Reflections on “Epidemic Prevention” and “Vaccine Development”
In past programs, we have briefly noted that military and [ostensibly] civilian programs officially involved with “epidemic prevention” might conceal clandestine biological warfare applications designed to create epidemics. The official distinction between “offensive” and “defensive” biological warfare research is academic. Noteworthy in that general context is the observation by Jonathan King (professor of molecular biology at MIT), that Pentagon research into the application of genetic engineering to biological warfare could be masked as vaccine research, which sounds “defensive.” In FTR #1130, we noted the role of four-star general Gustave Perna in Trump’s “Operation Warp Speed,” instituted by General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Whether the program serves as cover for military research seems a reasonable question to ask, under the circumstances. One should note that the official title of Unit 731, the notorious Japanese biological warfare unit was “the Epidemic Prevention and Water Purification Department of the Kwantung Army.”
FTR #1139 The Anthrax Attacks, the Invasion of Iraq and Expansion of Biological Warfare Capabilities
As the title indicates, this program presents political and historical foundation for the exponential expansion of American biological warfare infrastructure following the 2001 anthrax attacks.
Important background information comes from the Whitney Webb article about DARPA spending on bat-borne coronaviruses.
The Broadcasting Board of Governors–a CIA “derivative”–and The Washington Times (owned by the Unification Church) helped develop disinformation about SARS CoV‑2 coming from a Chinese Biological Warfare lab. Both were instrumental in hyping the anthrax attacks as authored by Saddam Hussein, as well. The Washington Times also presented information floated by Steven Hatfill that foreshadowed subsequent charges that Saddam Hussein was developing bioweapons and was behind the 2001 anthrax attacks.
In addition, the Project For a New American Century was advancing an agenda in which genetically-engineered biological warfare technology as essential to continued American global dominance.
As will be seen below, a key functionary in the PNAC milieu was former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, former chairman of the board of Gilead Sciences.
In FTR #‘s 1135, 1136 and 1137, we relied heavily on the Kris Newby’s Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons. In that book, Ms. Newby networked with a group of experienced, Cold War biological warfare professionals whom she termed “the Brain Trust.” They were convinced that Fort Detrick scientist Bruce Ivins–the “lone nut” who conveniently committed suicide and was fingered as the sole perpetrator of the 2001 anthrax attacks–was framed. ” . . . . Among other subjects, they discussed . . . technical details on why they believed that their colleague Bruce Ivins had been framed as the anthrax mailer . . . .”
Much of the program centers on the 2001 attacks and the suspicion that focused on Steven Hatfill as a possible perpetrator of them. Although exonerated in the attacks, Hatfill was the focal point of considerable suspicion in connection with the event. Our suspicion is that he is an operative of one or another intelligence agency, CIA being the most probable.
We suspect that the anthrax attacks were a provocation aimed at justifying the invasion of Iraq and spurring development of the U.S. biological warfare capability.
Of particular note is the apparent “operational Teflon” worn by Hatfill. Although circumstantial evidence pointed in his direction, he appeared to be altogether “off limits” to investigative elements of Alphabet Soup. Don Foster noted the unusual treatment accorded to Hatfill by the powers that be.
Of significance, as well, are the numerous examples of foreshadowing of the forensic circumstances of the anthrax attacks, as well as other “false alarm” incidents that occurred before and after the fatal attacks. It requires little to see statements and articles by notables such as Bill Patrick and the seemingly ubiquitous Steven Hatfill as laying a foundation of credibility for subsequent events.
Note that the National Institutes of Health have also partnered with CIA and the Pentagon, as underscored by an article about a BSL‑4 lab at Boston University.
1.–As the article notes, as of 2007, the U.S. had “more than a dozen” BSL4 labs–China commissioned its first as of 2017. a tenfold increase in funding for BSL4 labs occurred because of the anthrax attacks of 2001. Those attacks might be seen as something of a provocation, spurring a dramatic increase in “dual use” biowarfare research, under the cover of “legitimate” medical/scientific research. In FTR #1128, we hypothesized about the milieu of Steven Hatfill and apartheid-linked interests as possible authors of a vectoring of New York City with Sars COV2: ” . . . . Before the anthrax mailings of 2001, the United States had just two BSL4 labs—both within the razor-wire confines of government-owned campuses. Now, thanks to a tenfold increase in funding—from $200 million in 2001 to $2 billion in 2006—more than a dozen such facilities can be found at universities and private companies across the country. . . .”
2.–The Boston University lab exemplifies the Pentagon and CIA presence in BSL‑4 facility “dual use”: ” . . . . But some scientists say that argument obscures the true purpose of the current biodefense boom: to study potential biological weapons. ‘The university portrays it as an emerging infectious disease lab,’ says David Ozonoff, a Boston University epidemiologist whose office is right across the street from the new BSL4 facility. ‘But they are talking about studying things like small pox and inhalation anthrax, which pose no public health threat other than as bioweapons.’ . . . The original NIH mandate for the lab indicated that many groups—including the CIA and Department of Defense—would be allowed to use the lab for their own research, the nature of which BU might have little control over. . . .”
As noted in past programs, Gilead Sciences is very well-connected professionally, with former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (among other political luminaries) serving on its board of directors. Rumsfeld was chairman of the board from 1997 until he left in 2001 to become George W. Bush’s Secretary of Defense.
Rumsfeld was Secretary of Defense during the period in which the 2001 anthrax attacks occurred.
During the post‑9/11 period of exploding government investments in biodefense programs, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was still holding onto massive amounts of Gilead stock, which was increasing in value dramatically. What kind of relationship did Gilead develop with the US biodefense national security state during this period? That seems like a pretty important question at this point in time.
The U.S. government was among the customers whose purchases drove up the Gilead earnings and stock price: ” . . . . What’s more, the federal government is emerging as one of the world’s biggest customers for Tamiflu. In July, the Pentagon ordered $58 million worth of the treatment for U.S. troops around the world, and Congress is considering a multi-billion dollar purchase. . . .”
Several years into his tenure at the Pentagon, Rumsfeld made a killing on the sale of Gilead Sciences’ stock, which rose exponentially in value following its development of Tamiflu as a treatment for H5N1 avian flu.” . . . . The firm made a loss in 2003, the year before concern about bird flu started. Then revenues from Tamiflu almost quadrupled, to $44.6m, helping put the company well into the black. Sales almost quadrupled again, to $161.6m last year. During this time the share price trebled. Mr Rumsfeld sold some of his Gilead shares in 2004 reaping – according to the financial disclosure report he is required to make each year – capital gains of more than $5m. The report showed that he still had up to $25m-worth of shares at the end of 2004, and at least one analyst believes his stake has grown well beyond that figure, as the share price has soared. . . .”
Donald Rumsfeld was a signatory to the 1998 letter to President Clinton by the Project for a New American Century. That letter advocated a harder line against Iraq. ” . . . . Rumsfeld has strong ties to the Intelligence Community, as well as to the Atlantic Institute, and is a member of the Bilderberg group. He is a financial supporter for the Center for Security Policy. Rumsfeld was one of the signers of the January 26, 1998, Project for the New American Century (PNAC) letter sent to President William Jefferson Clinton. . . .”
DARPA and the Pentagon have into the application of genetic engineering in order to create ethno-specific biological warfare weapons, as discussed by the Project for a New American Century.
In past programs and posts, we have noted that DARPA was researching bat-borne coronaviruses. One can but wonder to what extent the PNAC doctrine helped spawn the DARPA research into coronaviruses and, possibly, the Covid-19 pandemic.
FTR #1138 Bio-Psy-Op Apocalypse Now, Part 10: Bad Medicine
Continuing discussion about drug treatments for, and vaccines to prevent, Covid-19, this program sets forth information about the ongoing professional massaging of Gilead Sciences’ anti-viral remdesivir. Only modestly successful against SARS Cov‑2 (the virus that causes Covid-19), remdesivir has been propelled to the forefront of treatment regimens for the pandemic.
Of particular interest are the circumstances surrounding the CDC’s closure of the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. The USAMRIID–located at Ft. Detrick–had hosted Gilead Sciences’ animal trials of remdesivir. Remdesivir was developed to combat Ebola, and was a failure in its initial professional iteration.
