pfizer engineering viruses?

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pfizer engineering viruses?

Postby operator kos » Wed Mar 17, 2010 7:11 pm

Could just be a disgruntled employee. Could be the apocalypse. Whee!

http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-pfizer-virus-lawsuit-0314.artmar14,0,4421048,full.story

Ex-Pfizer Worker Cites Genetically Engineered Virus In Lawsuit Over Firing

Medical experts will be watching closely Monday when a scientist who says she has been intermittently paralyzed by a virus designed at the Pfizer laboratory where she worked in Groton opens a much anticipated trial that could raise questions about safety practices in the dynamic field of genetic engineering.

Organizations involved in workplace safety and responsible genetic research already have seized on the federal lawsuit by molecular biologist Becky McClain as an example of what they claim is evidence that risks caused by cutting-edge genetic manipulation have outstripped more slowly evolving government regulation of laboratories.

McClain, of Deep River, suspects she was inadvertently exposed, through work by a former Pfizer colleague in 2002 or 2003, to an engineered form of the lentivirus, a virus similar to the one that can lead to acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS. Medical experts working for McClain believe the virus has affected the way her body channels potassium, leading to a condition that causes complete paralysis as many as 12 times a month.

"If a worker in a plant as sophisticated as Pfizer is becoming infected with a genetically engineered virus, then I think the potential is everywhere," said Jeremy Gruber, president of the Council for Responsible Genetics, a public interest group created to explore the implications of genetic technologies.

"Genetically engineered viruses are commonly worked on at your average university," Gruber said. "The public has a right to know what regulations are in place and what regulations are required to fix an industrywide issue. We need to have a conversation about this. Ms. McClain's attempt to do that has been hampered at every turn, by the courts and by regulators."

Pfizer disputes all of McClain's claims and says it fired her in 2005 because she refused to come to work. The global pharmaceuticals manufacturer, with research labs in southeastern Connecticut, defends its safety practices and denies that McClain's physical disability is related to exposure at its Groton lab. The company says she did not link her disability to workplace exposure until after she was fired.

As a molecular biologist, McClain studied cells on a molecular level, manipulating genetic codes in an effort to develop vaccines. During the period at issue in the suit, McClain worked in Pfizer's Human Health Embryonic Stem Cells Technologies, Genomic and Proteomic Sciences and Exploratory Medicinal Sciences Group.

Hostile Exchanges
The sharp disagreement between McClain and her former employer mirrors a half-dozen or so years of hostile litigation leading to Monday's jury trial in Hartford before U.S. District Judge Vanessa L. Bryant. McClain will argue that she was wrongfully dismissed and is entitled to unspecified damages. In the run-up, Pfizer attacked McClain's legal claims, and she questioned the company's corporate integrity.

On the advice of her lawyers, McClain would not discuss her suit last week. Neither would her lawyers, nor those representing Pfizer.

But McClain has claimed in her suit and in earlier public statements that she was fired after experiencing symptoms of illness and after complaining to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration about safety in her Pfizer lab.

OSHA dismissed McClain's complaint. In a decision published after McClain's termination, the agency criticized her for refusing to return to work in spite of "Pfizer's substantial efforts" to address her concerns. In a speech last year to a labor safety group in California, McClain said she was told by an OSHA investigator that the federal agency's legal authority has not kept pace with developments in sophisticated medical research.

A series of angry, pretrial exchanges developed over McClain's efforts to compel Pfizer to give her precise information about the DNA sequencing of the engineered lentivirus she suspects infected her. Pfizer says it responded to all of McClain's requests, in accordance with the law. Her advocates called Pfizer's assertion preposterous and claimed the company has not produced — perhaps because it is subject to trademark — the sequencing data that could enable scientists to engineer a genetic cure.

Over the course of pretrial argument, the number and breadth of McClain's legal claims against Pfizer have been reduced from eight to two. Last month, Bryant dismissed the most significant of the eight claims: that willful and wanton misconduct by Pfizer resulted in lax laboratory procedures. McClain claimed laxity contributed to her exposure.

McClain's advocates point to language in Bryant's ruling that suggests the misconduct allegation was dismissed, at least in part, because state law requires such claims to be resolved by state workers' compensation rules. But Pfizer says Bryant's ruling is another vindication of its assertion that no evidence exists to support McClain's contention that she was infected by a viral exposure at Pfizer.

