Insecurity in the Age of Pathogens

The lasting legacy of this current pandemic, or plandemic as some are calling it, on the general population will be a deep sense of insecurity. One day you have a job, the next you don't. One day you have a thriving small business, the next day you're staring at bankruptcy. The rapidity and scale of the global shutdown is without historical precedent.

The police and army seem largely unaffected by the pandemic. I haven't seen any statistics regarding infection rates for these two groups. Additionally, their jobs are secure. Police stations and army posts are not being closed down. Likewise, the jobs of government employees are secure. For persons working in private companies and businesses, jobs can be lost quickly in a pandemic. For example, take this headline from an article that appeared in the Evening Standard on March 16th 2020:

Virgin Atlantic asks staff to take eight weeks
of unpaid leave as it cuts 80% of flights 

For people working in the travel and hospitality industry, things will never be quite the same again. What if there's another pandemic, like COVID-19, next year? The world has been conditioned to the possibility of a pandemic for decades now. The seasonal flu has always been portrayed as the source of a possible pandemic if a particularly virulent strain should arise. The importance of getting your flu shot, as well as a host of other vaccines, has been heavily promoted. 

The spectre of the Spanish Flu of 1918 is always raised as proof of what might happen if we are not on guard. However in a pandemic, while individuals might sicken and die, the world would go on. At least that was the expectation. Now we know that's not the case. The world didn't go on. It stopped, and people lost their jobs or were stranded in foreign countries or on cruise ships. Many people's lives have been turned upside down. Figure 1 shows the death toll as of March 22nd 2020: 

Figure 1: source 

This is a tiny number by global standards. By contrast Figure 2 features an infographic concerning the impact of malaria: 

Figure 2: source 

It's unlikely that the deaths in 2020 from COVID-19 will match the death toll from Malaria. The latter of course is not a pandemic and is endemic in only certain parts of the world. The point is that there are many other illnesses that cause death rates far higher than the current virus and no lockdowns, global or even local, are enforced.

After COVID-19, people are going to be looking for more secure employment. Jobs that are perceived as "pandemic-resistant" will be in high demand. One possible scenario is that most small businesses collapse and are taken over by banks. The businesses however, continue with the owners being paid a salary by the banks. Everybody becomes an employee. As home owners default on their mortgages, banks take them over but people are allowed to continue living in them and paying a nominal rent. Nobody owns anything. Perceiving the vulnerability of workers during pandemic lockdowns, the government introduces a Universal Basic Income for everybody.

The governments and especially the central banks become all powerful. There is no paper money anymore. Your government-allotted income is credited to your bank account. On the pretext of tracing your previous contacts if you are found to be infected, it will be mandated that location-tracking apps be installed on mobile phones and these must be carried on your person when leaving your home. The penalty for not complying as always will be fines or imprisonment. 

So this is the bleak, cashless future. A future in which your location and purchases are constantly tracked. You, like nearly everyone else, works for the government and owns nothing. You are provided with a basic income and accommodation whether you work or not. You must comply with whatever the government tells you to do e.g. submit to vaccinations. As in Huxley's "Brave New World", you may be "happified" with a daily dose of "soma". This dystopia will be packaged and propagandised in a way that makes you feel grateful that you have such benevolent overlords.

Our overlords, having acquired the world's assets and with a militarised police force at their beck and call, will have achieved total control over their underlings (most of whom will have actively supported their enslavement). Decisions as to whether you are allowed to breed or even if you are allowed to live will be decided at their whim.

Alarm as Super Malaria Spreads in South East Asia

This was one headline that caught my eye on today's BBC News. The article begins:

The rapid spread of "super malaria" in South East Asia is an alarming global threat, scientists are warning. This dangerous form of the malaria parasite cannot be killed with the main anti-malaria drugs. It emerged in Cambodia but has since spread through parts of Thailand, Laos and has arrived in southern Vietnam. The team at the Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit in Bangkok said there was a real danger of malaria becoming untreatable. Prof Arjen Dondorp, the head of the unit, told the BBC News website: "We think it is a serious threat. "It is alarming that this strain is spreading so quickly through the whole region and we fear it can spread further [and eventually] jump to Africa."

The news article is based on a letter that appeared in The Lancet Infectious Diseases website this month (October 2017). The letter, quite brief, references four sources, the second of which is referred to as "a sinister development" in which a single dominant artemisinin-resistant P falciparum C580Y mutant lineage has arisen in western Cambodia, outcompeted the other resistant malaria parasites, and subsequently acquired resistance to piperaquine (link). It's a long and detailed scientific article and I'm not competent to assess its validity or significance but I did note that funding for the study came from The Wellcome Trust and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The multiple authors pointed out that the funder of the study had no role in study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, or writing of the report. The corresponding author had full access to all the data in the study and had final responsibility for the decision to submit for publication.