In March of 2019, rhesus macaques were infected with Ebola at the USAMRIID as part of a project to allow remdesivir to be marketed as an Ebola treatment without meeting the professional standards of human testing. ” . . . This agreement was made possible through a 2018 Natural History Study (NHS) of Ebola virus conducted by USAMRIID in close collaboration with Gilead Sciences, Inc., the sponsor of remdesivir development . . .”
Many of the safety violations cited by the CDC in its critique of USAMRIID safety and security procedures concerned “non-human primates” infected with one or more “select agents” that were not named. The term “select agent” refers to a pathogen being used in laboratory procedures. Whether the “select agent” was Ebola, and whether the safety lapses were in connection with the remdesivir/rhesus monkey trials was not disclosed.
” . . . . Several of the laboratory violations the CDC noted in 2019 concerned ‘non-human primates’ infected with a ‘select agent’, the identity of which is unknown — it was redacted in all received documents, because disclosing the identity and location of the agent would endanger public health or safety, the agency says. In addition to Ebola, the lab works with other deadly agents like anthrax and smallpox. . . ..”
If, for the sake of argument, SARS-CoV‑2 research was indeed taking placing there was a very real risk of it escaping.
Remdesivir failed in its human trials as a treatment for Ebola: ” . . . . The antiviral drug remdesivir, made by Gilead, underperformed ZMapp. . . . Remdesivir and ZMapp have been dropped from the trial. . . .”
Following that dismal performance against Ebola, Gilead Sciences recast remdesivir as a broad spectrum antiviral, a marketing approach that has led to the drug being authorized to treat Covid-19.
In that professional reincarnation, it demonstrated altogether modest success in Covid-19 trials that were professionally criticized and which were badly skewed from a methodological standpoint.
After a tightening of professional methodological standards at the USAMRIID, it was disclosed that most of the institution’s operatives are private contractors! From the standpoint of institutional security, the broad use of private contractors renders USAMRIID subject to penetration by any number of potential miscreants. ” . . . . ‘A majority of our laboratory workers are contractors–putting teeth in the contracts to ensure they’re following the shalls, wills and musts are things we’ve done in the interim,’ said [Brigadier General Mike] Talley. . . .”
As noted in past programs, Gilead Sciences is very well-connected professionally, with former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld (among other political luminaries) serving on its board of directors. Rumsfeld was chairman of the board from 1997 until he left in 2001 to become George W. Bush’s Secretary of Defense. The firm’s stock has been heavily invested in by hedge funds, including Robert Mercer’s Renaissance Technologies. Gilead Sciences’ stock has been a major driver of the stock market’s performance.
Several years into his tenure at the Pentagon, Rumsfeld made a killing on the sale of Gilead Sciences’ stock, which rose exponentially in value following its development of Tamiflu as a treatment for H5N1 avian flu. ” . . . . The firm made a loss in 2003, the year before concern about bird flu started. Then revenues from Tamiflu almost quadrupled, to $44.6m, helping put the company well into the black. Sales almost quadrupled again, to $161.6m last year. During this time the share price trebled. Mr Rumsfeld sold some of his Gilead shares in 2004 reaping – according to the financial disclosure report he is required to make each year – capital gains of more than $5m. The report showed that he still had up to $25m-worth of shares at the end of 2004, and at least one analyst believes his stake has grown well beyond that figure, as the share price has soared. . . .”
The U.S. government was among the customers whose purchases drove up the Gilead earnings and stock price: ” . . . . What’s more, the federal government is emerging as one of the world’s biggest customers for Tamiflu. In July, the Pentagon ordered $58 million worth of the treatment for U.S. troops around the world, and Congress is considering a multi-billion dollar purchase. . . .”
(Recall that the H5N1 virus is one of the gain-of-function experiments that was suspended in 2014 and then greenlighted by the Trump administration in 2017. Those experiments engineered the virus to infect ferrets, a maneuver that made the virus communicable by upper respiratory activity. One can but wonder if those G‑O-F experiments were connected to the recasting of remdesivir as a broad spectrum antiviral.)
During the post‑9/11 period of exploding government investments in biodefense programs, Rumsfeld was still holding onto massive amounts of Gilead’s stock, which was rapidly increasing in value. What kind of relationship did Gilead develop with the US biodefense national security state during this period? That seems like an important question at this point in time.
In FTR #1136, we noted that the medical and scientific interests in charge of Lyme Disease treatment and diagnosis were not only financial beneficiaries of the therapeutic status quo, but were also tasked with discrediting Lyme patients and physicians who challenged that status quo. In light of the evidence that Lyme Disease was the outgrowth of biological warfare research, the professional relationship between governmental institutions involved with BW research and biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms profiting from the treatment of diseases those institutions develop and deploy is worth contemplating!
Previous broadcasts have documented the skewed, preferential treatment of remdesivir by powerful political and financial players with significant investment in the success of remdesivir.
The program concludes with three updates of previous lines of inquiry”
1.–Past programs have highlighted possible vectors into Wuhan for the SARS CoV‑2. We note that there was a workshop held at the Wuhan lab in early November of 2019, featuring scientists and bio-lab professionals from around the world. This conference may have been among the opportunities to spread the virus, and/or a co-vector and/or cross-vector. ” . . . . The workshop is designed for laboratory managers and directors, research and laboratory staffs mainly from developing countries who plan to carry out infectious disease research in biosafety facilities. The workshop will address key aspects of biosafety and provide practical training in high level biosafety laboratories (BSL). This workshop will invite a group of well-known scholars and experts from related fields at home and abroad to provide the theoretical and practical courses. . . .”
2.–As noted in past programs the Wuhan Institute of Virology was engaged in bat-borne coronavirus research, which included the genetic modification of such organisms. That research was a joint U.S./Chinese undertaking, with the U.S. funding coming from institutions which have fronted for American intelligence and the Pentagon. That joint U.S./Chinese undertaking was terminated by the Trump administration in May! In addition: ” . . . . Many of the scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology have been trained by the U.S. government’s PREDICT project. . . . USAID’s PREDICT project . . . will end this September after 10 years and two six-month extensions as USAID launches a new project that applies the data PREDICT collected. . . .”
3.–Other broadcasts have explored the Wuhan World Military Games–a military sports competition–as a possible vectoring vehicle. We update that path of inquiry with discussion of the U.S. delegation as a possible vectoring agent for the spread of the disease in the U.S. ” . . . . Contrary to the Pentagon’s insistence, however, an investigation of COVID-19 cases in the military from official and public source materials shows that a strong correlation exists in COVID-19 cases reported at U.S. military facilities that are home bases of members of the U.S. team that went to Wuhan. Before March 31, when the Pentagon restricted the release of information about COVID-19 cases at installations for security reasons, infections occurred at a minimum of 63 military facilities where team members returned after the Wuhan games. Additionally, the U.S. team used chartered flights to and from the games via Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Washington was one of the earliest states to show a spike in COVID-19. . . .” We also note that the U.S. delegation contained: ” . . . . nine public-affairs officers . . . and two State Department personnel, according to DOD documents. . . .” “Public affairs officer” is a common cover for CIA personnel.
FTR #1137 Lyme Disease and Biological Warfare, Part 3
Further developing the links between biological warfare research and the Lyme Disease establishment, we review information from FTR #585.
At every turn, Lyme disease research is inextricably linked with biological warfare research. Divided into the “Steere” and “ILADS” camps, the Lyme disease research community is split between the view that the disease is “hard-to-catch, easy-to-cure” and the diametrically opposed view that the disease is very serious and produces long-term neurological disorder. The Steere camp diminishes the significance of the disease and is closely identified with biological warfare research. At the epicenter of Lyme disease research (and the Steere camp) are members of the Epidemic Intelligence Service, or EIS. EIS personnel are to be found at every bend in the road of Lyme disease research.
The Borrelia genus has long been researched as a biological warfare vector. Note that Unit 731 personnel and their files were put to work for the United States after World War II, much like the Project Paperclip scientists from Germany. ” . . . borrelia were known for their ability to adopt different forms under conditions of stress (such as exposure to antibiotics). Shedding their outer wall, (which is the target of penicillin and related drugs), they could ward off attack and continue to exist in the body. . .”
