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Asymptomatic Viral Vector Protection.

Get your own back on mosquitoes.
 
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Take one virus lethal to mosquitoes.

Take one benign asymptomatic virus ubiquitous in humans.

Introduce them & do a little shake & bake until you get the desired properties.

Inject into human population.

Giggle gleefully ..

As all species of mosquitoes that feed on human blood become extinct.

Technique may be applicable to other pests.

Putting the metaphorical boot on the other foot & vectoring the vectors.

Skewed, Apr 27 2020

A little background reading https://en.wikipedi...g/wiki/Human_virome
Human virome - Wikipedia [Skewed, Apr 27 2020]

Further background reading https://en.wikipedi...symptomatic_carrier
Asymptomatic carrier - Wikipedia [Skewed, Apr 27 2020]

Last one, promise https://en.wikipedi.../wiki/Bacteriophage
Bacteriophage - Wikipedia [Skewed, Apr 27 2020]

[link]






       Something we carry indirectly might work?   

       See phage <link>
Skewed, Apr 27 2020
  

       I need [Max] for this :(
Skewed, Apr 27 2020
  

       Don't we all ... ?   

       <Solemn moment/>   

       Phages are interesting, we have learned a lot about them recently.   

       If you look at the life cycle of Y. pestis, one of its effects is to block the digestion of its vector (the flea) causing it to feel hunger - it cannot digest its blood meals, so bites incessantly, thus transmitting the infection.   

       If possible, the infective agent should be transmissible without the need for the insect to get a blood meal; but you can always put the agent into other mammalian species that mosquitoes attack, other than humans.   

       The feeding takes place at a critical point in the life cycle. Only females bite, in order to reproduce. Males have no mouthparts - they mate and die. Something that can attack the ability of the females to reproduce successfully - it doesn't need to kill the insect - would be fine. All you need to do is break the reproductive cycle.
8th of 7, Apr 27 2020
  

       //put the agent into other mammalian species//   

       The danger with that approach is you might drive habit altering speciation.   

       Those of the target species with a taste for the surrogate animal die out while those with a preference for humans thrive.   

       So you may just end up with a species that lives exclusively off humans.   

       Not the desired result.
Skewed, Apr 27 2020
  

       To clarify; the suggestion would be to put the agent into numerous other biological reservoirs to ensure elimination, not just a behavioural change. Sorry, that should have been explicitly stated.   

       If you only put it in humans, exactly that undesirable effect - differentiation of food source - would follow. There will still be mosquitoes, they will just bite humans much less often, and the programme will have to be sustained indefinitely.   

       The objective should be extermination of the entire species*.   

       Smallpox was eliminated. This can be done too.   

       You'll need a Ministry of Ecological Niche Management or something to stop anything else exploiting the opportunity caused by the removal of a life-form.   

       *The insects, not the humans. Probably.
8th of 7, Apr 27 2020
  

       Happy birthday, Max.
RayfordSteele, Apr 27 2020
  

       //undesirable effect - differentiation of food source//   

       Actually we consider that a very desirable effect, it's the one we were aiming for.   

       The new virus would become a permanent part of the human virome.   

       <Mumbles into hand>   

       Because we've not worked out how to get it back out once we've got it in yet.   

       <Mumbles into hand/>   

       So we expect the differentiation to eventually become near total.   

       We're persuaded natural selection will eventually mean the very smell of a human will make them fly the other way.   

       //The objective should be extermination of the entire species//   

       The law of unintended consequences as it applies to human intervention in ecologies through the addition or subtraction of a species (as explored so very thoroughly by Australia last century) is something we've given some small thought to.   

       It scares us.   

       And we're too lazy to do the necessary field work to figure out all of the ramifications & ripple effects of the removal of any individual species.   

       So no.
Skewed, Apr 27 2020
  

       You've just not had enough practice. Once you've wrecked a few complete planetary ecologies, you'll get the hang of it, and gain confidence.   

       It's not just that you're admittedly lazy - which we don't believe, because humans can be astonishingly determined and resolute, usually when doing something appallingly ill-advised and self-destructive -but that you lack ambition. That doesn't sound like the species we know....
8th of 7, Apr 27 2020
  

       //Happy birthday, Max//   

       Really?   

       [Raises a glass]
Skewed, Apr 27 2020
  

       Yes, really.
8th of 7, Apr 27 2020
  

       My timing of a [Max] friendly idea was unexpectedly fortuitous then.   

       I'll have to remember for next year.
Skewed, Apr 27 2020
  

       We'll remind you.   

       We predict that "Blatantly Idiotic Predictions for 2021" will include "Halfbakers will forget to commemorate the anniversary of losing Max" ...   

       Though since that's not in any way funny, probably not.
8th of 7, Apr 27 2020
  

       // Happy birthday, Max. //   

       Indeed. And as a fellow baker who is the same age to the day I can say that if I live twice as many years and accomplish even half as much I shall still be woefully behind.   

       You will never be forgotten, [Max}.
whatrock, Apr 27 2020
  
      
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