US Gov't shuts down $125 Mil Potential Pandemic Virus Hunting Program Amid Safety Fears

9/7/23

The British Medical Journal made the following announcement which has been confirmed by the US Gov't.

"I'm Kamran Abbasi, Editor-in-Chief of The BMJ. Today, The BMJ can report that the US quietly terminated a flagship, one-hundred and twenty-five million dollar wildlife virus hunting project. This is major news reported for us by the Pulitzer Prize-winning veteran journalist David Willman, because for over a decade, hundreds of millions of dollars in unabated government funding have symbolized a commitment to such efforts. The shuttering of this massive program known as "DEEP VZN"[which stands for Discovery & Exploration of Emerging Pathogens - Viral Zoonoses, and is pronounced "deep vision"] marks the first acknowledgment by the US government that such projects carry risks. Risks that critics have characterized, as potentially catastrophic, wherein virus hunting could actually inadvertently ignite a pandemic.

The world can't afford another pandemic, and questions remain about the origins of SARS-COV-2. But it's become fairly clear that collecting, transporting and performing research on exotic wildlife viruses carries unacceptable risks to all of humanity."

This is extremely important news. It is these "exotic wildlife viruses" that are used in Gain of Function Research of Concern (GOFROC), or research that involves the enhancement of potential pandemic pathogens (ePPP).  Though such research has created many viruses that are pathogenic to humans (one of which *could* be SC2), it has not led to production of any vaccines or cures to date, as biologists, Richard Ebright and Justin Kinney point out in their article posted here yesterday. According to David Willman's reporting for  BMJ,   the gov't  kept the news quietly buried in a congressional budget document hundreds of pages long.  Willman conducted  interviews with federal lawmakers and researchers and found that the closing of DEEP VZN is the result of a review of costs and benefits which included bi-partisan input as well as that of science and technology advisors close to Joe Biden. Willman, in his BMJ report, writes:

"In December 2021 two senior White House officials specialising in biosecurity and biosafety—Jason Matheny, deputy assistant to Biden for technology and national security, and Daniel Gastfriend, the National Security Council’s director for biodefence and pandemic preparedness—first privately shared their views with USAID’s administrator, Samantha Power, and advised her to shut down DEEP VZN. Those familiar with the matter said that another White House official, T Gregory McKelvey Jr, a physician and the assistant director for biosecurity with the Office of Science and Technology Policy, also privately raised concerns with USAID staff."

The USAID and NIH  funded much of the virus hunting conducted by Shi Zenghli, who carried who played a key role in the US-China research of concern that may have caused Sars-CoV-2 (SC2). According to Wikipedia, she reported receiving $1.2 Mil. for the research which was ongoing from 2014-2019.*  That research is precisely the kind that came under review in assessing and closing Deep VZN. Officials told Willman that the new policy recommendations only support such research a) if there is no safer method to produce the same benefit/s and b) only after "all unnecessary risks have eliminated." Although such phrasing is not entirely unambiguous, the fact is that a major program behind much of the Gain of Function Research of Concern is being closed by the Biden Administration. 

That is great news for those of us who are worried about this research. It is also-- for me at least-- one of Biden's most important contribution to the well being of Americans and people all over the world today. Below are some sources for those interested.

 

 >>BMJ article by  https://www.bmj.com/content/382/bmj.p2002

>>Bulletin of Atomic Scientists: https://thebulletin.org/2023/09/the-us-government-cancels-deep-vzn-a-controversial-virus-hunting-program/

>> Daily Mail: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-12491751/USAID-125million-project-pandemic.html

 >> Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/09/07/deep-vzn-virus-wild-usaid-program/

 >> New York Times???? (Waiting for you to find space for "all the news that's fit to print")

 

FN *Wikipedia's source is award-winning investigative medical journalist Katherine Eban from this 2021 deep dive published by Vanity Fair. This June she also reported on the communication between the Chinese CDC and US scientists on the origins of Covid. She was able to interview China's former CDC director Geroge Gao who said he had told American scientists-- including one of the Proximal Origins authors, Eddie Holmes and Wuhan Meat Market theoy proponent Michael Worobey-- that the origins could well have been lab-related OR zoonotic. Worobey, who was lead author in the most widely cited article on Wuhan Market theory of SC2 origins,  said that Gao is misrepresenting the phone calls in question.)

