Three Years Since the W.H.O. Declared a Pandemic, Lessons Learned. A Corrosion of Separation Between Politicians, the FDA and Big Pharmaceutical and Tobacco Companies

Preventing Transmission of COVID, and All Airborne Pathogens.

The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) declared COVID a pandemic yesterday, three years ago. In the W.H.O.’s announcement, the director-general gave good advice that some countries implemented and communicated clearly and quickly, while many others failed. This advice is still important to reflect on as the pandemic continues.

“This is not just a public health crisis, it is a crisis that will touch every sector – so every sector and every individual must be involved in the fight.” 

“Countries must take a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach built around a comprehensive strategy to prevent infections, save lives, and minimize impact.”

He laid out four key areas to focus on.

“First, prepare and be ready.”

“Second, detect, protect, and treat.”

“Third, reduce transmission.”

“Fourth, innovate and learn.” 

It went on to say that we must communicate with our people about the risks and how they can protect themselves because this will affect everyone at some level. 

“Find, isolate, test and treat every case and trace every contact;”

“Ready your hospitals; protect and train your health workers.” 

In January and February of 2020, the United States, Canada, and most of Europe had a couple months to act fast and take measures to prevent COVID from entering the block of nations. China and then South Korea gave us a ton of early information. The U.S. turned down the tests offered by South Korea that were already over 90% effective at detecting COVID. The President and the CDC decided they would make their own tests. It took the U.S. over a month to produce and distribute tests that effectively detected the virus in people. While the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Germany, the U.K. and many other countries in Europe fumbled the response, China, South Korea, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries took decisive action that was communicated very effectively to prevent seed cases from entering the country and to prevent transmission if a case was detected in the country. They followed the steps laid out above and the pandemic protocols that hundreds of highly paid, well educated people spent decades fine tuning, yet many governments failed to act.

Millions of people paid the highest price for these failures. Millions of children and grandchildren lost parents and grandparents, and these losses continue. Families lost the years of wisdom that may have otherwise been passed down to younger generations. Several thousand people are still dying every week or so in the U.S. alone. Most of those dying now are older adults, whose attentive ear, love, and wisdom provided to younger generations are a huge loss for nations as a whole. We talk about better mental health, but we aren’t protecting our elders or our children. We don’t calculate these losses into the statistics, but the impact of every death reverberates out through society in very real and significant ways.

Germany, the U.K., the U.S., Canada, Brazil, and many others failed to act with the precision and speed necessary. They often failed to effectively communicate a national strategy, sending mixed messages that caused different parts or levels of government to react in different ways. This left open many paths of transmission.

For example, in the U.S., in February 2020, more than 300 passengers from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, including 14 who tested positive for COVID, were being quarantined at military bases in California and Texas. The military followed the rules and put everyone in a 2-week quarantine. Before letting people leave, they did the right thing and made them test negative multiple times. The military set up at least 11 quarantine camps on military bases near major airports across the U.S. in anticipation of Americans returning from overseas. They said, “HHS would be responsible for all care, transportation, and security of the evacuees.” This was going as it should, and it should have been expanded. Successful nations quarantined returning citizens to protect the rest of the population. They quickly set up testing and contact tracing to quickly contain any outbreaks. They communicated a national strategy that had measurable results.

When political leaders decided to break from pandemic protocols, many countries paths to successful containment started to fall apart. In 2020, it was decided that U.S. citizens who had been to China's Hubei province and then came back to the U.S. should be quarantined for 14 days. Those that visited other parts of China were subject to "proactive entry screening" and two weeks of monitoring and self-quarantine. We know that many people did not do a lot of self quarantining.

Flights continued to come into the U.S. from other parts of China and other countries with known cases. These flights weren’t quarantined or even screened upon arrival. During one of the first outbreaks at a nursing home, they let all the staff go home and out into the community every day without testing.

Why didn’t we immediately stop flights and ships from “all” the infected nations? If a few cases made it through, that would still slow the number of seed cases entering, making it easier to control and providing more time to set other measures in motion. If you think COVID isn’t that dangerous, let’s imagine that a new virus has a 30% to 50% fatality rate in 20- to 50-year-olds and a 70% fatality rate in those over 50; then you might think that every single seed case entering will increase the odds of you or your loved ones dying. Every step we take to minimize harm must be done with precision and speed. If we have a repeat performance of what we have done with COVID, then we will lose.

They could have created tests and vaccines that targeted both N and S proteins, not just the spike protein like they did. Later, they made tests that targeted more than one protein, which made them more effective, while the tests that only targeted the spike protein stopped working. Why hasn’t the same been done with vaccines?

