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Sci Tech    H1'ed 8/6/22

DARPA's War on Virus Terror

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DARPA Logo 2010.
DARPA Logo 2010.
(Image by Wikipedia (commons.wikimedia.org), Author: Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA))
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DARPA's War on Virus Terror

by John Kendall Hawkins

What is it gotta a bigga blacka moustache, smoke a bigga black cigar, and is a real bigga pain in the neck?

-Chicolini to Firefly in the Marx Bros's Duck Soup (1933)

It seems I'm over my Covid-19 bout that lasted just over 10 days, from the test positive to the cessation of catastrophic sneezing and coughing and flu-like symptoms that kept me bedridden for much of the time. Antiviral medication was enormously helpful. I still have spells where I'm wobbly, and it remains to be seen whether I'll be one of those long Covid sufferers who rue their days, when they can remember them through the fog. Anyway, now that I'm feeling better, I wanted to consider some loose ends of the Coronavirus pandemic, still with us in its shape-shifting nastiness, although monkeypox will probably distract us, as we scapegoat gays again, like we did with AIDS (still no vaccine), from continuing to demand some scientific answers to the origin of the SARS-2 virus.

Origins is important. But equally fascinating to this old owl who still gives a hoot, in the long and endless night, is the incredibly rapid response to the virus by medicine in the months that followed Covid's breakout in America. It's an olio of serendipitous miracles. And DARPA was at the center of it with brave new world technology. Now let's remember that DARPA has already gifted us wonderful Christmas presence: The Internet (now a battlefield), GPS (critical for drone warfare), BigDog (as headless as Hawthorne's horseman), cyborg insects (with consciousness, they whisper), the GUI (pronounced "gooey"), Onion routing ("gifted" to dissidents), Siri (now Apple's, and as sexy as Mata Hari), HAARP (associated by some with weather manipulation). DARPA is be nign. You believe me, don't you?

No, but seriously, I kid, as Don Rickles used to say. Just hockey-pucking around. DARPA led the triumphant answer to the Covid-19 challenge. It was an incredible series of coincidences, from just after Trump's inauguration in 2017 to 2020, when the f*cker-in-Chief was fired by the electorate. To save time and rants, I'll hash-point:

- In 2014, the Obama administration told Anthony Fauci: No more funds for gain-of-function research, and such research went into moratorium status.

- In January 2017, Donald J. Trump is inaugurated.

- In February 2017, the mysterious Cofer Black joins Hunter Biden on the board of the Burisma Gas Holdings, long suspected of money-laundering.

- In December 2017, the moratorium was lifted and G-O-F research resumes.

- In waely 2017, DARPA started up a partnership with universities and labs and pharmas in a program they called Pandemic Prevention Platform (P3), which promises "an integrated technology platform that gives public health officials the capability to halt the spread of any viral disease outbreak within 60 days, before it can escalate to pandemic status."

- In 2018, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine publish Biodefense in the Age of Synthetic Biology, which is a framework for the development of new biological and chemical products as weapons, including the use of G-O-F research to create super-viruses in an effort to be ahead of our enemies, should they, whoever they are (coughs Russia, China coughs), want to "do" us with a microcosm of doom. (See my review)

- In 2018, P3 partners begin war game-like simulations against terrorizing pandemics involving influenza, Zika and MERS, using new-fangled DARPA techniques.

60 days to answer any virus
60 days to answer any virus
(Image by DARPA)
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DARPA image.

- In December 2019, while Congress is fussing with a meaningless and overwrought live-on-TV impeachment proceeding that wears everybody out, the first reports of a pandemic-level virus are coming from China.

- On January 20, 2020, the first confirmed case of Covid-19 in the United States is diagnosed in Snohomish County, north of Seattle.

- On February 5, 2020, despite the alarming warnings that Covid-19 has landed in Europe, the US, probably gifting itself a break after the impeachment Bozo-ness, goes ahead with the SuperBowl that Florida governor, Ron DeSantos, later admits may have been a superspreader event, given that fans came from far and near, and went back there after the game. (Suddenly, in the mind's eye, one sees beer mucus flying everywhere -- you know how those fans are, now feeling entitled to phlegm because of the ticket and beverage prices they paid). The MSM follows up their saturation coverage of the Bozo event with, not much talk of the virus, but how Americans feel there should be a national holiday called Super Monday (I guess) that acknowledges that most folks are calling in sick anyway. f*ck work. f*ck Covid. Hey, f*ck it all -- why don't we call in a sickie for the rest of the century. Swing it!

- On February 25, 2020, the Snohomish County guy (see above) survives and his antibodies are handed by "an intergovernmental working group organized by ASPR'' over to the Canadian biolab Abcellera, which has been given a grant in excess of $100 million by DARPA. Abcellera has PayPal CEO Peter Thiel as a major investment backer (and, in November, just after the election, Thiel will be appointed to the Board.) The DARPA P3 60-day clock is running!

