Revealed: The UK supported the coup in Bolivia to gain access to its ‘white gold’

Number of Women who have lost baby as a result of Covid jab doubles in just 7 days, MHRA data shows

The Government’s War on Free Speech: Protest Laws Undermine the First Amendment

The Water Crisis Demands a Bold Federal Response

Moderna’s top scientist: ‘We are actually hacking the software of life’

Research may provide solutions for the future treatment of diabetes (Resveratrol) 

University of Alberta, March 9, 2021

Jason Dyck has long believed in the beneficial properties of resveratrol—a powerful antioxidant produced by some plants to protect against environmental stresses. The professor of pediatrics at the University of Alberta has spent years studying the natural compound, exploring its potential benefits for exercise performance, reduced blood pressure and heart health. Now his work is revealing resveratrol’s potential for the treatment of diabetes.

Although studies in obese patients treated with resveratrol have shown to be effective at lowering blood sugar levels, the amount of resveratrol found circulating in the blood is very low, leaving scientists questioning how resveratrol is working. In a new study published in the journal Diabetes, researchers at the U of A examined the impact of resveratrol on the community of bacteria, or microbiome, in the gut of obese mice. The team found that feeding resveratrol to obese mice over a period of 6 weeks altered the makeup of the bacteria in their intestines, improving glucose tolerance.

To expand upon the findings, the scientists conducted a second experiment in which they fed healthy mice resveratrol for 8 weeks. From those mice, they collected fecal waste for the purpose of fecal transplant into obese mice with insulin resistance. The results from these fecal transplants were striking, with more dramatic and rapid effects than giving the mice resveratrol orally.

“Whatever was in this fecal material was more potent and efficacious than the resveratrol itself,” says Dyck, also a member of the Alberta Diabetes Institute. “We performed fecal transplants in pre-diabetic obese mice and within two weeks their blood sugar levels were almost back to normal.”

Dyck says his team was initially unsure if the fecal transplant was altering the gut microbiome in the mice or if it was producing a metabolite that was behind the effect. However, he is now convinced that the dramatic change is actually the result of an unknown metabolite in the fecal matter.

“I believe that there’s something else in the mix that’s causing this improvement in glucose homeostasis in obese mice,” says Dyck. “We’re trying to isolate this unknown compound, with the hopes of using it as a potential treatment for impaired glucose homeostasis in obesity.” “To me, this is very exciting,” he adds. “If there’s a small molecule in the fecal material that we can identify, we may be able to rapidly advance this into human testing.”

The team believes the findings could open the door to new therapies for diabetes patients in the future. Dyck though says it is already clear that their work is far from done. “It’s going to take a herculean effort to find what that molecule is” says Dyck. “Maybe it’s one, maybe it’s a combination of four or five, or maybe even a hundred. We don’t know, but we intend to find out.”

High-CBD Cannabis sativa extracts modulate ACE2 expression in COVID-19

• University of Lethbridge and University of Calgary (Canada), March 7, 2021

Aging-US published “In search of preventive strategies: novel high-CBD Cannabis sativaextracts modulate ACE2 expression in COVID-19 gateway tissues” which reported that Cannabis sativa, especially those high in the anti-inflammatory cannabinoid cannabidiol, has been found to alter gene expression and inflammation and harbour anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties.

Working under a Health Canada research license, the Aging-US authors developed over 800 new C. sativa cultivars and hypothesized that high-CBD C. sativa extracts may be used to down-regulate ACE2 expression in target COVID-19 tissues.

Using artificial 3D human models of oral, airway and intestinal tissues, they identified 13 high-CBD C. sativa extracts that decrease ACE2 protein levels.

Some C. sativa extracts down-regulate serine protease TMPRSS2, another critical protein required for SARS-CoV-2 entry into host cells.

While their most effective extracts require further large-scale validation, their study is important for future analyses of the effects of medical cannabis on COVID-19. The extracts of their most successful novel high-CBD C. sativa lines, pending further investigation, may become a useful and safe addition to the prevention/treatment of COVID-19 as an adjunct therapy.

Dr. Olga Kovalchuk and Dr. Igor Kovalchuk said, “There is a global pandemic of the COVID-19 disease, which is caused by the zoonotic severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).”

Similar to other respiratory pathogens, SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted through respiratory droplets from coughing and sneezing. However, aerosol transmission and close-contact transmission cannot be ruled out as means of disease spread.