This study, from January 2020, tells us that targeting multiple proteins can induce long term memory T cell responses. “Results of the current research show that the T cell response to S protein and other structural proteins (including the M and N proteins) is long-lasting and persistent. This provides evidence for the design of the SARS vaccine composed of viral structural proteins, which can induce dominant, effective, and long-term memory cell responses against the virus."

Nobody that did just a little research can say they didn’t know this back in 2020, so why didn't they listen to this advice when developing SARs-COV-2 vaccines, and why aren’t they doing this now? Did they know this and choose to ignore it in order to let it spread, knowing that it would only work for a short time and that people would need boosters every six months to a year? Did they think they could produce another product that would further increase profits?

We must ask these questions because we are currently leaving the design of vaccines up to companies that have the goal of creating profit instead of protecting public health. Think about that. Why are we leaving the decisions about designing vaccines and tests up to CEOs and corporate boards, whose job it is to create products that people will need to use again and again in order to maximize profit for themselves and their shareholders? Is it in these companies’ interests to create a product that nobody will need again after one dose and that prevents the need for future treatments?

How much did corporate interests, led by multi-millionaires and billionaires, control the destiny of the outcomes in the countries that failed to protect their citizens?

An article from 2018 on Science.org says that the drug industry tends to reward FDA staffers who handle successful drug reviews by later hiring them. They point out the conflict of interest. “FDA staffers play a pivotal role in drug approvals, presenting evidence to the agency's advisory panels and influencing or making approval decisions. They are free to move to jobs in pharma, and many do; in a 2016 study in The BMJ, researchers examined the job histories of 55 FDA staff who had conducted drug reviews over a 9-year period in the hematologyoncology field. They found that 15 of the 26 employees who left the agency later worked or consulted for the biopharmaceutical industry.”

Dr Robert Califf, a pharmaceutical company lobbyist, ran the FDA in 2016. The leading candidate to replace Califf was Scott Gottlieb — a venture capitalist, former FDA deputy commissioner, and longtime American Enterprise Institute (AEI) pundit-scholar.

President Trump nominated Scott Gottlieb, M.D., as FDA Commissioner. Dr. Gottlieb had previously served in government in various capacities, including as deputy commissioner for medical and scientific affairs, and as a senior official at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services during the Bush Administration. President Donald Trump tapped Gottlieb in 2017 to “cut red tape” at the FDA. This must have been a dream for the corporate boards at the big pharma and tobacco companies. Gottlieb was confirmed in 2017 and served until April 2019.

An article on Gottlieb stepping down, published March 5, 2019, says, “In recent months, Gottlieb has come under fire for not acting more forcefully to address an explosion in teenage use of electronic cigarettes, especially those with candy and fruit flavors. Under Gottlieb, the FDA has emphasized vaping as a potential tool to wean adult smokers off traditional cigarettes. And in a widely criticized move, Gottlieb delayed key regulations on vaping devices until 2022, in part, to avoid over-regulating the industry.”

Scott Gottlieb was swiftly rewarded for his time at the FDA. In June, 2019 an article said the “former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb joined Pfizer’s board of directors. Gottlieb stepped down from the FDA in April. While leading the FDA, Gottlieb advanced a number of prescription drug policies.” “In between, he returned to the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) as a resident fellow and as a special partner at venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates.”

What is this AEI all about? According to wikipedia, “AEI grew out of the American Enterprise Association (AEA), which was founded in 1938 by a group of New York businessmen led by Lewis H. Brown. AEI is governed by a 28-member Board of Trustees, composed of executives and former executives from various corporations. AEI's founders included executives from Eli Lilly, General Mills, Bristol-Myers, Chemical Bank, Chrysler, and Paine Webber.”

What does the venture capital firm, that Gottlieb is now a special partner in, invest in? The NEA.com/portfolio consists of a few companies delivering care for chronic diseases.

Let’s look at just one for now, Strive health, delivers value based care for chronic kidney disease. This sure seems like a conflict of interest. Lets review, Remdesivir studies do Not support use in Hospitalized or Non-hospitalized Patients. Use Results in Kidney and Liver Damage. (1,2,3,4) COVID also causes extensive kidney damage through inflammation and direct infection. This study published in July, 2021, says, ”Tissue inflammation and local immune cell infiltration have been repeatedly observed and might have a critical role in kidney injury, as might endothelial injury and microvascular thrombi. Findings of high viral load in patients who have died with AKI suggest a contribution of viral invasion in the kidneys”

In late 2019, Dr. Stephen Hahn was officially sworn in as the new commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The Senate confirmed him by a 73-17 vote. Hahn became the fourth leader of FDA in 2019 and the first confirmed nominee since former Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb resigned unexpectedly in April.

