By Lambert Strether of Corrente.
“A nation,” he heard himself say, “consists of its laws. A nation does not consist of its situation at a given time. If an individual’s morals are situational, that individual is without morals. If a nation’s laws are situational, that nation has no laws, and soon isn’t a nation.” –William Gibson, Spook Country
Far be it from me to introduce the slightest hint of cynicism into a feel-good story like two health workers — and Christians! — being whisked from a hemorrhagic fever-infested hellhole to safety in a United States isolation ward and even, we may hope, cure through the injection of a miracle serum developed by a plucky California startup! It’s a wonderful story, even if the serum hadn’t actually been tested in humans, and the workers and their families all seem like nice people, and who would wish stress like that on anyone? Unfortunately, once we look at the figures moving in the shadows beyond the media spotlight… we see vague outlines of a story, other stories, that might not be so simple. I’m not going to connect any dots, I promise! I’m just going to do the old school media critique, lay the dots out, and hope that others can suggest or watch for with evidence-based, hairball-free connections between them.
The Patients: Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol
Here’s how CNN’s medical correspondent, Sanjay Gupta, covered the story initially:
On Thursday, Dr. Kent Brantly thought he was going to die.
It was the ninth day since the American missionary worker came down sick with Ebola in Liberia.
His condition worsening by the minute, Brantly called his wife to say goodbye.
Thankfully, the call was premature.
Brantly is back on his feet — literally — after receiving a last-ditch, highly experimental drug. Another American missionary with Ebola got the same.
Brantly’s and Nancy Writebol’s conditions significantly improved after receiving the medication, sources say. Brantly was able to walk into Emory University Hospital in Atlanta after being evacuated to the United States last week, and Writebol is expected to arrive in Atlanta on Tuesday.
(One hopes, indeed expects, that Brantly and Writebol were only medical workers, as has not been the case in Afghanistan and Cuba.) Reading Gupta’s breathless prose, I can only hope that Brantly and Writebol secured the movie rights.
The process by which the medication was made available to Brantly and Writebol is highly unusual.
World Health Organization spokesman Gregory Hartl cautioned that health authorities “cannot start using untested drugs in the middle of an outbreak, for various reasons.”
Doctors Without Borders similarly weighed in on the side of caution.
“It is important to keep in mind that a large-scale provision of treatments and vaccines that are in very early stages of development has a series of scientific and ethical implications,” the organization said in a statement.
“As doctors, trying an untested drug on patients is a very difficult choice since our first priority is to do no harm, and we would not be sure that the experimental treatment would do more harm than good.”
“[O]ur first priority is to do no harm.” Loose ends: Are other entities involved with other priorities? Why Brantly and Writebol, and not others? (Others not from the United States, or middle class, or Christian, or white.) And now did such an “unusual” “process” happen? As we shall see — unfortunately! — all these loose ends will remain loose ends.
Their Employer: Samaritan’s Purse
CNN’s Gupta, although he makes nothing of it, mentions that Brantly and Writebol work for Samaritan’s Purse (SP). SP is a powerful and politically wired evangelical Christian organization run by Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham. (Both of the two cases to follow are in the context of Bush’s then-controversial decision to fund “faith-based” organizations with Federal money. I’m not concerned with that issue; rather, I want to get a sense of how SP as an institution operates.) Here’s one case involving their work in post-Saddam Iraq, from Steven Waldman of Beliefnet in 2003:
Graham is also, he says, “poised and ready” to send representatives of the charity he runs to Iraq as soon as possible. His primary purpose is humanitarian aid—providing food and shelter—but he also admits, “I believe as we work, God will always give us opportunities to tell others about his Son….”
[I’m not sure] that America’s foreign-policy objectives are served by having a Bush-loving, Islam-bashing, Muslim-converting Christian icon on the ground in Iraq tending to the bodies and souls of the grateful but deeply suspicious Muslim population.
The Bush administration has taken a highly principled position of removing itself from discussion of the matter: Ari Fleischer insists that the administration can’t block a private group from doing its thing. Ellen Yount, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Agency for International Development, which is coordinating the humanitarian efforts, elaborated: “What private charitable organizations choose to do without U.S. government funding is ultimately their decision. How could the U.S. government control that? We can’t just say to an organization, ‘You can or cannot do something,’ if we don’t fund them. Imagine what the United States Congress would say to us.”
