I've Got A Secret: COVID Scientists Caught Working With the Chinese and Its Long Term Affects

We could talk about the latest Covid variant, Omicron,  or the fact that some scientists now predict as many as 82  new possible variants from Covid can be expected. Then there's the latest booster failure. I believe we're up to our fourth now. That should keep the pharmaceutical industry fat and happy for several years to come! It seems that for every change or update in vaccine, the Covid virus is at least one step ahead of the immunologists, which, like the flu, which mutates every year.  

Speaking of diseases, the former head of Harvard University's Chemistry Department, Professor Charles Lieber, has been busted for lying to federal investigators about his connections to China and the Wuhan Institute of Technology, the alleged "ground zero" for the Covid-19 virus. He was part of the Chinese "Thousand Talents Plan" (TTP) which was aimed at attracting the world's best and brightest to work on various projects. Dr. Lieber was required to disclose any potential conflicts of interest or sources of foreign income.

Dr. Lieber "forgot" to disclose information about his Chinese bank account, along with possible tax evasion, or mention his role as a "strategic scientist" at the infamous Chinese lab. Lieber has also received millions in funding from various U.S. agencies, including the Department of Defense and Dr. Fauci's old haunt, the National Institutes of Health (NIH).  Given all the interest by the government and others into the origin of the Covid 19 virus and its relationship with the Wuhan labs, this is kind of a big deal.

Nevertheless, the government didn't "forget". Dr. Lieber was found guilty, following a six day trial, of two counts of filing false tax returns and two counts of failing to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts with the IRS. According to Acting U.S. Attorney Nathan R. Mendell, Dr. Lieber lied to IRS about money he received from the Chinese and trying to hide the money from the IRS. 

Under the terms of Dr. Lieber's three year "Thousand Talents Plan" contract, Dr. Lieber was paid a monthly salary of approximately $50,000 and living expenses of $150,000. In addition, he was "awarded" a grant of $1.5 million dollars to help establish a research lab at Wuhan. Dr. Lieber is (or rather was) a chemist who specializes in nanoscience and nanotechnology, and the use of nanoelectronic devices in biology. I can only imagine the nefarious military applications.

Patrick J. Hegarty, Special Agent in Charge of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service of the Department of Defense added that Dr. Lieber lied to DCIS special agents about his relationship with the Chinese while working for the Department of Defense. Other federal agencies involved with the investigation, aside from the IRS and the DoD, included the U.S. Navy's NCIS, the FBI, and NIH.

There's no way one can't wonder if this was a one off situation or if there are others out there who were part of China's "Thousand Talent Plan".  There are those who claim that Dr. Fauci, President Biden's current "Covid Czar", was or is, in some way involved with the Chinese, or more specifically, Wuhan Libratory  and the development of the original Covid virus.

When I wrote about Dr. Fauci a few weeks ago, I found nothing in my research indicating his involvement with China, but as with this and similar cases, we don't always know. But, facts, one way or another, have a curious way of coming to the surface as it has with Dr. Lieber.

The Chinese "Thousand Talents Plan" involves a lot of people throughout the world. The idea grew out of the "Talent Superpower Strategy" put forth at the 17th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in 2007.  Its purpose was to seek out and retain extremely bright and gifted individuals both inside and outside of China as a means to jumpstart China's reach and development sector in science, engineering, medicine, and technology. Within just ten years, it had attracted over 7000 of the world's best and brightest, including over 300 scientists and academics from Australia alone.

Nevertheless, many has accused the project as being nothing more than a front by the Chinese Communist Party to siphon off the whatever scientific and technological advantages the West has and exploit those advantages for the benefit of China, and all under the welcoming umbrella of academic fellowship and mutual cooperation. Others see it as way means to share knowledge and research and create a nonpolitical bridge between East and West.

Be that as it may, those within the intelligence communities of several Western nations, including the U.S., see it differently, as one might suspect. In addition to Dr. Lieber, the FBI arrested a former Chicago Clinic researcher, Dr. Qing Wang, in 2020 on similar charges as Dr. Lieber, in addition to wire fraud involving $3.6 million dollars in grant funding received from the National Institute of Health (NIH).