“On March 1, 2020, Vice President Mike Pence and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced the addition of Hahn to the White House Coronavirus Task Force.^[20]”

“According to a whistleblower complaint filed by HHS infectious disease expert Rick Bright, in April 2020, Hahn instructed FEMA administrator Peter Gaynor "to distribute hydroxychloroquine to pharmacies nationwide," even though the emergency use authorization (EUA) issued by the FDA did not provide for outpatient use of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19.^[21] Hydroxychloroquine was later linked to multiple deaths of COVID-19 patients,^[22] and the FDA revoked the EUA in June 2020^[23]”

By June 2021, Stephen Hahn joined the venture capital firm behind Moderna. According to an article, published June 15, 2021,”Flagship Pioneering, which boosted Moderna’s founding in 2010, said Hahn would lead the biotechnology company’s Preemptive Medicine and Health Security initiative and join the firm’s senior leadership team starting Wednesday.”

There is an undeniable pattern here. A corporate industrialist mentality, lobbyists, likely large donations to campaigns, and their handpicked people being placed in key government positions or key government appointee’s being promised key, high paying partnerships or jobs with huge earnings. Who does this benefit? The mega-rich corporate world, not the average citizens.

In 2022, Biden picked Dr. Robert Califf, the former pharmaceutical company lobbyist to run the FDA again. It is hard to believe how blatantly obvious they have become because they have been so successful for so long. According to an article on propect.org, “Manchin was specifically concerned that Califf would not provide strong regulatory oversight to drugmakers, nor hold them specifically accountable for the effects of the opioid epidemic. He stated in 2016 that “with his long-term, significant ties to the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Califf is not the champion the FDA needs to tackle this deadly epidemic.” Sens. Ed Markey and Richard Blumenthal echoed Manchin’s concern, emphasizing the sheer devastation created by the FDA’s irresponsible green-lighting of opioids as well as the critical need for the FDA to operate as a strong and principled regulator, not as Big Pharma’s “rubber stamp.”

Guess who wrote an op-ed, published February 15, 2022, on the AEI website, titled “America Needs a Confirmed Leader at FDA — Now”? If you guessed Scott Gottlieb, you would be correct. Gottlieb wrote, “He knows how to advance the safe development and use of medical products.” That is exactly why he is there, but not to advance the best options; it looks like the moneymakers of the big pharmaceutical companies.

This is likely just scratching the surface. There seems to be a serious conflict of interest occurring, a corrosion of separation between the FDA and big pharmaceutical and tobacco companies, and this corrosion is poisoning the entire regulatory process and purpose. This is one more example of how corporations have taken over the government that is supposed to be of, by, and for the people of the United States, not of, by, and for the richest people running corporations.

This raises serious questions about the approval process of the vaccines and other Emergency Use Authorized treatments. We need a complete change of leadership. Leadership that is not hand picked by the mega rich club of the corporate world. Leaders that will actually put the interests of the majority of people first.

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Preventing Transmission of COVID, and All Airborne Pathogens.

We could have, and still can, start mass producing N-95 masks for adults and, importantly, children. Did we ever build up the national stockpile in case a much more deadly variant surfaces or if H5N1, with its 30% - 50% fatality rate, mutates to become highly contagious between humans? Why are we dependent on the national government to do this? The states, counties, townships, or school boards could make this a priority at their next board meeting.

We could have, and still can, put together engineers and scientists to redesign HVAC systems or figure out how to upgrade existing ones to filter out 99.9% of pathogens while bringing in enough fresh air to keep CO2 levels below 600 ppm. This would reduce the chance of transmission and make sure that if it did happen, the amount of virus each person would be exposed to would be very low. Upgrading the filtration and ventilation in schools would have a sustained and long-lasting impact on the health of children and the entire community. Decreasing CO2 alone has been shown to help people be more alert, more creative, and able to learn more. This is something every school board and business should want to do. Having clean air makes it easier to learn and work, and it also reduces the number of sick days. Healthy children have healthier and more productive parents. A healthy society creates a prosperous nation filled with happier people. This is a no-brainer, common-sense move to make, especially considering that we know that we cannot and should not want to depend on the federal government in a time of crisis.

We can’t wait until the next crisis is upon us to act; these things take time and money to implement, so the planning needs to start now. It will inevitably be stalled out by the corporate elite that don’t have an interest in people being healthy. It is becoming clearer and clearer that this is why it is so hard to get common sense measures and safe guards passed.

The Time for Action is Now.

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The corporate controlled media and public health sources would like us to believe that COVID has become less dangerous and is not a significant concern. The media reports have dwindled to nearly zero. It is important to have completely independent views that are not beholden to large donors, political parties, or any other groups. Help support this work by becoming a paid subscriber today. Thank you for your support.

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