Your Neighbors Get to Vote on How Much Zika Risk You Have to Take

It's democratic, so what could possibly be wrong with that?

U. Florida

Zika virus infections caused by local mosquito bites has now spread to three Florida counties. So far there are only 43 cases. The disease could become much more widespread if the Sunshine State gets whacked by a tropical storm. The disease is chiefly transmitted via the Aedes aegypti mosquito, and as it happens there is a technology available that has been shown to reduce the populations of that vermin by more than 90 percent. You might think that folks menaced by Zika (or any other mosquito-borne disease) would embrace such a technology, but you would be wrong. Why?

Because the technology consists of male mosquitoes that are genetically modified to pass along a lethal gene to their progeny. Whisper the words "genetically modified" and some GMO-phobic folks flee into the night screaming something about protecting their precious bodily fluids - and so it has been in Key Haven, Florida.

Several years ago, the elected Mosquito Control Board of Key West invited Oxitec, the company that grows the Friendly Mosquitos™, to release them in the Key Haven section of Key West to see if they would reduce the population of mosquitoes then-spreading dengue fever. Some GMO-phobic residents managed to delay the plan by entangling it FDA redtape. However, the FDA regulators earlier this month finally issued a safety finding of "no significant impact," essentially greenlighting the release.

Now Florida Keys GMO-phobes are demanding that they get to vote on whether or not they can force their neighbors to endure a higher risk of being infected with the Zika virus. Well, since it's all democratic and so forth that means that no one is forcing anyone to do anything, right? The New York Times quotes Key Haven resident and GMO-phobe Ms. Jitka Olsak: "We are not going to be laboratory mice. Nature takes care of its own things."

Yeah, just like it did malaria, yellow fever, polio, smallpox, guinea worm ….

Comments

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Ms. Jitka Olsak: "We are not going to be laboratory mice. Nature takes care of its own things."

Unintentionally funny comment of the year?

[pan fried wylie]

"Yeah, you said to 'take care of him', ya know, whack him."

"When my new apprentice, Lord Vader, arrives, he will, take care of you" [script note: "insidious cackle here?"]

[Adans smith]

Leave the gun,take the cannoli.'

[Zeb]

Or maybe going for some Sermon on the Mount shit:

"Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."

[Rhywun]

I felt like putting a bullet between the eyes of every panda that wouldn't screw genetically modify its disease-carrying pests to save its species.

[John Titor]

Ms. Olsak: "Nature, uh, finds a way."

*eaten by T-Rex*

[pan fried wylie]

It was the lawyer that got eaten by the T-rex, Goldblum's character survived to be the lead in #2.

lrn2Park, noob.

[GamerFromJump]

+1 Weird Al:

"A huge Tyrannosaurus
ate our lawyer
well I suppose that proves
they're really not all bad."

[Tornado16nb]

See I never understood among enviros why humans aren't considered apart of nature

[Zeb]

I understand, but I think it's silly.

[Ecoli]

Among enviros, humans ARE considered "apart" of nature.

[Gojira]

Once again, Hollywood has already warned us of the dangers of genetically modified insects.

[Fist of Etiquette]

You know who else dabbled in eugenics?

[Trigger Hippie]

Alfred Kinsey?

[Adans smith]

I give up,who?

[Fist of Etiquette]

Madison Ant? Caterhitllar Moth? The Axis of Weevil?

Boy, this is hard.

[pan fried wylie]

Eugenics

[Mongo]

Eugene?

[Ted S.]

Sweden.

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

The EEOC?

[Pay up, Palin's Buttplug!]

The bastions of democratic socialism?

[CZmacure]

The State of California?

[This Machine Chips Fascists]

KAAAAAAAAAAHN!

[GamerFromJump]

Kahn. *ping*

[AlmightyJB]

See ya'll Monday

[Adans smith]

Have a nice weekend.

[bassjoe]

Jesus F. Christ. Yes, "nature" takes care of these things. But this mosquito being in Florida has nothing to do with nature. I guess nature's way of naturally dealing with this is to make sure the next generation of Floridians are born with lifelong physiological and mental defects.

[insert Florida joke here]

[Jimbo]

So nothing changes?

[Mongo]

Zika?

I vote Yonson/Veld.

[Bubba Jones]

What could go wrong, asks the cane toad?