Here I’m not concerned with the merits, if any, of Samaritan’s Purse involving itself in Iraq reconstruction; rather it sounds like Samaritan’s Purse is pretty much used to operating independently of the U.S. government; in other words — and here I’m speculating freely — pulling whatever strings they need to pull, and calling whichever Congresscritter they need to call. Here’s a second case, from El Salvador in 2001:
GUADALUPE, El Salvador, March 3 — An American evangelical relief group that is using private donations and United States government money to help victims of two earthquakes has blurred the line between church and state as its volunteers preach, pray and seek converts among people desperate for help.
[SP spokesperson Dr. Paul Chiles, the country director for SP] insisted that his group was not looking for converts, and that need was the only criterion for help. The conversion of 150 people mentioned on Samaritan’s Purse’s Web page is credited to the pastor of a local evangelical denomination that is the group’s aid partner.
In other words, the local paster was a nominee, a straw. So the loose ends here are how, exactly, SP got the “miracle serum” to Brantly and Writebol, and then got Brantly and Writebol into the United States, and into an isolation ward. And we don’t know, but we do know that SP blurs the line between church and state, uses “straws” or nominees, basically acts as if they were a sovereign, and has a lot of political clout with Congress.
The Plane: N173PA
So I was watching a video of Brantly’s plane arriving, and I spotted the tail number: N173PA. N173PA, a Grumman Gulfstream III, was originally owned by the Royal Danish Air Force (then numbered F-313) and became N173PA in January 2005 (planespotter). N173PA does not appear on Wikipedia’s list of rendition aircraft — although, when you think of it, evacuating a patient in an isolation hood is, logistically, a lot like rendition — although Shannon Watch, monitors foreign military use of Shannon Airport in Ireland, includes it on its list of suspects. This may not be remarkable; William Gibson uses the world of very private aviation as local color in his stylish Spook Country, and in that world, much like the world of Richard Smith’s shell companies, it can seem like everybody’s a suspect. From 2005 to 2010, N173PA was operated by Phoenix Air (planespotter). N173PA and its sibling, N163PA (planespotter) “are fitted with a large freight door on the starboard side and seem to be used … mainly on cargo and air ambulance work” as in this ebola episode. (See here for a third potential use case for freight doors.) And speaking of shell companies, N173PA is owned by N173PA LLC, BRANDYWINE BLDG, 1000 N WEST ST FL 10, of Wilmington, DE. Irish Indymedia has more, in 2008:
Wilmington, Delaware is one of those addresses that instantly makes you sit up and take notice. A number of CIA shell companies operate out of Wilmington. Don’t take my word for it – check out the report on CIA shell companies from from the European Parliament Temporary Committee on the alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transport and illegal detention of prisoners, November 16 2006. http://www.statewatch.org/cia/documents/working-doc-no-…6.pdf
N163PA LLC and N173PA LLC
The company name is the registration number of the planes. Both are listed as the same address, 824 Market St Mall Ste 1000, Wilmington, Delaware and both operated by Phoenix Air. These planes are known to have landed at Shannon a number of times and frequently fly to US military air bases.
(It looks like the address changed between 2014 and 2008.) From the military site FoxTrot Alpha, “This Amazing Jet Will Transport Ebola Victims From Africa To The U.S.”:
‘F-313′ was sold to U.S. military air support provider Phoenix Air in January of 2005. Phoenix Air is well known for providing adversary support and electronic warfare training to the DoD. … These jets appear to have been used as government contract aircraft on and off over the last decade, as their large cargo doors and convertible interiors allows them to carry out-sized cargo, passengers or modular medical components and stretchers. Also, the jets’ inconspicuous [that screams “spook”] business jet nature and civilian ‘N number’ allows them to operate in and out of sensitive areas [and that] while keeping a relatively low profile [and that] …. This unique aircraft, and the Federal Government’s already close relationship [and that] with Phoenix Air, makes the jet and its operator logical candidates for such a challenging mission.
