Welcome to the Mind of a Writer

H1N1 Vaccine Trials are underway, and this morning, we get this report from the Baltimore Sun:

Hunter Sears [Volunteer #1, and the first to receive his 'shot' - note, he's 13 years old - hmm...thirteen - SKG] was there because of his grandmother, Gladys Sears, who has worked at Annapolis Pediatrics for 46 years. In 1976, when there was a different swine flu outbreak, she got vaccinated. The next day, the government canceled the vaccination campaign, in part because it appeared to be making some people sick. That didn’t color her opinion of whether her grandson should enroll in the study.

“After years of working here, I don’t worry about things like that,” she said. “Some people have to be guinea pigs.” [This seems like an odd comment from a grandmother - ok, color me cynical, but I certainly wouldn't volunteer any of my family, especially children, for a vaccine trial of any kind - SKG]

The children being tested in Maryland will receive vaccines at three sites: pediatric practices in Annapolis, Frederick and at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. They will get either 15 or 30 micrograms per shot and two doses spaced three weeks apart. Older children will have their blood drawn over five separate visits. For their trouble, the children will receive $40 Target gift cards at each visit - not a small carrot, several said. [Hey, this not only entices the little ones, but it also helps the economy! Wow, what a brilliant scheme -- oops, I mean, plan! - SKG]

via Testing begins on experimental flu vaccine for children — baltimoresun.com.

Popularity: 2% [?]

SOMETIMES, an author simply does not want his/her work to ‘come true’. Such is the case with my fictional work, Armageddon Strain. In that book, a secret project existed to combine H5N1 with Ebola and release it into the United States to cause a panic that would result in the demand for nanotech ‘vaccine’ called the BioStrain chip. In the novel, these scientists (some willing, some blackmailed into participating, some later killed) created their aerosolized chimera in labs located in two sites: the southwestern US and China.

Now, in reality, we are witnessing an outbreak of a hemorrhagic disease that rivals Ebola in its virulence — pheumonic plague.

This outbreak has shut down some bus lines in China, due to the fear of human to human transmission. Pneumonic plague is caused by infection from Yersinia Pestis, a nasty gram-negative bacterium that lives its natural life cycle in fleas. Unlike its cousin, bubonic plague (also caused by Y. Pestis but transmitted when an infected flea bites the victim), pneumonic plague can be transmitted easily through coughing.

It’s important to remember that the 1918-1919 Spanish Flu (a type of H1N1) had a distinct hemorrhagic component: nasal bleeding, swollen black/purple tongues, frothing at the mouth, and bluish-purple or even ‘red current jelly’ presentation to the lungs and/or heart. Patients were often swollen, some so badly to be unrecognizable by even relatives.

With H1N1 mutating its way around the globe, one has to consider the possibility of a chimera emerging–either naturally or unaturally formed (a man-made plasmid comes to mind). As I say to Derek at least once a day: “If I can think of it, then someone else can, too. And probably already has.”

Here’s the article on China’s outbreak:

/SNIP/ Initial tests had shown that the herdsman’s dead dog was the likely origin of the outbreak, Xinhua reported late Wednesday, quoting professor Wang Hu, director of the Qinghai disease control bureau.

Wang said it was likely that the dog died after eating a plague-infected marmot and that the man became infected when he was bitten by fleas while burying the dead dog. He died three days later.

via Dog suspected source of China plague.

See also: Pneumonic Plague: Should We Worry?

Vietnam Monitors Borders for Plague

Chinese Town Sealed off after Plague Deaths

Popularity: 3% [?]

