U.S. government officials are enthusiastically endorsing and funding the use of DDT in sub-Saharan Africa after years of resisting calls from scientists who said the insecticide would be the best weapon for fighting malaria, despite lingering objections by some environmentalists. "We're really pretty aggressive" about supporting DDT use against the mosquitoes that spread malaria, said Michael Miller, deputy assistant administrator of the Bureau of Global Health for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
Amen. Of course, environmentalists are going nuts. Because God forbid 1.5 billion people be spared malaria when there's no evidence that DDT --used in rotation with other methods-- will do any harm to anyone but the skeeters. We must stick with our antiquated protocols. Please, please test this program in my backyard this summer. So I can pick my tomatoes without needing a transfusion afterwards.