The writer concludes by raising an interesting point:
The US Army’s SMART-AID, Special Medical Augmentation Response Team- Aeromedical Isolation Team, part of the US Army’s Medical Research Institute For Infectious Diseases, is the Pentagon’s crack outfit that was established to carry out this exact kind of task, even in a war zone environment. They are equipped with top of the line equipment and have been on high alert during the Global War On Terror. Seeing as this is the first time an Ebola patient has been brought to the United States, one would think that such a unit would want to handle the mission instead of a government air ambulance contractor.
Indeed. One would. So, plenty of loose ends here. Why Phoenix Air and not the military? I don’t know, just as I don’t know why Phoenix Air got picked; perhaps Franklin Graham flipped open the Yellow Pages to M for Medevac, and Phoenix Air had the biggest ad. And I can’t prove that N173PA, with its handy and “unique” freight doors, was a rendition plane, or that its use on this project was anything more than coincidence; such a thing might happen to anyone. Although, if I were a Christian, I might want to know.
The Serum: Mystery, Miracle
Another breathless headline, this one from the Atlantic:
what exactly is the secret serum? It’s a question practically everyone’s been asking. The answer: Something the National Institutes of Health and Mapp, the biopharmaceutical firm that manufactured it, are largely keeping mum about.
Indeed!
According to a report in August 2013, the company, which collaborated with the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, tested the serum on monkeys. When administered to monkeys within 48 hours of infection, there was significant chance of survival. The results showed that all four monkeys that received the serum within 24 hours of infection survived, and two of four who received the serum within 48 hours did so.
But beyond that study, Mapp provides little information on its Ebola research—its website, for example, is sparse, including few news updates to their research. The serum appears to have evolved from evolved from research conducted by the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute in 2012 that showed a mix of various antibodies could stave off the Ebola virus.
But did the monkeys recover “in an hour,” as CNN said Brantly did? LA Times:
“I would be ecstatic if Larry’s product helped save these people, but I also need to be extremely cautious,” said Thomas Geisbert, a professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.
“To say the whole thing cleared up in an hour, that doesn’t happen in reality,” Geisbert said. “That’s like something that happens in a movie.”
So the composition of the ZMapp is one huge loose end — and there’s that Hollywood feeling again!
The Company: MAPP Biopharmaceutical
Here is Mapp’s skeletal website; they currently have only one major government contract, with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, for $2.33 million. (For William Gibson fans: I can’t resist free associating Mapp Biopharmaceutical with Maas Biolabs.) From the San Diego Union-Tribune, “San Diego firm has sudden starring role in Ebola rescue” (and note again the Hollywood language):
A San Diego biotech firm with nine employees was thrust into the international spotlight (and made local headlines) Monday for its role in developing an experimental Ebola treatment. … ZMapp is a combination of two agents, made by Mapp with LeafBio in San Diego and Defyrus Inc. in Toronto. One of them, MB-003, provided 100 percent protection to monkeys when given right after exposure to Ebola virus, and even helped after symptoms developed. The other is ZMAb, a combination drug that its developer says provided 100 percent survival in primates a day after exposure and 50 percent survival after two days.
(It’s important to note that “100%” is not stated to come from a clinical trial. In fact, Mapp’s products aren’t even commercialized; LeafBio will do that.) Fine, but why Mapp? But there have be other companies, even in the San Diego area, that look just like Mapp. A reader writes in:
There are a *lot* of small firms in the area, all congregating around UCSD, the Salk Institute and Scripps Research. Let’s just say I’m not surprised that the serum was developed in the area.
The San Diego Union-Tribune once more:
Samaritan Purse’s outreach resulted in Mapp Biopharmaceutical sending three frozen vials of ZMapp to Liberia last week. The privately held biotech company has just nine employees, and it has only tested its cocktail of antibodies on a small number of monkeys with mixed success.
I dunno. SP “reaches out,” just like that?
Its Funding: Defense
From an interview with Dr. Larry Zeitlin, President of Mapp, in January 2014 (that is, before this story blew up):
There has been no treatment or cure that has been effective against the Ebola virus, and with the potential ability to turn Ebola into a bio-weapon, it is labeled as Risk Group 4 Pathogen.
[Dr. Zeitlin] started studying Ebola virus when he was offered funding from Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in 2002.