In fact most of the founding for this Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit comes from The Welcome Trust that describes itself as:

Wellcome exists to improve health for everyone by helping great ideas to thrive.

We’re a global charitable foundation, both politically and financially independent. We support scientists and researchers, take on big problems, fuel imaginations, and spark debate. 

Disturbingly, the organisation lists vaccine development at the top of its list of types of supported projects. It would not be unreasonable to suspect that, when a news article like this appears, some sort of new antimalarial vaccine might be in preparation. The idea would be to promote the threat of a malaria apocalypse (as opposed to an Ebola or Zika apocalypse) to maximise vaccine sales. There's no such new vaccine promised at the moment, but a vaccine does exist. 

The only approved one at the time of writing is RTS,S. It requires four injections, and has a relatively low efficacy (26–50%). Due to low efficacy, WHO does not recommend the use of RTS,S vaccine in babies between 6 and 12 weeks of age. The vaccine is going to be studied further in Africa in 2018. Research continues into recombinant protein and attenuated whole organism vaccines. It was developed by developed by PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Here is a link to an earlier post of mine on a Malaria Vaccine. It seems that this latest article might be an attempt to justify an extension of the trial of the vaccine to South East Asia in addition of Africa. Let's watch developments and see how this alarming global threat unfolds.

Malaria Vaccine

"Because the way each person's body deals with the disease is different and we can't predict what you will do if you get exposed to the disease," According to a BBC News report, "the world's first vaccine against malaria will be introduced in three countries - Ghana, Kenya and Malawi - starting in 2018." Three doses are required, spaced three months apart, and then a fourth dose eighteen months later. Without the fourth dose, the benefits decline rapidly. As it is, the vaccine benefits less than four in ten children. The pilot will involve 750,000 children of whom half will get the vaccinations. The funding is coming from the usual suspects:

• Gavi - The Vaccine Alliance (Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation)
• Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria
• Unitaid
• WHO (World Health Organisation)
• GSK (GlaxoSmithKline)

An earlier article in The Guardian dated 30th June 2016 is less positive:

As the vaccine wears off, the study shows that children living in areas where there is high transmission of the disease end up with more infections than those who have never had a jab – known as the malaria rebound effect. Unvaccinated children – if they survive malaria – develop some natural immunity over the years.

One has to be skeptical of yet another vaccine being added to the hefty number that children already receive. How effective will be the collection and collation of the data relating to 750,000 children in these countries? The pilot involves a control group of 375,00 who get no vaccinations and the same number in the vaccinated group whose vaccine regime extends over 27 months.

To quote from The Guardian article again:

Dr David Kaslow, vice-president for product development at Path, a non-profit international organisation that has been a key player with the pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline, said up to six doses could be needed to maintain the protective effect.

Six doses of a vaccine? With this in mind, one would suppose that this vaccine, rolled out across Africa and South East Asia, would be a big money spinner for the pharmaceutical companies involved. If the benefits are dubious, well so what and given the reported rebound effect, drawbacks may outweigh benefits. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has a long history of criminal activity so this company's involvement in anything should be enough to raise suspicions.

Developing countries are an excellent venue for testing out new vaccines. GSK was convicted for killing 14 babies during vaccine trials in Argentina in 2012. It was fined less than US $100,000 for the offences (source). The problem with vaccines is not the vaccines themselves but the way they are brought to market. The pharmaceutical companies oversee the trials, there is little independent testing because of the expense involved. They lobby governments to push the vaccines via the healthcare infrastructure in various countries. If they can persuade governments to mandate the vaccine, all the better. They ensure that mainstream media carries news of the supposed benefits of vaccines.

The more sophisticated the health care services of a country, the more warmly vaccines are embraced. In developing countries, there is well-deserved skepticism about the benefits of vaccinations but not so in countries like Australia. The elderly dutifully line up for their flu shots. From neonate to teenager, the young are subjected to a plethora of shots to protect them allegedly from a dangerous, pathogen-filled world. Any reservations about the number of vaccines received or their scheduling is howled down as being a matter for health care professionals to decide. Of course, any criticisms from within the health care community are rare and any person bold enough to voice concerns risks ostracism from her or his fellow professionals. There seems to be no middle ground. One is either for or against vaccines.

