Conspiracy theories surrounds almost any threat, and the recent Zika virus is no exception. While the virus has been recognized since 1947 and is so mild that people can become infected and never know it, the recent association with an otherwise-rare birth defect known as microcephaly, in which babies are born with abnormally small heads and underdeveloped brains, has left people terrified.
There is no treatment for Zika, and no vaccine. Just as with many other frightening, not-knowing-what’s-going-on situations, this attracts conspiracy theories, which adds further confusion.
Let’s take a look at three nutwing theories circulating in media:
1. Birth defects are caused by vaccines.
Science has ruled out the connection, but the theories are very much alive. Sites like YourNewsWire.com and VaccinationInformationNetwork.com thinks Zika is either caused by the new Tdap vaccine, or that Zika has nothing to do with the birth defects, which instead are caused by the Tdap vaccine alone. SOTT.net went as far as to claim that research published in The National Center for Biotechnology Information, reveals that the U.S. government knew as early as 1991 that the Tdap vaccine causes microcephaly.
Scienceblog.com questions the myth by asking if Tdap is causing microcephaly, why haven’t there been outbreaks of microcephaly in the US, where the CDC has recommended the Tdap vaccine for pregnant women since 2011?
Vaccines are also though to cause Autism by conspiracy theorists.
2. Zika is spread by genetically modified mosquitoes.
Michael Specter explained in The New Yorker how the Oxitec mosquitoes are modified, so that one gene carries instructions to manufacture far too much of a protein the mosquito needs to maintain healthy new cells. Scientists keep the mosquitoes alive by placing the antibiotic tetracycline in the insects’ food. The drug latches on to the protein and keep the mosquitoes alive and let them reproduce normally. Once they are released from the lab, however, and without the antibiotic, the males, along with any eggs they help create, will perish. They don’t fly far or live long, but move only a few hundred yards and survive no longer than a couple of weeks.
The point of this is to keep dengue at bay, another disease which affects as many as fifty million people every year. Dengue has no treatment or vaccine either, so the current approach is to use chemicals to kill the mosquitoes that spread it. Conspiracy theorists have noted cases of microcephaly not far from Juazeiro, Brazil, where Oxitec introduced modified mosquitoes, in 2012. However, those cases are more than a thousand miles away, and as Spector also points out; altered mosquitoes had previously been released in the in the Cayman Islands, Malaysia, and Panama without causing problems.
3. The microcephaly cases in Brazil are caused by a Monsanto-manufactured pesticide.
Popular Social Media persona George Takei, among others, has helped spread this theory. Snopes‘ fact check separates what’s true, which is that credible public health experts are investigating a concurrent outbreak of Zika virus and uptick in cases of microcephaly in Brazil, from what’s false, which is that evidence suggested the larvicide pyriproxyfen was connected to microcephaly.
The rumor suggests that pyriproxyfen wasn’t well studied, nor in use elsewhere prior to the cases of microcephaly in Brazil, and that Monsanto was involved. In actuality, Pyriproxyfen is a pesticide which was introduced to the US in 1996, to protect cotton crops against whitefly. It is also used to prevent fleas and tick on household pets, and for killing indoor and outdoor ants and roaches.
What’s left to find out, what we don’t know, is the specific relationship between Zika virus and microcephaly cases in Brazil, if there is such a relationship at all. Viruses constantly spread and mutate, and that began long before humans arrived on Earth. We are doing our best to keep up and, as terrifying as many of these viruses are, conspiracy theories are not helpful in finding solutions.
Featured image close up of a mosquito on Free Stock Photo’s. Permission to use under Creative Commons.