- In March 2020, AbCellera and Lilly to Co-develop Antibody Therapies for the Treatment of COVID-19.

- By August 2020, Abcellera and Eli Lilly announce they have produced a stop-gap solution for Covid-19 -- LY-CoV555. Abcellera announces,

"LY-CoV555 is a highly potent, neutralizing IgG1 monoclonal antibody that targets the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Its mechanism of action is designed to block viral attachment and entry into human cells, and to neutralize the virus, potentially preventing and treating COVID-19."

- August 2020, Trump announces Operation Warp Speed that will see a Covid-19 vaccine on the market by October, the month before the presidential election.

- November 2020, after the election, with Trump ousted, Covid-19 vaccines appear out the yin-yang, full trials suspended under the Emergency Use Authorization that severely limits liability for the vaccine mishaps, such as death or growing a second head.

It is, however, limited at this time to a specific population for treatment.

This seemed to be a miracle. Unbelievably useful technology -- you know, like the Internet. and what a partnership! -- up there with some of the best moments of Test cricket. Syncopation and symbiosis on a godly scale. So, I contacted my contact at DARPA (no, this is true) Amy Jenkins, and I asked her about the usefulness of this monoclonal solution as an important factor in our national recovery from the viral varmint unloosed by Wuhan, some were saying pangolins! Here was my brief exchange with Amy:

Hawkins: Is it repeatable? Once it wears off in weeks or months, can said subject repeat the dose and get relief again? (This would be an excellent universal Solution to get everybody back to work again - and to vote, while we are all waiting for a vaccine to be developed.)

Jenkins: One advantage of the gene-based platform capability is that it can be re-administered (no vector-based immune response). As a reminder, these are for near immediate, non-permanent protection and are not meant to be a replacement for vaccines.

Hawkins: Following on from my assumption above, can this Solution be a stop-gap measure to get us to the vaccine? If so, how would that work?

Jenkins: Correct. The gene-encoded medical countermeasure provides protection in less than three days, but lasts only for months not days, and is not meant to be a replacement for vaccines. It's a prophylactic for temporary protection before a vaccine is available or an immune response [is elicited].

Yes, we might have put fortunes into further developing this Solution that used our body's defenses to ward off Covid-19 so that the spikes could get us in their nefarious clutches. But no!

There was money to be made. Vaccines. Something like LY-CoV555 was probably the most efficient and efficacious way forward, and certainly the safest, since it would resist the virus to begin with and, therefore, no Long Covid. No side effects from vaccines. And this last point sticks in me craw. We're always hearing from the beloved MSM about "disinformation" being spread and how this and that is just "a conspiracy theory."

For instance, when Trump announced Operation Warp Speed that he said would see a Covid-19 vaccine on the market by October (the Surprise Month before the election), the MSM was totally skeptical. No way, Jose, they said in tabernacular unison, no Covid vaccine has ever been developed and the shortest time ever to develop a vaccine at all has been 4 years. It is right there in the New York Times, the national paper of record. Look. They wrote:

The new chief of what Mr. Trump calls Operation Warp Speed, Moncef Slaoui, a former chairman of vaccines at GlaxoSmithKline, called Mr. Trump's goal "very credible," even though the fastest a new vaccine has been developed and distributed is four years andmost have taken considerably longer.

And add this worry:

The Pentagon will be heavily involved in the Warp Speed effort, in the hope that it will facilitate fast distribution of a vaccine if one is deemed successful.

And that's not all from the paper of record. As if to stick their tongue out at Trump, widdle mean girl style, they add another piece that is interactive and allows you to read to participate in the skepticism game that the NYT raises. Check it out if you think I'm lying.

I mean, the NYT goes out of its way to insinuate that by hiring Moncef Slaoui, a venture capitalist, to head up Operation Warp Speed that his money ties to Moderna made it likely that the ka-ching-a-ling-a-ding-dong-ding monster of corruption was afoot. Slaui, who resigned as Joe Biden became president, later went back to work for Galvani Bioelectronics, a subsidiary of GlaxoSmithKline (and Google), where he had a 30 year relationship established. But like his mentor, Donald Trump, he got caught with his hand in the nookie jar and the smooth operator was fired at warp speed for sexual harassment. Frankly, what would a woman see in him? She'd be on pins and needles the entire date.

It's sad to say that methinks our Big Pharma buddies, in conjunction with the FDA, colluded to make a buck with the vaccines. After Trump was heave-hoed out the White House door, suddenly Jesus pointed the way to countless miracle instances of vaccines. f*ck four years of minimum research development! f*ck the fact that FDA collusion was partially responsible for the Sackler family oxycontin crisis that took countless lives, as promises of no pain got taken just a little too far and people died in the gutter, like they were loser versions of Oscar Wilde.

