Mosquitoes, the deadliest animal on earth, transmit serious and fatal diseases including malaria, Zika, West Nile, yellow fever, encephalitis, and dengue fever. The Gates Foundation estimates mosquito-borne diseases are responsible for 725,000 deaths per year.
Thanks to recent advances in gene editing, we now have the ability to exterminate mosquitoes for good. By designing a “gene drive” that causes mosquitoes to produce only male offspring, we can wipe out a mosquito species within a few generations.
Biologists generally agree that removing mosquitoes would not have a serious impact on the ecosystem.
The US government, in the interest of humanity, has a moral duty to fund research and directly implement methods leading to the extermination of the Aedes and Anopheles mosquito species.