Much of the program is devoted to excerpting and analysis of a 2013 posting by Elena Cook. This discussion of “Spirochete Warfare,” in turn, makes liberal use of material from a 1944 text about Japan’s biological warfare program. This book “Japan’s Secret Weapon,” contains a great deal of information about Japanese pioneering of the use of spirochetes as biological warfare organisms.
This material is to be considered in the historical and political context of the incorporation of the key personnel and files of the notorious Japanese Unit 731 biological warfare division into the U.S. BW program after World War II.
Apparently decades ahead of their Allied counterparts, Japanese use of spirochetes encompassed a number of important points to consider.
1.–The Japanese understood that “cell-wall deficient spirochetes, ” “granule” and “L‑forms” had tremendous significance for biological warfare. ” . . . This WW2-era book helps to confirm what some investigating the history of Lyme disease have long suspected; that the official denial of the devastating pathogenic nature of the granule and other ‘L‑forms’(1) of Lyme-causing Borrelia, is related to their biological warfare significance. . .”
2.–” . . . To put it bluntly, Newman’s book provides cogent circumstantial evidence that many Cell-wall deficient forms of Borrelia are in fact weaponized spirochetes, nurtured, cultured and optimized for aerosol delivery. . .”
3.–According to author Barclay Newman, a combined Japanese and Nazi biological warfare offensive against Hawaii using the spirochetal disease leptospirosis against Hawaii two or three years before the attack on Pearl Harbor: ” . . . . ‘Nazi and Japanese scientists cooperated in warfare against or with spirochetes — in Hawaii.’ (original author’s italics). What he is referring to is an exceptionally virulent outbreak of the spirochetal disease leptospirosis, also known as Weil’s disease, and known at the time in Germany as ‘slime fever’. With official reports of 44% mortality from the outbreak, Newman states: Consult the authorities, and you will find out that, very definitely, so high a mortality is attained only by Japanese strains of spirochetes of slime fever. . . .”
4.–According to Newman, the Japanese had concluded that spirochetes, although very close to bacteria in form, were not actually bacteria and therefore: ” . . . . a spirochete can also break itself into many tiny granules, each as small as the invisible molecule of a virus, and each capable of recreating a new spirochete. . . .”
5.–Again, according to Newman: ” . . . The Japanese have reported that you can increase the virulence, or killing power, of these spirals by growing them in flesh and blood, of guinea pig or man. . .” This is interesting to consider in light of the evidence of Lyme Disease as the product of biological warfare. Might some of the “tests” have had the goal of “growing” such organisms in humans? ” . . . The resistance of many spirochetes, including borrelia, to culture in vitro remains a problem for lab scientists even today. . .”
6.–The “granule” spirochete form was found by the Japanese to have great value for aerosolized BW applications: ” . . . Inada has reported that the Japanese know how to get virus-like, quite invisible particles or spirochete-fragments from special cultures of spirochetes of infectious jaundice. The Japanese say that such infinitesimals can be used to infect animals and men, by spraying droplets containing these spirochete-creating bits into the air, or spreading them through water, or scattering them in mud or damp soil. . . .”
7.–The above-mentioned leptospirosis or “slime fever” may have been used as a “softening-up” agent prior to Japanese invasions in World War II” ” . . . ‘Immediately before the Japanese invasions of China, Indo-China, the Dutch East Indies, and the Malay States, and shortly before the Japanese invasion of India and the Japanese strokes at Australia, the very first outbreaks of slime fever were reported from every one of these areas’ . . .”
8.–The Japanese had discovered the application of infection via multiple pathogens. This may have figured into the development of Lyme Disease as well. ” . . . Fujimori (sic) was testing out the effects of spreading two different parasites into the same guinea pig at the same time. The Japanese discovered that one parasite promotes the lethal action of the other. . . .”
9.–The Japanese developed with spreading spirochetal disease via spraying droplets into the eyes of targets. We wonder if Willy Burgdorfer’s possible Lyme infection from diseased Rabbit-urine may have stemmed from this technology? This is discussed below. ” . . . ‘Sometimes the Japanese think up the damnedest experiments, such as the transmission of syphilis by spraying the spirochetes into the air or into the eyes of animals or volunteers. Infection is thus accomplished. . . . if you want to speculate further about the possibilities of spirochete warfare, you can be sure that the Japanese know how to spread any spirochete disease . . . by spraying droplets laden with specially cultured spirochetes. . . .”
10.-Among the diseases apparently harnessed for BW use by the Japanese was African relapsing fever. Willy Burgdorfer did his graduate thesis about this tick-borne spirochetal disease and it was researched at length by his mentor Rudolf Geigy. (Geigy’s possible role as an I.G. Farben intelligence agent and Paperclip recruiter is discussed in FTR #1135. Note that some forms of Borrelia Burgdorferi–a primary causative agent of Lyme Disease–resemble the spirochete that causes relapsing fever. ” . . . Relapsing fever is caused by the Borrelia genus of bacteria, and is generally transmitted to man either by lice, or by the bite of a tick. It is worth noting, too, that recent investigations into the genetic make-up of Lyme borrelia have found some strains apparently more closely related to relapsing fever Borrelia than to Borrelia burgdorferi, long considered the only borrelia capable of causing Lyme disease. . . .”
Next, the program details Rudolf Geigy’s work on relapsing fever. We suspect that his interest in such afflictions was not as benign and altruistic as his defenders maintain. As mentioned above, Lyme Disease “discoverer” and biological warfare veteran Willy Burgdorfer did his graduate thesis on relapsing fever.
Again, as mentioned above, Willy Burgdorfer contracted what he felt was Lyme Disease after urine from an infected rabbit splashed into his eyes. We wonder if some of the techniques of using aerosolized spirochete granules might have been involved in Willy’s accidental infection? ” . . . .While he was rinsing off one of the trays in the sink, Lyme-infected rabbit urine splashed into his eyes. A few weeks later, on April 13, he noticed five Lyme bull’s-eye rashes under his armpit and on his torso. . . .”
In an unpublished manuscript, Willy Burgdorfer noted not only the persistence of Lyme Disease but its ability to remain dormant in the nervous system: “. . . . It is now clear that Borrelia burgdorferi can persist within the nervous system for years, causing progressive illness, and increasing evidence suggests also that the spirochete can remain latent there for years before producing clinical symptoms. . . .”
Lyme disease is difficult to diagnose, another factor that makes it ideal for BW use. Might the Japanese Unit 731 research into spirochetal warfare described by Barclay Newman have figured into some of the boiler-plate research that went into the development of Lyme Disease? ” . . . Lyme’s ability to evade detection on routine medical tests, its myriad presentations which can baffle doctors by mimicking 100 different diseases, its amazing abilities to evade the immune system and antibiotic treatment, would make it an attractive choice to bioweaponeers looking for an incapacitating agent. Lyme’s abilities as ‘the great imitator’ might mean that an attack could be misinterpreted as simply a rise in the incidence of different, naturally-occurring diseases. . . .”
There is experimental evidence that infection with Borrelia burgdorferi can produce the amyloid plaques symptomatic of Alzheimer’s Disease. ” . . . Here is hypothesized a truly revolutionary notion that rounded cystic forms of Borrelia burgdorferi are the root cause of the rounded structures called plaques in the Alzheimer brain. Rounded “plaques’ in high density in brain tissue are emblematic of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). . . .”
The program concludes with more experimental evidence of the production of amyloid deposits characteristic of Alzheimer’s Disease: ” . . . To determine whether an analogous host reaction to that occurring in AD could be induced by infectious agents, we exposed mammalian glial and neuronal cells in vitro to Borrelia burgdorferi spirochetes . . . Morphological changes analogous to the amyloid deposits of AD brain were observed following 2–8 weeks of exposure to the spirochetes. . . These observations indicate that, by exposure to bacteria or to their toxic products, host responses similar in nature to those observed in AD may be induced. . . .”
