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A comment on US government approves 'killer' mosquitoes to fight disease. Parent comment

Re:US government approves 'killer' mosquitoes to fight disease by learc83 on Thursday November 09, 2017 @02:18PM (#15665051)
Right now we're indiscriminately spraying pesticides that definitely have a harmful effect on the environment. All the evidence points to this being a better solution.
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Re:US government approves 'killer' mosquitoes to fight disease by dqpb on Thursday November 09, 2017 @02:31PM (#15665179)
It's important to keep these two questions separate:

1. Is it probably better than the current solution

2. What could go wrong

The first being (probably) true does not negate the need to ask the second.

The new option may have a completely different risk profile

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Re:US government approves 'killer' mosquitoes to fight disease by learc83 on Thursday November 09, 2017 @03:41PM (#15665708)
2 is necessary to answer 1 though, so they aren't really separate.

If the cost benefit analysis of the new solution is worse because it has greater risks, then it can't be better than the current solution.

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