1. How did the idea to test MB-003’s effectiveness post infection come about?
[ZEITLIN] This was driven by funding agencies.They wanted post-exposure efficacy rather than prophylactic protection.
Well, that does tie up one loose end: I’ve been wondering why prevention (like a vaccine) as opposed to cure, but the answer is the defense spending: If the requirement is to defend against weaponized Ebola, then “post-exposure efficacy” is exactly what you want.
The Sudden Entry Of The World Bank
The Financial Times (“World Bank pledges $200m to fight Ebola”) totally buries the lead:
“In the mining sector, if the evacuation of skilled expatriate staff continues, there will be a sizeable decline in production,” the World Bank said.
The very last paragraph. I’m not kidding! So here, I’m not sure there are many loose ends at all, although it would be nice to know who from the mining sector called the World Bank.
The Oddly Silent Administration
The role of the Obama administration, indeed of the government generally, in moving the patients from Africa to the United States seems curiously muffled in the reporting I’ve seen; we’ve covered funding above. Here is AP’s coverage, “US gov’t had role [what role?] in Ebola drug given aid workers”.
In a statement, [Mapp Biopharmaceutical] said it was working with LeafBio of San Diego, Defyrus Inc. of Toronto, the U.S. government and the Public Health Agency of Canada on development of the drug, which was identified as a possible treatment in January.
Oh? “The U.S. government”? Any particular agency? Not, apparently, the FDA:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration must grant permission to use experimental treatments in the United States, but the FDA does not have authority over the use of such a drug in other countries [even over experimental drugs manufactured in the US?], and the aid workers were first treated in Liberia. An FDA spokeswoman said she could not confirm or deny [Huh?] FDA granting access to any experimental therapy for the aid workers while in the U.S.
Surely this is cut and dried? Surely, as a functioning bureaucracy, the FDA knows which experimental drugs its granted access to? So why not give a straight answer? (The FDA does have a “compassionate use” exception for access to investigational drugs without trial, but the process is typically time-consuming.) And presumably they’re going to be treated with something? Else why move them?
[Samaritan’s Purse ] contacted U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials in Liberia to discuss various experimental treatments and were referred [By whom? Why?] to an NIH scientist in Liberia [for what purpose?] familiar with those treatments.
The scientist answered some questions and referred them to the companies but was not officially representing the NIH and had no “official role in procuring, transporting, approving, or administering the experimental products,” the [NIH] statement says.
“No official role.” Oh, OK!
To make this all even weirder, the White House is hosting a meeting of African leaders right now, while all these events are taking place, and isn’t trying to spin — heck, mention — the story of how a generous America is helping to stop a terrible epidemic in Africa with the very latest in medical science. The administration, typically, isn’t shy about claiming success, and so, along with whether the FDA was circumvented, or not, the role of the CDC as go between, and the role of the NIH in the US and Liberia, I’d classify that as yet another loose end.
Conclusion
NOTE Writebol used “the same plane” as Brantly.
1) The Patients: Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol — Why them and not others? Especially since SP is a humanitarian institution?
2) Their Employer: Samaritan’s Purse — Who exactly did SP reach out to, and how? Did they blur the lines between church and state?
3) The Plane: N173PA — Was it a torture plane? And do that plane, and Phoenix involvement, signal a role for the intelligence community?
4) The Company: MAPP Biopharmaceutical — Why them? And how did SP find them?
5) Its Funding: Defense
6) The Sudden Entry Of The World Bank Ka-ching.
7) The Oddly Silent Administration — Obama never goes near anything that might make him look bad. He’s not going near this. Why?
Then add to all those loose ends the Hollywood feeling that keeps cropping up….
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Turn yourself in to the nearest FEMA camp for your shot of the Mapp serum.
So you haven’t seen the movie Aliens?
The ultimate monster is discovered in outer space, and rather than kill it, the MIC does everything in its power to bring it back to earth for fun and of course profit.
Wonderful analogy! It says much about the distrust many citizens now have of their governments. If these governments really are morally bankrupt then is anything “beyond the pale”?
+100 – Weyland-Yutani Corporation building better worlds.