An in-depth analysis of The Cancer Genome Atlas and Functional Annotation of The Mammalian Genome Cap Analysis of Gene Expression datasets revealed that ACE2 is expressed in oral mucosa and enriched in the epithelial cells of the tongue.

High levels of ACE2 expression in oral epithelial tissues suggests that the oral cavity could be highly susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection and thus an important target for prevention strategies.

Similarly, numerous studies have reported high levels of ACE2 in the lower respiratory tract; higher levels of ACE2 expression, such as those seen in smokers and patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, are associated with higher COVID-19 predisposition and enhanced disease severity.

Using artificial 3D human tissue models, the authors show that high-CBD C. sativa extracts may down-regulate ACE2 expression in target COVID-19 tissues, suggesting an importance of these extracts in COVID-19 prevention.

The Kovalchuk/Kovalchuk Research Team concluded in their Aging-US Research Output, “While our most efficacious extracts require further validation through large-scale analyses, our study is important for future analyses of the effects of medical cannabis on COVID-19. Given the current dire and rapidly developing epidemiological situation, every possible therapeutic opportunity needs to be considered and researched.”

Natural compound exhibits almost ideal male contraceptive effects in pre-clinical studies

Lundquist Institute (US), March 5, 2021

In a new paper published by Nature Communications, The Lundquist Institute (TLI) Investigator Wei Yan, MD, Ph.D., and his research colleagues spell out an innovative strategy that has led to the discovery of a natural compound as a safe, effective and reversible male contraceptive agent in pre-clinical animal models. Despite tremendous efforts over the past decades, the progress in developing non-hormonal male contraceptives has been very limited.

The compound is triptonide, which can be either purified from a Chinese herb called Tripterygium Wilfordii Hook F, or produced through chemical synthesis. Single daily oral doses of triptonide induce altered sperm having minimal or no forward motility with close to 100% penetrance and consequently male infertility in 3-4 and 5-6 weeks. Once the treatment is stopped, the males become fertile again in ~4-6 weeks, and can produce healthy offspring. No discernable toxic effects were detected in either short- or long-term triptonide treatment. All of their data suggest that triptonide is a highly promising non-hormonal male contraceptive agent for men because it appears to meet all of the criteria for a viable contraceptive drug candidate, including bioavailability, efficacy, reversibility and safety. A battery of biochemical analyses suggest that triptonide targets one of the last steps during sperm assembly, leading to the production of altered sperm without vigorous motility required for fertilization.

“Thanks to decades of basic research, which inspired us to develop the idea that a compound that targets a protein critical for the last several steps of sperm assembly would lead to the production of nonfunctional sperm without causing severe depletion of testicular cells”, said Dr. Yan. “We are very excited that the new idea worked and that this compound appears to be an ideal male contraceptive. Our results using non-injurious studies on lower primates suggest triptonide will be an effective treatment for human males as well. Hopefully, we will be able to start human clinical trials soon to make the non-hormonal male contraceptive a reality.”

“Dr. Yan’s discovery represents a major leap forward in the field,” said Drs. Christina Wang and Ronald Swerdloff, who are TLI co-Principal Investigators helping lead NIH-supported advanced clinical trials on hormone-based birth control approaches. “The more contraceptive methods available, the better, as we will want a family of pharmaceutical products to safely and effectively meet the family planning needs of men and couples at different stages of their reproductive lives, with differing ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds and economic means,” emphasized Wang and Swerdloff.

Steroid abuse by men leads to long-lasting impaired testicular function

Rigshospitalet (Denmark), March 9, 2021

Illegal use of anabolic steroids not only has dangerous side effects during use but also can harm of men’s testicular function years after they stop abusing steroids, according to a study published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

Anabolic steroids are synthetic forms of testosterone, and their abuse is prevalent among athletes worldwide. Some people use these steroids without a prescription to improve athletic performance or get a more muscular look. Known side effects of these drugs in men include breast growth, hair loss, shrunken testicles and lower testosterone levels. Also called hypogonadism, low testosterone can cause decreased sex drive, poor erections and a low sperm count.