"We have thoroughly investigated Ms. McClain's claims and our investigation concluded that her workplace was safe and that she was not infected by any virologic materials while she was employed by Pfizer," company spokeswoman Elizabeth Power said.

Bryant's ruling means the trial will move forward under McClain's two remaining claims, both of which involve free speech protection. She says Pfizer fired her in violation of Connecticut's whistle-blower law after she raised questions about Pfizer lab safety to OSHA. And she claims her dismissal also was in retaliation for questions she raised in discussion with Pfizer colleagues about safety practices. In addition to performing her research duties, McClain served on a lab safety committee for at least part of the nine years she was employed by Pfizer.

Medical Evidence
Pfizer has taken the position that Bryant's ruling in March means no evidence will be admitted at the trial concerning McClain's health or her claim that it was destroyed by bad lab procedures. McClain's advocates, again, disagree. Because McClain is suing under a whistle-blower claim, they believe she will be allowed to present evidence about why she figuratively blew the whistle. If her health and safety are the reasons, they say, the judge could allow jurors to hear evidence in those areas.

In her suit, McClain says that Pfizer hired her in 1995 and that, in 2000, she became involved in human cellular research associated with vaccine development. She later learned, the suit says, that colleagues in her lab were working with infectious, genetically engineered viruses, including the lentivirus she suspects causes what her physician calls "acute intermittent paralysis."

The suit describes lab events that McClain suggests could have infected her.

The first involved the possible malfunction of a "laminar hood," a system designed to contain materials being subjected to scientific manipulation and to purify the air circulating around the materials. She said the hood began emitting a noxious odor at the same time she and several colleagues developed symptoms of illness, including nausea.

McClain said in the suit that, as a member of the lab safety committee, she reported the apparent hood malfunction. Judge Bryant said in a preliminary ruling that Pfizer took "various steps" to fix the hood and ultimately replaced it, twice.

Pfizer contends that the hood problem was resolved eight months after McClain reported it. But a long e-mail message by one of McClain's supervisors and the OSHA review corroborate McClain's contention that the problem persisted for a year. Before it was corrected, several people suffered from headaches, vomiting and nausea, including at least one member of the crew that cleaned the lab after work.

About two months after the hood problem was resolved, McClain says in the suit, she learned from a colleague that he was working "next to" her on "dangerous lentivirus material and embryonic stem cells." The work was being done on an open lab bench, unprotected by a biological containment system, the suit says, even though lentivirus work should have been done only under a protective "biological hood."

"I was shocked and appalled to find he had been using lentivirus materials on an open lab bench without biocontainment where I performed my office work (e.g. without gloves) in October 2003," McClain wrote in a legal filing.

On another occasion, she says, she encountered an unidentified experimental set-up consisting of cell cultures on her laboratory bench, but she cannot recall whether she touched it.

Pfizer has responded that any lentivirus studied in lab areas where McClain was present was not derived from a human infectious virus and was not infectious because it lacked genes for replication.

McClain says in the suit that she repeatedly raised laboratory safety issues following the hood malfunction, despite a warning from a supervisor that doing so could jeopardize her employment. She said she began suffering from "fatigue, suspicion of multiple sclerosis, joint pain, and numbness in her face as well as sleep difficulties" and took a medical leave in February 2004. She was fired about 11 months later.

The suit contends the dismissal was retaliation for her complaints about safety. In a speech a year ago, McClain asserted that some of the safety deficiencies she has criticized are the product of poor lab design — design that is nonetheless acceptable under OSHA rules.

Pfizer contends that McClain's dismissal was not related to her concern about safety. Rather, the company says, she was terminated for refusing to report back to work after the company made her repeated offers, including alternative employment opportunities, some in laboratories other than the one about which she had complained. Pfizer claims McClain was told in advance of her termination that she would be fired if she didn't return to work.

Even though jurors are unlikely to hear arguments that McClain's potassium disorder and related transient paralysis are attributable to exposure to an engineered virus, a network of laboratory safety advocates already is using the case as a rallying point. A group from San Francisco has planned a press conference outside the Hartford courthouse on Main Street at 12:15 p.m. Monday.