Of course if the MIC is behind all this you have to wonder why they would so publicly announce the arrival of the Ebola patients in America. Or perhaps I missed that part of Aliens.
Isn’t the point of the Deep State that it’s supposed to be deep, hidden?
Of course if the US government or its CIA airplanes are involved in helping a religious organization with taxpayer money there may be some more prosaic scandal. Apparently Samaritan’s Purse has been warned about religious activity on the taxpayer’s dime before.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/08/world/us-cautions-group-on-mixing-religion-and-salvador-quake-aid.html?pagewanted=1
Yes, I included the Salvador link in the post.
The word “entrepreneur” IIRC originally applied to Parisians who would put together a theatrical performance, assembling the actors, stage hands, set designers, and so forth, renting the venue and advancing the capital. This story (as most, it seems, these days) feels as if it has multiple and intersecting entrepreneurial efforts; not like one rock thrown in the pool, but several, creating chaos and churn. Too many hands on the gaslight, as it were. I’m not sure the deep state metaphor applies in any useful way.
A perspicacious conclusion. You’re living proof of what a “liberal arts” immersion is good for, right out of the box.
Sorry. Didn’t catch my link being to the same nyt story. Just trying to pick out this, among your various threads, as possibly a more likely avenue for muckraking.
Should also say that while the Grahams may be religious fundamentalists, and Franklin a bit of a religious bigot, I’m not aware of accusations that they are financially corrupt like some other celebrity preachers. However Billy was never a friend to the left. Woody Allen, back in his early, funny period, regularly made fun of him.
Honestly I think people give the folks in charge (sic) too much credit. I doubt we will enter FEMA camps because the guards won’t want to be near any of us sick folks-will be protecting their families if it gets to that point. What would you any responsible head of household do in that situation? Even Liberia is having trouble enforcing its quarantines and their citizens are more accustomed to such actions from the Military http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/05/world/africa/lax-quarantine-undercuts-ebola-fight-in-africa.html?_r=
JMHO. I think SP tapped the biodefense startup because that’s the best they could do. Scary thought to me.
Still waiting on the Mt. Sinai Hospital patient test results….3 days and counting…..
“I think SP tapped the biodefense startup because that’s the best they could do.” Just like “John Kerry is our Secretary of State because that’s the best they could do.” And yes, scary thought.
I was wondering the same. TKMR had $140million US Defense Aid and farther along and safer the ZMAPP.
I’m feeling more and more “conspiranoid” on this issue to be honest. At first it was like: well, another Ebola outbreak in Africa, odd that it happened in Far West Africa, where there is no record of such epidemics (unlike in Central Africa) but then again I had no particular reason to suspect anything and all the rumors about bio-attack seemed to lack any concrete evidence.
But then we get in few days two striking news: first the existence of this secret “miracle drug” that apparently saves monkeys first and humans later from an illness that has >90% death rate and then something that you may not know about yet: US State Department Speaker Marie Harf used the phrase “Ebola ATTACK” in a press conference: http://youtu.be/zqijpvoyfwY
So I am beginning to feel spooked on this matter too.
i align with your spookness Maju. unfortunately, ‘they’ have us by the short ones on this. i’ve learned to listen to words and watch actions…when actions don’t coincide with words a red flag is prized. like the Global Depression, we don’t have a clear comparison for a Global Pandemic during privatized profits and socialized losses…we have accumulated plenty of flags on balance sheets, policies, crony laws and one-sided trade agreements.
so i ask myself, how will a nondiscriminatory virus (with a shelf life of 21 days) play-out in the western world? being reared in the bible belt, im not at all surprised by a christian faith based coalition(s). witnessing the DOD pouring cement around that flag is a tell. are our ‘means’ to govern our nation so weak that we’re left with faith?…for me that flag has been burnt.
‘never let a catastrophe go to waste’ swirls around Dr. Brantly…nothing personal, just a lot of private busine$$ riding on it. so what makes this ’round’ different?…uh 21 day lottery gets a flag and if you survive your a carrier for 3 more months. which brings me to Ebola ‘facts’ presented at the onset…will they be altered at the pace of a serum drip?
for now i’ll carry the Nietzsche flag, “I’m not upset that you lied to me, I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you.”…into the battle for my existence.
