Invisible danger: why mosquitoes deserve more fear than COVID-19

When the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the globe in early 2020, the world came to a halt. Governments imposed lockdowns, economies slowed, and societies collectively braced themselves for a health crisis unlike any in recent history. Fear surged through the public consciousness, fuelled by graphic imagery of overburdened hospitals, death tolls rising on news tickers, and stringent policies aimed at curbing the spread of the virus. Yet amid this understandable panic, a quieter, far more persistent killer continued its grim work largely unnoticed – the mosquito. Mosquitoes, often dismissed as mere nuisances, are responsible for more deaths annually than any other creature on the planet. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), mosquito-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue, Zika, chikungunya, and yellow fever collectively claim more than 725,000 lives each year. In comparison, as of early 2025, global deaths attributed to COVID-19 have reached around 7 million over a period of nearly five years, based on available data. This equates to an annual average of approximately 1.4 million deaths, with numbers significantly lower in recent years due to vaccinations and herd immunity. Yet, despite this disparity, the fear of mosquitoes remains minimal, while the fear of COVID-19 was – and in some quarters still is – palpable. This discrepancy invites critical reflection. Why is there such a stark difference between the actual risk and the perceived risk in the public psyche? And what lessons can risk management practitioners, public health authorities, and policymakers learn from this contrast? The science behind the mosquito threat Mosquitoes are not just irritating pests – they are disease vectors. The female Anopheles mosquito transmits Plasmodium parasites that cause malaria, which alone killed approximately 608,000 people in 2022, mostly children under the age of five in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the 2023 WHO Malaria Report. The Aedes aegypti species is a known transmitter of dengue fever, a disease that has seen exponential growth, especially in Southeast Asia and Latin America. In 2023, Malaysia alone reported over 120,000 dengue cases with 100+ deaths, a number that far exceeds the nation’s COVID-19 fatalities in the same year. The danger lies not in the insect itself, but in its ability to carry and transmit pathogens. The challenge with mosquito-borne diseases is that they thrive in tropical climates, where stagnant water, urbanisation, poor sanitation, and insufficient healthcare infrastructure create ideal breeding grounds. Unlike COVID-19, which requires close human contact for transmission, mosquitoes act independently, transcending human efforts to self-isolate or socially distance.