FTR #1136 Lyme Disease and Biological Warfare, Part 2
A recent book about Lyme Disease sets forth credible information that the disease is an outgrowth of U.S. biological warfare research.
Bitten, The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons chronicles the career of Willy Burgdorfer, a Swiss-born expert on tick and flea-borne diseases who spent most of his career researching those areas as a U.S. biological warfare scientist.
” . . . . if Willy’s claim was true, a crime against humanity had been committed by the U.S. government, and then covered up. . . ” “Bitten,” p. 103.
Listeners are emphatically encouraged to purchase and read this book, as well as sharing it with others.
Author Kris Newby presents substantive evidence that the disease stems from BW research done by Burgdorfer and associates. (Burgdorfer was the scientist who “discovered” the organism that causes Lyme Disease.)
NB: The material in this broadcast is deliberately overlapped with that in the last program.
In this post, we highlight information about what Willy termed “the Swiss Agent”–a rickettsia that was present in the vast majority of Lyme sufferers tested early in research into the disease.
Eventually, discussion of the possible role of Swiss Agent dropped out of discussion. The disappearance of the Swiss Agent from the scientific analytical literature coincided with Willy’s telephone conversations with biological warfare research veterans.
Key points of discussion:
1.–” . . . . I would engage the scientific part of his brain in answering my two questions: why the Lyme discovery files were missing from the National Archives, and why images of the organism labeled ‘Swiss Agent’ were located in the archive folders in the time-frame where one would expect the Lyme spirochete pictures to be. . . .”
2.–” . . . . He told me that in late 1979, he had tested ‘over one hundred ticks’ from Shelter Island, located about twenty miles from the Lyme outbreak, and all but two had an unidentified rickettsial species inside. It looked like Rickettsia montana (now called Rickettsia montanensis) under a microscope, a non-disease-causing cousin of the deadly Rickettsia ricketsii, but it was a different species. . . .”
3.–” . . . .‘You say they’re not looking for it anymore?’ I asked. ‘They probably paid people off,’ he said. ‘There are folks up there who have a way to enable that.’ . . .”
4.–” . . . . Next, I showed Willy an unlabeled image of a microbe and asked him what it was. ‘That is a Swiss Agent,’ said Willy. I asked him a series of questions on this microbe and he recited what seemed like well-rehearsed lines: the Swiss Agent is a Rickettsia montana-like organism found in the European sheep tick, Ixodes Ricinus, and it doesn’t cause disease in humans. . . .”
5.–” . . . . Then I asked him why he brought samples of it from Switzerland back to his lab. He replied with the response that he often used when he seemed to know the answer but wasn’t going to divulge it: ‘Question mark.’. . .”
6.–” . . . . The real ‘smoking gun,’ though, was Willy’s handwritten lab notes on the patient blood tests from the disease outbreak in Connecticut. These tests showed the proof-of-presence of what I named ‘Swiss Agent USA,’ the mystery rickettsia present in most of the patients from the original Lyme outbreak, a fact that was never disclosed in journal articles. It didn’t take a PhD in microbiology to see that almost all the patient blood had reacted strongly to an antigen test for a European rickettsia that Willy had called the Swiss Agent. . . .”
7.–” . . . . In March, he wrote to Anderson and Steere again: ‘Most specimens, with a few exceptions, reacted only against antigens prepared from the Swiss Agent.’ In short, the disease clusters in Connecticut and Long Island seemed to have been caused by Swiss Agent USA. Then, in April, the Swiss Agent USA rickettsia vanished. It was never again mentioned in talks, letters, interviews, or journal articles. . . . There is, without a doubt, something suspicious about the sudden disappearance of the Swiss Agent USA from all correspondence. . . .”
8.–The disappearance of the Swiss Agent USA from the literature on Lyme Disease corresponded with an important conversation that Willy had: ” . . . . It was in the beginning of 1980—two years before the first Lyme spirochetes were found—that the Swiss Agent USA disappeared. This about-face coincided with a series of discussions Willy had with old bioweapons developers on the Rickettsial Commission of the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board, as recorded in his personal phone log. These scientists were most certainly familiar with the secret history of incapacitating rickettsial and viral agent testing, and they may have discussed with Willy the possibility of there having been an undisclosed field test in the Long Island region. . . .”
9.–Roundworms similar to organisms studied by Willy at the Naval Research Unit in Cairo turned up in some of the ticks: ” . . . . That’s when Willy found parasitic roundworm larvae in the main body cavity of two of the ticks. They were similar to the deer worms he’d found in ticks on his 1978 trip to Switzerland, and similar to the roundworms that he, Sonenshine, and the Naval Research Unit in Cairo had worked with for a project exploring the ‘relatively new field of endo-parasitic transmission of disease agents.’ In these experiments, multiple disease agents were put inside mosquito-borne roundworms, according to an NIH research report from 1961. . . .”
10.–Numerically, it appears that the Swiss Agent rickettsias outnumbered the spirochetes that ultimately were tabbed as the causative agent for Lyme Disease: ” . . . . When Willy dissected 124 more Shelter Island deer ticks, 98 percent had the new rickettsias in them and only 60 percent carried the new spirochetes. Willy thought that either microbe might be causing Lyme disease, but, for unknown reasons, this alternative theory fell into a black hole. . . .”
Pivoting to discussion of the politics of Lyme Disease treatment, we note that legal and regulatory rulings have enabled the patenting of living organisms and that has exacerbated the monetizing of Lyme Disease treatment. That monetization, in turn, has adversely affected the quality of care for afflicted patients. As we will see later, Willy Burgdorfer was not the only Lyme Disease researcher to become involved with biological warfare research. ” . . . . All of a sudden, the institutions that were supposed to be protectors of public health became business partners with Big Pharma. The university researchers who had previously shared information on dangerous emerging diseases were now delaying publishing their findings so they could become entrepreneurs and profit from patents through their university technology transfer groups. We essentially lost our system of scientific checks and balances. And this, in turn, has undermined patient trust in the institutions that are supposed to ‘do no harm.’ . . .”
Ms. Newby went up against the “Lyme Disease establishment” in an attempt to find out why the disease was being mis-diagnosed and ineffectively treated. Strikingly, a FOIA suit she filed was stonewalled for five years, before finally yielding the documents she had so long sought.
The “experts” and their agenda was neatly, and alarmingly, summed up by Ms. Newby: ” . . . . The emails revealed a disturbing picture of a nonofficial group of government employees and guidelines authors that had been setting the national Lyme disease research agenda without public oversight or transparency. . . . Bottom line, the guidelines authors regularly convened in government-funded, closed-door meetings with hidden agendas that lined the pockets of academic researchers with significant commercial interests in Lyme disease tests and vaccines. A large percentage of government grants were awarded to the guideline authors and/or researchers in their labs. Part of the group’s stated mission, culled from these FOIA emails, was to run a covert ‘disinformation war’ and a ‘sociopolitical offensive’ to discredit Lyme patients, physicians, and journalists who questioned the group’s research and motives. In the FOIA-obtained emails, Lyme patients and their treating physicians were called ‘loonies’ and ‘quacks’ by Lyme guidelines authors and NIH employees. . . .”
Further developing the links between biological warfare research and the Lyme Disease establishment, we review information from FTR #585.
At every turn, Lyme disease research is inextricably linked with biological warfare research. Divided into the “Steere” and “ILADS” camps, the Lyme disease research community is split between the view that the disease is “hard-to-catch, easy-to-cure” and the diametrically opposed view that the disease is very serious and produces long-term neurological disorder. The Steere camp diminishes the significance of the disease and is closely identified with biological warfare research. At the epicenter of Lyme disease research (and the Steere camp) are members of the Epidemic Intelligence Service, or EIS. EIS personnel are to be found at every bend in the road of Lyme disease research.
The Borrelia genus has long been researched as a biological warfare vector.
” . . . . The Borrelia genus of bacteria, which encompasses the Borrelia burgdorferi species-group (to which Lyme disease is attributed), was studied by the infamous WW2 Japanese biowar Unit 731, who carried out horrific experiments on prisoners in Manchuria, including dissection of live human beings. [iii] Unit 731 also worked on a number of other tick-borne pathogens. . . . . borrelia were known for their ability to adopt different forms under conditions of stress (such as exposure to antibiotics). Shedding their outer wall, (which is the target of penicillin and related drugs), they could ward off attack and continue to exist in the body. . . .”