Dr. Wang failed to disclose his position as dean of the College of Life Sciences and technology as the Huazhong University of Science and Technology or multiple grants he and his research group had received from the National Natural Science Foundation of China for the same research material that was being pursued on behalf of the NIH.

In November of the same year, the FBI arrested Dr. Soog Guo Zheng on charges similar to Wang's, including his failure to disclose his ties to the Chinese government to his employer, the Ohio State University, which included his participation in the Thousand Talents Plan. Dr. Zheng was found guilty of using $4.1 million dollars in grants from the NIH to help enhance China's expertise in rheumatology and immunology.

As an aside, not all research and technology is medically related. In 2019, a U.S. Senate Subcommittee verified that one TTP participant stole critical military aircraft engine designs. Others were thought to have stolen plans pertaining to a variety of other military technology including airframe designs and stealth technology, missile research, space technology, and other cutting edge research.  All of which helped China to leapfrog ahead by 20 years or more.

It's also worth nothing that an internal investigation in 2020 by the National Institutes of Health indicated that there were possible violations of confidentiality and conflict of interests clauses by as many as 189 other scientists and researchers.

Under the circumstances, its appears moot whether Dr. Fauci was ever at any point involved with the Chinese (based on my own research, I don't think he was). Nevertheless, it's clear that there were and are others around the world who are; many of these our scientists and researchers regularly work and share information with.

The famous Chinese military strategist of the late sixth century B.C., Sun Tzu, encouraged espionage as a legitimate strategy to be used in defeating one's enemy in his highly acclaimed book "The Art of War".  He divided his use of spies into five classes, the local, the inward, the converted, the doomed, and the surviving.

The local is just what it means. The inward makes use of the enemies officials and experts. The converted is turning the enemy's spies to your cause by extortion or bribery. This can be done openly or covertly under the cloak of the greater good. The doomed is those who are open in their deception. These are often those who spy for revenge or some belief. Lastly, the surviving are those who go into the enemy encampment specifically to steal or obtain information and return with it.

We can see in these descriptions the motives of Drs. Lieber, Wang, or Zheng in the above descriptions, be it just for the money, ideology or loyalty to a cause, or simply out of scientific or academic fellowship who intended no harm, but whose actions may have been turned into blackmail.  It's also worth noting that Sun Tzu recommends using spies for every kind of business, and to reward them well.

There's no doubt that the West, and the U.S. in particular, are in a war with China, albeit asymmetrical or unconventional war. The West has become dependent on China for not just its cheap labor (which often is done by prisoners or in sweat shops) and mass produced/low cost finished products, but for key technology which must be mass produced cheaply and is vital for the West to continue to function (such as silicone chips, electronics, optics, and medical equipment).

China is the largest trading partner for not just the United States, but also for other technology dependent nations like South Korea, Japan, or the European Union (EU) which is also dependent on Russia's oil and gas.  

At the same time, the West, and especially the U.S., has become as debtor economy, meaning that we spend more than we take in. The country which owns the majority of our debt is China, which also seeks to replace the U.S. based petrodollar as the world's reserve currency with its own Renminbi.  How much of our debt does China own?

About 14%, which translates to roughly $1.065 trillion dollars of our total 28.9 trillion dollar national debt (only Japan owns more). Most of the debt China owns is in the form of U.S. Treasury bonds.  It's worth mentioning that while Japan owns the largest chunk of our national debt, China own about 8% of Japan's national debt, which is an increase of 3.6% from 2019.

While trade and balance of debt are intricate to both the performance of global economics, both are also key to this new form of warfare. The acquisition of technology, by whatever means, is essential. It allows a nation to know the capabilities of its enemy and provides the means to match or exceed them.

Competition has always driven the success of most countries ever since the Industrial Age. Military might has been used primarily to acquire resources and assets by those who don't have it from those who do, but can't defend it. Politics is warfare by other means to borrow from the great Prussian strategist, Carl von Clausewitz.

Today it is used by the globalist Oligarchs to threaten others into opening up markets or selling off their resources and assets. It's also used to force changes in foreign policy or even the government itself. Whether or not that change benefits the people of that nation as a whole is typically of little concern.

