I’m inclined to believe it’s a rational reason. In one of the links, it’s mentioned that the same effect found with the nets being sold at market price was seen when trying a similar technique with anti-worm medication. Worms are a much more tangible and wrenching threat than mosquitoes, so if people were neglecting to buy these nets out of an irrational understanding of their effectiveness, we might not see the same results with a product that’s much easier to see work. Since we do, it looks plausible to me that people just can’t afford these things at market price.
I’m inclined to believe it’s a rational reason. In one of the links, it’s mentioned that the same effect found with the nets being sold at market price was seen when trying a similar technique with anti-worm medication. Worms are a much more tangible and wrenching threat than mosquitoes, so if people were neglecting to buy these nets out of an irrational understanding of their effectiveness, we might not see the same results with a product that’s much easier to see work. Since we do, it looks plausible to me that people just can’t afford these things at market price.