An experiment of releasing 20 million mosquitoes in Fresno, California, in theory, sounds like it can help scientists learn ways to prevent mosquito born diseases from spreading, but what if something goes awry? It's hard to blindly trust what is going on around us, which is what the author below argues:
Google Performing Bio-Experiments on Public
Today, Verily began releasing 20 million mosquitoes in two neighborhoods in Fresno, California. The so-called Debug Project claims its goal is “To reduce the devastating global health impact that disease-carrying mosquitoes inflict on people around the world.”
From the Mercury News:
In its first-ever field study to test a potential mosquito-control method using sterile insects, Verily is collaborating with MosquitoMate and Fresno County’s Consolidated Mosquito Abatement District (CMAD) to test its theory: Debug Fresno will target the invasive Aedes aegypti mosquito, which can transmit diseases like Zika, dengue and chikungunya. The idea is that when these sterile males, which have been treated with a naturally occurring bacterium called Wolbachia, mate with wild females, which carry the diseases, the resulting eggs will not hatch.
Theoretically, the Wolbachia virus is harmless to humans, and male mosquitoes don’t bite; that being said, what gives these companies the right to do mass bio-experiments on the public?
We are heading into a dangerous future, where multi-billion dollar corporations can run over the public with very little government oversight or control on the experiments they are running on the public. I’m not one for big government, but I’m even less fond of companies being able to run experiments on the unsuspecting public.
Harmless, huh? We'll see about that. If all goes well it's good that scientists can figure out how to prevent mosquito diseases from spreading to people, but if something were to go wrong in the future it's the public who would suffer. Not only can they do whatever they want, but it seems pretty suspicious that they're making a video to justify their options.
To watch the video and to learn more about this mosquito experiment check out Off Grid Survival. What do you think about this experiment and should we be worried about the mosquitos and future tests in the future?