Burkina Faso says no to Bill Gates’ plan of creating modified species of mosquitoes

[u/lurker_bee]

https://africa.businessinsider.com/local/lifestyle/burkina-faso-says-no-to-bill-gates-plan-of-creating-modified-species-of-mosquitoes/xyk7xm8

[u/jorumrat]

The level of misunderstanding in this thread is insane. There is a difference between Bill Gates the individual and the Bill Gates Foundation.

The foundation and the work it funds isn't a "US Billionaire", or "Western Capitalist Block" it ends up being projects by a global networks of experts. The Gates Foundation is a source of funding and grants to support work that aligns with it's goals - mostly the prevention or elimination of diseases, especially in developing countries.

I can give you an example of a typical scenario - CEPI is a global organization that works to help prevent disease through new or improved vaccine development. They use Gates Foundation money to help coordinate and fund healthcare projects and scientific work at various companies and organizations.

I had a meeting with CEPI a few months ago ,and they have funded many projects where I work.
The last meeting there was CEPI people from all over the globe including several from India and SE Asia.

This meeting was to discussed how Gates money could be used to help create new materials for vaccine development and potential logistics support and funding.

There conditions are you have to have a business case to show why it's a good use of the money, be trusted to deliver results, and have good audits of where the money was spent.

[u/tylagersign → u/jorumrat]

Thank you, also the lack of any critical scientific knowledge is baffling. This doesn’t kill all mosquitoes, only the Anopheles in that general area for a few generations until malaria is gone. They will return just without malaria. Birds and bats don’t live solely on mosquitoes (1-3% of their diet), mosquitoes are not a keystone species, if they disappear something else will take its niche.

This technology could be one of the greatest advances in public health in a long time but these smooth brains think bill gates himself is running around trying to take over the world by killing mosquitoes

[u/HBC_Hair → u/tylagersign]

The comments are astroturfed by accounts pushing russian propaganda.

https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/russias-growing-footprint-africa

[u/dltacube → u/HBC_Hair]

Ah yea, they’ve got time now that the US is between election cycles.

[u/HBC_Hair → u/dltacube]

They're multiplying like mosquitoes in a tire pile.

[u/damontoo → u/tylagersign]

Welcome to the anti-tech and anti-science age. It sucks here.

A while back climate researchers were doing a study on cloud brightening by spraying saltwater. They were doing it from an offshore aircraft carrier. Well despite passing an ethics study through the university they worked for, and an independent safety study by the city, they still shut them down because NIMBY's accused them of both trying to poison them with chemtrails and malicious weather modification.

Those nutjob opinions were well represented on Reddit also.

[u/PsychologicalSet8678 → u/jorumrat]

The level of misunderstanding in this thread is insane. There is a difference between Bill Gates the individual and the Bill Gates Foundation.

The misunderstanding is you thinking the situation is as simple as, "The foundation wants to help but these corrupt politicians stop it from happening."

No. This is not it. The foundation expands the US based relations, the country becomes dependent on this, and the US will cash the soft power it has gained in some time. We have seen it again and again. Benevolent individuals can work in such foundations(Bill Gates is not one), thinking that this might help, but in reality the material conditions enforced by these kinds of relations between a developing country which seeks sovereignty and a global power exerting its influence to keep its hegemony, usually ends up fucking the developing nation over.

There are multiple reason for which people in the African continent hate bill gates and his foundation. He uses the unregulated ground, to test vaccines that cannot be tested in the west. This is morally reprehensible, if not outright evil neocolonialism.

People in the west are conditioned to thinking other people want their charities guilt tripped aid packages and foundations, most often that not other people want respect and sovereignity, and a chance to progress. Your foundations are soft power debt that will be cashed in, there is no free lunch, especially between states.

[u/googleduck → u/PsychologicalSet8678]

People in the west are conditioned to thinking other people want their charities guilt tripped aid packages and foundations, most often that not other people want respect and sovereignity, and a chance to progress. Your foundations are soft power debt that will be cashed in, there is no free lunch, especially between states.

Bill Gates and his foundation has saved literally millions of lives. Even if your conspiracy were true, you need to give a pretty strong argument why US soft power is worse than millions of lives saved. What specifically are the strings attached to the mosquito solution being proposed above? How can the US cash that in? The worst they could do is stop the program and then they would still have had thousands or millions of lives saved in the interim and otherwise be exactly where they were without that intervention in the first place. You will never dive into specifics though because you only know how to speak in vague conspiracy theories.

What purpose would Bill Gates even have for expanding "US soft power"? Last I checked Trump hated him, Musk hated him, and I didn't see Biden or Obama exactly teaming up with him. Why would he be making such a big fuss trying to save PEPFAR, perhaps the most effective life saving program in world history with respect to the huge amount of lives saved and relatively low cost to do so. I assume you would rather those African children die of AIDS rather than suffer under the western imperialism of life?

You are just a disgusting person, spreading lies about philanthropic efforts that make people less likely to trust and be saved by future public health efforts.

[u/jorumrat → u/PsychologicalSet8678]

Lets take an example where the Gates Foundation through CEPI provides a grant to a non-profit in the UK, who then work with collaborators in other countries to develop improved dengue fever research. How does the US "cash this in" later?

"There is no free lunch especially between states" - what states? How does the US have any leverage , what are they gonna say "hey you owe us because of that money you got that we didn't give you"?

[u/Profuntitties → u/jorumrat]

There's not a massive difference tbf since he personally set it up. Gates sets up the foundation for a purpose, sets up a culture that determines leadership and its direction, and is obviously a major stakeholder since it reflects his public image, it's not completely detatched from him. Not to say he has any direct involvement in any of this though.

[u/jorumrat → u/Profuntitties]

No it's not completely detached from him. But people are saying "Traoré is sensible not to trust a US billionaire" or "to trust the west" and it should be understood no one is asking him to.

Everyone is cynical (understandable , the world is a shit hole and pharma corps have history of unethical practice) and people say "nothing is free" "everything has strings attached" wanting to sound like world-weary badasses but there are real humanitarian work being done by people who want to help make things better. Sure the pharma companies are for-profit but even they get involved in "for the good of all" initiatives sometimes. Plus much of this work also involves non-profits or public bodies and healthcare agencies etc.

I routinely see very valuable materials being donated free of charge and it isn't because of some sneaky agenda it's because people are genuine about wanting to improve global health.