This sort of thing is why US foreign aid matters, even if you are an absolute sociopath who doesn’t care about starving babies. That one program has saved the US like a billion dollars at this point.
(Also if you actually wanted to destabilize a country’s food supply, you’d re-introduce animal pests like this and some crop rusts which is why we REALLY NEED TO FUND THE PEOPLE THAT MONITOR THAT STUFF thank you for coming to my Ted Talk here’s an artist interpretation of screwworms.
I deliberately avoided posting a photo because holy shit it’s nasty and some of the worm scabs are like a foot across and go down to bone. Although they might make good things to fax to your senator. Closing the parenthesis now.)
Oh! Hey, scratch what I said, it was out of date, they’re holding it in Panama now! (My book is set in 1899 so my sources were not exactly cutting edge.)
A guy in the airport terminal just asked me what's so funny and my god the look on my face must have been something because he just blinked and left without saying anything else.
Yeah! I just saw something about this on SciShow on YouTube. Disgusting to think about what those flies do, but so cool to see how humanity has pushed them back. I think that episode is at https://youtu.be/8vv23GC-lhs?si=hd5pcQjM6oQMc9TJ if anyone wants to check it out.
Used to work with someone who was involved in containing an outbreak of New World screwworm that popped up in Libya in the late 80s - had a big bronze plaque thanking him for his efforts. International cooperation at its finest. Interesting beasties but, yeah, nasty.
You know, you could write science fiction. You've got the background information right there. You damn near do write science fiction sometimes. I can't think why you would want to, but I'd read it if you did.
Thank you for the summary and for the tame and bloodless drawing of screwworms instead of a ghastly photo.
Really gotta have your novel now -- is it available to preorder from Kobo?
"Hey, we want to fly over your country and spread irradiated parasite flies, and it's totally not a CIA operation meant to help the commie-fighters" is one heck of a sell, a diplomatic coup that I really don't want to see ruined.
"The US government has a biological lab in Mexico dedicated to making adjusted parasites that we airdrop over the jungle" is the sort of thing you see in the background story for games like Dead Rising.
The article I found said $15 million per year spent, $800 million in beef saved per year the last time it was checked, which was like 15 years ago. If that's accurate, it is a ridiculous ROI even aside from the reduced suffering.
I don't get why public health is political at all, shouldn't everyone want people to be healthy and not spread disease? This isn't shit that should invoke any difference of opinion!!!
It makes more sense when you realize some people pick other people that they want to suffer, no matter how much that makes them suffer themselves. And who they want to suffer is entirely arbitrary and often can't be changed no matter what they learn. >_<
In many ways these programs are victims of their own success. People don't remember what things were like before we had vaccines and public pest-control programs, so they insist they don't need it. Or slash funding for departments they've never bothered to learn about.
it shouldn't, but there are people who believe that illness is basically a sign of moral failure or God's displeasure; since they are virtuous and pure they will never get ill or suffer. so if other people do that's on them, especially if those people have more than ideal amounts of melanin or fat
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When I was in the fifth grade (1960) in north Texas, our 2yo dog broke his tail chasing a car.
Screw worms. 🤮
He got his tail docked as part of the treatment. He survived.
Because keeping the terrestrial, to say nothing of the cosmic, horrors at bay takes teamwork, damnit. 😤
https://www.avma.org/news/mexico-screwworm-case-triggers-us-emergency-response
Really gotta have your novel now -- is it available to preorder from Kobo?