“Within a few years, the Franken-insects could be airborne.”
June 28th, 2009Guess who? I know. It’s not a tough question.
Yes, Bill Gates is at it again.
I have to wonder, though: Have they backed off from talking about the flying syringes, genetically engineered mosquitoes that deliver vaccines when they bite people? Maybe that idea was just too f*&^%$# nuts for maintaining the right appearances.
Via: Newsweek:
Aedes Aegypti is a tricky enemy with a dangerous weakness for travel. Unlike other mosquitoes, it can survive the cold and thrives on city life. The increase of international trade and the accelerating pace of urbanization have broadened its horizon with grim consequences. The disease it carries, dengue fever—debilitating and sometimes lethal—is spreading fast. More than 100 million people in 100 countries are afflicted every year. Fatality rates can top 20 percent. There is no vaccine, no cure and no solution—none, at least, that conventional medicine can offer.
A new strategy involves a subtle reconfiguring of the bug’s DNA. Scientists working in labs near Oxford have devised a genetic modification that sterilizes the male Aedes, transforming the critter into his own worst enemy. He can still mate—but he can’t breed. Any offspring dies before becoming fully developed. The idea is to release a huge, all-conquering swarm of the doctored insects into the wild, let them find partners among the native females and wait for the mosquito population to decline. Preliminary trials, looking at both safety and effectiveness, have already taken place in Malaysia. Within a few years, the Franken-insects could be airborne.
The idea of GM mosquitoes was first floated 20 years ago. But it’s only recently gained the support of mainstream health officials. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has invested $38 million into the research. In May, experts from around the world gathered in Geneva for a meeting sponsored by the World Health Organization to discuss progress and develop global guidelines for testing. Some environmental groups are alarmed at the development, and a confrontation looks certain. This is one they may lose. Unlike GM crops, whose benefits have more often gone to farmers, GM insects address a global health problem that causes great human suffering and death.
Dengue fever may be only the start. Researchers are tweaking the genome of the Anopheles gambiae mosquito, the species that carries the malaria parasite, which kills at least a million people each year. Scientists hope to produce, say, a mutant bug with a superboosted immune system capable of killing off the parasite or loaded with an extra gene to block its development.
…
To an eco-aware generation, already fearful of genetically modified food, any tinkering with the world’s delicately balanced ecosystems is unacceptable. “The inherent arrogance of believing that you can control the outcome is outrageous,” says Gillian Madill, a genetic-technologies campaigner at Friends of the Earth in Washington.
What’s up (or down?) with Bill and Melinda that all of their “solutions” to disease are correlated with mutating the sexuality (in some form or another) of living creatures – be it human or mosquito?
I ask myself, before I criticize them – what would I do if I had all of that money? I dunno.
I do know in my therapy sessions from years ago sex and money are related in the human psyche. Feel weird about sex ergo the same about money. Dunno how to explain. My experience -issues with sexuality equals that you can’t enjoy or have a good feeling about, or enjoy having money either.
But I’m thinking that of all of the billions the Gates Foundation has to spend – that they CHOOSE to do so on mutating living creatures – there is something really strange going on here.
Maybe the Gates are experiencing coital bliss! Who knows or cares? But sheesh. How about spending that money on helping people to grow food and to dig wells for clean water, and or buying off the military regime in a country or two to save some lives? But mutating creatures.
Ugh. This mutation syndrome is starting to sound like Adolph and his dreams of a blue eyed, blond haired nation. CREEEPY.