Scientists Release Controversial Genetically Modified Mosquitoes In High-Security Lab (for fucks sake)

submitted by Vigte from (npr.org)

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[–]useless_aether 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

is this how they will administer forced vaccinations in antivaxer areas?

[–]wizzwizz4 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

No, it wouldn't be good for that. This genetic modification is akin to Cystic Fibrosis, except completely different. The interesting thing here is that it involves a "gene drive" which is basically genetic malware, meaning that the gene finds its way into 100% of the children instead of just 50%. It doubles each time.

This has the potential to kill off the whole population, and should NOT be done without some way of spreading a gene drive that defeats this gene drive.

But no, this doesn't make the mosquitoes able to carry vaccinations. In fact, if they tried to do that, the doctors supporting vaccinations would be the first to rebel (since regardless of whether you think vaccinations are safe, that isn't).

[–]useless_aether 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

i realised after i posted that i made the wrong assumption, the mozzies are too small and are not injecting nearly anything enough into us like what an effective vaccine delivers.

This has the potential to kill off the whole population,

right, so its even worse than vaccines? wcpgw?

[–]wizzwizz4 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

The whole population of mosquitoes. Not of humans. But it's designed to do that; vaccines are designed as a medicine. They're less comparable than apples and oranges.

the mozzies are too small and are not injecting nearly anything enough into us

That's not why. The reason is that… look, it's like explaining why creating a television remote that can damage televisions doesn't mean that throwing them at cars suddenly hotwires them.

[–]useless_aether 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

close enough!

[–]wizzwizz4 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Text-only version.