Every year or so, we have a virus scare. Currently, it’s the Zika virus. One of the symptoms of virus scares is conspiracy theories, and the one with the most currency on Facebook is that the Zika virus isn’t to blame for the outbreak, but rather a pesticide from Monsanto. But, needless to say, there are a few problems with that idea.
Zika is a mosquito-borne virus that isn’t well understood, and until recently, it was mostly viewed as an annoyance. It causes Zika fever, which is more or less an extremely unpleasant cold with a rash to go with it, and most cases of Zika fever fade after two to three days with rest. Unless you’re pregnant, which is where the scary stuff comes in.
There is some scientific evidence, but no proof yet, that Zika may cause microcephaly in unborn children if the mother gets infected. Microcephaly occurs in utero when the brain stops growing, thereby not forcing the head to expand. Microcephaly sufferers generally need a lifetime of care. It’s an awful disease, and in Brazil, they’re facing a bizarre outbreak of microcephaly that is believed to be tied to Zika. While vaccine research is being fast-tracked, right now, there’s a scramble to protect pregnant women and stop the outbreak.
So where does Monsanto come in to all this? Some are arguing that the microcephaly outbreak has nothing to do with the Zika virus, and is instead caused by a larvicide called Pyriproxyfen in Brazilian drinking water, which the group Physicians in Crop-Sprayed Towns says is provided by Monsanto. Pyriproxyfen essentially keeps insects from being born by interfering with the hormones of larvae, so clearly it must also interfere with the hormones of babies, right?
The first problem with this is, Monsanto doesn’t make Pyriproxyfen. That would be Sumitomo Chemical, a company that Monsanto has worked with in the past on projects, but which is a completely separate company.
The second problem is that Pyriproxyfen is all over the place, and has been in use for 20 years. In the U.S., it’s called Nylar, a common flea treatment for dogs and cats. In fact, you can buy it in bulk off Amazon to treat living spaces against roaches. In Europe, it’s called Emax and Cyclio and is a common flea treatment there. Brazil started adding it to drinking water because the World Health Organization gave it the all-clear, and this is an organization that said bacon can give you cancer.
If that weren’t enough, conspiracy theory experts have pointed out this isn’t the first internet boogeyman to pop up. Anti-vaxxers think Zika is innocent too, and in fact you can find forum arguments stating that the whole Monsanto theory is nothing more than a false flag. Yes, conspiracy theorists think other conspiracy theorists are in on the conspiracies they’re chasing down.
There is a question here that nobody has been able to answer. The microcephaly outbreak appears, so far, to be limited to Brazil; Colombia, for example, hasn’t reported an uptick in birth defects. It might be that a new strain of Zika has appeared, or there might be other factors involved. But wild conspiracy theories don’t help anybody, especially not those in Brazil who need it most.
(Via Munchies)