Whenever westerners do not want to accept responsibility for the consequence of their research in synthetic biological war agents and genetic modification of existing agents, they dismiss all opposing criticism as *conspiracy theories.* When Zika virus was discovered in 1947, it was not as pathogenic as it has suddenly and currently been claimed to be in Brazil. The question is of what use is it to someone to own (hold a patent of) a virus that cannot be manipulated to yield money? In his 1968 published book, Chemical and Biological Warfare - America's Hidden Arsenal, Seymour M. Hersh wrote on p.75 thus, "Progress in the ability to spread germ agents is being matched only by progress in finding new and virulent strains of germs. Utilizing recent dramatic strides in genetics, scientists are working on techniques that will enable them to breed a variety of resistance factors into a particular bacterial or viral agent (biological engineering). With such techniques, a special breed of pneumonic plague, or other diseases, could theoretically be developed that no longer will be sensitive to penicillin, streptomycin, and other antibiotics." During hearings on the 1962 Chemical Corps budget, General Marshall Stubbs, representing the US Department of Defence, told the Congress appropriations subcommittee thus, "At the US Army Biological Laboratories, genetic studies of microorganisms - bacteria, viruses, rickettsia and fungi - are receiving ever-increasing attention. ..... The objectives stated above are currently being implemented in part by (1) attempting to obtain combination, recombination, or transformation with intact viral particles and / or their nucleic acid fractions, (2) studying population genetics which includes the development of methods for inducing mutations and selecting such populations, (3) studying genetic changes occurring in cells and viruses in chronically infected tissue-culture systems, (4) isolating and attempting to recombine the ribonucleic (RNA) acids from different viruses into a new virus, .....(12), P. 315, in The Problem of Chemical and Biological Warfare, Volume II, CB Weapons Today, published by Stockholm International Research Institute, 1973." The new qualities that are now being associated with Zika virus - microcephaly, Guillain-Barrés syndrome and extended mode of transmission from mosquito bites to sexual contacts may be as a result of item 4 above. Earlier on page 314, an Assistant Director in the US Department of Defence, Dr. Donald Mac-Arthur presented a four-point program, in 1969, on CB to Congressional Committee of which the first two are interesting. He said, "(1) All biological agents up to the present time are representatives of naturally occurring disease, and are thus known by scientists throughout the world. They are easily available to qualified scientists for research, either for offensive or defensive purposes. (2) Within the next 5 to 10 years, it would probably be possible to make a new infective microorganism which could differ in certain important aspects from any known disease-causing organisms. Most important of these is that it might be refractory to the immunological and therapeutic processes upon which we depend to maintain our relative freedom from infectious disease." He stated further that the programme could be completed within five years at a cost of $10 million which was appropriated. We only need to read through science research publications afterwards in order to appreciate what western scientists have been doing and are still doing in their laboratories.
Viruses are not artifices that can appreciate in value, materially or pecuniary. However, as it has been referenced above, a harmless virus like Zika can be modified to become harmful by its owner. Zika virus is not invented but diseases attributed to it can be laboratory inventions caused by biological engineering. Gazelles are not paranoids when they run away at the sight of lions.
S.Kadiri
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Who Owns the Zika Virus? (Kress)
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
From: harrow@msu.edu
Date: Sat, 6 Feb 2016 21:21:47 -0500
the issue here, to which i responded, was not about who holds the patent, but who invented it. the difference is between capitalist pharmacology and paranoia in history.
what the patent owners do i hate to imagine. but that has nothing to do with the evil lab scientist unleashing a virus on the world, and then blaming africans for it.
On 2/6/16 8:07 PM, Abdul Salau wrote:
--
On Fri, Feb 5, 2016 at 6:28 PM, Salimonu Kadiri <ogunlakaiye@hotmail.com> wrote:
Glory be to you Gloria for your response below. Having followed the combat between the French and the US in the 80s over the patent of the HIV and the test kits, it should not surprise anyone that Zika virus is owned by someone, somewhere. However, our concern now should be why Zika virus has suddenly become pathogenic. As we have been told, Zika virus was first discovered in the Zika forest in Uganda in 1947 and was never associated with the symptoms currently in display in Brazil. Zika was first reported in Brazil in May 2015 and the possibility that Zika virus might cause microcephaly - abnormal small heads and brains in children at birth - was raised in October 2015 when doctors noticed a surge in babies with the condition.
