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The same way you don’t want your accountant to be a reckless risk-taker with your money - you don’t want your genomic futurists being reckless with your ethics regulations.
But that’s what we got.
Below are quotes from Sir Jeremy’s speeches. Interestingly, or not, if you’ve heard one, you’ve heard them all. Exactly the same themes, often the same anecdotes.
Farrar, TED Talk 2016: 0:25 I think all of us - at some point in our lives - are faced with some decisions - we don’t really ever quite understand the implications of the decisions we reach.
So prescient! Like the decisions made in the Feb 1 Teleconference? Your point though is - never let that stop you.
Farrar 13:40: At a time when societies and politics may be taking us in a direction of narrow nationalism and isolationism, where we look inward and not outward, i think it’s ever ever more critical for .. those of us who truly truly believe the world is now a very very small place .. (we know that coz we’ve collected its data) (to) have the courage to grasp the moment - to realize if we bring the full force of all .. our expertise to bear, we can truly change the world.
You changed the world alright - no argument there. You also restate your sworn enemy - anti-globalist sentiment - rally your troops to crush it with the full force of your immensely powerful One -Everything machine.
Farrar: And I believe if we have the courage to dream and if we have the courage to commit ourselves to investing .. in science .. I believe that we can make the world a safer place. That’s the opportunity that we must grasp - it’s there.
Lot of believing in Jeremy’s speeches - for a scientist. Sounds more like a religious gathering. The Belief to carpe diem.
Making us safer. By taking risks.
Not sure about the courage though. You are the goliath, Jeremy. How much courage do you need to step on ants protesting your disruption? You were at the height already. You’ve got Big-Everything on your side. Or do you mean the courage to morally unmoor? Like Hitler did. To set sail in a sea where you can kill 5 mil counting without thinking.
for the common good
NIH Report: Wellcome is uniquely untethered, Farrar admitted, describing the organization’s “incredibly privileged” position of having its own endowment, an independent governing board and no shareholders to keep happy.
Farrar: It comes with a tremendous responsibility to be accountable for what we do and to be as transparent as we can be ...
Sure does. So how about handing over/redacting the Feb 1 Teleconference emails for a start? Not that transparent, right?
...in order to achieve the real change we seek.
Hmm, what are you up to with your disruptive real changes?
Farrar, Nature, 2007: The question, as in the words of Brutus to Cassius in Shakespeare's tragedy of almost 500 years ago, is whether we are shrewd enough, bold enough and committed enough to take advantage of the tide?
We can safely say you were/are - shrewd, bold, committed. (We’ll get back to Brutus later)
Farrar, Nature, 2007: We must address the issue of bureaucracy and over-regulation .. before it stops all clinical research8. A new global agreement is needed on clinical research guidelines based on evidence and an appreciation of just how dangerous over-regulation can be to human health. .. This will come back to haunt us in the future
Yeah - under-regulation of GoF-experimentation-gone-mad likely caused Covid .. that can be harmful to human health as well. Even more dangerous than over-regulation, right?
Either way, this anti-regulation crusade to enable your risk-taking approach to medicine is a key part of your manifesto. Criticized by fellow-scientists for conducting hasty experimental drug trials in Africa - trading expediency for data that wouldn’t be reliable - you shrug that off saying: if we wait for the data, it will be too late. (slightly paraphrased)
That’s radical. Very bold - very risky.
Farrar, Nature, 2007: If we are to fully realize the opportunities of the present scientific revolution, we must .. not make patient-orientated research so difficult that we prevent critical research from being conducted.
In fact, you’re quite the activist, when it comes to diluting ethics guidelines - to make clinical trials less daunting and cumbersome.
At least that explains why so much of your Wellcome patient-orientated research revolution is conducted in the ethics free-zones of certain African dictatorships - and Xinjiang.
As for your revolution? Aren’t revolutions supposed to be the oppressed rising up? Not we at the height becoming more at the height?
The Beatles had the right sentiment:
If you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao - you ain’t gonna make it with anyone anyhow
Except you did make it:
Carrying pictures of Chairman Xi - so we can organ harvest ethics-freeeee! Don’t you know it’s gonna beeeee. Alriiight