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Zika virus causing deformaties is a hoax?

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Jaskalas said:
Simple test. Has Zika and birth defects been linked in any country outside Brazil?
Click to expand...
Well for starters you had a case of an individual having a baby with microcephaly born in the US but infected with the Zika virus, although it could be that individual had been to Brazil specifically. (Part of the issue is time to fullly diagnoses cases especially since you really need babies to start getting born after infection to really diagnosis it with the evidence being the virus generally isn't such as big as issue if the mother is already 8 months pregnant at the time for instance.)

You also had French Polynesia see an increase in microcephaly cases with its outbreak in 2014, but it is fair to note the increase was not specifically linked to the Zika virus at the time. (This may have been a consequence of fewer cases with a smaller infected population, or someone not happening to put two and two together, but I don't know the full story of the French Polynesia stats personally.)
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016...s-linked-zika-leads-who-declare-public-health

Another practical question in the Brazil case is if the larvicide in question was used significantly enough in other areas of the country to explain the rise in cases in other regions of Brazil. (If not the case the larvicide clearly does not explain the outbreak on its own, and there is the additional question if the product has been used elsewhere in the past with no increase in birth defects being detected.)
 
In Brazil they also developed a genetically modified mosquito that is suppose to kill off the mosquito that carries the Zika Virus. It does kill off the mosquitoes that carry the Zika virus, but it could also be the cause of the deformities. It is also quite possible that some insecticide or other chemical could be causing the problems. Without some kind of controlled study it is hard to pin this down only to the Zika Virus.
 
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piasabird said:
In Brazil they also developed a genetically modified mosquito that is suppose to kill off the mosquito that carries the Zika Virus. It does kill off the mosquitoes that carry the Zika virus, but it could also be the cause of the deformities.
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The first statement is basically factually wrong (with most of the rest of the statement wrong as well). What they did do was make a genetically sterile mosquito designed to dramatically reduce the number of the species of mosquito that carry the Dengue virus and also happen to carry the Zika virus (With the second not a real concern or factor as the GM mosquito was developed and initially used). It should be noted that the mosquitoes in question that are released are all male so they don't even bite.

Contrary to false claims on the internet, the timeline of the use of the gm modified mosquito and the areas used don't actually fit with the appearance of the new variety of the Zika virus apparently linked to birth defects or the birth defects themselves (The mosquitoes in question were used earlier and in the "wrong" regions among other details.) . You also have absolutely zero scientifically plausible link between the gm mosquito and the actual birth defects. (At least a larvicide link is theoretically possible although this is significantly different than it actually truly existing.)

To be blunt, the gm mosquito claims are often being made on the internet by those with either poor knowledge of this general area of science and/or those with an anti-gm agenda who don't actually care about the accuracy of their claims.
 
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Doesnt have to be a direct link. The gentically modified males might be affecting the normal females and then they bite someone and die. Every action causes a reaction. This could also be causing virus mutations. Usually about 90% of the mosquito population dies off where the modified mosquitoes are used. What if some survive and develop immunities?
 
The GM male mosquito angle is radically far fetched.
And if facts are any indication, completely wrong.
the timeline of the use of the gm modified mosquito and the areas used don't actually fit
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piasabird said:
Doesnt have to be a direct link. The gentically modified males might be affecting the normal females and then they bite someone and die. Every action causes a reaction. This could also be causing virus mutations. Usually about 90% of the mosquito population dies off where the modified mosquitoes are used. What if some survive and develop immunities?
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It flat out doesn't plausibly scientifically work like that.

Once a GM modification is made it is made its simply part of the organism's regular genetic code, and doesn't easily jump to a virus or something like that. There is also a lack of any plausible explanation on how the mosquito would be altered in such a way that it would encourage the kind of specific mutation of the virus in question. (It should be noted that its still not completely clear whether when confined to Africa and areas it was long established the Zika virus did behave similar but the impact was not significant enough to get detected.)

Contrary to some highly problematic assertions on the internet, any mosquito which managed to successfully breed with a GM modified mosquito would not plausibly develop any sort "immunities" which would actually impact viruses in general or the Zika virus specifically.
 
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When I first saw the thread title days back I was going to call BS. However, the lack of this phenomena outside of Brazil has made me start thinking there is something to these claims that it is the pesticide and not the virus.

Has this been happening elsewhere?
 
