Oh good, screwworms are back (2025)
marginallycompelling.comTrust in science is so low in the US that this was bound to happen. The author's conclusion nails it:
But institutional failures like this aren’t just the aggregate failure of a number of irresponsible people, they are a failure of a cultural attitude that doesn’t demand excellence from everyone in order to get the job done.
I'll add though that when crisis happens the entity 'doing something about it' suddenly looks amazing, even if they were the cause. That means that it is a winning political strategy to create a lot of crisis so you can solve a few of them and look like a hero.
The Atlantic has two[1][2] rather good articles on the topic.
[1]: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/05/flesh-ea...
[2]: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2025/05/screwwor...
Chances of current US gov mounting a coordinated scientific campaign to get on top of this seem vanishingly small to me. They’re busy defunding and dismantling any gov operation that smells like science
They're building a new breeding facility in the US. They can't pull a Don't Look Up on this one because of the powerful business interests they need to placate.
I heard there was one keeping this under control. It involved transgenic flies, which sounds close to transgender. DOGE ended it. It was also pitched as "why are we studying the mating habits of flies?"
We already have medicines that treat the problem. We've had it solved for a long time. We didn't need to genetically modify flies to solve it then, and we don't now.
See sibling threads.
Just contemplate who is building major facilities in central and southern Texas, and the potential for poetic justice.
If we all pass around the hat we can make a bet on Kalshi that they "WONT" do this. Right? That's effective democracy!
Apparently they feed larvae a warm slurry
Headline from March of last year:
Bird flu, screwworm monitoring among foreign aid programs killed by Trump
See: https://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/22636-bird-flu-screwworm...
Elect stupid leaders, get stupid consequences.
As the article you've linked to makes clear, this problem predates the cut in funding.
Oh great, then the next admin can blame this one when the problem is still around. Why solve a problem when you can just blame the other guys.
The current administration is funding an increase in response:
https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/nws-visit...
It's right there, linked in TFA. The press release provided by the GP is instead discussing funding for the "UN Food and Agriculture Organization", which is different. Apparently they also do some unspecified amount of work on the issue.
it is the admin responsibility to protect its citizens.
has it done anything to prevent/mitigate this? or the opposite?
I'm not sure what your point is here.
Yes, the screwworm problem predates the funding cut. Surely that should prompt an increase or at least a maintenance of existing funding for monitoring programs though, certainly not a decrease.
I think atoav is saying the /stupid consequence/ is the cut in funding itself, not the screwworm resurgence.
> I'm not sure what your point is here.
My point is that the instinct to be partisan on this issue is inane, but also factually incorrect.
> Yes, the screwworm problem predates the funding cut.
Great, so we're agreed that this is at least a bi-partisan problem.
> Surely that should prompt an increase or at least a maintenance of existing funding for monitoring programs though, certainly not a decrease.
Fortunately, it is. This was linked directly from TFA:
https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/nws-visit...
Screw worms existing before Trump doesn't make it a bipartisan issue. Trump cut the funding, did Democrats do too? So then no only one party ignored and actively defunded it, making it exactly a partisan issue. Good job trying to cover for trump, it's extra pathetic here
Farmer here. We have had our access to medications for livestock severely curtailed over recent years. The screw work is already in Texas. This means there will be massive amounts of suffering we cannot help with.
If we had tariffs, this northward movement of herds would not happen. And American farmers who have to follow high minimum wage rules and strict environmental rules could compete.
Tariffs would not stop the screw worm, which lives half of its life as a winged fly.
>We have had our access to medications for livestock severely curtailed over recent years.
Oh no, tell me it's not ivermectin...
It is
Ahh yes tariffs will solve this problem,how's it doing solving all those other problems?