They say OSHA's inability to stay abreast of developments in sophisticated, molecular research techniques — as well as law protecting the confidentiality of proprietary discoveries — has neutralized the agency's ability to act as an effective regulator.

"This case shows a major flaw for workers in the biotech industry who have to prove where they got injured in order to receive workers' compensation," said Steve Zeltzer, one of the organizers.
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Re: pfizer engineering viruses?

Postby Penguin » Thu Mar 18, 2010 9:41 am

Someone will screw up something, somewhere, eventually, no matter how many precautions are taken.
Thats like a law of nature or something.

It will happen. Motors fail, gaskets blow, electricity will go out at the same time as the backup generator breaks a bearing and the batteries blow a fuse.
Then your Biosafety Level 4 lab will suddenly sporut a leak, and everyone will be very unhappy.

http://web.mit.edu/ssp/bsl4/biolabs.html

At the same time, with funding for more research on defenses against select agents, the decision was made to increase the numbers of high containment laboratories. Today, according to the Sunshine Project office in Austin, Texas, as many as 15 BSL4 laboratories exist in the United States or are planned. The two newest ones are in San Antonio and Galveston, Texas. In addition, there are approximately 21 Level 3 high containment laboratories in the United States. Some of these may not be in use. The Sunshine Project estimates these numbers from documents in the open literature and has asked that visitors to its web site submit corrections.

From the Sunshine Project:

"Map of the US Biodefense Program: High Containment Labs and Other Facilities" is now available under the biodefense tab of the Sunshine Project website. It and an accompanying key may be downloaded in PDF format or viewed as (large) images. This map is a revised and updated version of the US biodefense program map first published in October 2003.

Two dozen facilities across the country have been added. New types of facilities tracked include open air testing sites. Also added are sites conducting secretive research and/or which appear to be conducting classified studies.

The US biodefense program continues to change and to expand rapidly, including classified research. Thus, it is difficult to comprehensively track. This map is based on open sources and open records requests and is periodically updated. The Sunshine Project believes that it is the best compilation of US biodefense sites that is publicly available. Reader comments and submissions are welcomed and will be incorporated, as appropriate, into future versions.

The direct URL to view the map is: http://www.sunshine-project.org/biodefense/


http://www.sunshine-project.org/publica ... 30707.html (note - the site seems to be an archived version and they say they have ceased updates)

The Sunshine Project
News Release
3 July 2007

Texas A&M Bioweapons Accidents More the Norm than an Exception

• From anthrax in Albuquerque to tuberculosis in New York, the public is kept in the dark about many biolab incidents

• It is unclear if the government is aware of the extent, the danger continues to grow with mushrooming biodefense research

• Need for stronger federal biolab oversight, reduced and rationalized biolab system

• "Instead of a 'culture of responsibility', the federal government has instilled a culture of denial... so labs hide problems, and think that accident reporting is for masochists... "



Far more accidents have happened in biodefense and other high containment labs in recent years than the public knows about. It is not clear if the federal government is even aware of the extent of the problems. The rash of biolab accidents is a result of the massive expansion of the biodefense program, which has brought research on bioweapons agents to scores of new labs in recent years.

What is needed, according to the Sunshine Project, is to reduce the number of facilities and people handing bioweapons agents in the United States and to bring the fragmented and frequently unenforced hodgepodge of federal biolab rules and suggestions together into a unified, mandatory, and enforced system that ensures laboratory safety and public accountability.

The Sunshine Project has recently released information about unreported accidents with biological weapons agents that resulted in an order from the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for Texas A&M University to cease and desist all research with "select agents", as bioweapons agents are called in federal regulations.

Here, the Sunshine Project releases information on other accidents that it has confirmed involving select agents and/or biosafety level three (BSL-3) labs. None of these accidents, to the Project's knowlege, have been made public before:

- In mid-2003, a University of New Mexico (UNM) researcher was jabbed with an anthrax-laden needle. The following year, another UNM researcher experienced a needle stick with an unidentifed (redacted) pathogenic agent that had been genetically engineered;

- At the Medical University of Ohio, in late 2004 a researcher was infected with Valley Fever (C. immitis), a BSL-3 biological weapons agent. The following summer (2005), a serious lab accident occurred that resulted in exposure of one or more workers to an aerosol of the same agent;

