Is Bill Gates dropping mosquitoes from the helicopter to spread disease? Read more
Claim
Ever wonder how diseases spread so fast? Bill Gates normally has his men drop the mosquitos from the helicopters at night when nobody can see it… but on this day there was a delay and they were forced to release in broad daylight! BILL GATES IS EVIL
Rating
Explanation
The above viral tweet was shared by the user “Matt Wallace” along with a small video clip. In the 11-second viral video, we were able to see a helicopter spraying something above in the air. The video garnered around 3.2M views, 17.8K likes, and more than 7800 reposts till now while writing this article. The video clip is shared stating that Bill Gates normally has his men dropping mosquitoes from helicopters at night but today there was a delay and they were forced to release it during the broad daylight. This same viral clip was shared by many users with similar claims which can be viewed here, here, here, and here. Come, let’s check the authenticity of this claim.
What’s the truth?
When we started our research at first, we found out that many users in the comment section had pointed out that “Oxitec Company” is responsible for this kind of transmission of mosquitoes.
We took that as a cue and searched further about the company and got a video from YouTube. The video is uploaded by “Oxitec Ltd” with the title ‘Project to Control Disease-Carrying Mosquitoes Kicks Off in the Florida Keys.’ The 5-minute 52-second video gives a brief explanation of how the FKMCD and Oxitec join to fight the mosquito-causing diseases through their innovative methods.
What is FKMCD?
FKMCD- Oxitec Mosquito Project is a partnership between the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District and Oxitec, evaluating the effectiveness of Oxitec mosquitoes to control the invasive, disease-spreading Aedes aegypti mosquito in the Florida Keys.
What is Oxitec Technology mosquito?
Oxitec Friendly™ technology platform delivers a targeted, non-toxic, and environmentally sustainable solution for controlling pests that spread disease, threaten food production, or harm ecosystems. Friendly males carry a self-limiting gene that when passed on, prevents their offspring from surviving to adulthood. With regular releases of Friendly males, the number of offspring – in most versions of the technology, specifically the damaging female offspring – is reduced, resulting in a reduction in the pest insect population. Friendly males, and offspring carrying the self-limiting gene, can be tracked through the linked fluorescent marker gene.
This method can be applied to all kinds of pests, from the mosquitoes that transmit such diseases as dengue and Zika, to moth caterpillars that destroy maize fields. Oxitec is now developing a Friendly™ tick, and the technology has the potential to be applied to animals beyond arthropods.
What is Self-Limiting Gene?
The self-limiting gene is at the heart of the Oxitec method of pest control and is tuned to work optimally in each target species. When our Friendly™ males are released and reproduce with pest females, their offspring inherit a copy of the self-limiting gene. This gene disrupts the proper functioning of the insects’ cells by over-producing a protein, interfering with the cells’ ability to produce other essential proteins needed for development. This disrupts the insect’s normal development and ability to survive to adulthood.
When we intensified our research we got more images from the innovative program of mosquito reduction conducted by Oxitec can be viewed here.
The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation has indeed supported the biotech company Oxitec, which is releasing modified mosquitoes in Florida as part of a disease-control initiative, though it clearly denied that the U.S. work is not funded by the Gates Foundation
In addition to this, the female mosquito is the one who bites humans for protein present in their blood and development of eggs whereas, male mosquitoes feed on plant juices such as nectar to get the sugar they need for survival and energy.
This above evidence proves that, the released mosquitoes are male which do not bite and transmit diseases. Moreover, the Oxitec company releasing the mosquitoes in Florida (Oxitec) does not use helicopters. They use “just add water” mosquito boxes to release the male mosquitoes.
Under the project, thousands of A. aegypti were altered to make their reproduction more difficult, thus slowing and eventually preventing the spread of mosquito-borne illnesses like Malaria, Zika, and dengue fever.
Conclusion:
Therefore, we conclude through our investigation that the video shared by multiple users stating that the helicopter is releasing mosquitoes in broad daylight is false and misleading.
Even though, the Gates Foundation has provided funding and support to fight malaria, it has not funded any work involving mosquito releases in the U.S.