“It is still debated whether illicit use of anabolic steroids causes long-lasting testosterone deficiency,” said Jon J. Rasmussen, M.D., Ph.D., the study’s principal investigator and a scientist at Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Researchers at the hospital have identified a hormone made by Leydig cells–cells in the testicles that produce testosterone–as a promising biological marker of testicular function, Rasmussen said. Because blood levels of testosterone can vary greatly during the day and vary by body composition, Rasmussen and his co-workers are investigating a more stable marker than testosterone, called serum insulin-like factor 3 (INSL3).

For this study, supported by Anti Doping Denmark, the research team included 132 participants from another study: men who did recreational strength training. Their ages ranged from 18 to 50 and averaged 32. Three study groups consisted of 46 men currently using anabolic steroids, 42 former steroid users and 44 who had never used these steroids. On average, former users had reportedly not taken anabolic steroids for 32 months.

Among current steroid users, INSL3 was markedly suppressed compared with former users and never-users, Rasmussen said. Compared with never-users, the former steroid users had lower INSL3 concentrations: 0.39 versus 0.59 microgram micrograms per liter. Furthermore, the longer the duration that the men reportedly used steroids, the lower their INSL3 levels, the researchers found.

“Our results suggest a long-lasting impaired gonadal capacity in previous anabolic steroid users,” Rasmussen said.

Although the clinically relevant difference in INSL3 levels is not yet known, because INSL3 measurement is primarily for research, he said their findings indicate that prior steroid users may have an increased risk of hypogonadism later in life.

“The results,” Rasmussen said, “raise the question whether some previous anabolic steroid users should receive medical stimulation therapy to increase Leydig cell capacity in the testicles.”

This therapy would include drugs used to block estrogen production or its conversion to testosterone, such as aromatase inhibitors and selective estrogen receptor modulators, he noted.

Magnesium L-Threonate Regenerates Brain Structures

A patented, bioavailable form of magnesium, developed by scientists at MIT, increases synaptic plasticity and reduces brain aging by 9 years.

MIT, March 9, 2021

or nearly 30 years, scientists have been convinced that increasing magnesium levels in the brain can potentially prevent or reverse some age-related changes that contribute to cognitive decline and dementia.1

But it’s been difficult to put this knowledge into practice, because taking more magnesium orally does not significantly raise brain levels.

A unique form of magnesium developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is changing that.

Magnesium L-threonate has been shown to boost brain magnesium levels in animals when taken orally. This effect is due to its unique ability to cross the blood-brain barrier.2

Another rodent study showed that oral use of magnesium L-threonate raised brain fluid levels of magnesium by 54%.3

Brain benefits have also been shown in humans.

In a clinical study of adults with cognitive impairment, magnesium L-threonate reversed measures of brain aging by 9 years.4

Magnesium’s Impact on the Brain

Magnesium is an essential mineral found in varying amounts in a range of plant- and animal-based foods.

Throughout the body, it works as a cofactor, or “helper molecule,” required for the normal function of hundreds of enzyme systems.

In fact, magnesium is essential for about 80% of the body’s metabolic functions.5

Magnesium plays an especially critical role in the brain, where it protects the functioning of synapses, the communication connection points between brain cells.

For people to learn and form memories, synapses must have a property known as plasticity, the ability to adapt and change in response to stimuli.

Declining synaptic plasticity is a major contributor to loss of cognitive function in older age. And magnesium can help stop this decline.

How it Works

As you can see in the graphic below, brain cells release a “messenger” from most synapses, known as neurotransmitters.

Neurotransmitters bind to a receptor for the neurotransmitter on the other brain cell, thereby stimulating it.

In areas of the brain where learning and forming memories take place, the most important receptor is NMDA.6

The NMDA receptor requires an additional step to become fully activated—one that involves magnesium.

Magnesium acts as a secondary activator of the NMDA receptor and is vital to the synapses’ plasticity.

Without magnesium, the NMDA receptor and the whole synapse fail to function normally.

In animal studies, researchers have demonstrated that increasing levels of magnesium in the brain increases synaptic plasticity and leads to greater synaptic density.

That means it helps existing synapses work better and also increases the overall number of synapses.2,3,7-10

These effects translate into improvements in cognitive function, including better learning and memory.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Brain Protection with Magnesium L-Threonate

• The mineral magnesium plays a critical role in the brain, protecting the function of synapses involved in complex cognitive processes such as learning and memory.
• Inadequate magnesium intake is very common, yet most magnesium isn’t absorbed well by the body and can’t enter the brain in sufficient amounts.
• Scientists at MIT developed a new form of magnesium called magnesium L-threonate, which is highly absorbable and has been shown to increase brain levels of magnesium to a much higher degree than other forms.
• Studies in animals and humans show that magnesium L-threonate improves and maintains cognitive function, even in older individuals with prior signs of cognitive decline.
• In one human study, it reversed cognitive measures of brain aging by 9 years.

