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Douglas_Knight comments on Now is the time to eliminate mosquitoes - Less Wrong Discussion

21 Post author: James_Miller 06 August 2016 07:10PM

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Comment author: Douglas_Knight 15 August 2016 01:48:59AM 1 point [-]

If it is possible to drive mosquitoes to extinction, it is a good idea, but it sounds difficult to me. It would be easier to to use gene drive to spread antimalarial drugs. This sounds complicated, but people have done it in the lab. By aligning the gene drive with the fitness of the mosquitoes, it is more likely to work. It does not preclude future extermination. But this is a complicated mechanism, not easily adaptable to, say, Zika.