However, there have been to major changes which have influenced the balance of power in hereto unheard of ways. One is the mass transfer of populations from one region to another on a scale which has altered the ethnic composition of a given country or region to the point where it has negatively affected the economy and quality of life, as well as social values and traditions.

 We see that principally in Europe from immigrants coming from Africa and the Middle East. We also see it to a lesser degree in the US. in the form of illegal immigration coming mainly from Mexico and Latin America.

The other change is the introduction of viruses into a population. We have recently seen the introduction of diseases long eradicated such as mumps, measles, whooping cough, TB, chicken pox, as well as vaccine resistant diseases including new strains of AIDs, Bird flu and venereal diseases;  much of it coming from individuals entering the country unvaccinated and often illegally alongside terrorists embedded with these individuals.

Included with this has to be Covid-19, which isn't by any measure a "natural" occurring disease. Whether intentionally weaponized or not by the Chinese or some other power, there is no question that its introduction has resulted in modifying primarily democratic nations into more restricted and authoritarian governments, as well as negatively affecting economies.  That makes the actions of those caught and convicted, such as those mentioned earlier, that much more insidious.

 If you want to know more, please take a look at the links below. If you enjoyed the article, please consider passing along to others and don't forget to subscribe. It's free! Lastly please be sure to "like" us on Facebook or whatever platform you use to read A/O. It helps with the algorithms and keeps our articles in circulation.

 

Harvard professor convicted over China and Wuhan universityties

Harvard Professor Convicted of Making False Statements andTax Offenses

Harvard University: Charles Lieber Bio

Former Cleveland Clinic Employee Arrested

University Researcher Sentenced to Prison for Lying on GrantApplications to Develop Scientific Expertise for China

Big Pharma: A Monopoly in Need of a Cure

 In last week's article we discussed some of the monopolies which dominate the American economy, and by extension, Congress, the Judiciary, and the Presidency.  While powerful, especially the financial sector, perhaps none are currently more powerful than Big Pharma. Just how big and powerful?

While we get to that in just a moment, but consider this. 70% of all Americans are dependant in some way, be it medicine or medical equipment, on what Big Pharma says we need. For the majority of that 70%, what they receive is critical to their overall health and even their very survival.

So, just who is "Big Pharma" anyway? Names such as Bayer, Pfizer, Moderna, or Johnson and Johnson are household names we're familiar with, particularly thanks to the Covid pandemic. However, many others are simply unknown except through their products which are extensively marketed.

 Starting in reverse order with the tenth largest and most influential global pharmaceutical company (all revenue is from 2020) is Sonfi, the French manufacturer of Zantac, Plavix, and Ambien, reported just over $41 billion dollars in revenue. Next is Pfizer, whose revenue was about $42 billion. Bristol Myers Squibb racked up $42.5 billion dollars. GlaxoSmithKline was seventh with $43.5 billion dollars.

In sixth place was Janssen, which is part of Johnson and Johnson. Their revenue in 2020 was $45.5 billion dollars. AbbVie, the maker of Humira, made $45.8 billion dollars. Merck earned a under $48 billion. Novartis, a Swiss producer of drugs such as Ritalin, earned its shareholders $48.6 billion dollars. Second place belongs to Roche Pharmaceuticals (a division of the Roche Group), manufacturer of Valium, and also a Swiss company. It's revenue for 2020 was a staggering $49.5 billion dollars.

Finally, the top earner in 2020 was a state owned Chinese company named Sinopharm, whose revenue was $50.4 billion dollars. Sinopharm is headquartered in Beijing China. It's official name is the China National Pharmaceutical Group Corporation, a holding company for China National Pharmaceutical Corporation, China National Pharmaceutical Industry Corporation, the China National Pharmaceutical  Foreign Trade Corporation, and the China National Medical Device Corporation.

 In 2009, Sinopharm merged with China National Biotec Group. You may be more familiar with their subsidiary---the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products. Sinopharm is known for R&D and the production vaccines, included the widely distributed BIBP vaccine which is being used in the treatment of Covid-19. Other leading companies which didn't make it into the top ten included AstraZeneca (12th), Eli Lilly (14th), Bayer (16th), or Novo Nordisk (17th).

