Zika
Dear Editor.
While our skeeter killers dither and fail to use every safe and effective weapon that they have in their arsenal, ZIKA is knocking on our door.
On Wednesday it was reported that we now have at least 3 cases of ZIKA in Monroe. That’s only the cases that have been discovered and proven. Given that many infected persons have no symptoms, we could have scores of infected persons. It is safe to assume that the authorities ae keeping the number of cases under investigation a closely held secret.
You have to be aware that ZIKA infected mosquitoes are alive and well in several Dade venues. And let’s not forget that the mosquito that the anti GMM people are protecting is the same mosquito that spreads dengue, yellow fever, and chikungunya. These are dreadful diseases. Are you aware that Yellow fever is resurgent in the tropics?
I trust you will remember that dengue is no stranger to our community. It was not that many years ago that there were nearly a hundred cases of dengue in the lower Keys. And yes, there were cases in Key Haven and Stock Island. The news of that outbreak made national headlines and turned off the tourism money spigot.
To date, there have been 49 locally transmitted cases of the virus in Florida, that’s according to the state Department of Health. Forty-two of those have been in Miami-Dade County. Florida is the only state in the continental United States where local transmission has occurred. Don’t kid yourself, if it’s not already here, unless we do something damned quick, ZIKA will soon be here.
The anti GMM crowd is getting downright frantic in their efforts to stop the skeeter killers from killing ZIKA skeeters. They even paid for ads in FaceBook . The ads verged on hysteria, shrilly warning the residents of Key Haven that the British are coming…the British are coming! I think that they see themselves as latter day Paul Revere’s.
The Oxitec people, the Brits, are the people who are ready willing and able to kill ZIKA mosquitoes. They went to Key Haven to talk to the residents, answer questions, and give out fact sheets. The Oxitec people posed no threat except to the false narrative being spun and sold by the anti GMM people and the real estate interests. The anti GMM crowd followed the Oxitec people shouting at them and urging homeowners not to talk to the Brits. Many Key Haven residents are in favor of the immediate use of GMM, but are reluctant to voice their support. They are unwilling to subject themselves to the ire of the zealots that oppose it.
Yep, the anti GMM zealots are so frightened to have anyone hear the other side of the story that they hectored Key Haven residents to stay away from the Brits.
The Anti GMM people, the real estate big shots, are so petrified that their property values will be harmed that they seem willing to do almost anything to stop efforts to kill the Aedes aegypti mosquito. Many of them also oppose the use of sprays. It looks like they are betting with the public health, and the lives of the unborn. They are betting that ZIKA will just go away.
Recently a letter has been put forward by the anti GMM people. This letter is the work of a local doctor who is married to a candidate for The Mosquito Control Board. This letter alleges that the GMM process needs additional study prior to its implementation. The Doc is complaining that because tetracycline is used in the process, that use might….underline might…degrade the efficacy of antibiotics. The good Doc offers no data or proof; he offers only speculation. The FDA, the EPA, and the USDA disagree with the Doc. The scientist and physicians at the FDA, the EPA, and the USDA have made a thorough, multidiscipline study of the process. They have deemed the process to be safe.
You may want to consider that an estimated 29 million pounds of antibiotics are used on our food stock animals. Kinda makes you wonder just how much damage a mosquito with tetracycline on its feet can do.
You should be aware that the author of the aforementioned letter, is Dr. John Norris. Dr. Norris is married to skeeter board candidate, Kathryn Watkins. For whatever reason she chooses not to use her married name in the campaign, but she has no such qualms about using her married name, Kathryn Watkins Norris, in her FaceBook postings that rail against killing the mosquitoes that spread ZIKA by the use of genetic engineering.
Kathryn Watkins (Norris) has received only a few contributions in support of her campaign. Two of which are big..really big…campaign contributions. One from her husband, Doc Norris. One from big real estate. That heavy hitter donor was Southernmost Realty. The donation was for $1,000.00. Just for the record, the heavy hitter real estate investor that threatened the skeeter board members with retribution if GMM was used, is not Southernmost Realty, it was Ed Swift lll. He’s supporting other candidates; Janet Woods and Steve Smith.
