Many of the Cayman Islands petitions that are started in good faith, as in the majority of cases, the person or persons who start them believe they are right. They are led to believe the majority of Cayman’s public agrees with them.

The majority are disappointed.

What does mystify me is the publicity some get and others don’t from our media.

I am also mystified why some of these petitions are started in the first place.

I am shockingly mystified by the support some of the petitions get from the public.

A case in point at the present time is the one put forward by Caymanians United regarding the Government’s release of millions of genetically modified mosquitoes in the district of West Bay.

U.K. biotech company Oxitec have developed a solution that has turned now friendly Aedes aegypti male mosquitoes into a fighting “machine” to combat the Zika virus.

Male mosquitoes do not bite. The company says its friendly modified males will mate with females and produce offspring that will not survive to adulthood, which should dramatically reduce the population of the non-native, disease-spreading Aedes aegypti species that is plaguing the Caribbean, Latin America and now the USA.

Up until this weekend Cayman was free of Zika. We now have one reported case.

The Mosquito Control Research Unit (MRCU) in Cayman carried out trials of Oxitec OX513A mosquitoes in 2009 and 2010 following approval by the Cayman Islands Department of Agriculture. 3.3 million Oxitec mosquitoes were released over a 16 hectare site and this achieved 96%* suppression of target Aedes aegypti population!
Source: http://www.oxitec.com/news-and-views/topic-pages-safety-and-sustainability/overview-of-oxitecs-outdoor-projects/

During that time I was against the release simply because the public had not been informed before the release took place.

However, by all accounts the release proved successful.

Zika has proved to be the worst of all the aedes aegypti mosquito viruses such as Dengue and chikungunya. The most horrifying is the number of deformed babies being born because the mother had been bitten by the mosquito whilst pregnant. It has been proved that men bitten by the mosquito and carrying the Zika virus can give it to their partner through intercourse.

The various nocuous and poisonous sprays with all their health risks have not worked.

When the government announced they were executing once again the Oxitec mosquitoes they even organised a meeting where persons could come and ask questions. Members from Oxitec were present.

There was only a handful of persons who were worried enough to come to the meeting.

Despite all the plusses to these Oxitec friendly mosquitoes Dwene Ebanks and his group have circulated a petition calling for at least a six-month suspension of the planned release, citing “concerns about the transparency of the project and contradictory information regarding the effects and capabilities of the genetically modified mosquitoes”.

And at least one of Cayman’s media houses seems to have sided with this nonsense.

And this nonsensical petition has attracted around 600 signatures!

So, where were all these so concerned persons when the Oxitex meeting took place?

I would assume there are no signatures from pregnant women!

Have you any idea how many mosquitoes are around in this six months wait period (for what?) just WAITING to bite you?

Action has to be quick and nonsense like this should be expunged NOT publicized positively.

I am mystified why it is.