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A comment on Results from first US trial of genetically modified mosquitoes. Parent comment

Re:Results from first US trial of genetically modified mosqu... by andrewclunn on Wednesday April 20, 2022 @10:17AM (#31097306)
> I've only ever heard it said about eliminating the single largest source of death in human history.

Is this true? I'm not sure if you're being hyperbolic here, but if that is a defensible claim I want to hear how you arrived at that conclusion.

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Re:Results from first US trial of genetically modified mosqu... by abathur on Wednesday April 20, 2022 @10:21AM (#31097366)
AIUI mosquito-borne illness is estimated to have killed more than 4% of all of the humans that have ever lived https://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2019/10/03/has_malaria...
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Re:Results from first US trial of genetically modified mosqu... by BurningFrog on Wednesday April 20, 2022 @10:30AM (#31097499)
"Malaria may have killed half of all the people that ever lived"

https://www.nature.com/articles/news021001-6#:~:text=Malaria....

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Re:Results from first US trial of genetically modified mosqu... by whimsicalism on Wednesday April 20, 2022 @12:33PM (#31099467)
I think people forget quite how long the population tail in Africa is and people also forget that malaria used to be endemic to Europe.
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Re:Results from first US trial of genetically modified mosqu... by saalweachter on Wednesday April 20, 2022 @01:44PM (#31100421)
And that previous attempts to curb the reign of mosquitoes include things like "draining all swamps everywhere".

Take a look at the coastline of Long Island on satellite maps, and all the scars left by that time they tried to eliminate all of the salt marshes to get rid of mosquitoes near NYC.

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