Words have meanings. The anti GMM group insist on labeling the initial release of GMM mosquitoes as being an “experiment.” It is not, it is a proof of concept exercize necessary to win full government approval for the use of the process. The safety and efficacy, and safety, of the process has already been demonstrated in its use in Brazil and other venues. As this is written, a new release of GMM mosquitoes is underway in Piracicaba, Brazil. The Brazilian government is damned glad that Oxitec is there to help protect their public health. Our leaders must quit dithering and use every weapon in their arsenal to protect the public health, and the unborn.
Walter Lagraves, Big Pine Key, Fl.
Walter, you obviously have a strong opinion about certain members of our community speaking out against a for profit company trying to have a trial release of gm mosquitos here in he keys. I can not possibly understand your hatred for these people who are just trying to make sure that this release will not harm our environment or people. You also seem to be missing some facts in your rant. First and foremost, this Oxitec mosquito is not a proven science or an actual product ready for use. You don’t seem to understand that this is the third stage of a trial in hopes to get this product to market. This proposed trial is to see how these bugs will affect the environment and “the human research subjects within a trial site”. This is not a proven technology. It is not approved for commercial use. This company lies. They say they are only releasing males. Where in fact according to the FDA application filed by Oxitec, they would like to use 14,000,000 mosquitoes with 1 per 500 of hose released being biting females. I have no vested interest in real estate or politics. I have extensively researched this topic for years. I am a concerned citizen who understands that this is a dangerous company and trial. Feel free to contact me if you would like and I will share some of my research with you. Or you can just write a nasty editorial about myself and the thousands of keys residents who severely oppose this trial!
Enjoyed your comments a lot of thought went into this.
A Few corrections:
1. Kathryn and I were married June 25th 2016. The last day to declare your candidacy was June 24th. Hence, she is committed to the campaign as Kathryn Watkins.
2. Asking questions is the heart of the scientific method. You keep asking. Unlike Oxitec we answer with current information.
3. I just got off the radio debating Dr Nimmo on Bill Becker’s show. Though we only had 10-15 minutes listen and judge for yourself.
4. Some how I think no facts I could offer would have you recognize the fact the FDA FONSI has been sent back to review as you will hear on Bill Becker. Dr Nimmo comments he knows I did it.
5. He has stated twice in front of me two, now 3 different sources of his GM mosquitoes. I really am tired of these changing answers. He does not deny they did not check the GM mosquitoes for Zika or any disease infectious. He needs to go back after this publication.
http://www.ajtmh.org/content/early/2016/08/23/ajtmh.16-0448.full.pdf?sid=8ca9360b-3d99-4c0d-a31b-4318cbed7feb
6. Appreciate your analysis. There are other issue like you have the donors wrong. Ed swift and others were never asked for money and to my knowledge has not donated. Kathryn will know better. We have self funded, but Kathryns campaign accepts donations when offered.
7. Look at my personal page on Facebook you will see the video of me being an expert for the nbc nightly news with brokaw in the last 1990s and my first front page lead story in the 1992 New York Times. I apologize to Kathryn every day that my personal concerns about resistant antibiotics are in any way tainting what people like you declare your beliefs to be.
There’s more but I am not sure if you want more. Again thank you for those comments
I can’t help but wonder if Mr. Lagraves is on the Oxitec payroll… or just a sucker for good marketing strategy.
Oxitec513a Frankenskeeters are indeed an experiment. They have been shown effective at dramatically reducing the target mosquito species (according to Oxitec’s counting) while inexplicably increasing the incidence of the targeted diseases just as dramatically (according to Brazil’s Health Ministry). Is the goal to reduce disease or a mosquito species? How about breeding and releasing millions of nature’s dragonflies instead of man-made mutant mosquitoes?
Remember that Zika was never connected to microcephaly until after millions of Oxitec 513a were released.