Is the pesticide used only in these countries?

zik-world-map_active_02-03-2016_web.jpg



Americas
  • Barbados
  • Bolivia
  • Brazil
  • Colombia
  • Commonwealth of
    Puerto Rico, US territory
  • Costa Rica
  • Curacao
  • Dominican Republic
  • Ecuador

  • El Salvador
  • French Guiana
  • Guadeloupe
  • Guatemala
  • Guyana
  • Haiti
  • Honduras
  • Jamaica
  • Martinique

  • Mexico
  • Nicaragua
  • Panama
  • Paraguay
  • Saint Martin
  • Suriname
  • U.S. Virgin Islands
  • Venezuela
Oceania/Pacific Islands
  • American Samoa
  • Samoa
  • Tonga
Africa
  • Cape Verde


http://www.cdc.gov/zika/geo/active-countries.html
 
http://grist.org/science/a-bogus-th...us-to-monsanto-could-give-mosquitoes-a-boost/

Perhaps the biggest problem with the theory that this pesticide is causing microcephaly is that it’s used in lots of places where there has been no increase in microcephaly. Farmers use it in the U.S. Pyriproxyfen is one of the safer pesticides out there. It breaks down in sunlight. Its toxicity is low enough that the EPA allows farmers to spray it on crops just seven days before harvest. In South America, officials started using the pesticide more than a decade before the microcephaly surge.
Click to expand...
 
Victorian Gray said:
Is the pesticide used only in these countries?

zik-world-map_active_02-03-2016_web.jpg



Americas
  • Barbados
  • Bolivia
  • Brazil
  • Colombia
  • Commonwealth of
    Puerto Rico, US territory
  • Costa Rica
  • Curacao
  • Dominican Republic
  • Ecuador

  • El Salvador
  • French Guiana
  • Guadeloupe
  • Guatemala
  • Guyana
  • Haiti
  • Honduras
  • Jamaica
  • Martinique

  • Mexico
  • Nicaragua
  • Panama
  • Paraguay
  • Saint Martin
  • Suriname
  • U.S. Virgin Islands
  • Venezuela
Oceania/Pacific Islands
  • American Samoa
  • Samoa
  • Tonga
Africa
  • Cape Verde


http://www.cdc.gov/zika/geo/active-countries.html
Click to expand...

Are there reports of an increase of microcephaly in those countries? Given Brainsoka's last post, perhaps it isn't the pesticide. Seems strange that Brazil is the only one reporting this increase though. I suppose the Zika strain in Brazil may be unique and could spread though.

Could be awhile before we know what's going on with this outbreak.
 
sandorski said:
Are there reports of an increase of microcephaly in those countries? Given Brainsoka's last post, perhaps it isn't the pesticide. Seems strange that Brazil is the only one reporting this increase though. I suppose the Zika strain in Brazil may be unique and could spread though.

Could be awhile before we know what's going on with this outbreak.
Click to expand...

So far the only country that has reported an increase is Brazil and that's been since early last year when they first diagnosed the virus in the country.

new link found:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-35584953

study seems to support link between the two:

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-35597465

I think it's gonna be a while before we have anything really definitive though.
 
There are still plenty of questions about what exactly is going on and the mechanics of how it's happening, but more and more info directly linking zika with the brain anomalies. I read a report yesterday where they were able to confirm that zika travels through the placenta, that traces of the virus have been found in amniotic fluid of babies born with microcephaly etc. Pretty strong evidence that zika is at the very least one of the factors. That doesn't mean there can't be others though.
 
PokerGuy said:
There are still plenty of questions about what exactly is going on and the mechanics of how it's happening, but more and more info directly linking zika with the brain anomalies. I read a report yesterday where they were able to confirm that zika travels through the placenta, that traces of the virus have been found in amniotic fluid of babies born with microcephaly etc. Pretty strong evidence that zika is at the very least one of the factors. That doesn't mean there can't be others though.
Click to expand...

Here's a pretty good article on the Huffington Post that goes after the BS claim that a larvacide causes it.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry...yfen-microcephaly_us_56c2712de4b0b40245c79f7c

And here's a case study from the New England Journal of Medicine showing a link between Zika and microcephaly (probably what the report you read was referencing)
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1600651?query=featured_home#t=articleTop


I saw a post on reddit yesterday that had several commenters posting tons of good information debunking the larvacide BS and showing the Zika link. It seems that perhaps that thread was deleted though as I can't find it anymore.
 
honestly, this type of discussion truly begins and ends with "Natural News."

Might as well be sourced by Alex Jones.
 
sandorski said:
When I first saw the thread title days back I was going to call BS. However, the lack of this phenomena outside of Brazil has made me start thinking there is something to these claims that it is the pesticide and not the virus.

Has this been happening elsewhere?
Click to expand...

Brazil is the epicenter of the Zika outbreak. They are "ahead" of all the other countries by several months. The number of reported microcephaly cases spiked toward the end of the year as women who were pregnant last spring/summer gave birth. If we hear about cases in other countries, I would expect them over the next few months, probably from Colombia as it has the next largest number of infections.
 
KnightBreed said:
Brazil is the epicenter of the Zika outbreak. They are "ahead" of all the other countries by several months. The number of reported microcephaly cases spiked toward the end of the year as women who were pregnant last spring/summer gave birth. If we hear about cases in other countries, I would expect them over the next few months, probably from Colombia as it has the next largest number of infections.
Click to expand...

kk, thanks for the info.
 
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