INA - SOURCES
A project backed by Google’s parent company is seeking federal approval to release 32 million mosquitoes in California and Florida, all in hopes they can help eliminate others that spread deadly viruses.
That may sound like the beginning of a disaster movie, but this is far from the first time mosquitoes have been released in the U.S. A Florida Keys trial conducted by the British company Oxitec was deemed a success in 2022 and the Alphabet subsidiary, Verily, behind the new proposal, dubbed “Debug,” released one million sterile mosquitoes in California in 2017.
The need for these programs is great. Mosquitoes kill more people than any other creature in the world, and 120 Americans die due to infection with West Nile virus each year, federal data shows.
Still, the tests have raised ethical questions regarding how far humanity should take the war against mosquitoes. Around since the age of the dinosaurs, they’re both an important food source for pollinators that support our food systems and pollinators themselves.
Verily’s efforts to fight off disease-riddled mosquitoes have recently fueled concern on social media, too, with X users questioning the tech giant’s ties to the project, despite a documented history of success in America, Singapore and Australia.