Boosting Magnesium Brain Levels

Scientists at MIT developed a form of magnesium called magnesium L-threonate.

This form is more easily absorbed, or bioavailable, and results in higher levels of magnesium in the brain compared to other forms.2

In fact, oral intake of magnesium L-threonate raises brain fluid levels of magnesium in rodents by 54%. It also increases synaptic densityand increases production of NMDA receptors in brain cells.3

Most importantly, several studies demonstrate that this boost to brain magnesium directly translates to improvement in mental function.

Making Rodents Smarter!

If you have a pet hamster, you might want to give it a little brain boost.

Scientists first tested magnesium L-threonate on aged rats. The results showed an enhanced ability to learn, with improvements seen in both short-term and long-term memory.2

Another study pitted magnesium L-threonate against other, common forms of magnesium, including magnesium chloride and magnesium sulphate.10Magnesium L-threonate led to greater improvements in memory than the other forms of magnesium.

Two mouse studies specifically evaluated magnesium L-threonate in models of Alzheimer’s disease, the most common cause of dementia in older adults.7,9 In both studies, it prevented the loss of synapses associated with Alzheimer’s and maintained or improved memory.

Magnesium L-threonate was even effective at improving cognition in very-late-stage Alzheimer’s disease.

Another study in mice showed that magnesium L-threonate stimulated growth of new brain cells in parts of the brain central to memory and learning.8 Normally, the growth of these brain cells slows or stops in older animals, but magnesium L-threonate prevented this decline.

A Groundbreaking Human Trial

A group of scientists designed a clinical study to test whether these benefits translate to people.

Adults 50-70 years old, with some level of cognitive impairment, received 1,500 mg-2,000 mg (depending on body weight) daily of magnesium L-threonate or a placebo for 12 weeks.4

At the end of the study, subjects who were treated with magnesium L-threonate had an improvement in overall cognitive ability.

On average, subjects started out with some degree of impairment of executive functioning, the ability to think abstractly, plan, and make decisions. By the end of the study, the executive functioning of those taking magnesium L-threonate was restored to nearly normal for their age.

At the start of the study, the participants averaged 57.8 years of age. However, their brain age based on cognitive functioning was 68.3 years old. By the end of the trial, those receiving magnesium L-threonate improved by 9 years of brain age, a truly remarkable result.

The antitumoral potential of a compound derived from olives

University of Granada (Spain), March 10, 2021

Researchers from the University of Granada (UGR), in collaboration with the universities of Barcelona and Jaen, have brought to light the antitumoral nature of maslinic acid (a compound derived from olives) in Caco-2 p53-deficient colon adenocarcinoma cells in the short term.

Maslinic acid (MA) is a natural triterpene found in high concentrations in the waxy skin of olives, obtained through a method patented by professors Andrés García-Granadados López de Hierro and Andrés Parra Sánchez from the UGR department of Organic Chemistry, and currently used by the company Biomaslinic S.L.

The results of this research, recently published in the renowned PloS ONE magazine, show without a doubt how maslinic acid is capable of early inducing the extrinsic cellular death pathway in Caco-2 cells that don’t express protein p53 (known by its pro-apoptotic capacity).

Said research has been lead by professors José Antonio Lupiáñez Cara and Andrés Parra Sánchez from the University of Granada, Marta Cascante Serratosa from the University of Barcelona, and Juan Peragón Sánchez from the University of Jaen.

In previous works, professor Lupiáñez Cara’s research team had reported that maslinic acid induces apoptotic cell death via the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway in cancer cell lines.

In the paper published in PloS ONE, the researchers have shown that MA induces apoptosis in Caco-2 colon cancer cells via the extrinsic apoptotic pathway in a dose-dependent manner in the short term (4 hours).

A quick response

Maslinic acid triggers a series of effects associated with apoptosis and increased the levels of the pro-apoptotic protein t-Bid within a few hours of its addition to the culture medium. This triterpene has no effect on the expression of the Bax protein or the release of cytochrome-c (proteins involved in the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway), or on the mitochondrial membrane potential.

