zika mosquitoes same as gm mosquitoes releasedoff the coast of florida. by brandon turbeville. state and local officials in florida are nowgoing door to door asking residents for urine samples and other information as a resultof the alleged local transmission of the zika virus. according to cnn, four individuals locatedin miami-dade and broward counties have been infected with the zika virus as a result oflocal mosquitoes. these are the first known cases of zika transmissionby mosquitoes in the continental u.s. currently there is no treatment or vaccinefor zika and officials believe the transmission
is confined to a single zip code, an areanorth of downtown miami. despite the fact there have been 386 casesof zika in florida, the mainstream media and many health officials are treating this newtransmission as a cause for potential panic. it�s also possible that someone could havezika without actually knowing. about 80% of the people who have the virusshow no symptoms at all. for the other 20%, those symptoms can includejoint pain, red eyes, rash and fever which can last from a few days to a week. while zika is certainly concerning, it isalso not the type of disease one should go full contagion on.
if officials are truly concerned about thespread of zika, they will attack the virus at its greatest weakness � high living standards. twenty-first century levels of sanitationand mosquito control efforts (notably not the genetic engineering and release of mosquitoes)as well as the greater funding and establishment of more advanced healthcare systems woulddo more to stop zika than door-to-door urine collecting. still, there may be more to the story thanmere virus transmission. seemingly coming out of nowhere, zika wentfrom its first discovered case in 1947 and sporadic appearances up until last year, thevirus is now in outbreak stage with who officials
concerned that it may become a pandemic. world health researchers seem perplexed asto the genesis of the virus or at least, the sudden appearance and rapid spread of it in2015. claire bernish of the anti-media points outone possibility: when examining a rapidly expanding potentialpandemic, it�s necessary to leave no stone unturned so possible solutions, as well asfuture prevention, will be as effective as possible. in that vein, there was another significantdevelopment in 2015. oxitec first unveiled its large-scale, genetically-modifiedmosquito farm in brazil in july 2012, with
the goal of reducing �the incidence of denguefever,� as the disease daily reported. dengue fever is spread by the same aedes mosquitoeswhich spread the zika virus � and though they �cannot fly more than 400 meters,�who stated, �it may inadvertently be transported by humans from one place to another.� byjuly 2015, shortly after the gm mosquitoes were first released into the wild in juazeiro,brazil, oxitec proudly announced they had �successfully controlled the aedes aegyptimosquito that spreads dengue fever, chikungunya and zika virus, by reducing the target populationby more than 90%.� though that might sound like an astoundingsuccess � and, arguably, it was � there is an alarming possibility to consider.
nature, as one redditor keenly pointed out,finds a way � and the effort to control dengue, zika, and other viruses, appears tohave backfired dramatically. the mosquitoes that were released by oxitecox513a, were genetically engineered to need the presence of tetracycline in order to surviveto maturity. outside of the presence of tetracycline, theydie. the idea behind the gm mosquitoes, was thatthey would be released into the wild and would mate with the natural female mosquitoes (onlymales were modified). the offspring that result are also supposedto die without the presence of tetracycline in their system.
the gm mosquito program was introduced underthe guise of controlling disease-carrying mosquito populations to reduce the amountof diseases in humans that were spread by mosquitoes. there is a massive problem with this program,however, most notably, the fact that the presence of tetracycline in the environment is notas rare as one might suspect. particularly in a place like brazil. as claire bernish writes: according to an unclassified document fromthe trade and agriculture directorate committee for agriculture dated february 2015, brazilis the third largest in �global antimicrobial
consumption in food animal production��meaning, brazil is third in the world for its use of tetracycline in its food animals. as a study by the american society of agronomy,et. al., explained,�it is estimated that approximately 75% of antibiotics are not absorbedby animals and are excreted in waste.�one of the antibiotics (or antimicrobials) specificallynamed in that report for its environmental persistence is tetracycline. back in september 2010, dr. ricarda a. steinbrecherwrote a report in which he stated that there is a known survival rate of 3-4 percent ofthe gm mosquitoes. he suggested that further studies should beconducted before they�re released in the
environment. claire bernish points out that the survivalrate might actually be much higher than what steinbrecher suggested. in fact, as a confidential internal oxitecdocument divulged in 2012, that survival rate could be as high as 15% � even with lowlevels of tetracycline present. �even small amounts of tetracycline canrepress�the engineered lethality. indeed, that 15% survival rate was describedby oxitec: �after a lot of testing and comparing experimentaldesign, it was found that [researchers] had used a cat food to feed the [ox513a] larvaeand this cat food contained chicken.
