Mosquito season reminds me of Bill Gates – GMO self-sterilizing mosquitoes, malaria, dengue, WHO and Imperial College
(Edited 1.1)
Bill Gates’ Foundation Funded Approval of Genetically Modified Mosquitoes Natural Society | November 6, 2010
Bill Gates, who recently bought 500,000 shares of Monsanto stock, is reportedly funding the approval of genetically modified mosquitoes. It seems that not only will genetically modified salmon enter the environment along with unforeseen changes, but a new self-sterilizing mosquito may be joining them. . ..
Gates Foundation invests in Monsanto
gmwatch.org |26 August 2010
. . . Monsanto has already negatively impacted agriculture in African countries. For example, in South Africa in 2009, Monsanto’s genetically modified maize failed to produce kernels and hundreds of farmers were devastated . . .
. . .The Gates Foundation has been challenged in the past for its questionable investments; in 2007, the L.A. Times exposed the Foundation for investing in its own grantees and for its “holdings in many companies that have failed tests of social responsibility because of environmental lapses, employment discrimination, disregard for worker rights, or unethical practices.” . . .
Wiping out mosquito-borne diseases – with mosquitoes | 3 November 2010
Scientists fighting mosquito-borne diseases are racing to obtain approval to release genetically modified insects designed to stop the spread of dengue, a potentially fatal virus. . . .
These mosquitoes are engineered with an extra gene or inserted bacterium or have had a gene altered so that either their offspring are sterile and unable to spread dengue, or simply die.
“People generally do not like the unknown and are alarmist. Because there has never been a [field] release of GM [genetically modified] mosquitoes, critics are free to imagine what can possibly go wrong,” said UK-based entomologist and professor at Imperial College London, John Mumford.
He is also the principal investigator for the World Health Organization (WHO)-funded regulatory group, Mosqguide, founded to develop best practices for deploying genetically modified mosquitoes to fight mosquito-borne diseases, primarily dengue and malaria. . . .
. . . The Malaysia-headquartered NGO Pesticide Action Network-Asia and the Pacific opposed a since-granted request to release modified mosquitoes on the grounds that “it may have environmental or health consequences as well as carry risks arising from horizontal gene transfer”, wrote executive director, Sarojeni V. Rengam, who stressed the “possibility of new health risks to humans and animals….the insect may become more virulent, aggressive, or its bite might have different effects on the host.” . . .
Australian researchers from the University of Queensland, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, have received regulatory approval to begin in December to release mosquitoes infected with a bacterium that prevents the dengue virus from multiplying, as has the Malaysian Ministry of Health.
In addition, Brazil, Panama, the US, Italy and Sudan are at varying stages in fighting mosquito-borne diseases with mosquitoes. . . .
https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/content/about-us
The New Humanitarian (formerly IRIN News) was founded by the United Nations in 1995, in the wake of the Rwandan genocide, out of the conviction that objective on-the-ground reporting of humanitarian crises could help mitigate or even prevent future disasters of that magnitude.
Almost twenty years later, we became an independent non-profit news organisation, allowing us to cast a more critical eye over the multi-billion-dollar emergency aid industry . . .
Guidance is urgently needed for disease endemic countries (DEC) to take advantage of the possible benefits of innovative genetic control of mosquito vectors of human diseases. Approximately 50% of the world’s population, mostly those living in the world’s poorest countries, are at risk of malaria or dengue fever.
The overall goal of the MosqGuide project is to develop and validate best practice guidance relating to the range of requirements for deployment of genetically modified (GM) mosquitoes to control mosquito-vectored disease, specifically malaria and dengue.
Drawing on risk/benefit methodologies from related fields, extensive consultation and personal experience in this novel field, the project aims to develop a modular approach on best practices for testing, import, deployment and monitoring of genetically modified mosquitoes designed for the control of malaria and dengue.
The History of Genetic Vector Control
. . . Insect transformation relies on the use of engineered transposons to move DNA from injected plasmids to the insect genome. The first reproducible transformation of a mosquito was reported in 1998. Since then several species of Aedes, Anopheles and Culex mosquitoes have been transformed, including Ae. aegypti, Ae. fluviatilis, An. stephensi, An. gambiae, An. arabiensis, An. albimanus and Culex quinquefasciatus. . . .
So, 10 years later:
Gates & Military Funded Mosquito Vaccine Delivery + Gates Backed Company To Release GM Mosquitoes
June 9, 2020 | Natural Living
Just in case 2020 wasn’t crazy enough, the Environmental Protection Agency recently announced rolled back regulations for companies due to the coronavirus outbreak, paving the way for companies to skirt environmental laws and regulations during this declared crisis.