This suggests that MA triggered the extrinsic apoptotic pathway in this cell type, as opposed to the intrinsic pathway found in the HT29 colon-cancer cell line (cells which do have the tumor suppressor gene p53 and, as a result, express the protein p53.

The results published in PloS ONE suggest that the apoptotic mechanism induced in Caco-2 may be different from that found in HT29 colon-cancer cells, and that in Caco-2 cells maslinic acid seems to work independently of the presence of p53. Natural antitumoral agents capable of activating both the extrinsic and intrinsic apoptotic pathways could be of great use in treating colon-cancer of whatever origin.

The researches currently being carried out by the team are focused on finding compounds chemically derived from maslinic and oleanolic acids which are related with anti proliferative, anti tumoral and anti angiogenic tasks as well as pharmacokinetic tasks at different levels (sub-molecular, molecular and cellular), in order to establish both their mechanism of action and the link between the various by-products and their effect on the cells.

Can yoga help those experiencing depression, anxiety or PTSD 

University of North Carolina, March 9, 2016

Across the country, health and human service providers have shown a growing interest in using yoga as an option for treating people who experience mental health problems. But a recent study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that while there are some promising benefits to using yoga, there isn’t yet enough evidence to support the practice as a standalone solution for improving mental health and well-being.

“I really wanted to know if yoga is something we should be suggesting to people who have post-traumatic stress disorder, or depression, or anxiety or various traumas. What does the evidence really say?,” said Rebecca Macy, a researcher who works with violence and trauma survivors who headed up the study at the UNC School of Social Work.

For their study, Macy and her colleagues analyzed 13 literature reviews to conduct a meta-review of 185 articles published between 2000 and 2013. Overall, the researchers found that yoga holds potential promise for helping improve anxiety, depression, PTSD and/or the psychological consequences of trauma at least in the short term.

The study, published recently in the journal Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, also suggested that clinicians and service providers consider recommending yoga as an intervention in addition to other “evidence-based and well-established treatments,” including psychotherapy and medication.

“Even though I do think yoga is, in general, incredibly beneficial, I also think there needs to be a whole lot more education about how to use yoga specifically to treat survivors of trauma in order to be the most effective and helpful,” said Leslie Roach, a certified yoga instructor and massage therapist who co-authored the study. “So as a standalone treatment right now, it’s just not viable. However, I think with more education, more research, and more experienced instructors, it will be.”

Macy and Roach are considering several possible future studies, including one that would examine the use of yoga within a rape crisis center or domestic violence shelter. However, because yoga is a holistic practice, researchers must be careful not to “undermine yoga’s approach,” Macy added.

“One of our recommendations was that researchers and yoga instructors partner together so that we use holistic methods in future research,” Macy said. “We need to ask ourselves if we’re taking these Western research methods and trying too hard to fit a round peg in a square hole. As a researcher, I don’t want to undo the potential benefits of yoga by making the practice unnecessarily standard and systematic.”

Pfizer’s History of Crimes and Misdemeanors

Richard Gale and Gary Null

Progressive Radio Network, March 10, 2021

Whenever it is necessary to make an evaluation of the efficacy and safety of conventional drug-based medicine, it is imperative to include the rising rate of iatraogenic injuries and deaths – medical errors – that has become the third leading cause of death in the US after cardiovascular disease and cancer. The majority of these deaths are caused by FDA approved drugs’ adverse effects and when patients are prescribed multiple medications in the absence of thorough clinical research to determine the safety of their synergistic effects.  Consequently our health agencies’ oversight and monitoring of drugs on the market is dismal and deadly.

Among the top pharmaceutical companies whose drugs and products have most contributed to the nation’s iatrogenic epidemic is the $51 billion multinational behemoth Pfizer Inc, the world’s third most profitable drug maker. Pfizer is one of America’s oldest pharma firms, founded by Charles Pfizer and Charles Erhart in a Brooklyn red brick building in 1849. The chemical company began to boom in the 1880s after becoming the leading manufacturer of the chelating, flavoring and preservative agent citric acid. With its expertise in fermentation chemistry, Pfizer later became a leader in the production of penicillin and ascorbic acid (Vitamin C). Today its 300-plus drugs are commonplace in American doctors’ tool kits: Zoloft, Zantac, Viagra, Enbrel, Flagyl, Lipitor, and several antibiotics. It is also a major player in the generic drug market and is rapidly becoming a leading vaccine maker with its pneumococcus vaccine (Prevnar) and more recently with its controversial mRNA vaccine against the SARS-CoV2 virus. In the irrational panic to quickly get a vaccine against the SARS virus to market, its Covid-19 vaccine was the first to receive emergency use authorization

