Like Bruce Willis's character in Unbreakable, I have recently found out I am invincible. Or rather, I have discovered that my skin has no reaction to mosquito bites,[1] which is closer to invincibility than most people get, so I'm going to round up.
Like any good superhero, my first thought upon discovering that I have superpowers was how I could use it for the greater good.
The obvious thought is that I have a pretty strong comparative advantage serving as a human blood meal for research mosquito colonies, but I have yet to find anyone who needs this service. One person I talked with about this suggested that they probably mostly use pigs or other domesticated mammals for this, and I tried not to look too dumb for not having thought of that before (though there's a good chance he wasn't paying attention to me by then, since I think that when you tell someone you are having trouble finding a lab that wants to feed you to a mosquito colony, their attention rapidly shifts to finding ways to get away from the conversation). I have also later come to find out about SkitoSnack, an artificial blood meal replacement designed to steal my job as a human blood-bag.
I've also tried finding research labs that might be interested in studying me for the purposes of curing mosquito bites for everyone, but so far I've found no takers.[2] In the movies, I'd be on the run from evil scientists bent on capturing me for use as a human guinea pig, but in reality my active search for people to study me has been fruitless, despite the fact that I'm positively brimming with useful blood and stool samples.
So now I'm asking you, EA community, is there any way that the wider world can benefit from the fact that I don't mind being bitten by mosquitos? Are there labs that I don't know about that still need human blood meals?[3] Are there researchers I haven't found that might want to include my weird immune system in their studies? Is there some other creative use for this superpower?
In addition to indirect evidence like, "I was in the woods where everyone, including the baby strapped to my chest, came out covered in mosquito bites and I came out unscathed", I have on two occasions watched a mosquito bite me — and in the second case I killed it and saw that it had human blood in it — and saw that no reaction developed.
Apparently this phenomenon is not unheard of, though most of what I'm seeing is about people who are bitten frequently, whereas before I developed my immunity I don't think I was a particularly frequent target of mosquitos, nor was I particularly outdoorsy.
Preferably in the Boston / Cambridge area.
very minor. not worth altering your plans to leverage.
most occasions where it'd be valuable to have someone brave mosquitos, the concern is usually disease risk more than discomfort. no advantage. plus, if there's even a little bit of scale in the valuableness, it's probably better value to buy support gear for a non-immune specialist
you could explore locations on behalf of your friends! be the person who volunteers leaving the car/tent for stuff on a camping trip. scout out locations, narrow down which attractions are worth the risk.