Note that Unit 731 personnel and their files were put to work for the United States after World War II, much like the Project Paperclip scientists from Germany.
FTR #‘s 1135, Lyme Disease and Biological Warfare, Part 1
” . . . . if Willy’s claim was true, a crime against humanity had been committed by the U.S. government, and then covered up. . . ” Bitten, p. 103.
A recent book about Lyme Disease sets forth credible information that the disease is an outgrowth of U.S. biological warfare research.
Bitten, The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons chronicles the career of Willy Burgdorfer, a Swiss-born expert on tick and flea-borne diseases who spent most of his career researching those areas as a U.S. biological warfare scientist.
Author Kris Newby presents substantive evidence that the disease stems from BW research done by Burgdorfer and associates. (Burgdorfer was the scientist who “discovered” the organism that causes Lyme Disease.)
In past discussion of Lyme Disease, we have explored the incorporation of Nazi scientists via Operation Paperclip into the American biological warfare program and possible links between their work and the spread of the disease in Connecticut, across Long Island Sound from Plum Island.
(FTR #‘s 480 and 585 highlight discussion about Lyme Disease and biological warfare.)
Burgdorfer’s entree into the American biological warfare program resulted from his professional relationship with long time mentor and patron Rudolf Geigy. Geigy belonged to a family whose business, J.R. Geigy AG, was a Swiss chemical firm marketing dyes and insecticides.
Significantly, J.R. Geigy, Ciba and Sandoz comprised a Swiss chemical cartel formed in the aftermath of World War I to compete with the I.G. Farben cartel.
(Today, the three companies have coalesced as the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis.)
Eventually, the Swiss consortium was absorbed into, and became a key component of, the I.G. Farben cartel. They readily collaborated with the Third Reich:
1.–” . . . . The chapters on Switzerland’s chemical industry are the most embarrassing section of the commission’s report. It is now clear that the directors of Swiss companies in Basel were very well aware what was going on at the time in Germany and had knowledge of the coerced employment of forced laborers in their branch plants in Germany as well as of the fact that forced laborers died as a result of the conditions in which they were held. . . .”
2.–” . . . . several leading Swiss chemical firms — including JR Geigy, Ciba, Sandoz and Hoffmann-La Roche — put their own interests ahead of humanitarian concerns in their dealing with the Nazis. . . .”
3.–” . . . .The ICE [Independent Commission of Experts] concluded that the chemical firms’ bosses in Switzerland ‘possessed a high level of detailed knowledge about the political and economic situation in Nazi Germany... [and] incorporated their knowledge... into their economic planning and used it as a basis for decision-making’ . . . .”
4.–” . . . . ‘Geigy maintained particularly good relations with Claus Ungewitter, the Reich commissioner for chemicals.’ . . .”
5.–” . . . . During the war, it [Geigy] produced insecticides and, most notably, the iconic ‘polar red’ dye that colored the background of Nazi swastika flags. . . .”
All three Swiss firms [Geigy, Sandoz and Ciba] were indicted in the United States in 1942 because of their collaboration with I.G. Farben and the Third Reich.
1.–” . . . . Those indicted included duPont; Allied Chemical and Dye; and American Cyanamid; also Farben affiliates the American Ciba, Sandoz and Geigy. . . .”
2.–” . . . . A long list of other co-conspirators included the Swiss Ciba, Sandoz and Geigy companies with Cincinnati Chemical works, their jointly owned American concern . . . .”
3.–” . . . . When Secretary of War Stimson and Attorney General Biddle agreed to postpone the trial until it would not interfere with war production, one Justice Department official was quoted as saying sourly, ‘First they hurt the war effort by their restrictive practices, and then if caught they use the war effort as an excuse to avoid prosecution.’ . . .”
Useful background research with which to flesh out understanding of the titillating information presented by Ms. Newby concerning Geigy and his activities can be obtained by reading some of the many books available for download on this website.
Numerous programs present research on the topic, including FTR #511.
A key foundational element for the discussion of Bitten is the Pentagon’s decades-long research into the genetic manipulation of microbial pathogens.
1.–Nobel Prize winner Joshua Lederberg warned of the consequences for humanity of this work: ” . . . .‘The large-scale deployment of infectious agents is a potential threat against the whole species: mutant forms of viruses could well develop that would spread over the earth’s population for a new Black Death,’ said Lederberg in a Washington Post editorial on September 24, 1966. He added, ‘The future of the species is very much bound up with the control of these weapons. Their use must be regulated by the most thoughtful reconsideration of U.S. and world policy.’ . . .”
2.–The Pentagon was dismissive of the warning: ” . . . . A month later, the army’s Biological Subcommittee Munitions Advisory Group thumbed its nose at this ‘national pronouncement made by prominent scientists.’ . . . The advisory group then continued discussing its plans for genetic manipulation of microbes, new rickettsial and viral agents, and the development of a balanced program for both incapacitating and lethal agents. . . .”
3.–By 1962, the military’s plans for development of genetically modified microbes were developing in earnest. ” . . . . Fort Detrick’s director of biological research, Dr. J.R. Goodlow, on February 16, 1962 . . . added, ‘Studies of bacterial genetics are also in progress with the aim of transferring genetic determinants from one type of organism to another.‘The goal of these experiments was to make biological agents more virulent and resistant to antibiotics. . . .”
The Pentagon’s genetic manipulation of microorganisms for biological warfare purposes involved the Rocky Mountain Lab and Willy Burgdorfer.
1.–” . . . . Bioweapons researchers such as Willy knew that infecting large populations would require exposing people to agents for which they had no natural immunity. And to do this, researchers would have to import and/or invent new microbes. They were, in essence, playing God, creating ‘bacteriological freaks or mutants,’ by using chemicals, radiation, ultraviolet light, and other agents, wrote modern investigative journalism pioneer Jack Anderson in a Washington Post column on August 27, 1965. . . .”
2.–” . . . . Willy had already been conducting a trial-and-error style of genetic manipulation in the same way that a corn farmer or a hog grower selectively breeds strains that result in desired outcomes. He was growing microbes inside ticks, having the ticks feed on animals, and then harvesting the microbes from the animals that exhibited the level of illness the military had requested. . . .”
3.–” . . . . He was also simultaneously mixing bacteria and viruses inside ticks, leveraging the virus’s innate ability to manipulate bacterial genes in order to reproduce, and thus accelerating the rate of mutations and desirable new bacterial traits. In 1966, Fort Detrick’s Biological Subcommittee Munitions Advisory Group put this emerging research area at the top of its priorities, describing it as ‘Research in microbial genetics concerned with aspects of transformation, transduction, and recombination.’ . .”
Interviewed by an indie filmmaker named Tim Grey, Willy Burgdorfer discussed the development of Lyme Disease as a biological warfare weapon. It was Burgdorfer who “discovered” the spirochete that caused Lyme Disease in 1982. As we will see later, it appears that more than one organism is involved with Lyme Disease.
1.–” . . . . Willy paused, then replied, ‘Question: Has [sic] Borrelia Burgdorferi have the potential for biological warfare?’ As tears welled up in Willy’s eyes, he continued, ‘Looking at the data, it already has. If the organism stays within the system, you won’t even recognize what it is. In your lifespan, it can explode . . . We evaluated. You never deal with that [as a scientist]. You can sleep better.’ . . .”
2.–” . . . . Later in the video, Grey circled back to this topic and asked, ‘If there’s an emergence of a brand-new epidemic that has the tenets of all of those things that you put together, do you feel responsible for that?’ ‘Yeah. . . .’ ”
3.–” . . . . Grey asked him the one question, the only question, he really cared about: ‘Was the pathogen that you found in the tick that Allen Steere [the Lyme outbreak investigator] gave you the same pathogen or similar, or a generational mutation, of the one you published in the paper . . . the paper from 1952?’ ”
4.–” . . . . The left side of his mouth briefly curled up, as if he is thinking, ‘Oh, well.’ Then anger flashes across his face. ‘Yah,’ he said, more in German than English. . . .”