As an aside, Moderna is a pharmaceutical and biotechnology company focusing on RNA therapeutics and vaccines dealing with the immune system. It's only commercial product to date is the Moderna Covid 19 vaccine.

In the U.S., the deepest pockets belong to six companies, Eli Lilly with a market value of $98 billion, GlaxoSmithKline with $103 billion, Merck has a market value of $164 billion, Pfizer $212 billion dollars, Novartis at $273 billion, and Johnson and Johnson with a market value of $274 billion. 

It's worth noting the Big Pharma doesn't spend the majority of its substantial profits on developing on medication or devices. In fact, marketing receives 19 times more funding than development, all to provide you, the customer, with that nice warm and fuzzy feeling you get watching one of those homey  "one of us" commercials on TV, radio, in print, or social media because they care.

Going further, the top 14 U.S. pharmaceutical companies spent a combine $31 million dollars just on lobbying Congress in the first quarter of 2021. Pfizer alone spent $3.7 million.  The trade association, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturing spent 8.6 million on Congress for that same quarter.

That doesn't include the millions they spend on wooing doctors, pharmacists, dentists, optometrists, hospitals, nursing homes or rehab centers, nor does it include money spent on medical associations, professional medical unions, colleges, seminars, or trade shows hawking their latest wonder drug or medical devise. After all, where did you think all those "samples" or other medical items (include anatomical displays and posters) you see at the doctor's office come from? 

Lastly, they spend millions yearly cultivating what they call "thought leaders" in the medical and pharmaceutical field. Thought leaders are individuals who widely respected locally, regionally and nationally that are used to promote various drugs or devises to other professionals in the medical industry. This is often the reason physicians recommend one pill or product over another. These "thought leaders" are usually very well compensated for their endorsement with trips to fancy getaways for "seminars" (all expenses paid), honorariums, and other very nice perks.

In 2020, 2/3 of Congress cashed a check from Big Pharma. The majority of money, 7.1 million, went to Republicans while Democrats received 6.6 million, but that's still just part of the story. Big Pharma spent $263 million dollars in 2021 lobbying Congress. Every member of Congress had a minimum of three lobbyists from Big Pharma knocking on their door. What were they trying to buy?

Big Pharma abhors the idea of the Federal Government passing legislation capping prescription prices (and who can blame them with a captive market of 70%?). They equally hate the notion of allowing individuals to shop around for their prescriptions in places like Canada or Mexico (where they often cite a lack of quality or oversight) and elsewhere.

The truth of the matter is that the quality of these drugs, if bought from reputable companies, are the same or better than here in the U.S.. The main difference is that the price of drugs are four times more expensive in the U.S. as they are elsewhere, and that's just the way Big Pharma likes it.

Lobbyists for Big Pharma don't always focus on every legislator. Often, they'll concentrate on key committee members who have the clout to either push through a piece of legislation (which they wrote), or just as importantly, has the ability to keep other pieces of legislation they oppose tied up in committee. This is thanks to Congress's rigid hierarchy, but also to the extensive and always up-to-date research they compile of not just every legislator, but also their key staffers.  They often know beforehand who they can count on and who they can't.

The top influence buyers are Starkey Hearing Technologies, which gave around $564,000 to members of Congress; the majority of which went to Republicans. However, Masimo Corporation (maker of medical devises) gave all of its $533,714 to Democrats. Pfizer split its $487,000 equally between the two parties. RAAS Nutritionals gave all its $400,000 to Democrats.

Other donors included Abbotts Labs which donated slightly more of its $284,000 to the GOP. Johnson and Johnson did just the opposite with its $275,000. Eli Lilly gave most of its $214,000 to Democrats too, as did the remaining top 20 donors.

The top Big Pharma lobbyist for 2021 was the trade association, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers, Inc which gave $22,903.000 (mainly to Democrats), dwarfing the other four leading lobbying organizations, whose donations hovered between $7 and 9 million each.

Big Pharma has fought to keep the conversion of name brand drugs (like Bystolic, which is used for controlling difficult to maintain blood pressure) from becoming generic because that would substantially lower prices and effectively remove that drug from their inventory, which affects their bottom line.