And to make this scenario a little more likely the Biden FDA brought on Janet Woodcock to head the FDA, until outraged medical professionals publicly expressed outrage at the decision to hire someone who came under a cloud of controversy for decision-making. A letter, reported in the Guardian, to the White House castigated Woodcock for "approving Opana without adequate evidence of safety or long-term efficacy, approving Zohydro despite a vote of 11-2 against approval by a scientific advisory committee, and approving promotion of OxyContin for children as young as 11 years old."

Woodcock was now going to be in charge of approving R and D and pronouncing their safety of vaccines as they rolled out??

And, as if that weren't all bad enough, in a celebration of Who Gives A sh*t, the vaccines started rolling out under an Emergency Use Authorization protocol that limited the liability of the products rolling out. You couldn't effectively sue the f*ckers if they poisoned you or gave you three heads. You think I'm lying don't you? Well it's true. The Hoover Institute, by no means my favorite think tank, usefully points out how incredible the lack of liability for f*ck-ups is:

Standing in the way of a case for potential liability, however, is the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP), which stipulates that an FDA emergency use authorization (EUA) for a vaccine will exempt all these parties from liability for vaccine injuries or deaths, "except for willful misconduct." To my knowledge, no prior vaccination program ever has combined forced vaccination with an explicit rejection of all tort liability for adverse events for government and nongovernment parties alike.

Wow! And if you report on this, take umbrage at all, they might hit up Google to censor you by withholding ad revenue from your publication. What, am I Russia? you might swiftly ask. And, of course, the Emergency Use Authorization protects Woodcock, too.

All together now: ka-ching-a-ling-a-ding-dong-ding.

I know. I know. Everybody knows the deck is stacked, the dice are loaded. The plague is coming.

Well, recently, I contacted DARPA again to get an update, to hear the latest squeeze on the rolling viral disease. I'm gonna post the Q and A and leave it at that. Draw your own conclusions on the wall.

#####

Hawkins: Back in April 2020, Jared Adams told me, "The P3 program is two years into a four year effort, so the goal of being able to identify and respond to a viral threat is not fully mature." Will the P3 program be ending -- as scheduled -- this year? And why put a deadline on it when other viruses and variants are emerging?

Jenkins: All DARPA programs are time limited by design, as is the tenure of the program managers who run them. That deadline fuels the signature DARPA urgency to achieve success in less time than might be considered reasonable in a conventional setting, to ensure new and innovative ideas are always coming in the door, and transition novel and impactful technologies to our partners in the military, government, academia, and industry. We have successfully followed that model for the P3 initiative, which we announced in February 2017 as a 4-year effort.

Hawkins: Has the program been a success and how do you measure it?

Jenkins: Yes, we would deem the program to be a success. DARPA-funded teams are required to demonstrate their integrated platforms in five simulations during the planned four-year program; they initially tested their platforms using pathogens of their choice, but ultimately they were asked to test using DARPA-selected pathogens, including two demonstrations in which the identity of the pathogen remained opaque to the teams until the 60-day clock started. The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic provided a real-world opportunity for P3 funded teams to test their platforms against a novel virus.

Hawkins: Through partner Abcellera (in partnership with Eli Lilly) a monoclonal mediation to Covid was achieved in the 60 day window DARPA promised with the P3 initiative. But monoclonal, seemingly the safest way forward, was left behind in the avalanche of vaccines that followed. Do you know if there are plans under way for further development?

Jenkins: Yes, you are correct - the AbCellera-discovered and Eli Lilly-developed monoclonal antibody did meet the aims of the P3 initiative. In November, 2020, AbCellera announced that a human monoclonal antibody (mAb) identified as part of the P3 program and in conjunction with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Vaccine Research Center (VRC), bamlanivimab (LY-CoV555), had been granted emergency use authorization (EUA) from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of patients 12 years of age and older with mild to moderate COVID-19 to prevent hospitalization. AbCellera was able to obtain a sample of blood at the end of February 2020 via an intergovernmental panel, and identified over 1,000 potential antibody candidates. The mAb was developed in collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company. A second generation mAb discovered by AbCellera under the P3 program and developed by Eli Lilly was also brought to the clinic in response to rising SARS-CoV-2 variants that rendered other therapies ineffective. This new mAb, LY-CoV1404 or bebtelovimab, has also received EUA for treatment of patients at high risk of severe COVID-19.

Hawkins: DARPA and its partners ran pandemic simulations before the real deal hit at the end of 2019 into 2020 (USA). Where can I get more information on the simulations?

Jenkins: P3 convincingly demonstrated how to find and manufacture antibodies in less than 90 days (vs. years), using influenza, Zika, and MERS as test cases. As the COVID-19 outbreak began early in 2020, P3 research pivoted to address the novel coronavirus.

#####

It's all a world of wonder. I wonder if I'll get / have Long Covid? Well, expect another piece about that, if so. One wonders, though, will wonders never cease in Wonderland?


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John Kendall Hawkins is an American ex-pat freelance journalist and poet currently residing in Oceania.

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