RED FLAGS - FOUR DISTURBING FACTS ABOUT THE COVID VACCINE RACE (PART 2)

PART 2 - Continued from Part 1):

REG FLAG #3: A RACE DRIVEN BY BUSINESS & POLITICS

The global race to find a COVID vaccine come down to three main initiatives:

1) Operation Warp Speed (OWS): It’s a public–private partnership initiated by the U.S. government to facilitate and accelerate the development, manufacturing, and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics. Funded by the US congress, it’s this initiative that supported Pfizer and Moderna Vaccine development.

2) COVAX formally known as the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access Facility, is also a public-private partnership co-led by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and the World Health Organization facility. Their funding comes primarily from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the European Union.

3) National Independent Initiatives by China & Russia. China initiative has produced CoronaVac (By Sinovac), Ad5-nCoV and 2 more vaccines that have been rolled out to the public since July 2020. In fact, Ad5-nCoV is authorized to be used by the Chinese army. The Russian effort was spearheaded by Gamaleya Research Institute which launched its SputnikV vaccine in September 2020.

It’s fully expected that in a national medical emergency, any government would take drastic action to save its citizens first then worry about cost later. As such, the billions of dollars poured into the vaccine race by the USA, China, Russia and the European Union are nothing unusual. It’s the behavior of Pfizer and Moderna’s top executive that has raised eyebrows.

PUBLIC MONEY, PRIVATE GAIN

Pfizer’s CEO sold US$5.6mil in stock on the day of vaccine announcement. Moderna's CEO sold nearly $2 million of his stock ahead of the company's emergency use vaccine filing. He's now worth $3 billion.

These giants’ pharmaceutical companies have used public money to produce some vaccines that are yet to have proven efficacies. Regardless of what happens in January 2021 (when these vaccines are scheduled to be released to the public, though it was just recently announced that The UK is the first country that has approved Pfizer’s vaccine), they (big pharma) have already made their money. Even Trump had jumped in to claim credit for a vaccine that’s only starting to roll out.

If the CEOs of Pfizer and Moderna truly believe in their product, I would expect them to hold the stock till after its instigation in January at least. Are they cashing in now in anticipation of disappointing news when the truth about their vaccine is discovered? Only time will tell.

RED FLAG #4: PFIZER & MODERNA TAINTED REPUTATIONS

Moderna is a relatively new newcomer into the vaccine manufacturing business. This company positioned as the Covid-vaccine front-runner has no track record and has never developed an approved drug. Founded in 2010, it’s so prolific in raising funds that in 2018, it conducted the largest biotech initial public offering (IPO) in history, raising US$600 million for 8% of its shares, implying a valuation of $7.5 billion; from inception to IPO, Moderna reported cumulative losses of $1.5 billion. Even with none of its drugs being approved, the company is currently valued at $35 billion. Their government’s funded COVID-19 vaccine candidate (mRNA-1273) submitted for emergency use authorization is THE ONE SHOT they have to prove themselves. Their vaccine data provided to the press have not been peer-reviewed and experts are seeking for more facts in order to assess their claim of 95% effectiveness.

Pfizer is a long-established player and one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies. Some of their well-known products are Zithromax (azithromycin), Viagra (sildenafil) and Lipitor (atorvastatin) used to lower LDL blood cholesterol amongst many others. In 1996 during a cholera outbreak in Nigeria, Pfizer set up a clinical trial to administer an experimental antibiotic, trovafloxacin, to approximately 200 children. Local Kano officials report that more than 50 children died in the experiment, while many others developed mental and physical deformities. It’s also one of the single largest lobbying forces in United States politics. In 2010 they spent $25 million on members of the US congress to influence health care legislation. The list of controversies involving Pfizer are just too long to be listed. While lawsuits against large pharmaceutical corporations are the norm in the industry ,Pfizer in several instances have been forced to make out of court settlements.

The flimsy present of Moderna and the chequered past of Pfizer give me pause. Greater scrutiny is needed more than ever on any product they push.

THE SOMETHING-IS-BETTER-THAN-NOTHING ARGUMENT

So far, the best case for pushing a COVID-Vaccine to the masses can be summed up like this: Something is Better Than Nothing! Politicians & Pharmaceutical executives are telling the world that having a Vaccine is better than having No vaccine at all. Perhaps in a long run they would be proven right but for now, they haven’t provided any scientific data to back that argument. It’s more of a hypothesis than an empirical fact.

In the Global village, it’s those with the bigger and louder megaphones that get heard the most. It doesn’t necessarily mean they are right. It’s true that COVID crisis has put the USA, UK and most Western countries in a health emergency, hence, the need for a quick solution. It’s also true that they had eight months to contain the virus while looking for long term solutions. In those same months, China has quietly crushed the virus and still managed to produce a vaccine without fanfare.

The USA, UK & France could not neutralize the virus and haven’t yet brought a vaccine to the market despite selling that theory for eight months.

Meanwhile some countries with modest means and different approaches who have succeeded in containing the virus are ignored by the mainstream media. According to the United Nations, New Zealand, Senegal, Iceland, Denmark and Saudi Arabia have the top five most successful strategies in beating the coronavirus pandemic in the world. Other countries that have done extraordinarily well and experienced low per capita coronavirus mortality rate are Vietnam, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, Niger and China amongst many others.

There is no denying that vaccines are an important public health tool, so is proper hygiene, healthy eating habits and holistic natural medicine. If the objective is to ensure that seven billion people live healthily, vaccine benefits must be weighted against its side effects and other unintended complications.

LET THE DOCTORS SPEAK

Without knowing the specific circumstance that contributed to each COVID-death or whether they could have been saved, it’s plain to see that a considerable number of the 260,000 people killed in the US would still be alive if they lived in Singapore, South Korea, New Zealand, Senegal or even China. Those countries did not place all their bets on a vaccine. They took preventive actions and administered treatment that saved millions of patients.

Instead of one size fits all indiscriminate mass vaccination, I would feel more settled if such a vaccine were given through medical prescription. A doctor would assess the condition of each individual, medical history, age, natural immunity and recommend the proper preventive solution (which may or may not include a vaccine).

It is this Knee jerk reactions by Airlines such as Qantas Airlines (which promised to make COVID-19 vaccine mandatory on their International flights) that makes regular folks wonder if they will be used as Guinea pigs to test the efficacy of a rushed-out vaccine.

Then there’s the big elephant in the room, the Bill Gates questions: What is he up to? Why does he invest billions on a vaccine? What is in it for him? As the future events unfold, We’ll keep our eyes on the ball of the needle…

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