Study: Genetically Engineered Mosquitoes Used to Inject Vaccines into Humans

A new study published last month in Science Translational Medicine used 200 mosquitoes to deliver live malaria-causing Plasmodium parasites that had been genetically modified to inject malaria into the arms of human test subjects in a new vaccine trial. Max Barnhart of NPR covered the study last week. "We use the mosquitoes like they're 1,000 small flying syringes," explains University of Washington, Seattle physician and scientist Dr. Sean Murphy, lead author on a paper. The author made it a point to state: "To be clear, Murphy's not planning to use mosquitoes to vaccinate millions of people." Do you believe him? And even if Dr. Murphy himself is not planning on using the technology to mass-vaccinate people, what is to stop others from doing so? Bill Gates, for example, has already spent $BILLIONS on developing a malaria vaccine over the past decade, and last year he funded a biotech firm that released genetically modified mosquitoes in the Florida Keys.