This is an unprecedented health crisis. Zika virus is turning out to be much dangerous than previously thought, apart from severely affecting new born babies, recently they have found that it causes neural disorder and paralysis in adults. There is also various version of its transmission, including sexual. This blogger was reading that these vicious variations has probably to do with genetically modified mosquitoes that were introduced, I am not finding confirmation on this but if this is true then this further put question mark on gene modification and the unknown impact it exhibits in nature. Clearly these need serious relook and comprehensive field study. Few months back I attended a talk by Richard John Roberts a British biochemist and molecular biologist (Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1993), he was all out for GM food, indeed quite intriguingly strongly pushing the claim that food security is acute in poorer countries hence these societies should spearhead these innovation. He showed immense enthusiasm for ‘logical discussion’, even anyone questioning GM was dismissed as ‘propaganda’. Incidentally I also happen to watch a program in BBC (panorama) few years back where the same views were asserted quite aggressively. This blogger likes to keep an open view about things but recent happenings, the failures of Bt crops as also the unknown impacts adds to the concern. Then there is a concern of how much of what we eat is already GM without we being aware of or told. Now we have the issue of mustard and also threat to pulse security. A country like India which has so much diversity in crops, and time tested sustainable methods, is being consistently assaulted by profit mongers, ofcourse in connivance with fixers, this is getting rather apparent. Food security is an important matter, as it is ever burgeoning population and other developmental pressures, but much critical are sustainability factors as also health concerns. The catastrophe of intensive chemical fertilizers and pesticide is being felt quite clearly. Scientific input is important but application of science cannot have the carte blanche of scientific when vested interests and moneybags are standing outside to exploit.
Meanwhile it looks quite likely that Olympics
may have to be cancelled, or be shifted to countries that can arrange it at
short notice. The risk of spread is too large, significantly we still don't have complete information about this virus. As the earth gets warmer these
kinds of threats are set to rise.
