Genomic Surveillance - H3Africa
NIH (US): H3Africa (Human Heredity & Health), announced in June 2010, is organized and supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Wellcome Trust, a global charity based in London.
So a DNA collecting initiative in Africa, currently funded byby:
(NIH: Dr. Francis Collins - the Godfather of Genomics) and Wellcome (Sir Jeremy Farrar). Genomics
MoneyWellcome Trust: Sir Jeremy Farrar, Covid Cover-up Hero. Literally the knight who would ride to the rescue of the The Science Globo-Industry. The man who turned: Caught in-bed-with-CCP-causing-Covid-Scandal … (!)
Into: Mega-money/power making Bonanza
Money, which was already torrenting in due to Anthrax. More a booster shot. This money which buys you the holy grail of data -bio-data: personalized DNA. (We’ll
back
H3A Dr.is Collinsa andcase Sirstudy Jeremyin soonhow -it’s spoiler:done.
were frontline Covid narrators.)
H3Africa website: There is currently a global effort to apply genomic science and associated technologies (big-bio-tech algorithms - Kristian Andersen’s specialty?) to further the understanding of health and disease in diverse populations.
Sure is. It’s this global effort to apply genomic science that worries me. There’s a truck-load of ethical issues that need to be worked through before we catapult into some genomic surveillance wet-dream of CCP-aligned scientists.
Nature: H3Africa researchers realized they needed to revise research regulations and procedures for gaining the public’s trust .. rather than just collecting blood and leaving — the approach disparagingly referred to as helicopter research.
Helicoptered off to the NIH/Wellcome Trust’s personal cloud computers.
H3Africa website: (T)here exists an enormous opportunity to utilize such approaches to benefit African populations and to inform global health.
If you really want to benefit African populations and inform Global Health, then work to reduce entrenched corruption. That’s the upstream problem. Plain as the nose on your face.
ButHang waiton … colonialism set that system up - that’d also mean we couldn’t continue being corrupt (for the common good) ... so ... let’s take the politics out! - digDig in while the DNA’s there to be gobbled up. up …
If we don't, someone else will … Could even be the bio-terrorists! terrorists!
H3Africa website: H3Africa empowers African researchers (to be DNA helicopter pilots), .. establishes and nurtures effective collaborations (with NIH and Wellcome).. and generates unique data that could be used to improve both African and global health.
Could be. Could be used for a lot of things.
Nature:Nature, Feb 2020: Last year, for example, the (Wellcome)Sanger Institute in Hinxton, UK, came under fire for licensing a gene chip based on African genome data to US biotechnology company Thermo Fisher, which was planning to manufacture the chip for a profit. (Thermo Fisher - another bad actor we’ll get around to later)
Springer: Gene chips are postage stamp-sized glass wafers that contain half a million or more tiny cells. Each cell holds DNA from a different gene. This array makes it possible to carry out a very large number of genetic tests on a single sample of genomic DNA at one time.
Nature: This infuriated both the African researchers who had collaborated with the British team and the Ugandan study participants, who had not consented to the deal.
The above only came to light after whistleblowers raised concerns. It may be the last truthful thing Nature published before ethics was purged by the owners.
Deepti Gurdasani: It’s great to see the silence around this being broken. Myself, and another whistleblower were dismissed after we raised concerns about this to senior management at @sangerinstitute and @JeremyFarrar at @wellcometrust. Eight more people were made redundant.
If the silence was broken, it was quickly repaired by Sir Jeremy.