- In mid-2005, a lab worker at the University of Chicago punctured his or her skin with an infected instrument bearing a BSL-3 select agent. It was likely a needle contaminated with either anthrax or plague;

- In October and November of 2005, the University of California at Berkeley received dozens of samples of what it thought was a relatively harmless organism. In fact, the samples contained Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, classified as a BSL-3 bioweapons agents because of its transmission by aerosol. As a result, the samples were handled without adequate safety precautions, until the mistake was discovered. Unlike nearby Oakland Children's Hospital, which previously experienced an anthrax mixup, UC Berkeley never told the community;

In addition to lab-acquired infections and exposures, other types of dangerous problems have occurred, such as unauthorized research, equipment malfunction, and disregard for safety protocols:

- In February 2005 at the University of Iowa, researchers performed genetic engineering experiments with the select agent tularemia without permission. They included mixing genes from tularemia species and introducing antibiotic resistance. The University reported the incident to the National Institutes of Health, but public disclosure was (to our knowlege) never made;

- In September 2004 at the University of Illinois at Chicago, lab workers at a BSL-3 facility propped open doors of the lab and its anteroom, a major violation of safety procedeures. A alarm that should have sounded did not;

- In March 2005 at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, lab workers were exposed to tuberculosis when the BSL-3 lab's exhaust fan failed. Due to deficiences in the lab, a blower continued to operate, pushing disease-laden air out of a safety cabinet and into the room. An alarm, which would have warned of the problem, had been turned off. The lab had been inspected and approved by the US Army one month earlier;

- In December 2005 at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University in New York City, three lab workers were exposed (converted) to tuberculosis following experiments in a BSL-3 lab. The experiments involved a Madison Aerosol Chamber, the same device used in the February 2006 experiments that resulted in the Texas A&M brucella case;

- In mid-2004, a steam valve from the biological waste treatment tanks failed at Building 41A on the NIH Campus in Bethesda, Maryland. The building houses BSL-3 and BSL-4 labs. Major damage was caused, and the building was closed for repairs;
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Re: pfizer engineering viruses?

Postby operator kos » Sat Apr 03, 2010 12:54 pm

Uh oh... looks like there's really something to this.

http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0402/pfizer-ordered-pay-virus-infection/

Pfizer ordered to pay up over ‘AIDS-like’ virus infections

In what is being hailed as a major victory for workers in the biotech and nanotech fields, a former scientist with pharmaceutical firm Pfizer has been awarded $1.37 million for being fired after raising the alarm over researchers being infected with a genetically engineered "AIDS-like" virus.

Becky McClain, a molecular biologist from Deep River, Connecticut, filed a lawsuit against Pfizer in 2007, claiming she had been wrongly terminated for complaining about faulty safety equipment that allowed a "dangerous lentivirus" to infect her and some of her colleagues.

The Hartford Courant describes the virus as "similar to the one that can lead to acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS." Health experts testified that the virus has affected the way McClain's body processes potassium, which they say causes McClain to suffer complete paralysis as often as a dozen times per month, the Courant reports.

McClain's lawsuit (PDF) asserted that Pfizer had interfered with her right to free speech, and that she should have been protected from retaliation by whistleblower legislation.

Pfizer challenged her assertion, claiming McClain only started complaining about safety problems once her employment was terminated, the Associated Press reports. Pfizer also claimed to have investigated McClain's claims about safety violations and found them to be untrue, according to the New London Day.

On Thursday, a jury in a US District Court in Connecticut disagreed with Pfizer, granting McClain the $1.37 million, as well as punitive damages, meaning the total amount could be much greater.

The WorkersCompensation.com Web site says the ruling is being "considered the first successful employee claim in the biotech and nanotech industry."

Workers' rights advocates are pointing to the McClain lawsuit as "evidence that risks caused by cutting-edge genetic manipulation have outstripped more slowly evolving government regulation of laboratories," reports the Courant.

McClain's lawsuit says she was exposed to the experimental virus repeatedly between 2002 and 2004, and when she lodged complaints about it, her supervisor said he would "falsify her future performance reviews and he told her they would be negative, and he threatened her in an aggressive fashion following the plaintiff’s repeated complaints regarding safety. He forcibly backed the plaintiff into a wall during one encounter."

