Why is it so hard to stop mosquitoes? Why can’t we create a solution to kill the diseases mosquitoes carry and distribute them to to the most affected people? I could be super ignorant but it seems like it would be fairly easy if multiple nations came together.
In: Biology
We do and it’s on the way, but we don’t kill them, we will introduce a bacterium that stops mosquitos from carrying viruses that way we don’t negatively impact nature by getting rid of an important food source for a lot of birds and other animals.
With any question ‘ why don’t we have x while we do have y ‘ the answer can be because we have y or because we spent the effort that could have gone to x on y
Humans are not good at prioritization.
Well there are more mosquitoes in Earth than bullets for guns. Currently all the countries are in the process of making as much as ammunition as there are mosquitoes. We can’t attack now as it would alert them and lead to a mass retaliation(with dengue, Chikungunya ect). We have one shot at this and in the near future (i think in about 4.5 years) we are going to shoot them down.
This is a good question, and it’s good to hold it in mind when examining other aspects of our world. Because OP is right – it’s a terrible misallocation of resources not to prioritize public health, in this example and many others.
What do any of those things have to do with mosquitos? Are you inferring we should have AI control cars to run over mosquitos?
Because mosquitos mostly kill poor people who can’t afford to fund the cures you’re talking about
Few reasons.
1 They’re different branches of science
2 “Talking robots” aren’t super common everywhere, not on the scale of stopping millions from dying, and self driving cars have a commercial value, people pay for them, most of the people dying from mosquitoes can’t really afford much.
3 It’d be easier to kill all mosquitoes than to keep them alive while still not being safe from them, we don’t kill them because it could really have negative impacts on the ecosystem that could be worse than the mosquito problem
> Why can we not stop mosquitoes from killing tens of thousands each year?
I invite you to ask yourself the following two questions:
1. How much USD have you spent on tech gadgets?
2. How much USD have you donated to malaria prevention charities?
I’m going out on a limb here and assuming #1 is at least an order of magnitude higher than #2, probably two or three if you’re more like the average citizen.
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Also: evolution. There have been pharmaceutical interventions that take out the mosquitos susceptible to that drug (or pesticide or.. ) and the ones that survive and make more mosquitoes can tolerate that treatment and then it no longer works. And it takes time to develop the next treatment or intervention.
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