So it should come as no surprise that Oxitec, a biotech company funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is moving forward with a failed 2018 agenda to release genetically modified mosquitoes into Florida and Texas.
Articles from 2018:
Gates Foundation and Oxitec Fight Malaria with Genetically-Modified Mosquitoes |
20 June 2018
Bill and Melinda Gates are giving $4 million to help scientists engineer a malaria-killing mosquito — here’s how it could work |
21 June 2018
Engineered Mosquitoes Backed by Bill and Melinda Gates to Wipe Out Malaria
newsweek | June 22, 2018
GM mosquito trial sparks ‘Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ lab fears
Guardian |25 November 2018
Thousands of genetically modified mosquitoes are to be released in Burkina Faso as a step towards the world’s first field test of “gene-drive” technology.
The trial, which has been funded by organisations linked to the Gates Foundation, Facebook, and – indirectly – the Pentagon, is part of a project to eradicate malaria, but it has prompted concerns among local civil society organisations, who say their country is being set up as a laboratory for “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” technology before the risks are fully understood . . .
2019 articles:
Scientists Release Controversial Genetically Modified Mosquitoes In High-Security Lab NPR.org | 20 February 2019
Some people in Africa are very suspicious regarding the potential for human sterilization. This 2019 article needs some investigation and follow-up:
http://www.ghanamatters.com/bill-gates-dirty-tricks-in-burkina-faso-and-nigeria-uncovered-sussy-vozniak/
I don’t blame them: https://canadianliberty.com/credibility-and-human-rights-implications-of-covid-19-policies-who-director-general-and-ethiopia-gates-foundation-vaccine-history/ )
This story is from 2016: 170 Global Groups Call for Moratorium on New Genetic Extinction Technology at UN Convention. This is worth following up on.
This week, international conservation and environmental leaders are calling on governments at the 2016 UN Convention on Biodiversity to establish a moratorium on the controversial genetic extinction technology called gene drives.
Gene drives, developed through new gene-editing techniques- are designed to force a particular genetically engineered trait to spread through an entire wild population – potentially changing entire species or even causing deliberate extinctions . . .
Speaking of malaria and other tropical, mosquito-borne diseases, Canada actually prepares for these. So thankfully not every waking moment by every single human being in the universe is spent on COVID-19:
Launch of 2020 Mosquito Surveillance Program in Windsor and Essex County (https://www.wechu.org/newsroom/news-release-june-2nd-public-health-updates-related-coronavirus-covid-19)
The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit, in partnership with local municipalities, launched their Mosquito Surveillance program on Monday, May 25, 2020. This program includes larviciding catch basins, standing water sites, and lagoons to disrupt mosquito breeding, educating residents on self-protection, conducting adult mosquito surveillance, and investigating human cases.
The Health Unit has conducted a comprehensive West Nile Virus (WNV) surveillance program since 2003. In 2016, multiple tropical species of mosquitoes (Aedes albopictus and Aedes aegypti) were identified during routine WNV surveillance in the City of Windsor. Both of these mosquitoes have the potential to transmit viruses not normally seen in Canada, such as Zika, Dengue fever, and Chikungunya. . . .
Severe malaria is not common in Canada.
Canada sees an average of 488 malaria cases per year spread across the country.
From 2010 to 2014, the number of cases ranged from 447 to 516 each year.
How many cases are there of malaria around the world?
According to the World Health Organization, worldwide in 2015, there were:
214 million cases
438,000 deaths
Severe malaria is not a common disease in Canada, with an average of 14 cases per year (range 8-20 cases annually from 2001-2008).
I have no idea how to account for that discrepancy between the two official government posts on malaria cases–except if both statements are true, then it means that malaria cases increased from 8-20 per year in 2001-2008 to 488 per year in 2010-2014. Either that or somebody made an error.
History of Malaria in Canada: https://www.mysteriesofcanada.com/canada/malaria-canada/
. . . But most Canadians might have difficulty imagining malaria outbreaks in Canada. But, in the 1800s, particularly along the Rideau and Cataraqui Rivers, malaria was rampant. . . .
. . . By the 1900s malaria had died out in Eastern Ontario, after we learned to eliminate mosquito breeding grounds. .. .
. . . It seems likely there were two strains of malaria at work, one temperate strain and one tropical. . . .
The “Anopheles mosquito” is mentioned. Malaria is caused by a microscopic parasite.