Originally published August 31, 2023 4:34 pm PDT
The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) on Tuesday announced the first two human cases of West Nile Virus (WNV) in state residents this year.
“One individual is a female in her 70s who was exposed to the virus in another part of the country,” the agency’s website reads. “The second individual is a male in his 40s who was exposed in Middlesex County, an area already known to be at moderate risk.”
In November 2017, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that MosquitoMate, Inc. had submitted plans to infect live male mosquitoes with a bacteria called “Wolbachia pipientis.”
The infected male mosquitoes were supposed to mate with and infect naturally occurring female mosquitoes, which, in theory, would prevent the female’s eggs from hatching.
The plan was to target Asian Tiger Mosquito (Aedes albopictus) populations across 20 states, including Massachusetts.
However, this insect species is known to transmit Zika, dengue, yellow fever, and West Nile Virus.
Moreover, a 2014 publication in the peer-reviewed scientific journal PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases concluded that mosquitoes infected with the Wolbachia bacteria did not prevent WNV.
Rather, infecting mosquitos with Wolbachia led to a “significantly higher” rate of WNV infections.
“Wolbachia did not inhibit WNV in this mosquito. Rather, WNV infection rate was significantly higher in Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes compared to controls,” the study authors stated.
They went on to warn against “releasing Wolbachia-infected insects” as a means of controlling disease.
“This is the first observation of Wolbachia-induced enhancement of a human pathogen in mosquitoes, suggesting that caution should be applied before releasing Wolbachia-infected insects as part of a vector-borne disease control program,” the researchers cautioned.
MosquitoMate is a biotechnology company based in Lexington, KY, and founded on intellectual property developed at the University of Kentucky’s Department of Entomology.
The university’s etymology department receives funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Dr. Stephen Dobson, a Professor at the University of Kentucky’s Department of Entomology and a member of the research team that was awarded $10 million from The Gates Foundation, is also the CEO of MosquitoMate.
Dr. Dobson has received funding from The Gates Foundation for other mosquito-related projects.
Meanwhile, there have been 55 cases of WNV this year alone in California, where MosquitoMate’s Wolbachia-infected mosquitos were also released.
In 2016, 20 tubes full of the mosquitos were let loose in Clovis, California, at the northern tip of Fresno County in the Central Valley, WIRED reported at the time.
On Thursday, a local NBC news outlet reported WNV cases in Glenn, Lake, Butte, Yolo, El Dorado, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Santa Clara, Stanislaus, Merced, Madera, Kings, Tulare, Kern, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and Riverside counties.
“Five people with the virus have died, including one person in Sacramento County and another person in Yolo County,” the report noted.
WNV cases are now being reported across the country, including in New York, Colorado, Michigan, Indiana, Mississippi, Arizona, Connecticut, Iowa, Illinois, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Montana, Missouri, Alabama, Texas, South Dakota, Utah, Ohio, and elsewhere in California (here).
Strangely, all of these reports, across all of these states, were published roughly within the same 24-hour period and most were said to be reporting the “first” cases of the disease in the area.
Some medical experts are speaking up on behalf of citizens who do not consent to having engineered insects released in their cities and neighborhoods.
“I consider it criminal to mass-produce vectors that spread diseases (like mosquitoes and ticks) and unleash them upon the American people,” says Dr. Richard Bartlett, former advisor to then-Texas Governor Rick Perry’s Health Disparities Taskforce. “This experiment has been conducted repeatedly without the consent of American citizens.”
The 30-year emergency room physician did not hold back, arguing that those conducting such a “biological attack” should be held accountable.
“Those involved in this systematic biological attack on American citizens should be imprisoned, and the companies responsible should be shut down immediately,” stated Dr. Bartlett. “I recognize the same household ‘philanthropic’ names associated with other disasters. Americans who suffered harm, such as encephalitis, should be compensated and justice should be served.”
The Texas physician also pointed to diseases potentially carried (here, here) by immigrants crossing illegally into the country.
“Millions are entering the U.S. illegally without medical screening for contagious diseases,” he told American Faith. “Some of these diseases are common in their home countries. Many of these diseases are spread from person to person by mosquitoes. Billions of genetically engineered mosquitoes have been released in the US. This is not a coincidence.”
Editor’s Note: Incidentally, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey announced Thursday, just days after WNV cases were reported in her state, that she would activate up to 250 National Guard members to address the illegal immigration crisis in Massachusetts. –September 1, 2023