5.–” . . . . It was a stunning admission from one of the world’s foremost authorities on Lyme disease. If it was true, it meant that Willy had left out essential data from his scientific articles on the Lyme disease outbreak, and that as the disease spread like a wildfire in the Northeast and Great Lakes regions of the United States, he was part of the cover-up of the truth. . . It had been created in a military bioweapons lab for the specific purpose of harming human beings. . . . ”
To conclude the program, we highlight information about what Willy termed “the Swiss Agent”–a rickettsia that was present in the vast majority of Lyme sufferers tested early in research into the disease. Note that this element of analysis will be continued in our next program.
Eventually, discussion of the possible role of Swiss Agent dropped out of discussion. The disappearance of the Swiss Agent from the scientific analytical literature coincided with Willy’s telephone conversations with biological warfare research veterans.
Key points of discussion:
1.–” . . . . I would engage the scientific part of his brain in answering my two questions: why the Lyme discovery files were missing from the National Archives, and why images of the organism labeled ‘Swiss Agent’ were located in the archive folders in the time-frame where one would expect the Lyme spirochete pictures to be. . . .”
2.–” . . . . He told me that in late 1979, he had tested ‘over one hundred ticks’ from Shelter Island, located about twenty miles from the Lyme outbreak, and all but two had an unidentified rickettsial species inside. It looked like Rickettsia montana (now called Rickettsia montanensis) under a microscope, a non-disease-causing cousin of the deadly Rickettsia ricketsii, but it was a different species. . . .”
3.–” . . . .‘You say they’re not looking for it anymore?’ I asked. ‘They probably paid people off,’ he said. ‘There are folks up there who have a way to enable that.’ . . .”
4.–” . . . . Next, I showed Willy an unlabeled image of a microbe and asked him what it was. ‘That is a Swiss Agent,’ said Willy. I asked him a series of questions on this microbe and he recited what seemed like well-rehearsed lines: the Swiss Agent is a Rickettsia montana-like organism found in the European sheep tick, Ixodes Ricinus, and it doesn’t cause disease in humans. . . .”
5.–” . . . . Then I asked him why he brought samples of it from Switzerland back to his lab. He replied with the response that he often used when he seemed to know the answer but wasn’t going to divulge it: ‘Question mark.’. . .”
6.–” . . . . The real ‘smoking gun,’ though, was Willy’s handwritten lab notes on the patient blood tests from the disease outbreak in Connecticut. These tests showed the proof-of-presence of what I named ‘Swiss Agent USA,’ the mystery rickettsia present in most of the patients from the original Lyme outbreak, a fact that was never disclosed in journal articles. It didn’t take a PhD in microbiology to see that almost all the patient blood had reacted strongly to an antigen test for a European rickettsia that Willy had called the Swiss Agent. . . .”
FTR #1134 Bio-Psy-Op Apocalypse Now, Part 9: Covid-19 Updates
As indicated by the title of the program, this broadcast updates various articles and book excerpts concerning Covid-19.
A Daily Mail Online [UK] article sets forth two bogus papers contending that the SARS CoV‑2 virus was genetically engineered by the Chinese as a bioweapon in a laboratory and that it “escaped.” Note the championing of one of the papers by a former head of MI6 and the authorship of the second by The Epoch Times, the paper of the Falun Gong cult. Linked to CIA, Steve Bannon’s anti-China milieu and the Trump administration, the organization is a fascist mind control cult discussed in numerous shows, including FTR #‘s 1089 and 1090.
1.–“A former MI6 chief was yesterday accused by Government officials of peddling ‘fanciful claims’ that coronavirus was accidentally created in a Chinese laboratory. British security agencies believe Covid-19 is not a man-made virus and is ‘highly likely’ to have occurred naturally and spread to humans through animals. And Health Secretary Matt Hancock has said there is ‘no evidence’ to back up the theory that it originated in a laboratory. But Sir Richard Dearlove, who was head of the MI6 from 1999 to 2004, cited a recent report claiming the disease was accidentally manufactured by Chinese scientists.
2.–“ ‘I do think that this started as an accident,’ Sir Richard told The Daily Telegraph’s ‘Planet Normal’ podcast. ‘It raises the issue: if China ever were to admit responsibility, does it pay reparations? I think it will make every country in the world rethink how it treats its relationship with China.’ He added: ‘Look at the stories... of attempts by the [Beijing] leadership to lock down any debate about the origins of the pandemic and the way people have been arrested or silenced.’ . . . . The paper – co-authored by Professor Angus Dalgleish, a renowned oncologist and vaccine researcher who works at St George’s Hospital, University of London, and Birger Sorensen, a Norwegian virologist – contains none of the stark allegations that originally stunned its reviewers.
3..–“The initial paper that triggered wild rumours failed stringent tests of verification and is understood to have been rejected in April by eminent international journals such as Nature and the Journal of Virology. Biomedical experts from the Francis Crick Institute and Imperial College London are said to have refuted its conclusions. Then one of the paper’s co-authors, Dr John Fredrik Moxnes, chief scientific adviser to the Norwegian military, asked for his name to be withdrawn. This week, after numerous rewrites, the paper was published by the Quarterly Review of Biophysics Discovery. And those original world-shaking conclusions have now withered to innuendo. No accusation of Chinese manipulation appears. . . .”
4.–”. . . . Back in April, a slickly produced investigative documentary, Tracking Down The Origin Of The Wuhan Coronavirus, was released online. It claimed conclusive proof that the Covid-19 virus had been created as a biological ‘weapon of mass destruction’ in a Chinese lab. . . .”
5.–“At first sight, it seemed a shockingly convincing piece of journalism. On behalf of this newspaper, I cross-checked every claim: The experts it cited and the factual evidence unearthed. I also researched the backgrounds of its makers. I then approached some of the world’s best independent scientific authorities to ask their opinion. They all agreed – this enticingly spicy story just didn’t stand up.”
6.–“It had been produced by a US based anti-Chinese government media organisation called the Epoch Times. Its ‘experts’ were veteran hard-Rightists. Most damningly, its scientific ‘facts’ were twisted out of shape.So much, then, for the Chinese-manufactured coronavirus conspiracy . . .”
Steve Bannon is at the epicenter of the anti-China effort and–to no one’s surprise–never really left the Trump White House.
When assessing Bannon as a political animal, one should never forget that among the important ideological influences on him is Julius Evola, an Italian fascist who found Mussolini too moderate and ultimately took his cues from the Nazi SS, who were financing his work by the end of World War II.
” . . . . Donald Trump’s lightning-rod 2016 campaign boss and former White House chief strategist who was banished from the West Wing in 2017 has quietly crept back into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., reestablishing ties to staffers, particularly with regard to his pet issues of China and immigration. . . . Another former administration official told The Post that Bannon never really left the White House after he was fired, maintaining contacts and keeping up regular channels of communications with officials there. . . .”
In addition, as discussed in FTR #‘s 1111 and 1112, Bannon is part of a network that includes J. Kyle Bass and Tommy Hicks, Jr. This nexus involves asymmetrical investing with regard to the Hong Kong and Chinese economies and the inter-agency governmental networks involved in both overt and covert anti-China policies implemented by Team Trump. As will be seen below, they also are networking with the mis-named “Scientists to Stop Covid-19.” In that regard, they are also helping steer policy that controls development of treatment and vaccines for Covid-19. The management of drug and vaccine development, in turn, doubles back to market-driving investment dynamics.
An interesting summation of characteristics of a “deliberate” epidemic are evaluated against the finding that New York City was the epicenter of the U.S. Covid-19 outbreak:
Bitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons by Kris Newby; HarperCollins [HC]; Copyright 2019 by Kris Newby; ISBN 9780062896728; p. 185.
Potential epidemiological clues to a deliberate epidemic:
Clue no. 1–A highly unusual event with large numbers of casualties: Check!
Clue no. 2–Higher morbidity or mortality than is expected. Check!
Clue no. 3–Uncommon disease. Check!
Clue no. 4–Point-source outbreak. Check!