'TOO BIG TO NAIL'

A report at CNN about a separate legal matter involving Pfizer states that the Department of Justice considered Pfizer to be "too big to nail" in an investigation of the company's illegal marketing of the painkiller drug Bextra.

CNN reports that, if Pfizer had been prosecuted over the drug, the company would have been excluded from doing business with Medicaid and Medicare. But because federal officials considered the company too big to be exempted from working with the government health programs, a dummy corporation -- Pharmacia & Upjohn Inc. -- was set up, and that dummy corporation then pleaded guilty to the crime.

"P&UCI sold no drugs and had no real employees, and its creation was simply a figleaf to allow a Pfizer entity to take the rap without harming Pfizer itself," explains Jim Edwards at the Bnet business blog.

Pfizer is the world's largest drugmaker, with annual revenue around $44 billion.
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Re: pfizer engineering viruses?

Postby Nordic » Sun Apr 04, 2010 2:24 pm

So ... is it general knowledge that Pfizer is in the business of engineering killer viruses?

Are they in the bio-warfare business now?

That might explain why they're "too big to nail".

WTF?

This is a very weird story that deserves far more attention.

This is like someone getting radiation poisoning at a McDonalds or something. Why would McDonalds be messing around with radiation? (oh wait .....)

But you know what I'm saying, hopefully.

Why the pfuck would Pfizer be messing around with this stuff?
"He who wounds the ecosphere literally wounds God" -- Philip K. Dick
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Re: pfizer engineering viruses?

Postby Joe Hillshoist » Mon Apr 05, 2010 1:34 am

I'd like to know what "this stuff" was too nordic.
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Re: pfizer engineering viruses?

Postby Maddy » Mon Apr 05, 2010 1:45 am

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(sorry, couldn't resist)
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Re: pfizer engineering viruses?

Postby AhabsOtherLeg » Fri Dec 10, 2010 10:44 am

.
Thought I would revive this thread rather than starting another new one with Wikileaks in the title. This story is not directly related to the "AIDS-like" virus, but gives a clear picture of how Pfizer operate in Africa, using blackmail and black propaganda against those who get in their way. It also shows how much respect they have for issues like informed consent.

This story is from Forbes, of all places:

.
Back in November 2008, I investigated allegations that Pfizer conducted an illegal clinical trial on Nigerian children during a 1996 meningitis outbreak. At the time, the Nigerian government was seeking $8.5 billion in restitution and damages as well as jail terms for various Pfizer officials, including former Pfizer chief executive William Steere.

The Nigerian suit claimed Pfizer drafted children into its clinical trial without their consent, intentionally low-dosed its control drug to boost the profile of its own antibiotic, Trovan, and may be responsible for the deaths of 11 children and injuries to dozens of others. (See: “Pfizer’s Nigerian Nightmare.”)

In reporting the story, sources confirmed the two parties were nearing a $150 million settlement. Five months later, Pfizer agreed to settle the case for half that much: $75 million.

Now, a Wikileaks’ cable, published by the Guardian, may provide insight into the discrepancy in settlement amounts.

According to the cable, classified confidential by U.S. economic counselor Robert Tansey, Pfizer hired investigators to uncover corruption links to Nigeria’s Federal Attorney General Michael Aondoakaa and leaked reports of alleged corruption to local Nigerian media outlets in February and March of 2009.

According to the cable, “A series of damaging articles detailing Aondoakaa’s ‘alleged’ corruption ties were published in February and March.” As a result, “Aondoakaa’s cronies were pressuring him to drop the suit for fear of further negative articles,” the cable said.

One month after publication of those articles, both parties agreed to the $75 million payout, half of what we initially reported. According to the cable, “Pfizer’s image in Nigeria has been damaged due to this ongoing case. Pfizer’s management considers Nigeria a major growth market for its products and having this case behind it will help in efforts to rebuild its image here.”


Neither Pfizer, Robert Tansey, nor Michael Aondoakaa could be reached for immediate comment.

Pfizer maintains the children documented in the suit died from meningitis, not the drug trial, and describes its trial largely as a humanitarian effort aimed at saving lives during a 1996 epidemic–an ugly trifecta of meningitis, cholera and measles–that killed 12,000 Nigerians, many of them children.