While the article posted by you states that Zika virus is sexually transmitted, science text books state that it is a mosquito-transmitted infection, related to dengue and yellow fever. Microcephaly has been attributed to the outbreak of Zika virus in Brazil without any proof and there could be many other causes, such as infection of the foetus with rubella (German measles), cytomegalovirus, or toxoplasmosis, poisoning of the foetus by alcohol, mercury, radiation, severe maternal malnutrition and diabetes. Questions that should now be addressed are: Why has Zika virus suddenly become pathogenic when it has never been so since its discovery in 1947? What is the evidence that it is sexually transmitted? If Zika virus is owned by somebody, in which patent register was it published?
S. Kadiri
From: emeagwali@ccsu.edu
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Who Owns the Zika Virus? (Kress)
Date: Thu, 4 Feb 2016 17:36:56 +0000
Well to tell the truth, the information about the Zika virus in the post surprised me - but as a scholar
I am compelled to pay attention to various opinions.
I am actually glad that I saw the article because
now I know that I had taken too much for granted and will do some basic investigation and see what other
hypotheses are out there.
At the end of such research, the views of Kress may be challenged or endorsed but at this stage I
do not have enough information to either dismiss the article or embrace it.
As a historian, I have come across a great deal of
outrageous and incredible sounding stuff that turned out to be the dead truth.
Who would have thought that Bill Cosby, the nice family man of the sitcoms,
has been a serial rapist, allegedly administering drugs to his potential victims.
Who would have thought that thousands of priests around the world
(except in Africa !) have now been identified as pedophiles.
Who would have thought that Ken will consider Wikipedia an unquestionable credible source?
Who would have thought that the US would fund al - Qaida in its early days - and
under Carter, my favorite US President.
Fact is sometimes more incredible than fiction.
Viruses are patented.
Ebola was patented and is owned by the US Government
http://www.google.com/patents/CA2741523A1
So the Zika Virus is presumably also owned by some entity. Is the author right
or wrong with respect to the owner mentioned?
The creator/inventor of a virus and the owner may not necessarily be the same entity.
So in this case, is the creator/inventor different from the owner? Or can we conclude that
the virus just happened to emerge spontaneously. This is an interesting research project
for open minds.
vimeo.com/user5946750/videos
Gloria Emeagwali's Documentaries onAfrica and the African Diaspora
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of kenneth harrow <harrow@msu.edu>
Sent: Thursday, February 4, 2016 11:05 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Who Owns the Zika Virus? (Kress)chidi
i exchange views, make judgments, hear and respond to opinions on this list.
if i wanted a medical judgment on what appears to be an absurd claim, i'd have to look into some accredited medical source.
now, why would i want to waste my time doing that?
perhaps you want different things from this list from what i do. i hear about events linked to africa, hear different points of view argued, learn enormously about opinions, the people who hold them, and how they have been shaped, often historically.
i don't go to doctors for opinions; but i do go to public lists for opinions because they tell me how people think and how ideologies are expressed.
those things are real, for me, and act on the world.
so, all the time we are assessing opinions. at times they appear credible; at times not
best
ken
On 2/4/16 10:09 AM, Cornelius Hamelberg wrote:
--Chidi,
You, presumably not a medical man did nevertheless follow some of the HIV controversies, hunches, conspiracy theories and probably have some scientific opinions and premonitions of your own, about it's genesis. Where did all the conspiracy theories about HIV come from and where have they taken us?
This is from the LRB blog: Zika Virus, the Story So Far
The Global Research blog has been thoroughly discredited, its many hostile and anti-Western views and some of its bizarre conspiracy theories all maliciously, politically motivated and susceptible to uncritical mass consumption - all their "facts" swallowed, hook, line and sinker by what someone in this forum has described as "a gullible, morally weak and intellectually feeble society"
They say, "So here are some facts until we receive more information" and then proceed to tell us that a UK based and a US based company share the very exclusive monopoly of having originated Zika without presenting any proof of these their so called elemental facts: "This sexually-transmitted virus has been around for 69 years and is a product of two companies: LGC Group (headquartered in the UK) and ATTC (headquartered in the US)"
My reggae artist friend Pygment (Jamaican – lives here in Stockholm and I have a lot of respect for him, even introduced him to the ultra-orthodox rabbi just outside the synagogue once and they shook hands heartily) well, he has this song about the HIV virus in which, maybe solely persuaded or carried away by the efficacy of word play he claims that "they germinate it in Germany"
Jesus said that you must "test the spirits" if they be from God. The Quran requests that they produce their proofs if they are truthful or are we to believe in each and every fairy tale?
Only asking.
Cornelius
We Sweden
On Thursday, 4 February 2016 13:43:08 UTC+1, Chidi Anthony Opara wrote:In the article Gloria posted, specific points were made to support a position, but the responses which seem to propose a counter position were generalized.
I had expected specific counter points.
CAO.
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