News of Novavax’s successful production of an H1N1 vaccine using new technology isn’t a major surprise. However, a press release from ten years ago, almost to the day, piques one’s curiosity regarding the source (and the money, if not the intent) behind some of Novavax’s breakthroughs:

COLUMBIA, Md., Aug. 11 /PRNewswire/ — Novavax, Inc. (Amex: NOX) today announced that it has acquired substantially all of the assets, excluding cash and accounts receivable, of the Biomedical Services Laboratory Division of DynCorp of Reston, Va. The division, established in 1964, is engaged in contract research, development and pilot manufacturing of human vaccines for government laboratories and other vaccine companies, generating over $2 million in revenues in each of the last three years. This strategic acquisition combines Novavax’s Novasome(R) adjuvant technology with the Division’s extensive expertise in vaccine development and manufacturing to develop therapies for the treatment of various cancers and infectious diseases.

via Novavax Acquires Vaccine Development Division of DynCorp.

Why mention this purchase? DynCorp is a major, and infamous military contractor (and may even be a CIA cutout— see the ‘Dirty Tricks’ article linked at the end of this article). Why would ‘civilian muscle’ have a vaccine lab component? Could it be DynCorps helped test certain breakthroughs while serving in war-torn areas?

The above cited purchase was announced in August 1999.  Guess who patented extra special vaccine production methodology in January 1999? DynCorp in conjunction with the National Institutes of Health. Here’s a screen capture of the patent grant:

Link for entire grant article and information: http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5911998/fulltext.html 

This is one of three patents issued regarding the use of green monkeys to grow viruses for harvest in the production of vaccines. All three patents are in the name of Louis Potash and assigned to DynCorps and NIH. Here’s a link to an article touting Novavax as the owner of one of these three patents.

So, if Novavax purachsed the DynCorp’s lab division and all intellectual properties associated with it, why are DynCorp and NIH still listed in all three patents, even though the dates of the second and third patents are clearly AFTER the purchase? Could it be that Novavax is just a cutout for DynCorps?

By the way, it’s important to note that DynCorps (which had been trading at near junk status) has now been upgraded by Standard & Poor on news of new military contracts for work in southern Afghanistan.  Also, recently, DynCorps won a contract with FEMA to provide housing for disaster victims.

It’s looking more and more like there’s a dark, military aspect to the many faces of the H1N1 pandemic. Are you ready for your flu shot? 

Read more about DynCorp at these outside links:

More War, More Money for DynCorp

US: DynCorp Disgrace

ECUADOR: Farmers Fight DynCorp’s Chemwar on the Amazon

Dirty Tricks, Inc.: The DynCorp-Government Connection

Is DynCorps involved in PROMIS and the Missing/Dead Microbiologists?

9/11 Encyclopedia entry for Dyncorp

Popularity: 7% [?]

By SHARON K. GILBERT
May 14, 2009

ON MAY 5, 2009, border agents stopped a man crossing from Manitoba into South Dakota. Making what I presume was a routine vehicle search (been there, done that–long story), the agents discovered a cache of laboratory vials wrapped in foil, tucked into a glove, and zipped into a plastic bag along with some ‘electrical wires’. This doesn’t sound like lunch.

A week goes by. Finally, local press get hold of the story. Konan Michel Yao claims that he quit his job as a researcher in Canada’s Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg in January. He also claims that he wished to transfer his ‘research’ from his old job to a new position in the United States–at the Biodefense Lab in Bethesda, to be precise. Yao also claims his research centered around the search for an ebola vaccine and perhaps an HIV vaccine (the reports aren’t clear, but all mention both pathogens).

Here’s where it gets interesting. Read the rest of this entry →

Popularity: 6% [?]

‘Demons’ Greb and Blurk in Somehow Satan Got Behind Me

By SHARON K. GILBERT
May 2, 2009

“HAS THE WORLD GONE MAD?” That’s the question asked by one of four demons in one of my favorite Millennium episodes called Somehow Satan Got Behind Me. The demons, while enjoying coffee and pastries at The Donut Hole, had been discussing sightings of a mysterious man who appeared to see through their human disguises and into their ‘true essence’.

Though the episode is primarily played for laughs, there are many uncomfortable truths tucked between the lines. Human fears, boredom, conformity and peer pressures, loneliness, desire for power, and perceived mundane nature of daily life are all examined and used by these demons to ‘gut their souls’. While their appearance is comical, their purposes are not. Read the rest of this entry →

Popularity: 8% [?]