it is known that tetracycline is routinelyused to prevent infections in chickens, especially in the cheap, mass produced, chicken usedfor animal food. the chicken is heat-treated before being used,but this does not remove all the tetracycline. this meant that a small amount of tetracyclinewas being added from the food to the larvae and repressing the [designed] lethal system.� even absent this tetracycline, as steinbrecherexplained, a �sub-population� of genetically-modified aedes mosquitoes could theoretically developand thrive, in theory, �capable of surviving and flourishing despite any further�releasesof �pure� gm mosquitoes which still have that gene intact.
she added, �the effectiveness of the systemalso depends on the [genetically-designed] late onset of the lethality. if the time of onset is altered due to environmentalconditions � then a 3-4% [survival rate] represents a much bigger problem�� yet there are still more problems with theprocess of releasing gm mosquitoes into the another risk associated with the oxitec experimentis the potential for the release of genetically engineered biting females into the environment. since female mosquitoes are the mosquitoeswhich bite humans, oxitec claims that its ge mosquito population is an all-boys club.
however, due to the method by which the mosquitoesare sorted, the potential for release of female mosquitoes is very real. as eric hoffman writes, �the sorting isconducted by hand and could result in up to 0.5 percent of the released insects beingfemale. this would raise new human health concernsas people could be bit by ge mosquitoes. it could also hamper efforts to limit thespread of dengue fever.� it should also be noted that eradicating theaedes aegypti type of mosquito might well leave the area open to invasion by other specieswho may, in fact, be much more dangerous to human health.
for instance, the asian tiger mosquito, consideredone of the most invasive species in the world, is known to be a carrier of both dengue feverand the west nile virus. what would be the result of an asian tigerinvasion into south florida? an eradication of aedes aegypti might wellprovide us with an answer. while many might be concerned about the spreadof the zika virus, from places like africa and brazil to the western world and beyond,or that the virus will become an epidemic in the places it currently resides, many americansmight be surprised to learn that the oxitec gm mosquitoes are slated to be released insidethe united states. in december 2011, i wrote an article entitled�releasing genetically engineered mosquitoes
poses unknown risks to florida� where idocumented the oxitec plans to release 5-10,000 gm mosquitoes near the florida keys. this program was presented to the public underthe guise of an attempt to eradicate dengue fever and is still awaiting approval fromregulatory agencies despite widespread opposition from the public. so if it is true that there is a link betweenthe gm mosquitoes and zika virus, then florida may soon be covered in ticking time bombsover its swamps, waiting to provide us with yet another public health emergency. yet the program itself is actually older thanthat.
