First Genetically Modified Mosquitoes Released in U.S. Are Hatching Now

Wow. Perhaps I'm a Luddite but the article started well enough by interviewing an expert in the field (Omar Akbari, a molecular biologist whose lab works on genetic control technologies at the University of California, San Diego).

Uhmm ok so far - but then I read this ... "He is also a co-founder of Agragene, a biotech company"

Uhmm ok so no possible conflict of interest there then right? And I’m sure he is in a position to provide a non-biased analysis of the "Risks and Rewards" of the program. /s

A further quote at the end of the article has this from him .. "We’re excited about this because we were able to eliminate the populations in experimental cages in the lab. And we think this technology might be a next-generation technology that can be used alongside the Oxitec technology. The outcome is very similar."

Well, that is doubly reassuring about his impartiality on the subject. /s

TFA then continues with the rather not-so re-assuring ... "The EPA has done its due diligence and tested many of the potential side effects of this technology." Uhmm yeah, the EPA have a great track record (rolls eyes). And the ‘many’ in that quote just gave me a ‘we tested a huge & bigly number of things’ vibe.

This sort of thing has been tried elsewhere and I’ve never heard of one being successful over the long term (5+ years). Sure, I’ve seen of a few reports at the 2 -3 year trial period exclaiming remarkable results but then everything sort of goes a bit quiet and some idle digging turns up either nothing or perhaps a local newspaper report about the trial being discontinued and not expanded to other areas.

I’m sure there must be at least some some trials that are able to demonstrate that this sort of approach works in the long term (10+ years) and if so if anyone here is aware of such research I would gladly take an idle read but so far all I’ve ever seen is the ‘ah – that was the OLD method, Our sooper-dooper new technology is absolutely gonna nail it this time’.

I mean on the one hand - if you don’t try you will never succeed or solve any problem. But the part of me that grew up watching insects morph in to super villains after landing in “green glowing gloop” would much rather that Scientific America had tried a little harder to find an expert to interview that was much more able to not feel any commercial, financial or academic pressure and was therefore much more likely to be able to provide an objective and nuanced opinion.

I mean – how on earth do you put the genie back in the bottle? Erect giant mosquito nets around the whole state?