Mz. normal;
It takes me back to the response to the Katrina Disaster. So many “faith based” groups poured their genuine compassion into our area that the almost dismissive nature of the “Official” response was rather successfully obscured. Do notice the sad fates of the two people with clout that stood up against the “Official Version”: Ray Nagin and Ivor van Heerden.
van Heerden was impolitic enough to state engineering facts that contradicted the ‘official version’ of the New Orleans flooding following Hurricane Katrina. LSU, where he taught forced him out as a result. Last year LSU agreed to pay the man 435,000 USD for their treatment of him. A mere seven years after the fact.
Ray Nagin was courageous enough to confront Bush the Younger over the Feds slipshod handling of the New Orleans situation. I lived in New Orleans for a decade. Ray Nagin was no more corrupt than the average Norleanean official. (I personally knew a city inspector who lived in a nice house and whose wife drove a new BMW, all on $30,000 a year, total. Look up, “Golden Handshake.”) So, for Ray to be taken down by the Feds on the usual dirty money charges in that city rather stretches credulity.
Other cases of Faith Based skullduggery? Too many to count.
“witnessing the DOD pouring cement around that flag.” Huh? Is this a metaphor, or a reference to a real event, or both?
both. as ive mentioned before, my father and his brother retired from Lockheed after 35 something years. my uncle did two stints in ‘the blackhole’ out west somewhere clandestine. one night camping in CA i asked my uncle about his sketchy days and he told me something you’d get a kick out of…’I heard many fools ask questions wisdom couldn’t answer’. (i didn’t have to be told twice)
Except that, as ArsTechnica points out , the research Mapp was doing wasn’t exactly secret. They’re publishing some of their research on their website.
It would seem that the serum was shipped to Liberia. I wonder if that is to skirt around FDA requirements on using highly experimental medications on humans when no human trials have been authorized… Besides, can you imagine the group of people that WANT to sign up for an Ebola trial? This looks a lot more like the backers of this research (with deep pockets) having something they want to try without going through all the necessary steps, consent from those infected, and needing less military looking transportation to do it. I see less conspiracy and more of people trying to take advantage of a research opportunity.
The FILM of John LeCarre’s “The Constant Gardner” covers why to skirt trials, in vivid color. Official “trials” get in the way of the most efficient profit calculations of the chosen profiteers.
That’s definitely the smell of things.
And nice job Lambert, in connecting everything.
Exactly what I did not do! In fact, I think we need to be humble, and accept connecting everything cannot be done.
Except the research isn’t available from their home page; the link to that page has been commented out, as this screen dump of the source code shows. That may not be secretive, since they didn’t take the page down, but it sure isn’t easy for the casual user (reporter) to find, since they don’t know where to look, unless they’re suspicious enough to View Source.
(Click for the full image.)
Speaking of Hollywood, I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this movie before:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114069
“The Serum: Mystery, Miracle”
Or is it the PATIENT that’s the mystery and the miracle?
” When administered to monkeys within 48 hours of infection, there was significant chance of survival. The results showed that all four monkeys that received the serum within 24 hours of infection survived, and two of four who received the serum within 48 hours did so.”
But Brantley had been sick for NINE DAYS. And he’s not just “surviving,” he WALKED into the hospital from the ambulance. All covered up in a haz-met suit. So, was it really he? From “news” reports I’ve heard, no reporters are being allowed anywhere near the quarantine unit. We have no idea whether he’d be recognizable to any observer inside the unit anyway. Remember Osama bin Laden’s “assassination?” Plenty of people claimed he had been dead long before Obama “killed” him. No interrogation, no body and, pretty soon, no more Seal Team Six.
US military involvement. A plane with a “checkered” past, operated by Phoenix Air, a “military air support provider.” A faith-based “charity” operated by Franklin Graham. Reports that the locals were refusing to let medical personnel into their villages, handily explained by their “ignorance” and voodoo beliefs. A history of human pharmaceutical experimentation in Africa. A media barrage familiarizing the public with the two afflicted aid workers to generate compassion and silence critics of bringing the virus onto American soil.
It just doesn’t add up. Or, maybe, it adds up all too well.