Before Pfizer’s 1996 trial, oral Trovan had never been tested for efficacy in children, in part because of concerns over side effects. Trovan belongs to a powerful class of antibiotics called quinolones, which can have serious side effects, including liver problems and cartilage and tendon abnormalities. In early-stage testing, quinolones had caused liver and joint damage in young rats and dogs–making testing in children more problematic. Although Pfizer insists that scientific articles supported the testing and use of quinolones in children as medically indicated and ethically justified.

Pfizer enrolled 200 children, between 3 months and 18 years old, in its Trovan trial. Of those, half received a full dose of Trovan. The control group was given Rocephin, a Hoffman-La Roche drug considered the “gold standard” for meningitis treatment, albeit less than the then-approved dose.


A month after the trial, five children in the Trovan group and six in the Rocephin group had died. Dozens of others were left paralyzed or with crippling arthritis. Pfizer says the deaths and injuries are tragic. Nevertheless, it maintains the study proved its drug’s efficacy, given that the epidemic killed 10% of all those infected.

“With a survival rate of 94.4%, Trovan helped save lives and was at least as effective as the best treatment available at Kano’s Infectious Disease Hospital. For patients who did not participate in the Trovan investigative study, the survival rate was slightly less than 90%,” Pfizer said in a statement.

Using its trial data, Pfizer initially applied to use Trovan for pediatric meningitis. Pfizer then withdrew that use from its application after a Food and Drug Administration audit found dozens of discrepancies in its trial records. The company says it intended to renew its application following results of a global pediatric trial that was already underway.

But Pfizer never had the opportunity to apply for pediatric use. After approving Trovan for 14 other uses in 1997, the FDA advised the company to pull the drug entirely– two years and over 2.5 million prescriptions later– citing reports of liver damage.

http://blogs.forbes.com/nicoleperlroth/ ... nnelforbes


The actual cable from Wikileaks can be found here: http://213.251.145.96/cable/2009/04/09ABUJA671.html

From the OP:
The Hartford Courant describes the virus as "similar to the one that can lead to acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or AIDS." Health experts testified that the virus has affected the way McClain's body processes potassium, which they say causes McClain to suffer complete paralysis as often as a dozen times per month, the Courant reports.


From the Forbes article:
A month after the trial, five children in the Trovan group and six in the Rocephin group had died. Dozens of others were left paralyzed or with crippling arthritis.


Children paralysed, or with crippling arthritis - and one of the major causes of arthritis, plus other tendon and cartilage problems, is potassium deficiency.

From the OP: "Health experts testified that the virus has affected the way McClain's body processes potassium."

I don't really think the two cases are related, or that Pfizer were testing their lentivirus on these children in Nigeria as far back as 1996, but I thought I would put it here, mainly just to bump this thread and to make sure people know about this latest leak - this is one of the few that could potentially lead to a prosecution.

Oddly enough, some of Pfizer's top execs announced they were leaving the company yesterday - the very day the leak broke.

[NEW YORK, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Two executives closely involved in Pfizer Inc's push into emerging markets are leaving the world's largest drugmaker. Jean-Michel Halfon, who has been Pfizer's head of its emerging markets business, will retire during the first quarter. David Simmons, who has led the company's established products business unit, will also take charge of the company's emerging markets division. Separately, Steve Yang, who headed up research and development for Pfizer in Asia, will take a similar post at AstraZeneca Plc. Pfizer confirmed the departures on Thursday, only days after the company announced the surprise retirement of Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Kindler. http://www.cnbc.com/id/40592240
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Re: pfizer engineering viruses?

Postby conniption » Sat Oct 02, 2021 10:32 am

bump
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Re: pfizer engineering viruses?

Postby Gnomad » Sat Oct 02, 2021 12:41 pm

Had forgotten this one.
la nuit de tous approche
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Re: pfizer engineering viruses?

Postby Harvey » Sat Oct 02, 2021 5:05 pm

^ Me too. But it's past time we remember.
And while we spoke of many things, fools and kings
This he said to me
"The greatest thing
You'll ever learn
Is just to love
And be loved
In return"


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Re: pfizer engineering viruses?

Postby Joe Hillshoist » Sun Oct 10, 2021 6:29 pm

Those stories are gone from the web but this one is still on the wayback machine:

https://web.archive.org/web/20100406021 ... infection/
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Re: pfizer engineering viruses?

