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Comment by baxtr | Hacker News Reader

AFAIK, mosquitos are the animals that take the most human lives per annum. It is not only about "getting annoyed" during camping.

EDIT, I found a source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_deadliest_animals_to_h...

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Let's have humans evolve instead of killing things that were here before us.

Natural history is full of examples of "lets kill things that were here before us". So your argument can't be a reference and a call to a natural state of being. What is it about then?

You’re against killing the plague? That’s silly.

I'm trying to remember where I read it, but someone once penned an article, crying about the crime of exterminating smallpox.

They were serious about it, too.

I wouldn't worry. I'm sure that both Russia and the US have some saved up...just in case.

There's a few people out there like that. Like giving sight or hearing back to people who lost it (especially at a young age). Martyrdom-by-proxy?

Ah yes, eugenics. Worked great for the US' native population.

Mosquitoes rarely themselves kill humans. They are most of the time simply the vector of what kill humans. Actually, checking it, the Wikipedia article do state it clearly : "Mosquitoes do not kill humans directly. Rather, they are a vector that transmits mosquito-borne diseases".

You might consider "don’t shoot the messenger" should apply here too.

> Mosquitoes rarely themselves kill humans. They are most of the time simply the vector of what kill humans.

This is mental gymnastics. Mosquitoes kill humans.

It's not the assassin that kills, it's the knife /s

Would you say that mosquitoes are aiming at killing humans using viruses then?

Hmmmm, let me try something...

Guns rarely themselves kill humans. They are most of the time simply the vector of what kill humans. Actually, checking it, the Wikipedia article do state it clearly : "Guns do not kill humans directly. Rather, they are a vector that transmits bullets".

Guns are the tools used to kill humans, yes. You will notice that guns don’t appear on the linked page, while humans do.

The coronavirus doesn't kill people, it's their own organs shutting down that kills them.

Honestly did you spend more than half a second thinking before you typed this reply? You don't need to be a "well ackchyually" pedant on the internet all the time.

> The coronavirus doesn't kill people, it's their own organs shutting down that kills them.

Viruses are not simple vector of a heal factor.

Put that back in topic please. That it is, should all mosquitoes be destroyed, based on the vague assumption that mosquitoes kill humans, without caring about the ecological impact of removing species which where there since longer than mankind?

Now, how does it compare with the will to eradicate a specific virus which wasn’t a mankind concern a few months ago?

>You don't need to be a "well ackchyually" pedant on the internet all the time.

Isn’t that the kind of sentence that is doing what it critics?

But if you split by country, you'll see that there were 0 people killed by malaria in Europe and 500 in both Americas (2015).

Do you still think that we should kill all mosquitoes in the world?

https://ourworldindata.org/malaria

EDIT: haha, and the second most deadly animal from wiki list on earth is .... human. Should we get rid of these "pests" too? Could help with climate change also.

I did not say we should kill them all. I just contested your camping statement.

There are 0 people killed in Europe because we killed all malaria mosquitos with DDT and by draining swamps. Gene drive is a much more humane method in comparison.

Yes but suggestion of original poster was to kill all mosquitos without even mentioning anything about malaria. My comment was to point out that such blanket approach is terrifying.

Now that we digging in to details we see that when we look deeper in to problem we don't need to kill "all mosquitos" apparently.

Absolutely. ~10 species of mosquito vs the entire continent of Africa and all of the lives within it?

That’s not even an actual choice, it’s just “yes”. I choose humans.

The choice which you are eliding is: eliminate malaria by killing all mosquitos; or, eliminate malaria's harmful effects on humans by implementing existing prevention methods which do not require that.

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