 

Bits: Rain in Hong Kong; American fascist; Tax stuff

It's not global warming or climate change. It's just the weather. Torrential rains pounded southern China, flooding low-lying homes and roads, choking expressways, and prompting officials to suspend classes while the record-breaking storms lingered over the region.

In other weather, Greece:

Brazil:

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Musk cut internet to Ukraine’s military as it was attacking Russian fleet. SpaceX cut off Starlink satellite internet service to Ukrainian submarine drones last year just as they were launching an attack on the Russian Black Sea Fleet, according to a new biography of SpaceX founder Elon Musk. The new details of the previously reported incident underscore how dependent multiple governments have become on a man who controls both a dominant means of high-speed communication and a major platform for public discourse, X.

I'm winning!!

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The AP reports about an IRS plan to try to collect back taxes from millionaires and corrupt businesses:

The IRS announced on Friday it is launching an effort to aggressively pursue 1,600 millionaires and 75 large business partnerships that owe hundreds of millions of dollars in past due taxes.

.... a massive hiring effort and AI research tools developed by IRS employees and contractors are playing a big role in identifying wealthy tax dodgers. The agency is making an effort to showcase positive results from its burst of new funding under President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration as Republicans in Congress look to claw back some of that money. 

House Republicans built a $1.4 billion reduction to the IRS into the debt ceiling and budget cuts package passed by Congress this summer. The White House said the debt deal also has a separate agreement to take $20 billion from the IRS over the next two years and divert that money to other non-defense programs.

With the threat of a government shutdown looming in a dispute over spending levels, there is the potential for additional cuts to the agency.

One can reasonably anticipate some howls of self-righteous outrage from the tax cheats claiming they are innocent patriots being viciously persecuted in an outrageous political witch hunt. One can also expect lots of howls of sanctimonious outrage from the authoritarian radical right Republican Party about this evil socialist, communist, fascist, pedophile Democratic Party tyranny and oppression of innocent patriots. Let our tax cheats go free!!

This country is in the toilet.

Reference post: Links to COVID origin, GoF research info, etc.

Context and commentary: 

PD 9/16/23: http://disq.us/p/2vunl2k 

PD 9/8/23: https://dispol.blogspot.com/2023/09/us-govt-shuts-down-125-mil-potential.html 

PD 9/7/23: https://dispol.blogspot.com/2023/09/protect-public-from-high-risk-research.html

http://disq.us/p/2vqsnut 

GD 8/23/23: https://dispol.blogspot.com/2023/08/news-bkc-fights-for-opacity-covid.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/08/22/wuhan-doctors-pandemic-china-coverup/

PD 8/11/23: https://dispol.blogspot.com/2023/08/covid-update-august-2023.html

PD 8/4/23: https://dispol.blogspot.com/2023/08/deliberate-control-of-information.html

GD 7/23/23: https://dispol.blogspot.com/2023/07/regarding-origins-of-covid-we-were.html 

GD 7/16/23: https://dispol.blogspot.com/2023/07/news-bits-covid-and-lying-to-public.html 

PD 7/11/22: https://dispol.blogspot.com/2022/07/house-hearing-on-long-covid-reveals.html

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9/15/23 - Nature commentary arguing against regulation of GoF research based on a study criticizing GoF regulation: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02873-2

the Aug. 2023 study: https://cset.georgetown.edu/publication/understanding-the-global-gain-of-function-research-landscape 

The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2 (Nature, 3/17/20): https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0820-9

China denies access to BSL-4 lab without explanation: https://usrtk.org/covid-19-origins/wuhan-lab-denied-bsl4-access-for-sars-work-without-clear-reasoning/

