer. These were stopped because of the budget cuts related to the collapse of the Florida housing market. Not only did the mosquitoes become intolerable, but before Zika we had…

When I was growing up along the Indian River in Florida, they used to send trucks through the neighborhood on summer nights that sent out huge clouds of mosquito killing fog. I'm sure that was perfectly safe.

I go up there to Hutchinson Island every Summer, at night on the Beach the sand flys (no-see-umps) are absolutely brutal.

Re: Zika Infection May Affect Adult Brain Cells

#62

Post by kordless »

nerdponx wrote: post #59
micah_chatt wrote: post #11

Guillain-Barré (normally 1 in 100,000, it's 1 out of 5k-10k with Zika ) is quite scary as well, basically you get locked inside your own body and either die or have a multi-year recovery if they identify it within the first day or two. I know two people who have gotten it in the last year: http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2016/apr/04/n...

A coworker got this a couple months ago. He was out for a month, very scary

My dad got it back in 2000, when we knew very little about it - not that we know much more today, honestly. It killed him, eventually. Blood clots from being paralyzed for a few months. Hospital didn't put him on blood thinners.

Re: Zika Infection May Affect Adult Brain Cells

#66

Post by Chathamization »

enraged_camel wrote: post #34
waterphone wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unintended consequences still manage to arise most of the time when people think they can play god and mess with nature in that way. Until relatively recently, people didn't even know that hummingbirds relied heavily on eating small insects like mosquitos rather than just drinking nectar. Undoubtedly there are many things like that which we simply aren't aware of.

I've never understood this argument. We have been "playing god" since we settled down 10,000 years ago and started practicing agriculture. The ways in which we selectively cultivate/breed plants/animals have do doubt caused major changes in ecosystems. Yet, if we had not done those things, we probably would not be here today. Furthermore, where do you draw the line? We are very close to eradicating the polio virus. D…

> I've never understood this argument. We have been "playing god" since we settled down 10,000 years ago and started practicing agriculture.

Yes, and as the above poster stated, often with unintended consequences - many of which have been disasterous. Even after thousands of years of agriculture we've still made monumental mistakes, such as the creation of the Dust Bowl. For an example involving pest elimination specifically, you can look at the Chinese effort to eradicate sparrows.

That doesn't necessarily mean we shouldn't try to eradicate the mosquitoes that are harmful to humans. However, when people are unable to appreciate the problems that unintended consequences have had in the past, and the risks they may pose for the future, it doesn't seem like we're making the decision based on an honest and sober look at the facts.

Re: Zika Infection May Affect Adult Brain Cells

#68

Post by chr1 »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #49
rch wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I bet coral is starting to wonder what it did wrong.

Hard to see what relevance that has to mosquito eradication. Evidence suggests we've done a lot of harm to coral ecosystems around the world, but not as a result of the careful study and consideration that we're applying to the idea of wiping out certain harmful mosquito species.

I believe the parent comment meant coral wonders what did it wrong to not count as a species doing ecological engineering :)

So far i haven't seen any real argument against eradicating mosquito, and other species killing humans (ticks, tsetse kissing bugs)

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