Clue no. 5–Multiple epidemics. Check! (Global pandemic)
–Z. F. Dembek, et al., “Discernment Between Deliberate and Natural Infectious Disease Outbreaks”
The prevailing view of the Covid-19 outbreak contends that the American outbreak spread outward from New York City. The strain of SARS CoV‑2 that appeared in New York came, in turn, from Europe.
This doesn’t make sense. There were confirmed cases of the virus on the West Coast that did not come from New York. A European strain of the virus transmitted to New York City would have come in via air. In such an event, there would have been a well-documented outbreak of Covid-19 among flight attendants, who operate in close contact with passengers in cramped circumstances, as well as experiencing jet lag, which compromises the immune system.
Next, we review an aspect of the 2001 anthrax attacks. We highlighted the 2001 anthrax attacks in connection with the Covid-19 outbreak in New York City in FTR #1128.
We note that the Anthrax attacks appear to have operated in overlapping contexts, including justification for the war in Iraq.
The 2001 anthrax attacks appear to have served as a provocation that justified a ten-fold increase in spending for biological warfare development. The number of BSL‑4 labs (having dual civilian and military use) increased from two in 2001, to a dozen in 2007.
This increase occurred while Donald Rumsfeld was George W. Bush’s secretary of defense. He went to that position from being Chairman of the Board of Directors for Gilead Sciences, the manufacturer of remdesivir.
We will delve into the politics of the anthrax attacks in the future.
In the context of the above article, note that the National Institutes of Health have also partnered with CIA and the Pentagon, as underscored by an article about a BSL‑4 lab at Boston University. Note that Europe and the U.S. have twelve BSL4 labs apiece. Taiwan has two. China has one:
1.–As the article notes, as of 2007, the U.S. had “more than a dozen” BSL4 labs–China commissioned its first as of 2017. a tenfold increase in funding for BSL4 labs occurred because of the anthrax attacks of 2001. Those attacks might be seen as something of a provocation, spurring a dramatic increase in “dual use” biowarfare research, under the cover of “legitimate” medical/scientific research. In FTR #1128, we hypothesized about the milieu of Stephen Hatfill and apartheid-linked interests as possible authors of a vectoring of New York City with Sars COV2: ” . . . . Before the anthrax mailings of 2001, the United States had just two BSL4 labs—both within the razor-wire confines of government-owned campuses. Now, thanks to a tenfold increase in funding—from $200 million in 2001 to $2 billion in 2006—more than a dozen such facilities can be found at universities and private companies across the country. . . .”
2.–The Boston University lab exemplifies the Pentagon and CIA presence in BSL‑4 facility “dual use”: ” . . . . But some scientists say that argument obscures the true purpose of the current biodefense boom: to study potential biological weapons. ‘The university portrays it as an emerging infectious disease lab,’ says David Ozonoff, a Boston University epidemiologist whose office is right across the street from the new BSL4 facility. ‘But they are talking about studying things like small pox and inhalation anthrax, which pose no public health threat other than as bioweapons.’ . . . The original NIH mandate for the lab indicated that many groups—including the CIA and Department of Defense—would be allowed to use the lab for their own research, the nature of which BU might have little control over. . . .”
Pivoting to discussion and review of the political, financial and corporate connections to the development of medicinal treatments for, and vaccines to prevent, Covid-19, we recap details relevant to the extraordinary timing of a 4/29 announcement of favorable results for a trial of remdesivir. That announcement drove equities markets higher and was beneficial to the stock of Gilead Sciences.
We present a Stat News article on the internal deliberations behind the decisions to modify the NIAID study. Of particular significance is the DSMB deliberation. Note the timeline of the DSMB deliberation, combined with the announcement on 4/29 that drove the markets higher.
1.–The decision was made to cut it short before the question of remdesivir’s impact on mortality could be answered: ” . . . .The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has described to STAT in new detail how it made its fateful decision: to start giving remdesivir to patients who had been assigned to receive a placebo in the study, essentially limiting researchers’ ability to collect more data about whether the drug saves lives — something the study, called ACTT‑1, suggests but does not prove. In the trial, 8% of the participants given remdesivir died, compared with 11.6% of the placebo group, a difference that was not statistically significant. A top NIAID official said he had no regrets about the decision. ‘There certainly was unanimity within the institute that this was the right thing to do,’ said H. Clifford Lane, NIAID’s clinical director. . . .”
2.–In addition, patients scheduled to receive placebo received remdesivir, instead. ” . . . . Steven Nissen, a veteran trialist and cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic, disagreed that giving placebo patients remdesivir was the right call. ‘I believe it is in society’s best interest to determine whether remdesivir can reduce mortality, and with the release of this information doing a placebo-controlled trial to determine if there is a mortality benefit will be very difficult,’ he said. ‘The question is: Was there a route, or is there a route, to determine if the drug can prevent death?’ The decision is ‘a lost opportunity,’ he said. . . .”
3.–Steven Nissen was not alone in his criticism of the NIAID’s decision. ” . . . .Peter Bach, the director of the Center for Health Policy and Outcomes at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, agreed with Nissen. ‘The core understanding of clinical research participation and clinical research conduct is we run the trial rigorously to provide the most accurate information about the right treatment,’ he said. And that answer, he argued, should ideally have determined whether remdesivir saves lives. The reason we have shut our whole society down, Bach said, is not to prevent Covid-19 patients from spending a few more days in the hospital. It is to prevent patients from dying. ‘Mortality is the right endpoint,’ he said. . . .”
4.–Not only was the administration of remdesivir instead of placebo prioritized, but the NIAID study itself was attenuated! ” . . . . But the change in the study’s main goal also changed the way the study would be analyzed. Now, the NIAID decided, the analysis would be calculated when 400 patients out of the 1,063 patients the study enrolled had recovered. If remdesivir turned out to be much more effective than expected, ‘interim’ analyses would be conducted at a third and two-thirds that number.The job of reviewing these analyses would fall to a committee of outside experts on what is known as an independent data and safety monitoring board, or DSMB. . . .”
5.–The performance of the DSMB for the remdesivir study is noteworthy: ” . . . . But the DSMB for the remdesivir study did not ever meet for an interim efficacy analysis, Lane said. All patients had been enrolled by April 20. The data for a DSMB meeting was cut off on April 22. The DSMB met and, on April 27, it made a recommendation to the NIAID. . . .”
The DSMB meeting on 4/27 determined the switch from placebo to remdesivir. Of paramount importance is the fact that this was JUST BEFORE the 4/29 announcement that drove the markets higher and the same day on which key Trump aide–and former Gilead Sciences lobbyist Joe Grogan resigned! ” . . . . . That decision, Lane said, led the NIAID to conclude that patients who had been given placebo should be offered remdesivir, something that started happening after April 28. . . .”
6.–Dr. Ethan Weiss gave an accurate evaluation of the NIAID study: ” . . . . ‘We’ve squandered an incredible opportunity to do good science,’ [Dr. Ethan] Weiss said. ‘If we could ever go back and do something all over, it would be the infrastructure to actually learn something. Because we’re not learning enough.’ . . . .”
The remarkable handling of the NIAID study, the timing of the announcement of the altogether limited success of the attenuated trial and the rise in equities as a result of the announcement may be best understood in the context of the role played in Trump pandemic decision-making by an elite group of billionaires and scientists–including convicted felon Michael Milken (the “junk bond king”).
1.–” . . . . Calling themselves ‘Scientists to Stop COVID-19,’ the collection of top researchers, billionaires and industry captains will act as an ‘ad hoc review board’ for the torrent of coronavirus research, ‘weeding out’ flawed data before it reaches policymakers, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday. They are also acting as a go-between for pharmaceutical companies seeking to build a communication channel with Trump administration officials. The group . . . . has advised Nick Ayers, an aide to Vice President Mike Pence, as well as other agency heads, in the past month. Pence is heading up the White House coronavirus task force. . . .”
2.–” . . . The brainy bunch is led by Thomas Cahill, a 33-year-old doctor who became a venture capitalist . . . . Cahill’s clout comes from building connections through his investment firm, Newpath Partners, with Silicon Valley’s Peter Thiel, the founder of PayPal, and billionaire businessmen Jim Palotta and Michael Milken. . . .”