Therefore, pharmaceutical companies make minor changes in their drug patients (in what's called "evergreening") to extend their control over various drugs and keep prices artificially high. "Evergreening" is something some member of Congress would like to see, but not so Big Pharma.

Speaking of generics, it's worth noting the very little new drugs are actually developed in-house by some of the major drug makers. Using a 2017 annual report, STAT, which analyses the biomedical, pharmaceutical, and medical industry, looked at 62 new products belonging to Pfizer and Johnson and Johnson (44 for Pfizer and 18 for J&J).  Out of the 44 new products, only 10 were developed by Pfizer and two of Johnson and Johnson's 18. 

In looking at the drug market in general, 81% of all new developments came from outside sources. Typically one of the big pharmaceutical companies will acquire the rights to the new drug and sit on it without ever developing it for the market or, alternatively, will "lease" out the patent for research purposes.

At this point you are probably wondering who is suppose to keep Big Pharma in check. Well, the answer is (at least theoretically) the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). But all is not as it seems. The role of the FDA is to monitor the pharmaceutical and medical industry while verifying its claims, help regulate prices, and approving any new drugs brought to the public market. Additionally, the FDA is partially funded by this same industry through user and other fees.

However, with decades of cutbacks in funding, the FDA has now come to rely on those it regulates for its operational budget. Big Pharma provides 75% of the FDA's funding of its drug review budget. In effect, since the drug and other companies control the purse strings, the FDA has become all but impotent.

Should the FDA attempt to push back or exert to much control, all the drug companies has to do is reduce, delay, or stop introducing anything which generates a fee in order to have an impact.  As a result, in December of 2021, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform released a very revealing report about the clout of Big Pharma and its influence over the FDA.

For instance, the prices of the top leading 12 drugs used by Medicare recipients increased 250% simply by using various market strategies to avoid conversions to generics to minimize competition as well as "hiding" real profits and extending their monopoly over these drugs by decades. Furthermore, these same 12 drugs are now priced at over 500 times what they were when they were first introduced to the market.   

The same report also discovered that the top 14 drug companies spent $577 billion dollars on stock buybacks and dividends over the last previous five years, which was $56 billion more than was spent on research and development. These same 14 companies also received millions in taxpayer based grants and subsidies designed for the development of new drugs, not to mention huge tax breaks.  

So, what does this mean for you and me? It means simply that the medical industry, like any other industry, is largely confined to a few very wealthy and influential corporations whose first loyalty is its officers and shareholders. It also means that the care of the patient is often secondary to the profit made from some pill or device. A cured patient is a lost customer. Lower prices are lost profits.

Big Pharma will continue to peddle its influence in the halls of Washington, and closer to home in state legislatures while it has a pill for every ill to sell to us, real or imagined. Professional medical associations are often motivated by the bottom line to move patients through like an assembly line.

The more patients seen the greater the billable hours and drugs or whatever else sold. Meanwhile insurance companies second guess doctors in order to minimize costs, overriding recommendations even to the point of harm to the patient.

Western medicine, unlike in the East, is focused mainly on the treatment of symptoms and outcomes, whereas in Eastern medicine the focus is on prevention first. Medical professionals in the West tend to ignore natural or homeopathic cures, which may take a little longer, has fewer (if any) side effects, preferring what some call "controlled poisons" whose potential side effects can be worse than the illness.  Sadly, we can say the same about Big Pharma, whose profit over patient side effects are killing America.  The ancients saw healing as a gift from the gods. Today it's big business and profit.

If you want to know more, please take a look at the links below. If you enjoyed the article, please consider passing along to others and don't forget to subscribe. It's free! Lastly please be sure to "like" us on Facebook or whatever platform you use to read A/O. It helps with the algorithms and keeps our articles in circulation.

 

Pharma 50: The 50 largest pharmaceutical companies in theworld

STAT: Do large pharma companies provide drug developmentinnovation? Our analysis says no

Pharma campaign Cash Delivered with Surgical Precision

The Biopharmaceutical Industry Provides 75% Of The FDA's Drug Review Budget

OpenSecrets: Pharmaceutical and Medical Products