Wuhan virus database goes offline without explanation:  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349073738_An_investigation_into_the_WIV_databases_that_were_taken_offline 

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-9-2022-000608_EN.html

C.D.C. Closes Anthrax and Flu Labs After Accidents (NYT, 2014): https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/12/science/cdc-closes-anthrax-and-flu-labs-after-accidents.html

GoF described/defined by the US govt.: https://disq.us/url?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.phe.gov%2Fs3%2Fdualuse%2FDocuments%2FP3CO.pdf%3AHEhXH3B2Xf-MOkROPgG2Gzpaf8U&cuid=5732024

U. WI letter of opposition to pending GoF transparency law: https://disq.us/url?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpathogenresearch.wisc.edu%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F1923%2F2023%2F08%2FLRB-2947-Memo.pdf%3Ay8PmaNAYVpgflDXZ6gsWGJ7M_6k&cuid=5732024

Stanford Law - student analysis of pandemic potential for LLM, 2023: https://law.stanford.edu/2023/03/13/potential-pandemic-pathogens-risks-regulation-and-reform-part-i/

Valentin Bruttel's 2022 paper, Endonuclease fingerprint indicates a synthetic origin of SARS-CoV-2: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.10.18.512756v2

Ian Lipkin admits a lab leak was possible: 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/coronavirus-lab-leak-theory/2021/06/20/30b10be2-c3d9-11eb-8c18-fd53a628b992_story.html

Call for retraction of the PO paper, 7/26/23: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/372946677_Open_Letter_To_Nature_Medicine

Bruttel's slides: https://disq.us/url?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdrive.google.com%2Ffile%2Fd%2F1zpMTlHFvJFlb6eJspCZG-C5DyHInu2OY%2Fview%3Fpli%3D1%3AQMk0HQrrImmKJMOxlo-qHYM1Llw&cuid=5732024 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zpMTlHFvJFlb6eJspCZG-C5DyHInu2OY/view?pli=1

Novella 7/13/23: https://theness.com/neurologicablog/index.php/about-those-lab-leak-documents/ 

It's ONLY weather

 And weather happens, And weather changes.

This has NOTHING to do with man made climate change. 

/s implied 

Hot like never before: Planet endures warmest season on record

The past three months were the warmest ever recorded globally, according to the EU's climate change service. For the Northern Hemisphere, it's meant a summer marked by heat waves, wildfires and melting ice.

(CN) — The planet saw its warmest three-month period on record after the unruly El Niño weather pattern emerged earlier this year and injected even more heat into the warming planet's atmosphere, the European Union's climate agency said Wednesday.

Globally, the average temperature between June and August was measured at 16.77 degrees Celsius (62.18 degrees Fahrenheit), or 1.19 degrees Fahrenheit above the average global temperature, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service.

July was the hottest month ever recorded globally and last month was the hottest August on record, the agency said. This year is on track to become the hottest or second-hottest year on record, which was set in 2016 during a powerful El Niño event.

El Niño is a naturally occurring weather phenomenon that oscillates with its opposite, La Niña. El Niño periods can last several years and are associated with heat and unpredictable weather.

All this heat has made this summer the hottest in the Northern Hemisphere since its dataset starts in 1940, Copernicus said.

“Global temperature records continue to tumble in 2023, with the warmest August following on from the warmest July and June leading to the warmest boreal summer in our data record going back to 1940,” said Samantha Burgess, the deputy director at Copernicus.

Copernicus bases its average temperatures on measurements taken between 1991 and 2020, relying on a fleet of satellites and billions of readings at weather stations around the planet.

Along with heat waves and dry conditions in many parts of the world, this El Niño cycle already has brought with it dangerous extreme weather, including severe rainstorms, and helped fuel devastating wildfires.

Massive wildfires have scorched vast areas of Canada, leaving many American cities under clouds of smoke, and burned across southern Europe. Northeastern Greece in recent weeks has been ravaged by the largest wildfire in Europe in years.