Postby Laodicean » Sun Oct 10, 2021 8:35 pm

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Re: pfizer engineering viruses?

Postby overcoming hope » Fri Dec 10, 2021 2:48 pm

Becky McClain is an injured worker and the first successful whistleblower in the biotech arena.
McClain is a 23 year career molecular biologist who has worked on cutting edge technologies in mouse embryonic stem cell, vaccine development, molecular genetics, neurobiology and developmental biology research within both academia and private industry.
In 2000-2004 McClain was working in a mouse embryonic stem cell laboratory developing state-of-the art molecular technologies at Pfizer Inc, Groton Laboratories involving disease state models and drug validation biological models. At that time she saw unsafe work practices related to biocontainment issues in her department and advocated for safer work conditions. Unfortunately, her safety concerns were ignored and squelched by Pfizer management. In 2002, she and others began to fall ill through numerous exposures in the laboratory. McClain then began to experience retaliation for voicing her continued concerns for biocontainment issues related public health and safety and worker safety. In 2003 through no fault of her own, McClain endured yet another exposure at work to a human infectious genetically engineered biological agent due to a lack of biocontainment which subsequently culminated into a slow progressing serious illness.

McClain’s was terminated shortly after requesting Pfizer to provide viral exposure information necessary for her healthcare and after reporting to OSHA. Consequently, McClain was left with a serious illness, loss of her career, little legal remedy and no directed medical care for her work-related exposure to a biological agent.

Connecticut’s Workers Compensation, Department of Public Health and OSHA and all other federal regulatory agencies provided no legal protection for McClain’s health and safety complaints or protection from retaliation or termination.

In 2006 McClain filed a civil law suit against Pfizer to protect her free speech regarding matters of public health and safety and in hopes to obtain rights to the necessary exposure records for her healthcare.

On April 1, 2010 after six years of legal battles, McClain won her lawsuit against Pfizer in violation of her whistleblower rights and her free speech. The jury awarded McClain a judgment for damages and found that she was also entitled to punitive damages for Pfizer’s willful and wanton violation of her free speech rights involving public health and safety.

Although McClain has won her free speech and whistleblower claims, she remains disappointed in the inability to obtain her exposure records due a lack of safety regulations on the biotech industry and a lack of injured worker’s rights. McClain also remains concerned about the current difficulties scientists face in raising issues of work safety, public health and safety or bioethical concerns. She is also concerned about the hardships and abuses that injured workers endure throughout the U.S.

McClain currently serves as a member of the board of directors with the Alliance for Humane Biotechnology. She also serves on a national committee regarding injured worker’s rights. She also has been involved in organizing public venues to increase public awareness of biotechnology and bioethical issues.

Issues related to McClain’s case:
Extreme legal difficulty for scientists who experience retaliation, loss of job or physical threats related to voicing safety concerns
Lack of OSHA protection regarding health and safety complaints related to genetic technologies and human infectious agents
Lack of biotech worker’s rights to a safe work environment and a lack of right to refuse work where unsafe work conditions exist.
Lack of biotech worker’s rights to formal safety committees in order to address health and safety complaints
Lack of biotech worker’s rights to exposure records necessary for healthcare
Lack of rights to injured workers who succumb to a work- acquired illness to obtain directed medical care and compensation for their injury.
Lack of regulations on industries involved with developing dangerous biotechnologies
Public health and safety implications regarding biotechnologies which can contribute to new emerging illness or disease.
Lack of free speech within the scientific community
Lack of transparency to the public regarding dangerous and unregulated biotech technologies and work-related illnesses.
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Re: pfizer engineering viruses?

Postby Grizzly » Thu Dec 16, 2021 11:50 pm


Sesame Street HIV/AIDS Positive Character Not Played in America
“The more we do to you, the less you seem to believe we are doing it.”

― Joseph mengele
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Re: pfizer engineering viruses?

Postby Grizzly » Fri Feb 25, 2022 12:24 pm

Deeper down the #bioweapons rabbit hole we go...
https://archive.ph/7kglp
#US RAN GRUESOME #BIOWEAPON RESEARCH IN OVER 25 COUNTRIES. #WUHAN, TIP OF AN ICEBERG
“The more we do to you, the less you seem to believe we are doing it.”

― Joseph mengele
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