PS. Has anyone heard what’s going on with the patient at Mt. Sinai? The patient in Columbus, who was identified after the Mt. Sinai patient, was tested and cleared. I haven’t heard any results for the Mt. Sinai patient.
‘… U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials in Liberia …’
This phrase took me aback. What, ‘we’ are the epidemiologists for the world? CDC officials [like CIA station chiefs] are on call in all of ‘our’ hundreds of military bases round the world?
No wonder it costs so damned much to run this empire.
Franklin Graham hired them. To protect his NGO missionaries. As they experimented on the Africans for the war department. Because sometimes god is just not paying attention.
And now my mind travels even deeper down the rabbit hole the REAL purpose whole “faith-based” initiative starts to become crystal clear. In exchange for $$$ these organizations become ideal fronts for the security state apparatus both domestic and foreign, a new level of surveillance thanks to leaders skilled at running the long con and hordes of easily manipulated low critical thinking followers. That the whole “initiative” started around the time of 9/11 is no surely no coincidence, nor is the fact that Obama “failed” to discontinue it once it office. Wow. “Hang on Neo, Kansas is going bye-bye…”
CDC personnel were in Africa, along with French equivalents during the hunt for the origins of the HIV/AIDS virus too.
The earliest theoretical emergence of true AIDS is generally dated for around 1930. We know a lot less than we are told we do.
Include in your calculation the “cholera” brought into Haiti by “UN troops” who were the “Typhoid Mary” troops carrying a particular strain of cholera into Haiti, which country NEVER had known a case of cholera before, hence were especially vulnerable to it (like Native Americans to whom smallpox was delivered in blankets). John Coleman in a truly patriotic speech in America years before, had discussed his work as an unwitting stooge for the Power in Africa, and in a few words divulged his knowledge of this strain of cholera in a foreign country. Surely this is what the “UN troops” delivered into the water of Haiti, like Good Soldiers Following Orders.
The Ebola “events” follow a long tradition of .01%DNA Gain through .99%Agency unto the “worker drones” at their service, captured to “save the Queen” in the Matrix of the honeycomb.
Who are the Sports Bettors at KissDeath&Associates? How does the London Bookie Bet? Who is Pharma long with People Puts back?
I’m a wee bit skeptical about those primitive, ignorant villagers, especially after the episodes in Afghanistan and Cuba (see links in the post proper). It’s a little too convenient. I’d like to see some anthropological evidence on it.
The patient in isolation at Mt. Sinai was announced to be negative for Ebola earlier today:
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2014/08/06/mount-sinai-hospital-president-patient-in-good-spirits-ebola-test-results-could-come-wednesday/
Good points.
Thanks for the research. This could indeed be Michael Crichton’s next medical thriller, were he still around.
A little more about Franklin, who was Billy Graham’s hellraising black sheep son until he finally joined the cause in his twenties. From his college days:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Graham
Things are different now:
But he is best known as a rabid Islam basher:
Because their credo is in infamous utterance: “Cry havoc! and unleash the dogs of war!”
Thanks. First time I’ve ever heard the ‘seed’ explanation for the demonization of Islam. I’ll bet he uses it in his act regularly.
Lambert – honestly – one of the best pieces you’ve ever written. Outstanding. So much to think about. Brian
I agree with Brian, and there have been many great pieces. Thank you, Lambert.
[lambert blushes modestly.]
There isn’t much money to be made by curing a few hundred indigent people in a third world country. We need an epidemic to really make the mother load of money on curing and preventing the disease. And that epidemic needs to be in a more wealthy country like the USA.
As for Obama being quiet – as the President of the US being quiet is not doing your job. Taking no action is in itself an action. There needs to be accountability with him. And by the way, check out what stocks he owns – seems he stands to make $85 million dollars off the stocks he strategically bought/sold in just in time for the BP oil spill in the gulf…
http://www.thecommonsenseshow.com/2013/03/15/who-had-foreknowledge-of-the-gulf-oil-spill-pt-6/
Scare the people, sell the cure, profit.
They’ve marked 150M units of flu vaccine for the USA. Get ready for the full court press come September.
There might be a good deal of money in DoD contracts, though. And to Mapp, with their $2 million grant, even $20 million would seem like a big deal. Tiny startups are desperate for funding, typically.
