US military used Zika mosquito as biological weapon against Communists

Friday, August 19, 2016 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
Tags: zika, mosquitoes, biological weapon

---

(NaturalNews) As the first confirmed cases of Zika infection are now being reported in the U.S., the truth about where this virus came from and how our own government actually intended to use it as a weapon of mass destruction against Communist enemies after World War II is starting to emerge.

Sarah Laskow from Atlas Obscura tells the hidden story of Zika in a new investigative report, uncovering a little-known plot by the American military to use Aedes aegypti mosquitos, the main carriers of Zika, as a biological weapons delivery system during the McCarthy-era "Red Scare."

Though tons of American money was poured into eradicating Zika from areas throughout the Caribbean where it was ravaging soldiers and local populations, the U.S. was also one of the last countries to engage in A. aegypti eradication within its own borders as part of a hemisphere-wide effort to combat yellow fever. That's because the federal government secretly realized that Zika could be used to its political advantage.

At the same time that South America had all but completely eliminated Zika during the 1950s, the American military was busy studying how insects like mosquitos could be used as carriers of silent weaponry. Researchers at Fort Detrick, the military's biological weapons base in Maryland, figured out that A. aegypti could be "deployed" like a tank or plane to engage in combat.

Experiments that were previously hidden involved raising hundreds of thousands of A. aegypti mosquitos for the purpose of studying their spread. Chemical Corps reports published in 1960 show that A. aegypti mosquitos were intentionally released throughout Florida and parts of Georgia -- the same areas where Zika-spreading mosquitos are causing problems today.

The success of these operations resulted in the Chemical Corps setting up an A. aegypti production system, of sorts, where 500,000 new mosquitos could be bred monthly. Scientists would rear the creatures using a combination feed made up of sugar water and blood, and later release them into the wild.

Contaminating these mosquitos with Zika, it was quickly realized, could be accomplished simply by mixing the virus with the sugar water and blood solution, which ended up infecting the new eggs. The operation was such a success that the Chemical Corps had planned to construct an entire facility in Arkansas capable of incubating millions of Zika mosquitos per month, though the plan never came to fruition.

Are US government experiments from the '50s responsible for Zika today?

The U.S. government's position towards Zika has long been duplicitous, this particular piece of history exemplifying that. The U.S. Public Health Service was supposedly trying to eradicate Zika and its carrier mosquitos in alliance with South America at the same time that the U.S. Army was trying to produce more of them for biological weaponry.

It makes no sense until you realize that our nation's military has an extensive history of performing biological experimentation behind a cloak of secrecy, often unawares to even other branches within the same government apparatus. In this case, Zika and A. aegypti mosquitos were intentionally brought into the U.S. and used for research, begging the question: is this why Zika is still with us today?

It's important to remember that Zika typically isn't even all that threatening to human health. If a person contracts it, he or she might develop symptoms like fever or headaches, though most sufferers don't even show symptoms. And truth be told, avoiding Zika is a simple as wearing an effective bug repellant like the Health Ranger's Bugs Away spray, which is free of DEET and other toxic chemicals.

Sources for this article include:

TheFreeThoughtProject.com

AtlasObscura.com