[Jerryskids]

Nature takes care of its own things? It sends hurricanes to try and kill anything retarded enough to try and live in the Florida Keys and yet your dumb ass is still here, ain't it?

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Hurricanes are caused by global warming. They're essentially GMO storms. Try again, Hitler.

[Pay up, Palin's Buttplug!]

IIRC, the Keys are less likely to be struck by hurricanes than the rest of Florida.

[Hamster of Doom]

Dos anyone play DomiNations? Idle curiosity.

[Pay up, Palin's Buttplug!]

I do.

Or have.

I haven't been playing lately.

[I see wood chippers]

Florida Keys GMO-phobes are demanding that they get to vote on whether or not they can force their neighbors to endure a higher risk

You're equivocating, Ron. The phobics are wrong to prohibit GMO mosquitos, because GMO mosquitos are safe, not because the prohibition "forces" people to endure higher risk. This is the kind of language that someone might use to advocate mandatory vaccinations... (i.e. it's ok to expose people against their will to vaccines/GMO mosquitos because otherwise people are at a greater risk for measles/Zika).

[Pan Zagloba]

Or single-payer mandatory health care (you must have pay whether you need it or not, because we can't not treat you if you get sick).

[CZmacure]

And of course we won't means test the requirement to have "insurance" which means that you could be a cash billionaire but still MUST BUY INSURANCE.

[Seamus]

Well, *somebody* besides you has to decide on how much Zika risk you have to bear. (Unless, that is, you're planing to releave a bunch of GMO male mosquitoes into the environment yourself.) So why is a local referendum inherently worse than a decision by anonymous bureaucrats?

[Homple]

Your neighbors get to vote on how much Zika risk they want to take as well.

[Homple]

Forget GMO mosquitoes. Start draining swamps and spraying DDT if you're really worried.

[CZmacure]

You have some sort of expertise in this regard which shows that your methods are likely to outperform genetically sabotaging the mosquito to not breed? With fewer undesirable side effects?

Or you're just still mad at Rachel Carson, or what?

[Homple]

Draining swamps worked for centuries, DDT worked for decades. We'll see how well the GMO mosquitoes do in comparison.

Rachel Carson was wrong, despite canonization by the ecofreaks.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/2.....-high.html

[RAHeinlein]

Proven technology - DDT.

[Haha, charade you are]

"The disease could become much more widespread if the Sunshine State gets whacked by a tropical storm".

Great. So if these nutjobs get their way they will move on to blame man-made climate change for the Zika outbreak that would ensue in the event if a hurricane or TS.

[Cyto]

The real kicker here is that this is a non-native species. So all of these studies about the impact of mating the thing to local extinction are just plain stupid.

For any of these invasive species, the answer should be "Kill It!"

But it often isn't. You have to have a special permit to kill boa constrictors in the everglades. Something we desperately want to be rid of.

You cannot kill the iguanas that are running rampant through south Florida. You have to call animal control to come get that nasty tegu out of your back yard. And they'll trap the nasty bugger instead of just shooting it with a 410.

And we have a bunch of foreign trees that we want out of here. But in my area you have to go and get a permit to even potentially harm a large tree. And you'll have to replace it with another comparably sized tree - perhaps costing you tens of thousands of dollars.

In short, people are idiots.

[pan fried wylie]

replace it with another comparably sized tree

I wouldn't expect a legislator or a regulator to understand how trees work.

[R C Dean]

Theoretically, I don;t think I'm allowed to shoot rattlesnakes in my own yard (haven't really checked, because I'll shoot them regardless). And, to this Texas country boy's amazement, people here actually call animal control to remove and relocate rattlesnakes.

[Fubini Baby]

At least with rattlesnakes you could argue that they're part of the natural ecosystem. Where it crosses into lunacy is when the envirowhackos try to protect invasive species like these mosquitos.

[Fubini Baby]

The worry is that animals that eat the mosquitos might become contaminated with the evil GMO cooties.

[NoVaNick]

Anti-science proggies are entertaining at least. "Let nature take care of things"-Indeed, I hope none of them ever use electricity, wash their hands, or go to the doctor.

[Fubini Baby]

"We are not going to be laboratory mice. Nature takes care of its own things."

A few months later, she's going to be screeching for the right to have forceps inserted into uteri to squash all the skulls of the encephalic fetuses Nature provided us.