The “kill gene” in Oxi513a is deactivated by tetracycline. Cat food made from your typical factory farmed chicken was found to have enough tetracycline to deactivate the kill gene when it was fed to Oxi513a larvae. Thanks to the overuse of antibiotics, tetracycline levels adequate to disable the kill gene have been found in wastewater also. Key Haven has a poorly operating wastewater plant right in the proposed release area, and will be replacing very badly leaking sewer mains shortly, which will mean open trenches with wastewater content during construction.
But a percentage of Oxi513a survive the kill gene even without tetracycline, and go on to breed cross-breed and pure bred Oxi513a (not all of the released Oxi513a are male). Is tetracycline the only substance that will deactivate the kill gene? Will the kill gene be turned off by an Oxi513a dining on a human or pet antibiotic-treated host? I don’t know, and as a hard & fast rule do not trust the assurances (or silence) of salesmen or others in position to gain from a sale. And perpetual sales of Oxi513a is a really, really big sale! One thing is a certainty- Oxi513a is an exotic species proposed to be released into an environmentally sensitive area to manhandle nature. That makes no sense at all, given the history of such previous endeavors.
I loath pesticides more than most, but GMOs have never improved my life nor that of anyone (outside of the money stream) once you look behind the hype. And these have the potential to be the worst.
Remember also that Oxitec is no longer a small British biotech firm. It was bought out by the same behemoth corporation, with FDA apparently on the payroll, that brought you other harmful genetic organisms like the eel-salmon cross. Sorry about your stock holdings FTR, but I do not agree that seeding the Keys with a new life form is a great way to curb possible but unlikely birth defects from a possible mosquito bite of a possibly but unlikely infected mosquito. Statistically, the benefit is highly improbable, and statistically there is evidence to support that Oxi513a is the source of Zika-related microcephaly.
mr WL of big pine key
I have the solution……oxitec shall release the test case of 22M frankinbugs over a 22 month period on your front lawn in big pine key…..I’m sure you will applaud this solution!
in the mean time in case you did not see my response to you a few weeks ago to your earlier published ruminations and ramblings:
………………………..
to whom it may concern
i am a resident of key haven and completely resent this oxitec/mcb health intrusion whereas here is a list of questions sent to mcb and all county commissioners back in summer last year 2015..
the highest concern is by who’s permission? all met with a deafening SILENCE from the mcb.
local key haven poll of households showed a vote of NO CONFIDENCE and AGAINST the RELEASE FOR 75% polled.
below are my questions and not to be confused with the 75% against poll taken.
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HAS THERE BEEN INFORMED CONSENT GRANTED FROM THE PEOPLE OF KEY HAVEN TO PARTICIPATE AS LABORATORY SUBJECTS IN THIS HUMAN MEDICAL EXPERIMENT?
and if not why not???
1- 75% of key haven residents are against this multi-million frankenbug release and resent being a lab rat for any mcb/oxitec human experiment ESPECIALLY without our permission. when will it be asked?
2- mcb must have a complete EIS overseen by a 3rd party committee before any question of approval is entertained by mcb.
3- oversight and insurance responsibility will be underwritten by whom and what are the policy limitations as noted on the declaration page?
4- there needs be peer review documentation before any question of approval is entertained by mcb
5- the language used in the ed russo key west resolution that required the MCB to provide their authority, standards, and criteria for success and failure etc. must also be incorporated and published.
6- please note the mila petition online against the frankenbug experiment. [200k to date]
7- im still waiting on the professors protestation of fabrication proof paper he said he would do on the below hyperlink sent last summer that speaks for itself.
GM mosquitoes increase spread of dengue fever in Brazilian town, causing state of emergency to be renewed
http://www.naturalnews.com/046656_GM_mosquitoes_dengue_fever_Brazil.html
8- this release will also include gmo female mosquitoes. WHAT? do you mean the biting kind?
as you can see there are some serious questions attached to this proposed action…all of which has been to my understanding ignored by doyle the executive director. perhaps doyle is speaking of the other key haven…the one in the invisible all state insurance commercial?
nevertheless i think the point has been made.
thanking you in advance
xxxxxxxxxxxx
key haven rd
key haven
btw mr WL
that’s 22M is millions = 22,000,000 just in case you count on your fingers and ran out at 10 or so.