in 2009, also under the guise of preventingthe spread of dengue fever, gm mosquitoes were released by oxitec in the cayman islands. in fact, it is this release that has manyquestioning whether or not the gm mosquitoes actually have a link to increased rates ofdengue fever. after all, shortly after the release of thegm mosquitoes in the caymans, cases of dengue fever in florida doubled. is it merely a coincidence that cases of dengueincreased shortly after millions of mosquitoes capable of carrying the fever were releasedmiles away in the cayman islands? while dengue fever had been eradicated interms of naturally occurring outbreaks in
the united states, cases that were research-relatedand laboratory-generated have occurred in the country for many years. this is because dengue fever has been of particularinterest to the united states government, us army, and cia since at least the middlepart of the 20th century. there is a great deal of evidence suggestingthat the biochemical research facilities at fort detrick were conducting tests on denguefever as a bio-weapon as far back as 1942. it is generally known that in the 1950s thecia partnered with ft. detrick to study dengue fever and other exoticdiseases for use as biological weapons. it is also interesting to note that, accordingto cia documents as well as a 1975 congressional
committee, the three locations of key west,panama city, and avon park (and two other locations in central florida) were testingsites for dengue fever research. as is generally the case, the experimentsin avon park were concentrated in low-income neighborhoods, in areas that were predominantlyblack with newly constructed housing projects. according to h.p. albarelli jr. and zoe martell of truthout,cia documents related to the mk/naomi program revealed that the agency was using the aedesaegypti type of mosquito in these experiments as well. in one of these experiments, 600,000 mosquitoeswere released over avon park and in another
150,000 insects were released in speciallydesigned paper bags that were designed to open up when they hit the ground. truthout interviewed residents (or test subjects)of avon park still living in the area who related that there were at least 6 or 7 deathsresulting from the experiments. as quoted by truthout, one resident said,�nobody knew about what had gone on here for years, maybe over 20 years, but in lookingback it explained why a bunch of healthy people got sick quick and died at the time of thoseexperiments.� truthout goes on to point out that around the same time of the avonpark experiments �there were at least two cases of dengue fever reported among civilianresearchers at fort detrick in maryland.�
in 1978, a pentagon document titled, �biologicalwarfare: secret testing & volunteers� revealed that similar experiments were conducted inkey west by the army chemical corps and special operations and projects divisions at fortdetrick. like the current situation, u.s. governmentagencies teamed with ngos, academia, and other organizations to conduct mosquito-relatedprojects. operation bellweather, a 1959 experiment consistingof over 50 field tests, was conducted over several states including georgia, maryland,utah, and arizona, and florida. operation bellweather was coordinated withthe rockefeller institute in new york; the facility that actually bred the mosquitoes.
what�s more, the experiment was aided bythe armour research foundation, the battelle memorial institute, ben venue labs, inc.,the university of florida, florida state university, and the lovell chemical company. the military and cia connections to denguefever outbreaks do not end with these experiments, however. it is widely believed that the 1981 outbreakin cuba was a result of cia and u.s. military covert biological attacks. this outbreak occurred essentially out ofnowhere and resulted in over one hundred thousand cases of infection.
albarelli and martell write: american researcher william h. schaap, aneditor of covert actionmagazine, claims the cuba dengue outbreak was the result of ciaactivities. former fort detrick researchers, all of whomrefused to have their names used for this article, say they performed �advance work�on the cuba outbreak and that it was �man made.� in 1982 the cia was accused by the sovietmedia of sending operatives into pakistan and afghanistan for the purposes of creatinga dengue epidemic. likewise, in 1985 and 1986, authorities innicaragua made similar claims against the
cia, also suggesting that they were attemptingto start a dengue outbreak. while the cia has characteristically deniedinvolvement in all of these instances, army researchers have admitted to having workedintensely with �arthropod vectors for offensive biological warfare objectives� and thatsuch work was conducted at fort detrick in the 1980s. not only that, but researchers have also admittedthat large mosquito colonies, which were infected with both yellow fever and dengue fever, werebeing maintained at the frederick, maryland facility. there is also evidence of experimentationwith federal prisoners without their knowledge.
as truthout reports: several redacted camp detrick and edgewoodarsenal reports indicate that experiments were conducted on state and federal prisonerswho were unwittingly exposed to dengue fever, as well as other viruses, some possibly lethal. with all of the evidence that cia and militarytests have been conducted regarding dengue fever, there is ample reason to be concernedwhen one sees a connection like the recent release of mosquitoes and the subsequent outbreakof dengue fever in florida, a traditional testing site for these organizations. the response to the dengue outbreak shouldalso be questioned as aerial spraying campaigns
were intensified. while these sprayings were claimed to be forthe eradication of the dengue-carrying mosquitoes, the number of people who contracted the illnessactually rose. while it was painfully obvious from the verybeginning, that releasing genetically modified mosquitoes was a very bad idea, the possibleconnection to the mosquitoes and the increase of previously eradicated or extremely rarediseases should be a dramatic wake-up call to everyone.
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