Replies to post #12030 on The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[north40000]

exwannabe...any relation between GM skeeters and spread of virus unlikely

#199453 Value board:

Quote:
"Vaccine for Zika Virus May Be Years Away, Disease Experts Warn."

"The GM mosquito tie in sounds very unlikely to me.

First, the chance of a coincidence is not all that unlikely. These GM mosquitoes were being tested outdoors at at least 3 sites around the world, and all obviously in areas that Zika could have broken out. And if was not these exact bugs, it could have been trained dragon flies or any such.

Second, the GM bugs would be eradicated by natural selection very quickly. Even if they did have the 15% survival mentioned as being possible (and that was "up to" 15%), natural selection would erase them in a few generations. Bugs do not live long. And I did go to the effort of looking up mosquito larva survival, and it is something like 90%. Plenty high enough for the natural bugs to dominate.

Last, there was no proposed mechanism for these bugs to be more adept at transmitting the virus than the non-GM variant. If anything, one would tend to assume they were weaker and thus less able to do such."

[DewDiligence]

You probably consume a lot more GM food than you realize. The notion than one can go entirely “GM-free” is helpful for such businesses as WFM (whose stock I own), but it’s not based in reality.