I am taking a detour away from Missouri Insects, this time we are headed to Long Beach. I came across this article on the Internet about Bill Gates releasing mosquitoes at a conference in Long Beach. Perhaps many of you have already read this and I am once again "A day late and a...." well you get it. I have mixed feelings about what I read. While I applaud Mr. Gates dramatic attention getting techniques, he certainly got his point across. I agree with him that we need more research and more funding for that research on Malaria. When you consider that Malaria has killed more people than all the Worlds Wars combined it is something to take very seriously. None of us is completely safe from the possibility of coming in contact with one of these mosquitoes. I still struggle somewhat with what Mr. Gates did, while he did assure the audience that these mosquitoes were Malaria free, what about other possible diseases that these little buggers are known to spread? Not to mention..how wise is it to release more mosquitoes? What is your opinion?
11:05 PM | February 4, 2009
Bill Gates made headlines (lots of headlines with puns) today when he let loose mosquitoes a the Techology Entertainment Design (TED) conference in Long Beach.
The Microsoft founder apparently startled some in the audience, who were quickly reassured he was making a point about the spread of malaria.
"Malaria is spread by mosquitoes," he explained. More from AFP:
"I brought some. Here I'll let them roam around. There is no reason only poor people should be infected." Gates waited a minute or so before assuring the audience the liberated insects were malaria-free. TED curator Chris Anderson fired back at the legendary computer software maker, joking that the headline for the video of his talk to be posted online at Ted.com would be "Gates releases more bugs into the world."
A sample of the headlines that followed: "Crowd buzzing after Bill Gates mosquito stunt." "Gates releases mosquitoes to bug people about malaria."
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