Opponents of a plan to release millions of genetically modified mosquitoes in the Florida Keys landed a temporary win on Tuesday.
The five-member commission of the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District voted unanimously to postpone a decision on the experiment for a month in hopes the COVID-19 pandemic situation improves by then.
The experiment is touted by its creator, international biotech company Oxitec, as a tool to eradicate the local population of the invasive Aedes aegypti mosquito, which transmits deadly diseases like Dengue fever, Zika, chikungunya and yellow fever.
After hearing about 20 people speak against the trial, the commissioners, all of whom support it, said during a meeting Tuesday evening that the vote should be moved to the next commission meeting Aug. 18.
“There’s a strong amount of people who are against this, and I don’t want to put any more on their plate,” Vice Chair Stanley Zuba said.
Zuba, a pediatric physician, stressed, however, that he believes in the science behind the project and hopes to see it implemented as the Upper Keys deals with an outbreak of Dengue fever, a dangerous disease that causes extreme flu-like symptoms.
“I really believe in this technology, and I believe it’s safe,” he said.
The way it is supposed to work is boxes containing millions of male genetically altered eggs will be placed in a yet-to-be determined area of the Keys. Water is added, and the male bugs will fly among the local population of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes and mate with the females.
A “death mechanism” is designed into the lab-created mosquitoes, however, that ensures no viable offspring will result from the mating, according to Oxitec.
After a period of time, Oxitec says the local Aedes aegypti population will either be eradicated or greatly reduced.
The program has already passed regulatory hurdles with the approval of state and federal agencies like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
Approval by the Mosquito Control District is the final step in being able to move forward with the project in 2021.
But it faces stiff opposition from local residents and international and local environmental and consumer protection groups.
“None of us want to be an experiment,” said Anna Davis of Marathon. “There’s just too many unanswered questions.”
Critics cited published reports about shortcomings Oxitec had with similar campaigns it conducted in Malaysia, the Cayman Islands and Brazil. These include genetically modified mosquitoes that continue to breed after the experiment is over and the creation of more robust mosquitoes that are more difficult to kill than the original populations.
Only female mosquitoes bite people. Oxitec says only males will be released, but critics say there is no way to guarantee that, and females have been released in past trials.
Barry Wray, a member of the Florida Keys Environmental Coalition, said Oxitec has not made its data on the experiment public, and there have been no peer-reviewed studies on the technology. He criticized commissioners for supporting the program while having no way of fully understanding it.
“Why is this transparency not important to you,” he said.
Those in favor include Bob Eadie, Monroe County administrator of the Florida Department of Health. He’s concerned about the Dengue outbreak and said local Aedes aegypti bugs are becoming resistant to the chemicals the Mosquito Control District uses to kill them and their larvae.
“I think that we need to be looking at any sort of technology that’s viable, that makes sense and that is safe,” he said.
The Keys has 16 confirmed cases of Dengue fever, all in the Key Largo area, said Monica Leal, director of the Mosquito Control District.
The virus, with symptoms similar to the flu, is spread by the bite of female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Although Dengue has been confined to the same area so far, the invasive Aedes aegypti are found on “every single island in every single neighborhood” in the Keys, Leal said.
The district has increased its spraying of larvaecide and “adulticide” in Key Largo to target the mosquitoes, and its staff is going door-to-door in the area educating residents on what they can do to reduce the spread, including eliminating breeding grounds like standing water in potted plants, pet bowls and tarps.
District staff has seen a reduction in Aedes aegypti bugs as a result, but recent heavy rains may have reversed some of this success, Leal said.
Among the commissioners, Jill Cranney-Gage and Brandon Pinder fully supported Zuba’s idea to wait until the COVID-19 picture is clearer before voting on the Oxitec trial.
However, Commissioner Tom McDonald, while voting with his colleagues, said waiting any longer poses both health risks and risks of what he considers more “disinformation” spreading.
“This is driven by fear and misinformation, and I can see we’re going to see more misinformation coming on,” he said.
Chairman Phil Goodman also said he voted to postpone the vote with trepidation, especially in the midst of the Dengue outbreak.
“The only way to control the disease is to control the mosquito,” he said.
This story was originally published July 21, 2020 8:43 PM.