Pfizer’s legacy of lawsuits goes back to the late 1950s. According to the Corporate Research Project, it “has been at the center of controversies over its drug pricing for more than 50 years.” Back in 1958 it was charged by the Federal Trade Commission for price fixing and making false statements to dubiously acquire a patent for tetracycline. Two years later the Justice Department filed criminal antitrust charges against Pfizer’s board chairman and president on the matter. Again in 1996, the drug company paid out $408 million to settle another lawsuit for price fixing and gouging pharmacies. In 2002, Pfizer was caught defrauding the federal Medicaid program for over-charging its flagship cholesterol drug Lipitor. Other similar charges include a $784 million settlement for underpaid rebates to Medicaid and $107 million fine for overcharging its epilepsy drug phenytoin sodium.

The company has even stooped so low as to engage in bogus advertising. Shortly after the Second World War, Pfizer created snazzy ads for the Journal of the American Medical Association for its antibiotic line. The ads included named physicians endorsing its drugs. However, according to a Saturday Review investigation, the doctors turned out to be completely fictitious.

As the company is positioned to earn $19 billon from its Covid-19 vaccine, at the same time it is legally battling against hundreds of lawsuits due to its popular heartburn drug, Zantac, being contaminated with the carcinogen N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), an “extremely hazardous” toxin used in rocket fuel and industrial lubricants. Although the FDA erroneously claims that Zantac’s NDMA levels are low, they have still been measured to be between 3,000 and 26,000 times higher than the FDA’s safety cut-off point. Another adverse effect of NDMA is hepatotoxicity leading to liver fibrosis and scarring.

According to the law firm Matthews and Associates, since “the history of Pfizer is rife with so much subterfuge and under-the-table dealing that the company will need all the help it can get to promote confidence in its hastily assembled Covid vaccine.” If the mainstream media were to honestly cover the NDMA trial underway and other Pfizer confrontations with the law, perhaps its vaccine would not be receiving such uncritical fanfare. There would be more scrutiny and warranted suspicion to question how Pfizer could have developed a truly safe and effective vaccine in such a short period of time.

In our earlier reviews of the criminal records of Merck and Johnson and Johnson, we did not find evidence of the depths of demented ethical behavior solely to manipulate its market control as we do with Pfizer. In fact, Pfizer seemingly is in competition to outdo notorious hedge fund vulture capitalist and underworld strategies to bully governments in return for securing supplies of its Covid-19 vaccine. For example, Pfizer demanded that Argentina pay the company compensation for any civil lawsuits filed against it. The government compromised and ruled that Pfizer would only pay fines for any negligence on the company’s behalf with respect to supply and distribution. But that was not agreeable to the vaccine maker. Instead it then demanded that Argentina provide its sovereign assets –bank reserves, military bases and embassy buildings – as collateral to secure vaccine supplies.

In Brazil, Pfizer’s aggressive and malignant efforts failed. It demanded that the Brazilian government turn over a guaranteed fund deposited in a foreign bank account and that the government would waive its sovereign assets abroad. Pfizer also demanded that it not be held legally liable for any injuries or deaths due to its vaccine. Correctly, President Bolsonaro called Pfizer’s demands “abuse” and rejected the deal.

If this gives the impression that Pfizer is a serial predator on poorer foreign nations, Argentina and Brazil are only the most recent examples. In 1996, the company conducted illegal experimental trials with an unapproved experimental antibiotic, Trovan, on Nigerian children without parental knowledge or consent. The case was not raised in a US federal court until 2001 after thirty Nigerian families sued. After 100 children were given the drug as guinea pigs, “eleven children in the trial died, others suffered brain damage, were partly paralyzed or became deaf.”  Nigerian medical experts ruled that Pfizer violated international law and the US federal case was eventually settled a decade later for an undisclosed amount.

Pfizer’s dirty politics and in our opinion mafia-like activity in the Nigeria scandal, reminding us of Monsanto’s sleazy schemes, goes beyond the dangers of an experimental antibiotic. Wikileaks made available State Department cables showing that Pfizer had hired spies to dig up dirt to frame a former Nigerian attorney general in order to get the lawsuit dropped. It also tried to shift the blame of the scandal on Doctors Without Borders by making a false claim that the non-profit charitable group was responsible for dispensing the antibiotic.

