That stance is only correct if you are reasonably certain that killing off those mosquito species will not result in more deaths from knock on effects.
at the same time: Imagine if in the US: there was a new poisonous snake that killed 400 000 people.
Someone said: Let's exterminate that type of snake.
Then, do you think someone from the US/Europe/Australia would have replied "but maybe the snake is an important part of the ecosystem" ?
Would that have been a bit like not putting out a fire burning down a city,
because maybe the fire might cause certain unknown nuts to grow into plants and trees, the following years, and maybe maybe those trees were important somehow?
Immediately start exterminating those malaria carrying mosquitos, without finding out how that'd affect the ecosystem.
Then, in parallel, start studies and research about how the ecosystem might get affected, and if very surprisingly (?), those effects seems like worse than 400 000 people dead, then rethink the exterminate-mosquitos project.
(GGP, ethanbond: Sorry if I sounded a bit harsh / not-so-polite in my reply. Turns out that was actually an a bit interesting comment / thing to think about, to me.)
No harm no foul, my friend! This is an issue worth being legitimately upset about :) There are plenty of people who argue against sterilization with frankly bullshit arguments when you weigh them against the suffering that malaria inflicts. Those people should be outright dismissed. However there are also good arguments for treading very, very carefully here. It's really tricky and we need more people caring, more people thinking about how we can navigate this.
at the same time: Imagine if in the US: there was a new poisonous snake that killed 400 000 people.
Someone said: Let's exterminate that type of snake.
Then, do you think someone from the US/Europe/Australia would have replied "but maybe the snake is an important part of the ecosystem" ?
Would that have been a bit like not putting out a fire burning down a city,
because maybe the fire might cause certain unknown nuts to grow into plants and trees, the following years, and maybe maybe those trees were important somehow?