Florida residents are furious as scientists prepare to release hundreds of millions of genetically modified mosquitoes into their communities.

The experiment, led by British biotech company Oxitec, will see around 750 million male mosquitoes sent out into the Florida Keys over the next two years in an attempt to control the population of an invasive, disease carrying species which has settled in the area.

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But many residents are unhappy at being part of what one group called "a Jurassic Park experiment."

The first wave of the project will see thousands of mosquitoes released at six locations this week.

The project has been launched to combat the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which makes up about four per cent of the mosquito population in the Keys but is responsible for virtually all mosquito-borne diseases transmitted to humans, including dengue, Zika and yellow fever. It can also transmit heartworm and other potentially deadly illnesses to pets and animals.

Only female mosquitoes bite humans and pass on disease, because they need blood to produce eggs. Oxitec has modified the genes of male mosquitoes so that they carry a protein that will kill off any female offspring before they reach mature biting age.

Males, which only feed on nectar, will survive and pass on the genes.

The hope is that the modified male mosquitoes will breed with the existing wild female mosquitoes, slowly eliminating the Aedes aegypti population.

While the project has approval from the US Environmental Protection Agency, Barry Wray of the Florida Keys Environmental Coalition said: "People here in Florida do not consent to the genetically engineered mosquitoes or to being human experiments."

Meagan Hull, a resident of Islamorada, told a council meeting: "I find this criminal, that we are being bullied into the experiment," Futurism reported.

Earlier this year, dozens of protesters gathered outside the Murray Nelson Government and Cultural Arts Center in Key Largo, complaining that the full impact of the experiment could not be known. In a statement denouncing the project, environmental group Friends of the Earth said: "The release of genetically engineered mosquitoes will needlessly put Floridians, the environment and endangered species at risk in the midst of a pandemic."

But Oxitec said: "We have released over a billion of our mosquitoes over the years. There is no potential for risk to the environment or humans."

Oxitec said its modified mosquitoes have successfully provided significant suppression of the wild Aedes aegypti in other geographies and do not cause harm to beneficial insects like bees and butterflies.

Similar projects in the Brazilian city of Indaiatuba found that Oxitec's mosquito suppressed the Aedes aegypti by up to 95 per cent in urban, dengue-prone environments following just 13 weeks of treatment, as compared to untreated control sites in the same city.

TOKYO (AP) — Local organizers and the International Olympic Committee pushed ahead Wednesday with plans to open the postponed Tokyo Olympics in just under three months, unveiling the latest set of rule books to show how the games can be held during a pandemic.

The timing of the second edition of the “Playbooks” is not ideal. The version for Olympic athletes is out Wednesday, with similar guides for other participants out on Friday.

Tokyo, Osaka and several others areas came under a third state of emergency this week, and the death toll in Japan from COVID-19 has passed 10,000. The numbers are good by global standards, but poor compared with other places in Asia such as Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand or South Korea.

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The state of emergency has closed department stores, theme parks, and bars and restaurants serving alcohol. It also has forced baseball games to be played in empty stadiums after having allowed fans for much of the pandemic.

Polls consistently show 70-80% in Japan think the Olympics should not be held.

Only 1% of the Japanese population has been vaccinated and that number will still be small when the Olympics open on July 23. So far, officials say Japanese athletes have not been vaccinated.

This contrasts with many of the 15,000 Olympic and Paralympic athletes entering Japan who — encouraged by the IOC — will have shots. As will thousands of judges, officials, sponsors, media and broadcasters.

This version of the Playbooks will offer more details than the first edition in February, but much of the specific planning will remain in flux until the final update comes out in June.

Though vaccines are now available, the strategy for the Olympics is geared around holding the games in a “bubble” as if there were no vaccines.

Organizers are not expected to announce until June if fans will be allowed into venues — and if so, how many. Fans from abroad have already been banned. The decision on venue capacity was promised to come to this month by organizing committee President Seiko Hashimoto, but has been pushed back.

Taro Kono, the minister in charge of vaccination, suggested earlier this month that empty venues seemed likely. Ticket sales were to account for $800 million in revenue.

Organizers are expected to announce daily testing for athletes, up from once every four days in the early edition. They are also expected to drop a 14-day quarantine, allowing athletes to train upon arrival. Athletes will be required to stay in the Olympic Village on Tokyo Bay, and venues and training areas.

Japan’s Kyodo news agency, citing unnamed sources, said athletes and staff will have to be tested twice within 96 hours before leaving home. They will also be tested upon arrival in Japan.

Toshiro Muto, the CEO of the Tokyo organizing committee, said this week that 500 nurses were being requested for the games. Japanese television TBS on Tuesday, without citing a source, said organizers had contacted 30 hospitals to care for athletes who fall ill.

The British Medical Journal earlier this month, under an editorial titled: “Reconsider this Summer’s Olympic and Paralympic Games,” said mass gatherings such as the Olympics are still neither “safe nor secure.”

The editorial read in part: “Holding Tokyo 2020 for domestic political and economic purposes — ignoring scientific and moral imperatives — is contradictory to Japan’s commitment to global health and human security.”

The cost of the Olympics is officially $15.4 billion although several government audits suggest it is much larger. All but $6.7 billion is public money.

The IOC depends on selling broadcast rights for 73% of its income, and the postponement has stalled payments. Broadcast income amounted to about $4 billion in the latest four-year Olympic cycle, at least half from the U.S. network NBC.

IOC President Thomas Bach is expected to be in Hiroshima on May 17 to greet the torch relay, although he said last week his plans were still tentative.

Bach’s arrival would come just days after the latest state of emergency ends on May 11. Opposition lawmakers in Japan’s national legislature have suggested Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga scheduled the state of emergency to accommodate Bach.

The torch relay, which began on March 25 in Fukushima in northeastern Japan, has been detoured several times this month and was forced to run in an empty city park in Osaka. It was also rerouted in Matsuyama City Ehime prefecture.

It will be banned altogether this weekend on the Okinawa island of Miyakojima. The small island has only one hospital. The relay will run through other locations on Okinawa.