On Wednesday, parts of Europe once again saw disastrous extreme weather after massive amounts of rain caused extensive flooding and flash floods in Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey, killing at least seven people.

“Climate breakdown has begun,” warned António Guterres, the United Nations secretary-general, in response to the new report.

“Scientists have long warned what our fossil fuel addiction will unleash,” he said. “Surging temperatures demand a surge in action. Leaders must turn up the heat now for climate solutions. We can still avoid the worst of climate chaos — and we don’t have a moment to lose.”

His statement came on the eve of a Group of 20 summit in New Delhi, the capital of India. G20 summits are meant to bring world leaders together with the goal of solving humanity's most pressing problems, with global warming chief among them.

But action to stop carbon emissions has faltered amid deepening divisions among the world's superpowers and the upending of the global order caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Carbon emissions are rising again after they dipped during the coronavirus pandemic lockdowns, according to data tracked by Our World in Data, an Oxford University research group. The levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are the highest in human history, scientists say.

Also in its report, Copernicus said Europe's average temperature between June and August was the fifth warmest ever measured at 67.3 F. For long stretches, southern Europe was hit by staggering heat waves while large parts of northern and central Europe were unseasonably cool for much of July and August.

Meanwhile, record-breaking high sea surface temperatures were registered globally, Copernicus said.

In the Antarctic, the extent of sea ice remained at a record low level for August with about 12% less ice than average, the report said.

Arctic sea ice extent also diminished in August and was 10% below average, but that's far off a record minimum seen in August 2012, the report found.

Petteri Taalas, the secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization, called the low level of Antarctic sea ice “literally off the charts,” and he warned the El Niño cycle is only at its beginning.

“It is worth noting that this is happening before we see the full warming impact of the El Niño event, which typically plays out in the second year after it develops,” he said.

https://www.courthousenews.com/hot-like-never-before-planet-endures-warmest-season-on-record/

So, will the world stand by and let this happen? OR will they finally "get" it like they did with a previous climate disaster:

Ozone layer may be restored in decades, UN report says

Human action to save the ozone layer has worked as hoped, and it may recover in just decades, the UN says.

An international agreement in 1987 to stop using the harmful chemicals that were damaging the layer has been successful, the major assessment says.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-64215660

Protect the public from high-risk research on pathogens at UW-Madison lab

The following was written by Professors Justin Kinney and Richard Ebright, two experts in this area of research. The article appeared in The Wisconsin State Journal on 9/6/23.

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 Laboratory accidents happen. They happen because scientists are human, and humans make mistakes. The overwhelming majority of scientific research is safe, and only a small fraction of laboratory accidents pose risks to the public. But accidents involving potential pandemic pathogens can have catastrophic consequences. Potential pandemic pathogens are viruses and bacteria that, if released, could cause a devastating pandemic. 

A bill before the Wisconsin Legislature, Senate Bill 401, will protect the public from the most significant hazards of research on potential pandemic pathogens -- without having significant costs or adverse impacts. The bill is commonsense legislation that deserves broad-based support. 

SB 401 contains two important provisions. 

The first provision will establish public transparency for research on potential pandemic pathogens. Currently, laboratories doing this research are not required to inform state or local governments about where the research is performed, which pathogens they possess or the potential public health impacts if a pathogen escapes. SB 401 will require these laboratories to provide this information to the state Department of Health Services.

Disclosure of this information is essential. First responders need this information to help them avoid accidental infection when responding to emergencies. Health care providers also need this information to diagnose and prevent the spread of laboratory-acquired infections. This knowledge could make the difference between rapid pathogen containment and an uncontrolled disease outbreak. 

The bill's second provision prohibits "gain of function" research on potential pandemic pathogens. This is research that makes these pathogens even more dangerous than they already are. The bill would ban high-risk research in Wisconsin aimed at preparing for new pathogens The measure targets studies like those by UW-Madison scientist Yoshihiro Kawaoka involving bird flu and ferrets. 

