A shocking statistic... and completely avoidable???

[Little-Acorn]

Watching "American Idol Gives Back" tonight. They went to Africa, and are doing some sort of expose' on how rough people have it there. Doesn't take much producing or acting - they DO have it very rough.

And the most shocking statistic is one they recited near the beginning of the show: Every 30 seconds, someone dies from malaria in Africa. And 90% of all malaria deaths worldwide, occur in Africa.

A death every thirty seconds, is more than a MILLION deaths per year.

And it's not from something like cancer, which no one knows how to prevent or cure. It's from malaria... a disease that has been all but eradicated in many parts of the world. It's spread by the Anopheles mosquito, which carries the germ, and infects a human when the mosquito bites him.

That mosquito has been all but eliminated in the United States and most other modern countries. Thorough spraying with the insecticide DDT has effectively eliminated the threat of malaria in all those countries. Various environmental whackos tried to stop it, naturally, predicting disasters of various magnitudes, but none of their predictions ever came true (this is always the outcome of the whackos' predictions).

But now we find that DDT has been banned, when countries like Africa have people dying by the millions from a disease that DDT could control! And why? Because of fears that a few birds might be harmed! And not even the birds, really - the whackos are worried that the shells of their egg might be the wrong thickness, and a greater percentage of baby birds die than ordinarily do.

Let me get this straight.

These people think that millions of people dying, men women and children, is not too great a price to pay for keeping birds' egg shells the right thickness???

I haven't studied this as much as I usually study things, and I have to believe I missed something that justifies the withholding of a known cure for malaria, with relatively mild side effects, from people who are literally dying for it.

Someone PLEASE tell me what I've left out here.

PLEASE.

 

[pocketfullofshells]

Watching "American Idol Gives Back" tonight. They went to Africa, and are doing some sort of expose' on how rough people have it there. Doesn't take much producing or acting - they DO have it very rough.

And the most shocking statistic is one they recited near the beginning of the show: Every 30 seconds, someone dies from malaria in Africa. And 90% of all malaria deaths worldwide, occur in Africa.

A death every thirty seconds, is more than a MILLION deaths per year.

And it's not from something like cancer, which no one knows how to prevent or cure. It's from malaria... a disease that has been all but eradicated in many parts of the world. It's spread by the Anopheles mosquito, which carries the germ, and infects a human when the mosquito bites him.

That mosquito has been all but eliminated in the United States and most other modern countries. Thorough spraying with the insecticide DDT has effectively eliminated the threat of malaria in all those countries. Various environmental whackos tried to stop it, naturally, predicting disasters of various magnitudes, but none of their predictions ever came true (this is always the outcome of the whackos' predictions).

But now we find that DDT has been banned, when countries like Africa have people dying by the millions from a disease that DDT could control! And why? Because of fears that a few birds might be harmed! And not even the birds, really - the whackos are worried that the shells of their egg might be the wrong thickness, and a greater percentage of baby birds die than ordinarily do.

Let me get this straight.

These people think that millions of people dying, men women and children, is not too great a price to pay for keeping birds' egg shells the right thickness???

I haven't studied this as much as I usually study things, and I have to believe I missed something that justifies the withholding of a known cure for malaria, with relatively mild side effects, from people who are literally dying for it.

Someone PLEASE tell me what I've left out here.

PLEASE.

yes lets give them cancer that will fix it....there are other things besides you can use, and don't worry you dont care, you would never pay the tax money to do it

 

[Little-Acorn]

yes lets give them cancer that will fix it....

(the usual smears and lies deleted)

Cancer is not caused by DDT. it's been in use since WWII, and no link was ever found.

Nice try at promotinng a lie. Sort of like saying man causes global warming, cooling, whichever is being hyped this week.

The side effects of DDT are minimal, affects the eggshells of a few birds. Andd the benefits are immense: the saving of milliions of lives.

What kind of warped mentality forbids its use on that basis?

 

[PLC1]

There are ways of getting rid of mosquitoes that don't get rid of perigrine falcons and bald eagles at the same time. The problem isn't "environmental whackos", as there isn't much in the way of environmentalism in Africa. The problem is the failed states on that continent that can't deal with malaria. They don't do any better job with AIDS, btw, and all the DDT in the world won't help with that one.

 

[top gun]

Watching "American Idol Gives Back" tonight. They went to Africa, and are doing some sort of expose' on how rough people have it there. Doesn't take much producing or acting - they DO have it very rough.

And the most shocking statistic is one they recited near the beginning of the show: Every 30 seconds, someone dies from malaria in Africa. And 90% of all malaria deaths worldwide, occur in Africa.

A death every thirty seconds, is more than a MILLION deaths per year.

And it's not from something like cancer, which no one knows how to prevent or cure. It's from malaria... a disease that has been all but eradicated in many parts of the world. It's spread by the Anopheles mosquito, which carries the germ, and infects a human when the mosquito bites him.

That mosquito has been all but eliminated in the United States and most other modern countries. Thorough spraying with the insecticide DDT has effectively eliminated the threat of malaria in all those countries. Various environmental whackos tried to stop it, naturally, predicting disasters of various magnitudes, but none of their predictions ever came true (this is always the outcome of the whackos' predictions).

But now we find that DDT has been banned, when countries like Africa have people dying by the millions from a disease that DDT could control! And why? Because of fears that a few birds might be harmed! And not even the birds, really - the whackos are worried that the shells of their egg might be the wrong thickness, and a greater percentage of baby birds die than ordinarily do.

Let me get this straight.

These people think that millions of people dying, men women and children, is not too great a price to pay for keeping birds' egg shells the right thickness???

I haven't studied this as much as I usually study things, and I have to believe I missed something that justifies the withholding of a known cure for malaria, with relatively mild side effects, from people who are literally dying for it.

Someone PLEASE tell me what I've left out here.

PLEASE.

Do you purposely leave out the whole story or is it just that you so want to attack anything that might be seen as possibly Progressive that you just go crazy?

DDT is not the only insecticide that kills mosquitoes. So using a more environmentally friendly one is not front page news. In fact there's a WARNING right here in the United States about children even using DEET mosquito repellents and they are much less toxic than DDT is. Kind of a common practice my friend.

But more amusing is this... your quote... That mosquito has been all but eliminated in the United States and most other modern countries.

WTF are you sniffing?

There are mosquitoes swarming all over America. They have in no way been "eliminated".

 

[PLC1]

Is DDT still in use?

DDT was subsequently banned for agricultural use worldwide under the Stockholm Convention, but its limited use in disease vector control continues to this day and remains controversial.

yes, it would seem so.

One more fact that doesn't support your opinion.