Already in the US, thanks to Reagan’s Vaccine Injury Compensation Act, vaccine makers are off the hook for being held legally accountable for vaccine adverse effects. Now the company is demanding that other nations change their laws solely for Pfizer to secure maximum profits from its Covid vaccine. Pfizer’s actions are utterly parasitical. Nor should we forget that the development of its vaccine has largely been publicly funded. Its Covid vaccine partner Biontech received $445 million from the German government, and Pfizer has received almost $2 billion from US taxpayers as pre-payment for a vaccine.

Pfizer’s leech-like behavior goes back even further. In 2003, after it appeared that Congress might pass a bill to permit cheaper prescription drugs in Canada for sale in the US, Pfizer attempted to change the rules of the game and demand Canadian pharmacies to order directly from Pfizer rather than wholesalers in order to dominate the market and interrupt the supply chain.

Pfizer’s track record for fines and lawsuits for violation of its drug safety profiles and ethical marketing are equally damning. In 2009, it was fined $2.3 billion for what was then the largest healthcare felony settlement in US pharmaceutical history for illegally promoting its drugs, including its painkiller Bextra. $1.2 billion was just for the criminal fine; at the time, this was the largest ever imposed in the US for any issue. In 2011, it was found guilty of racketeering charges for illegally marketing its anticonvulsant drug Neurontin and paid $142 million. Three years later Pfizer was fined $430 million to settle criminal charges for bribing doctors to promote and prescribe the same drug.

Nor should we ignore Pfizer’s dreadful environmental record:

1971 – Long time illegal dumping of a million gallons of industrial waste annually from its Groton plant into the Long Island Sound;

1991 – A $3.1 million fine for refusing to install pollution control equipment in its Delaware River plant

1994 – A $1.5 million fine for illegal dumping at a toxic waste site in Rhode Island

2003 – Paid a $700 million settlement for dumping PCBs in Anniston, Alabama.

Now, we are facing the widespread distribution of Pfizer’s experimental mRNA Covid-19 vaccine wherein the trials to determine its level of safety and efficacy are still underway. It is still too early to make any determination of Pfizer having been engaged in any nefarious activities to get its vaccine rushed to the public. Impropriety and medical negligence so far lies on our government’s shoulders and our bought-off corporate media. Federal health agencies simply ignored their regulatory obligations and gave the vaccine a green light prematurely. Nevertheless, reports of injuries and deaths continue to mount and we will not have any sense of the full cost to human life and suffering from vaccine injuries for a while. In the meantime, China has suspended the mRNA vaccine after a flurry of deaths among Norwegian elderly. The Gibraltar Chronicle reported the deaths of 13 people within two days of receiving Pfizer’s vaccine and that number has risen to over 50 on the tiny island. Hundreds of vaccinated Israelis are still coming down with SARS-CoV2 infections after vaccination. The highly prestigious journal Science reported the growing concerns over the Pfizer vaccine’s polyethylene glycol nanoparticle and its relationship to the growing number of rare but serious allergic reactions and cases of anaphylaxis. And in a briefing document released by the CDC’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee gave warning that the Pfizer vaccine trials give indication of unusual and unexpected antibody responses, cytokine storms and pathogenic priming that give rise to critical illness and death.

Therefore there is no evidence whatsoever that Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine can scientifically and consensually be ruled as safe. But as we have observed from Pfizer’s litany of criminal activities above, safety and effectiveness of a drug or product has never been a priority in the company’s executive office.

All told, these examples of Pfizer’s culture of greed, deception, political maneuvering and disingenuous tactics has collectively injured countless people. Pfizer is a global corporation. Its drugs, and now its Covid-19 vaccine are marketed globally. To better understand Pfizer, the company should be perceived foremost as a cash cow for Wall Street. Its prime directive is selling drugs; its history of misdemeanors and crimes should indicate the company holds no integrity or medical ethics with a sincere commitment to prevent and treat disease. For firms such as Pfizer, injuries and deaths are the necessary collateral damage of getting poorly tested products on the market and as fast as possible. In our opinion, a black box warning should be slapped on the Pfizer logo. And should we trust such a company with the potential to vaccinate an enormous percent of the world population with an experimental vaccine?