Well, it’s not the former. And it’s not a ‘species’, true, but neither was DDT. However, I agree with you that this method looks like a far more specific delivery system than spraying on waterways, albeit one which more specifically releases around humans. Having said that, malaria is a hideous disease, and I agree with the argument that’s made periodically that using something like DDT in specific and limited cases is worth the known problems, because those known problems aren’t as bad as malaria. I’d also make the argument that even if this chemical/delivery package combo ends up having some measurable negative effect on either humans or the broader ecosystem, these negative effects need to be weighed against the catastrophic effects of malaria. However none of that is an argument for deliberately bypassing known-good processes for detecting negative impacts of new systems by deliberately moving testing & deployment to a country without strong regulatory systems. That’s just using the poor and desperate as guinea pigs.
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