Tuesday, February 09, 2016

In the valley of Zika... and super villains

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[From my response to a Reddit post.]:

The *Abreu Report* article links to an **Oxitec** page [which you can vet, here](http://www.oxitec.com/health/our-products/aedes-agypti-ox513a/).

I remember that the Gates Foundation had planned to attack malaria with sterile male mosquitoes, at one point. I thought that the malaria efforts had been in Africa, but assumed that if Oxitec were releasing sterile males in South America, then it was another anti-malarial effort. A quick look at their site says that the South American release targeted/ the mosquito responsible for a large share of **Dengue Fever**.

#BirdMosquitoHeartBattle detail. BingoRageStudio 2016 #SmokingMosquito

 I'm not sure what conspiracy, I am supposed to presume, given this info., because I have been avoiding the inevitable Zika speculation. Given the context, I presume the implication is that:
Evil Corp. creates frankenskeeter to spread timebomb virus, while tiny heads distract abortionally-compelled 'Murican sheeple, at behest of surprise super villain...

I admit the strawman; I fashioned him from the heat of these insinuations. By the time that I finish this response, perhaps someone will have posted a clear, civil explanation of the supposed villainy.

I reject my own straw for the following reasons:
a) The genetic modification of the male mosquitoes is a mechanical contraceptive, not a "frankenskeeter species"
b) The idea is old, it was a plot point in a 1980's thriller novel. (I think it was "The Swarm".)
c) Developing the genetic reproductive tech for malarial battle, then switching to the Dengue vector species makes sense, since the manipulation doesn't kill the mosquito and isn't disease-specific, so there is less evolutionary selective pressure against the tech than antibiotics and pesticides.

The final implication of my presumptive Zika straw, is that the virus was "built into" these mosquitoes (or some other vector {thank you slidey goalpost}). The "weird" part of the Zika conspiracy headlines that I skimmed, was that the microcephaly story is a cover. wtf?
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