Billions of Genetically Engineered Mosquitoes Set for Release

Billions of Genetically Engineered Mosquitoes Set for Release
Published on March 10, 2022
Written by veteranstoday.com



Environmental and public health advocates responded with alarm after the Biden administration on Monday gave a British biotechnology company a green light to unleash billions of genetically engineered mosquitoes in the United States.

“GE mosquitoes could result in far more health and environmental problems than they would solve.”
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) granted Oxitec an experimental use permit that could lead to the release of genetically engineered (GE) mosquitoes in four California counties and extend a widely criticized program in Florida’s Monroe County.
While the release is intended to investigate whether the GE mosquito can reduce the population of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes—which carry various viruses—the species is not common in California and there are no reported cases of the targeted diseases.
“This experiment is unnecessary and even dangerous, as there are no locally acquired cases of dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya, or Zika in California,” declared Jaydee Hanson, policy director for the International Center for Technology Assessment and Center for Food Safety.
Oxitec’s altered male mosquitoes are supposed to pass on a gene that causes their offspring to die before reaching maturity. However, a peer-reviewed study published in September 2019 by Yale University researchers showed that releasing the GE mosquitoes in Brazil not only failed to reduce populations of Aedes aegypti but also resulted in hybrid mosquitoes.
“Releasing billions of GE mosquitoes makes it likely that female GE mosquitoes will get out and create hybrid mosquitoes that are more virulent and aggressive,” Hanson said. “Other public health strategies, including the use of Wolbachia infected mosquitoes, could better control the Aedes aegypti in California and Florida.”
Dana Perls, food and technology program manager at Friends of the Earth, also noted the findings and warned that “GE mosquitoes could result in far more health and environmental problems than they would solve.”
“EPA needs to do a real review of potential risks and stop ignoring widespread opposition in the communities where releases will happen,” asserted Perls, a California resident.
Fellow California resident Dr. Robert Gould, president of San Francisco Bay Physicians for Social Responsibility, emphasized that “once released into the environment, genetically engineered mosquitoes cannot be recalled.”
“Rather than forge ahead with an unregulated open-air genetic experiment, we need precautionary action, transparent data, and appropriate risk assessments,” he said.
As a joint statement from Gould, Perls, and Hanson’s groups highlighted:
The EPA did not publicly release any data from Oxitec field trials in Florida or Brazil and key information about health effects, including allergenicity and toxicity, was redacted from the company’s application for a permit.
EPA did not require key scientific assessments, including an endangered species assessment, public health impact analysis, or caged trials ahead of any environmental release. The EPA declined to convene a scientific advisory panel as it does for other new pesticides.
The groups and other local organizations were outraged last spring when Oxitec introduced GE mosquitoes in Florida, the first release of its kind in the United States. Shortly before the launch, Friends of the Earth had called on the EPA to “halt this nightmare immediately.”
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Bill Gates Funded the Company Releasing Gene-Hacked Mosquitoes
Published on March 10, 2022
Written by futurism.com


The Gates foundation funded Oxitec’s work to design gene-edited mosquitoes

The British biotech company Oxitec is moving ahead with its controversial plan to release hundreds of millions of gene-hacked mosquitoes, an experimental new form of targeted pest control, in the Florida Keys.
The goal is essentially to introduce a new genetically altered version of the Aedes aegypti mosquito — which can spread diseases like dengue and malaria — that can only hatch male, non-biting offspring, in order to gradually reduce the population.
A connection that has gone mostly unremarked during the experiment’s rollout is the involvement of Microsoft co-founder and public health philanthropist Bill Gates in the funding of the company, confirmed by Oxitec back in 2018, through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Based on past reports, it seems that the Gates Foundation pledged about $4.1 million to Oxitec in 2018 to develop a new mosquito that would target malaria in the Americas, South Asia, and eastern Africa. Oxitec was also reportedly awarded $5 million for its Aedes mosquitoes — the kind set for release in Florida — through the Gates Foundation’s Global Grand Challenges initiative in 2010. Meanwhile, Science Magazine reported in 2010 that the Gates Foundation had dished out $19.7 million for a project in which Oxitec took part.

We’ve reached out to both Oxitec and the Gates Foundation for clarification about the relationship.
Gates’ involvement complicates the already much-criticized initiative. On the one hand, the experiment could lead to an extraordinary way to control disease, potentially saving hundreds of thousands of lives per year. But critics say it could fail, backfire, or open up the doors to more troubling applications of the technology. And the idea that one of the world’s wealthiest people can help push through gene-editing experiments that are unleashed on the open ecosystem is, to say the least, a touchy subject.
Eradicating malaria has long been high on the list of Gates’ priorities. His philanthropic investment foundation has been pouring money into various fields like malaria vaccine research for years, and he’s been pushing for the idea of using genetically modified mosquitoes to eliminate the disease since 2016. That’s just one year after Oxitec finished its first mass mosquito release in Brazil.
“Genetically-modified mosquitoes are showing promise in controlling other vector-borne diseases, so we look forward to exploring their use alongside complementary interventions for malaria,” Gates Foundation malaria director Philip Welkhoff said in a press release at the time.
Let’s be clear. Gates has often been a magnet for conspiracy theories, he’s also been criticized for making poor public health calls, as when he recently argued that the US shouldn’t share COVID-19 vaccine formulas with poorer countries. In this case of Florida, some aspects of the gene-edited mosquito release seem rushed, poorly communicated, and badly received by local residents.
As Futurism previously reported, the mosquito release in Florida is fiercely opposed by a significant portion of the local community, as well as outside activists and experts — though many say that with better controls and more advance research, they’d be more open to the trial in their community.
But for now, critics say there are scientific flaws with Oxitec’s plan for the Florida release and insufficient safety testing. There’s no independently-vetted evidence that the mosquitoes will actually reduce disease transmission in Florida or that they won’t cause new problems of their own in the environment. Many in the community say they feel the experiment is being forced on them with no way to opt out other than packing up and leaving the area.
“I find this criminal, that we are being bullied into this experiment,” said one resident at a recent town council meeting. “I find it criminal that we are being subjected to this terrorism by our own Florida Keys Mosquito Control Board.”
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