Note that Peter Thiel played a dominant role in bankrolling Newpath Partners, and the other financial angel who elevated Cahill–Brian Sheth–introduced him to Tommy Hicks, Jr., the co-chairman of the RNC. In FTR #‘s 1111 and 1112, we looked at Hicks’ networking with Steve Bannon associate J. Kyle Bass, as well as his role in the inter-agency networks driving the anti-China effort.
” . . . . At the helm of the effort: The 33-year-old and very-much-under-the-radar venture capitalist Tom Cahill, who leads life sciences-focused Newpath Partners. Cahill completed his M.D. and PhD at Duke University a mere two years ago before landing at blue-chip investment firm Raptor Group through a friend. He went on to found Newpath with some $125 million after impressing well-connected names like venture capitalist Peter Thiel and Vista Equity Partners co-founder Brian Sheth. . . . It was through Sheth, for example, that Scientists to Stop Covid-19 connected with the co-chairman of the Republican National Committee, Thomas Hicks Jr. . . .”
The federal government’s extreme focus on remdesivir has been shaped, in large measure, by the influence of “Scientists to Stop COVID-19”:
1.–“Scientists to Stop Covid-19” is shepherding remdesivir: ” . . . . Scientists to Stop COVID-19 recommends that in this phase, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should work to coordinate with Gilead pharmaceuticals to focus on expediting the results of clinical trials of remdesivir, a drug identified as a potential treatment for COVID-19. The group also recommends administering doses of the drug to patients in an early stage of infection, and notes remdesivir will essentially be a placeholder until a more effective treatment is produced.
2.–The group is doing so by attenuating the regulatory process for coronavirus drugs: “Government entities and agencies appear to adhere to the recommendations outlined by the group, with the Journal reporting that the FDA and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) have implemented some of the suggestions, namely relaxing drug manufacturer regulations and requirements for potential coronavirus treatment drugs. . . .”
We conclude discussion of the remdesivir machinations with a piece about the timing of the announcement of Grogan’s departure.
” . . . . Grogan has served as the director of the White House Domestic Policy Council since February 2019, overseeing a broad array of policy issues including health care and regulation. . . . Grogan was one of the original members of the White House coronavirus task force launched in late January. . . . Grogan worked as a lobbyist for drug company Gilead Sciences before joining the Trump administration. . . .”
The departure was announced in the Wall Street Journal on the morning of Wednesday, April 29, the same day we got our first public reports of the NIAID clinical trial of remdesivir that was positive enough to show it shortened the time to recovery and the same day the FDA granted remdesivir emergency use status.
Note, again, the timing of the DSMB’s actions, as well as the influence of “Scientists to Stop Covid-19.”
In FTR #1130, we noted that Moncef Slaoui–formerly in charge of product development for Moderna–was chosen to head Trump’s “Operation Warp Speed.” He will be working with Four-Star General Gustave Perna, chosen by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley.
Even after agreeing to sell his Moderna stock, Moncef Slaoui’s investments raise alarming questions–note that he is a “venture capitalist” and a longtime former executive at Glaxo-Smithkline:
The circumstances of his appointment will permit him to avoid scrutiny: ” . . . . In agreeing to accept the position, Dr. Slaoui did not come on board as a government employee. Instead, he is on a contract, receiving $1 for his service. That leaves him exempt from federal disclosure rules that would require him to list his outside positions, stock holdings and other potential conflicts. And the contract position is not subject to the same conflict-of-interest laws and regulations that executive branch employees must follow. . . .”
He will retain a great deal of Glaxo-Smithkline stock: ” . . . . He did not say how much his GSK shares were worth. When he left the company in 2017, he held about [500,000 in Western Print Edition] 240,000 shares and share equivalents, according to the drug company’s annual report and an analysis by the executive compensation firm Equilar. . . .”
Further analysis of Slaoui’s position deepens concern about the integrity of the process: ” . . . . ‘This is basically absurd,’ said Virginia Canter, who is chief ethics counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. ‘It allows for no public scrutiny of his conflicts of interest.’ Ms. Canter also said federal law barred government contractors from supervising government employees. . . . Ms. Canter, a former ethics lawyer in the Obama and Clinton administrations, the Securities and Exchange Commission and other agencies, pointed out that GSK’s vaccine candidate with Sanofi could wind up competing with other manufacturers vying for government approval and support. ‘If he retains stock in companies that are investing in the development of a vaccine, and he’s involved in overseeing this process to select the safest vaccine to combat Covid-19, regardless of how wonderful a person he is, we can’t be confident of the integrity of any process in which he is involved,’ Ms. Canter said.In addition, his affiliation with Medicxi could complicate matters: Two of its investors are GSK and a division of Johnson & Johnson, which is also developing a potential vaccine. . . .”
Next, we turn to Moderna’s animal trial for the messenger RNA vaccine it is developing. There are several considerations to be weighed in connection with the Moderna vaccine.
1.–Again, the chairman of Trump’s “Warp Speed” vaccine development program–Moncef Slaoui–was in charge of Moderna’s product development operation.
2.–Moderna’s trial with mice was positive with regard to generating antibody levels high enough to prevent ADE.
3.–Antibody Dependent Enhancement (ADE), is a phenomena where low levels of ineffective antibodies latch onto the virus and exacerbate an overactive immune response that leads to the deadliest symptoms likes cytokine-storms. This danger was seen with SARS and attempts to create a SARS vaccine so it’s a reasonable fear with SARS-CoV‑2.
4.–The Phase III (human) trial is going to be started in July, involving 30,000 people. Alarmingly, those 30,000 people will all be receiving the exact same dosage, 100 micrograms, and that means the phase III trial won’t be testing sub-optimal dosages. The big Phase III trial won’t be testing for ADE in humans.
5.–We may have a nightmare situation where political pressure gives undo weight to animal safety results, leapfrogging over the necessity of testing for side effects.
6.–The animal trials have been severely criticized: ” . . . . ‘This is the barest beginning of preliminary information,’ said Dr. Gregory Poland, an immunologist and vaccine researcher at the Mayo Clinic who has seen the paper, which has yet to undergo peer-review. Poland said the paper was incomplete, disorganized and the numbers of animals tested were small. . . . Poland, who was not involved with the research, said the paper leaves out ‘important parameters’ that could help scientists judge the work. . . .”
7.–We MIGHT create a vaccine that protects those who get a strong immune response while endangering those with sub-protective responses–a “eugenic” vaccine.
8.–The animal trials have been severely criticized: ” . . . . ‘This is the barest beginning of preliminary information,’ said Dr. Gregory Poland, an immunologist and vaccine researcher at the Mayo Clinic who has seen the paper, which has yet to undergo peer-review. Poland said the paper was incomplete, disorganized and the numbers of animals tested were small. . . . Poland, who was not involved with the research, said the paper leaves out ‘important parameters’ that could help scientists judge the work. . . .”
9.–The phase II clinical trials on humans are still underway and won’t be completed before November. Phase III is going to be getting underway in July. The Human clinical trials are already underway at the same time the animal safety trials have yet to be completed.
10.–Side effects can take a while to manifest.
We provided detailed critical comments on Moderna’s Phase I trial in FTR #1132.
We conclude with a New York Times article sets forth a “Vaccine October Surprise” scenario for this fall.
” . . . . In a desperate search for a boost, he could release a coronavirus vaccine that has not been shown to be safe and effective as an October surprise. Oct. 23, 2020, 9 a.m., with 10 days before the election, Fox New releases a poll showing President Trump trailing Joe Biden by eight percentage points. Oct. 23, 2020, 3 p.m., at a hastily convened news conference, President Trump announces that the Food and Drug Administration has just issued an Emergency Use Authorization for a coronavirus vaccine. Mr. Trump declares victory over Covid-19, demands that all businesses reopen immediately and predicts a rapid economic recovery. Given how this president has behaved, this incredibly dangerous scenario is not far-fetched. In a desperate search for a political boost, he could release a coronavirus vaccine before it had been thoroughly tested and shown to be safe and effective. . . .”
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