[HN Gopher] Mosquitoes kill more than 700k people every year (2017) ___________________________________________________________________ Mosquitoes kill more than 700k people every year (2017) Author : ddtaylor Score : 50 points Date : 2022-05-30 21:20 UTC (1 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.isglobal.org) (TXT) w3m dump (www.isglobal.org) | boomboomsubban wrote: | Maybe it's just me, but the link is in Spanish and you can change | it at the top. Or this should be the English link. | https://www.isglobal.org/en/-/mosquito-el-animal-mas-letal-d... | jannes wrote: | It appears to be based on this blog post by Bill Gates from | 2014 (if you want to read the original): | | https://www.gatesnotes.com/Health/Most-Lethal-Animal-Mosquit... | henearkr wrote: | It's not mosquitoes per se, but the plasmodia they carry, that | kill people. | | So, if we could design a cure for mosquitoes, that would be | really a good thing for both humans and nature. | | Maybe similar to what we already do with wolbachia to cure | mosquitoes of arboviruses such as dengue or zika. | Victerius wrote: | How there hasn't been a horror movie about mosquitoes is beyond | me. | | Jaws has made almost everyone afraid of sharks. Yet, in the last | century, there have been only 1,000 recorded deadly shark | attacks. Mosquitoes kill between 1,500 and 2,000 people _every | day_. Source: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/08/chart-of- | the-day-mosq... | | On a more scientific note, it is my firm belief that the benefits | of exterminating all species of mosquitoes on the globe far | outweigh the consequences on the food chain. If I had Bill Gates | money, this is one of the projects I would work on. | wrs wrote: | The Gates foundation has granted billions of dollars for | malaria research including mosquito control. And Bill himself | released some (possibly imaginary) mosquitoes into the TED | audience to make this point, which was pretty hilarious. | "There's no reason only poor people should have the | experience," he said. | car_analogy wrote: | > Jaws has made almost everyone afraid of sharks. Yet, in the | last century, there have been only 1,000 recorded deadly shark | attacks. | | Ghosts and zombies have claimed even fewer lives. Meanwhile, no | horror movies are about cancer or heart disease. | wincy wrote: | The Mist does a pretty good job of making mosquitos terrifying. | CamperBob2 wrote: | Same reason we have horror movies about nuclear plant | accidents, but none about coal plants that emit more pollution | and kill more people. | | Mosquitoes aren't just deadly, they're _boring_ , and that's an | even worse sin. | teakettle42 wrote: | Don't forget heart disease. | | I can imagine the movie now. Day after day, year after year, | people making bad health choices. | | How exciting. | bricemo wrote: | My theory is it's because people respond emotionally to drama | but not numbers. A shark attack, a plane crash, and an | explosion are all much more dramatic but less deadly. What | would the dramatic terror scene be? Someone swiping away a | mosquito? Very boring. So that's not what gets made into | movies. | | Secondly, the Gates Foundation does a TON of work with | mosquitos and protective nets! They have saved tens of millions | of lives. Whenever I have some money to donate and do research | on what is the most effective use of each dollar, mosquito nets | rise to the top. | nataz wrote: | I present to you 1994's Mosquito | | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito_(film) | bombcar wrote: | Don't forget '93s Skeeter | | https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0108154/ | GauntletWizard wrote: | I enjoyed Mansquito: | | https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0430334/ | chewz wrote: | 96 percent of deaths are in Africa and 80 percent of deaths in | Africa are children below 5 years old.. | | I do not want to be cynical but that statistic might explain | inaction... | | https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malaria | SnowHill9902 wrote: | If you are reasonably healthy, reasonably young, and reasonably | well-off, you'll most probably not die from any mosquito- | transmitted disease. And most people think that they belong to | that group. None of the above will protect you from a shark | once it found you. | boeingUH60 wrote: | To add, sharks are literal scary freaks...in pictures, not to | talk of seeing such a beast in real life. | | On the other hand, I've killed more mosquitoes than I care to | remember. | jefftk wrote: | Even in that group, you're still probably more likely to die | by mosquito then shark? | SnowHill9902 wrote: | I guess it depends on your Bayesian updating model. | shironandon wrote: | world population is 7,950,593,684 and rising.. | | source: https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/ | | So if mother nature really plans to curb our numbers mosquitos | need to try a bit harder. | kzrdude wrote: | The same can be said about covid | Victerius wrote: | As someone who also believes that human overpopulation is the | source of many of our problems, including climate change, I | could not wish for the mass death of other human beings. Low | birth rates, economic pressures, and increased access to birth | control and education for women are going to take care of the | issue. | Finnucane wrote: | Malaria used to routinely kill millions every year. Antimalaria | programs have made a lot of progress, but a lot remains to be | done, for sure. | [deleted] | rossdavidh wrote: | "humans by the way are second behind the mosquito, causing | 475,000 deaths every year..." | | Depending on your background, you are either amazed that we are | the second-biggest threat to ourselves because it's so self- | destructive, or because you were convinced we had to be our own | worst enemy. | rdubz wrote: | "Each year, 1.35 million people are killed on roadways around | the world." | | https://www.cdc.gov/injury/features/global-road-safety/index... | | Seems to me that traffic deaths are "caused by" humans... not | totally surprised they have decided those don't count, but I | feel that that's wrong. | dang wrote: | Related: | | _Mosquitoes kill more than 700k people every year (2017)_ - | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23351643 - May 2020 (392 | comments) | ffhhj wrote: | Mosquitoes are amazing biological drones, will find a victim by | breath and skin smell (ie. toes), will conceal on dark surfaces | from a distance so they have a space model of their victim's | location, they also search for holes in clothing and bite thru it | if possible. If they get too full of blood and heavy will walk to | a safe location, will dodge attacks from larger animals, and | begin a erratic flight pattern and free-falls to get lost. Also | they are born with enough energy to fly a considerable distance. | csdvrx wrote: | Yet due to the precautionary principle, we will not eradicate | them as a species, since it might cause some human death. | | It seems illogical to me that almost 1 million dead for sure is | preferable to a low percentage risk of a few thousand that might | die say due to chemical pollution from the bugspray selected: | even at a very conservative 1% risk, eradicating mosquitoes can't | cause 100 million death -- and that's only counting 1 year, while | we should use a sum over 10 years, but even then with a 5% | discount rate for uncertainty it still doesn't make sense to | prefer inaction. | | I believe it's a case of status-quo bias. | svnt wrote: | You should look into the DDT effort and the consequences of it. | You are grossly oversimplifying and making it sound like | everyone is just sitting around leaning on "the precautionary | principle." | verisimi wrote: | Gah! | | Quick! Lets's shut down the economy (except for big corporations) | and make everyone wear bee keeper's clothes if they have to go | out!! | sonicggg wrote: | This is incorrect. Mosquitoes do not kill anyone, but rather the | pathogens they carry. They are just the vector. | | If I have Covid-19, I pass it to you, and you die, does it mean I | killed you? | moron4hire wrote: | This is the sort of technically correct that functionally | doesn't help anyone, like arguing "guns don't kill people, | bullets do". | | If you intentionally broke quarantine, knowing you were sick, | knowing you could get other people such, yes, you killed that | person. That is not controversial. | dijit wrote: | > If I have Covid-19, I pass it to you, and you die, does it | mean I killed you? | | if you did it intentionally; yes. | | Relevant/related topic (though about another transmissible | disease): | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_transmission_of_HIV | WithinReason wrote: | "In the 20th century alone, malaria claimed between 150 million | and 300 million lives, accounting for 2 to 5 percent of all | deaths." | | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK215638/ ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-05-30 23:00 UTC)