ABC News recently carried this news article: Are you an unvaccinated adult? Here's what you need to know about catching up. The article goes on to suggest the following:

• MMR — measles, mumps, rubella — approximately $35.00 per dose
• Varicella (chicken pox) — approximately $80.00 per dose
• Hepatitis B — approximately $20.00 per dose
• Poliomyelitis (polio) — approximately $39.99 per dose
• Tetanus/whooping cough/diphtheria — approximately $45.00 per dose
• Influenza (flu) — approximately $20.00
• Hepatitis A — approximately $65.00 per dose
• Human Papillomavirus (HPV/Gardasil) — approximately $200.00 per dose
• Haemophilus Influenzae Type B (Hib) — approximately $24.95 per dose
• Meningococcal C — approximately $100.00 per dose

This amounts to well over A$600. The government will actually cover these costs for an individual up until the age of 20, which means that taxpayers are footing the bill. One comment by a doctor in the article is revealing: Because the way each person's body deals with the disease is different and we can't predict what you will do if you get exposed to the disease. This observation could be applied equally well to vaccines. It's clear that in certain individuals the reaction to a vaccination can be unpredictable and sometimes catastrophic. The argument always is that the benefits of vaccines outweigh their drawbacks. For those who suffer catastrophic reactions, this is of little comfort.

Can it be that vaccines are less about public health and more about private profits? What happens when we follow the money trail? The following quote from ENCOGNITIVE.COM is revealing:

The vaccine industry was worth about $23 billion in 2014 and expected to reach $42 billion by 2020. That's big business. The pharmaceutical industry as a whole is BIG Business, thus the moniker Big Pharma. Below are some of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, as of October, 2014. After looking at these numbers, you'll understand why they're called BIG Pharma and how it is that they're able to steer and dictate public health policies. Almost every single public policy pertaining to drugs and vaccines was drafted by the pharmaceutical industry--it is able to do this by showering money on those it seeks to influence.
Big Pharma's sphere of influence extends from journalists to doctors: 

• TV Networks (advertising),
• Scientists (research grants),
• Researchers (research grants, salary),
• Doctors (kickbacks, consulting fees, prescriptions, legal bribery),
• Government Bureaucrats (revolving door, stock options),
• Universities and Colleges (endowments, research grants, tuition sponsorships)
• Public Health Officials (revolving door, stock options),
• Politicians (campaign contributions, revolving door),
• Journalists (paid stipends, through TV network owners)
• Consumers (mass advertising, fear-mongering/scare tactics through media).

Of course, if fears of a pandemic can be heightened to the point of hysteria, then vaccines can be fast-tracked and administered to all who are gullible enough to take them. Here are the big players in the pharmaceutical game (from ENCOGNITIVE.COM):

Big Pharma by the Numbers 

Sanofi
Approximate 2014 revenue (USD): $42 billion
Market capitalization (total market value of stocks, USD): $138 billion
Headquarter: Paris, France
Stock exchange: NYSE (ADR), Euronext 

GlaxoSmithKline
Approximate 2014 revenue (USD): $24 billion
Market capitalization (total market value of stocks, USD): $106 billion
Headquarter: Brentwood, England
Stock exchange: NYSE (ADR), London 

Merck
Approximate 2014 revenue (USD): $42 billion
Market capitalization (total market value of stocks, USD): $156 billion
Headquarter: Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, USA
Stock exchange: NYSE 

Johnson & Johnson
Approximate 2014 revenue (USD): $76 billion
Market capitalization (total market value of stocks, USD): $280 billion
Headquarter: New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA
Stock exchange: NYSE 

Eli Lilly and Co.
Approximate 2014 revenue (USD): $21 billion
Market capitalization (total market value of stocks, USD): $70 billion
Headquarter: Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Stock exchange: NYSE 

Novartis
Approximate 2014 revenue (USD): $56 billion
Market capitalization (total market value of stocks, USD): $237 billion
Headquarter: Basel, Switzerland
Stock exchange: NYSE (ADR), SIX (Swiss Exchange) 

Astellas
Approximate 2014 revenue (USD): N/A
Market capitalization (total market value of stocks, USD): 3.52 trillion Yen
Headquarter: Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Japan
Stock exchange: TKO (Tokyo Stock Exchange) 

Roche Holding Ltd.
Approximate 2014 revenue (USD): $90 billion
Market capitalization (total market value of stocks, USD): $246 billion
Headquarter: Basel, Switzerland
Stock exchange: OTCMKTS, SIX (Swiss Exchange) 

Pfizer Inc 
Approximate 2014 revenue (USD): $47 billion
Market capitalization (total market value of stocks, USD): $177 billion
Headquarter: New York, New York, USA
Stock exchange: NYSE 

The first legal duty of a public listed company: maximise profit for shareholders.