 

Tom Still, president of the Wisconsin Technology Council, recently expressed concerns in a Wisconsin State Journal column that this prohibition would hamper biomedical research. These concerns are unfounded. "Gain of function" research on potential pandemic pathogens constitutes less than 0.01% of biomedical research and is not used for developing vaccines or treatments for disease. 

Based on publicly available information, the bill's second provision will affect just one laboratory in Wisconsin -- a virology lab at UW-Madison led by Dr. Yoshihiro Kawaoka. This provision is important because the Kawaoka laboratory performs "gain of function" research that poses extreme risks to public health. 

In 2011, the Kawaoka laboratory created genetically engineered avian influenza viruses that can transmit efficiently among mammals. Natural avian influenza viruses can kill up to two-thirds of the humans they infect, but they transmit poorly from person to person. If the genetically engineered avian influenza viruses constructed by the Kawaoka laboratory were to escape, they could cause a pandemic far more devastating than COVID-19. The U.S. federal government has -- for decades -- failed to enact legislation that protects the public from accidents at laboratories that study and genetically engineer potential pandemic pathogens. Shockingly, federal inaction continues despite U.S. intelligence agencies assessing that the COVID-19 pandemic may have been caused by an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan, China, doing exactly this kind of research. 

States must therefore act to protect their residents. By establishing public transparency for high-risk pathogen research, and by prohibiting the highest-risk type of pathogen research, SB 401 will provide urgently needed protections for the residents of Wisconsin. 

Justin Kinney is an associate professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York. Richard Ebright is a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Rutgers University in New Jersey. They are co-founders of Biosafety Now: https://biosafetynow.org/

Bits: Dictatorship; Incitement of violence; More incitement

It seems that the intent and meaning of the radical right's Project 2025 is starting to sink in. Good, hope it's not too late. Salon writes:

Trump's plans to become a dictator — denial will not save you

Project 2025 is a strategy that has been developed by right-wing think tanks

Donald Trump is a dictator in waiting. Like other dictators, he is threatening to put his "enemies" in prison – and to do even worse things to them. These are not idle threats or empty acts of ideation: Donald Trump is a violent man who is a proven enemy of democracy and freedom.

These threats of violence against his enemies are part of a much larger pattern of violent and dangerous behavior that is only growing worse as he faces criminal trials and the possibility of going to prison for hundreds of years.

In the most recent example, Donald Trump told Glenn Beck during an interview last week that he is going to put President Biden and other "enemies" in prison when he takes by the White House in 2025.

In a Sunday evening post on his Truth Social disinformation social media platform, Trump was even more explicit with his threats of violence and harm, threatening that he would treat Biden and the other "enemies" like they do in "banana republics":

The Crooked Joe Biden Campaign has thrown so many Indictments and lawsuits against me that Republicans are already thinking about what we are going to do to Biden and the Communists when it's our turn. They have started a whole new Banana Republic way of thinking about political campaigns. So cheap and dirty, but that's where America is right now. Be careful what you wish for!

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The Hill reports about an example of the radical right normalizing political violence:

Huckabee: 2024 will be last election ‘decided by ballots rather 

than bullets’ if Trump loses over legal cases

In the latest episode of his show on TBN, Huckabee argued the legal woes now facing Trump are part of a politically motivated scheme from the Biden administration, an argument touted by many in the former president’s orbit.

'Nuff said.

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An opinion piece in The Hill reports about America's radical right effort to foment and normalize political violence:

Republicans just can’t stop calling for civil war

Ask a MAGA Republican what will happen if former President Donald Trump is convicted in any of his four criminal trials and the answer is almost always the same: civil war.

That answer holds true whether you speak to rank-and-file Republican voters, local elected officials or even former national GOP leaders. It’s also an indication that the right-wing politics of grievance is spiraling dangerously out of control.

Yeah, radical right faux grievance is dangerously out of control.