Remember that a few days ago, a "United States intends to carry out insect alliance" biomodeling plan caused a heated discussion. When this attempt to target the treatment of mature crops, while mitigating the threat posed by alien organisms to crops, but also to ensure that the American plan to eat food no matter what the situation will eventually evolve into a "biological weapon", the approval announcement of the anti-mosquito plan of the American insect technology company Oxitec was announced.
This has made the "insect alliance" discussion that has been slightly calmed down again, some netizens said that this "anti-mosquito" plan is one of the verifications of "ambition", and some netizens expressed doubts, although the starting point of the announcement is very decent, but is it really not a little aggressive to the human body? So what the facts are, let's look at it step by step.
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) website introduces the Insect Alliance program
The latest U.S. "biological warrior" program: about 2.4 billion genetically modified mosquitoes are set to be released by 2024
Indeed, when summer is not even officially summer, we can always hear a constant buzzing sound around our ears. What's even more infuriating is that when you really hear that you are going to shoot it, it feels like it is "telepathic" and flies away. Recently, the US Environmental Protection Agency approved the anti-mosquito program of Oxitec, an insect technology company in the United States.
The principle of this plan is to release 2.4 billion genetically modified mosquitoes in a period of up to 2024 for 2 years, in the mode of "biological warrior", insects are used to control insects, so as to achieve the purpose of eliminating mosquitoes. The mosquitoes were engineered through gene-editing technology, which the insect technology company says is capable of killing Aedes aegypti mosquitoes that carry dengue fever, the Sekha virus and other diseases.
But the contrast is very strong, in the United States, both local residents and environmental groups strongly oppose this behavior, oppose the release of genetically modified mosquitoes, and even launched a petition online to prevent the approval and even implementation of the plan. Barry Wray, executive director of the Florida Keys Environmental Alliance, also raised his own questions when interviewed by South Florida Local Television, saying there was not enough evidence that the technology was completely safe.
In addition, he also revealed that in fact, long before the plan was approved, the American insect technology company had released genetically modified mosquitoes in many places and had not told anyone, which in itself was very hateful. The implication is that this is already disrespectful to human rights, and if approved now, it is hard to imagine whether there will be anything even crazier to hide. However, the obvious opponents failed, and in the end the United States approved the plan as many people opposed the "Insect Alliance".
What are the similarities and differences between the Genetically Modified Mosquitoes of the United States and the 5 million Asian Tiger Mosquitoes released in Guangzhou at one time? Will it attack humans?
It is worth mentioning that in fact, in order to kill mosquitoes, it is not a big effort in the United States. No, also at the end of last month, the Huangpu District of Guangzhou, the world's largest mosquito factory on the mainland, once again released 5 million Asian tiger mosquitoes. It is reported that as a "mosquito factory" is not harmful mosquitoes, these are "technology mosquitoes", experts in order to prevent Guangdong dengue fever so the male Asian tiger mosquito injected a bacterium called Wolbachia, when the bacteria carried by itself reached a certain amount, it can achieve the wild female mosquito eggs that reproduce with it are destroyed, so as to achieve "sterilization".
It is worth mentioning that although both mosquitoes are anti-mosquitoes to prevent the spread of diseases, the two anti-mosquito principles are not the same. One is genetically modified, while the other is the use of physiological characteristics to "sterilize" mosquitoes naturally. In addition, the final result is obviously different. The release of Asian tiger mosquitoes in Guangzhou is not the first time, 5 million is only the amount of production of "factories" in a day, and the largest number of previous releases is more than this. In terms of effect, it is generally released in places where there are many female Asian tiger mosquitoes, which has a good inhibitory effect on local mosquitoes.
In contrast, the genetically modified "biological warrior" mosquitoes in the United States have not been verified at present. The way to change genes inhibits the survival of another organism, as Shao Yongling, a mainland military observer, said, "It is easy to ask God to send God", once beyond control or whether the changed gene will have hereditary properties and thus affect the entire biological population, these are not yet known.
Will it attack people? Why 2.4 billion genetically modified mosquitoes are a cause for concern
So the question is, many people are concerned about whether these "mutated" abnormal mosquitoes will attack people? First of all, in the case of sterilized male mosquitoes in Guangzhou, the staff has done experiments, although they will have a short stay on the skin, but they do not bite, so they do not attack people.
The genetically modified mosquitoes in the United States are unknown, although it has been revealed that similar hidden experiments have been done before, but neither the release nor the final results have been officially announced. Therefore, whether the 2.4 billion genetically modified mosquitoes that will be released one after another will attack people is estimated to be known only to the experts in the study.
It is worth noting that in addition to the genetically modified mosquito release plan of the American insect technology company, there is also a genetically modified insect plan that has been released in a corn-growing area in Brazil, which undoubtedly aggravates the concerns of the local people and even global enthusiasts about the "insect alliance" that has just been announced. On the one hand, there is concern about whether it will be harmful to the human body, and on the other hand, there is concern about food security that cannot be ignored in the context of the "Russian-Ukrainian conflict".
Furthermore, there is also concern because of the fear of a future shift to "biological weapons". Even the internationally renowned journal Science made it clear at the outset that it was likely to be a biological weapons program. Biologist Guy Reeves also says the technology is more feasible as a weapon to kill plants than as an agricultural tool. Historically, the use of insects as vectors for the spread of diseases has been a classic biological weapon.
Worryingly, even Blake, the manager of the Insect Alliance program, has acknowledged that it could have a "dual use," theoretically using both defensive and offensive purposes. Obviously, in the face of doubts about the plan, it has not been called off. So many netizens had to contact the United States has done a number of biological weapons experiments, such as: in 1950, the local spraying of bacteria, verified by locals, resulting in countless residents infected with the virus. Top-secret documents from 1978 showed that in a 1950 report it was shown that 7 biological weapons could be used.
It was also recently that the Pentagon publicly acknowledged for the first time that it has supported 46 biological facilities in the past 20 years. Russia has repeatedly pointed out that the United States in the Ukrainian biological laboratory is conducting military biological activities such as the study of virus transmission. However, although the Us side acknowledged the support, it stressed that the purpose was only to improve local biosecurity and to work on human and animal disease detection.
The U.S. Department of Defense issued a statement on its official website acknowledging support for 46 biological facilities
All in all, to paraphrase former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once said: Whoever controls food controls all mankind. At present, these genetically modified mosquito release plans have just been approved, and the "Insect Alliance" program is not stopped because of great resistance, so whether there is a connection between them, whether it is used for "defense" or "attack", the truth of this "Rashomon" will always leave time to verify. What do you think?