LibertyChick: The author of your linked article is a moron, a liar, or both. The link provided on Obama’s wealth ( http://pfds.opensecrets.org/N00009638_2009.pdf ) shows less than $200,000 total in Barry’s Vanguard INDEX funds. He spends more than that on a golf outing. Find better sources.
Interesting way of tying things together. Have to think through all of these glimmers of a religio-military-industrial complex–it may be time to bring forward the role of mammon among the missionaries (in South America, too, where the U.S. Pentecostals aren’t exactly a benign influence). A further link? I suspect that Mapp Biopharmaceuticals is run by Oedipa Maas. [Owner of Maas Biolabs.]
Re “Pentacostals” – dig deep.
Also, is this not the same national health infrastructure that found “viable” smallpox in an “unused storage room” just last month?
http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/11/health/smallpox-found-nih-alive/
I think I’m going to go hide under the bed now.
Geopolitics.
The administration wants China out of Africa. The “miracle serum” has probably been on the shelf for quite some time. So… Initiate an outbreak. Announce that only the USA has any kind of cure. Let the outbreak spread. The Chinese pull back. The USA steps in and substitutes its own resource deals for those that the Chinese were making. The outbreak is then spread to “problem” countries like Sudan, Libya, et. al. neutralizing the problem of Muslim extremists quite nicely.
Sure, the world will complain that the USA won’t share its cure for free. In fact, it will be prohibitively expensive for quite some time, but as long as we have it, there’s not much anyone outside the USA can do until they come up with their own cure, which will take an election cycle or two at least.
Hey: good speculations and quite likely the case. Yes yes the Chinese have really stepped up the game in Africa. Could at least be part of the situation and also why Emperor O has kept his yap shut.
Seems a bit too much like one of those endless snooker games. I think things tend to be much messier and more complicated. The world has a lot of friction. I’m sure there are factions, plural, working the geopolitical angle, but I don’t know if that’s an overarching theme.
I post a few times about this on Zero Hedge but Lambert brings up a few more things that I had not previously thought of. I thought it was likely a clear case of political favoritism for an organization (Samaritan’s Purse) that has deep state political ties (the rabbit hole goes deep with the Grahams and politicos too numerous to mention) but I had not thought about the possible CIA connection but it makes too perfect sense. “Evangelical” organizations such as SP would make PERFECT CIA fronts – very devious and controlling leadership supported by critical thinking impaired high authoritarian followers. Wow. To paraphrase quote from an early episode of the X-Files “as paranoid as you think you are you are not paranoid enough”.
Does this also remind anyone else of the scene from “Alien” where Sigourney Weaver’s character Ripley refuses re-entry to the returning crew because it would violate quarantine but she is overridden by “Ash” the android and “mother” the onboard computer because of the company’s desire to use the alien as a potential bioweapon? The similarities are too horrifying to contemplate for long…
Dear me. The “Alien” suggestion is quite disturbing.
Thanks so much for locating various loose ends and beginning to connect some dots vis this Ebola outbreak and the recent events surrounding these SP doctors.
When I heard that the 2 doctors worked for SP, my antenna went way up & the red flags started waving. I confess I know little about SP beyond that it’s run by Franklin Graham & has some, uh, “interesting” places where it’s done it’s “charitable works.” I have no love lost on the Graham family for many reasons, and I certainly see no reason to trust Graham. At any rate, one can say with some assurance that Imperialistic Empires have long used “religious” organizations as part of the “team” to further the “cause.”
Many feel that almost any of these medical charities are fronts of some sort for Spooky stuff from whatever country. Not so sure about all of them, but for sure, some are. So when I heard that it was 2 SP docs who caught the brass ring back to healthy living, eh, well, suspicious to say the least.
The rest of the tale is interesting. Of course, the World Bank has firmly entrenched it’s finger in the pie, as is to be expected. Money, money, money… West Africans as lab rats? Why not?
An “ex” of mine is a bio-tech patent attorney in San Diego. Have some limited first hand k of these bio tech pharma outfits in San Diego, of which there are many labs all vying for limited amounts of cash to develop whatever it is they’re working on. Not surprised that this vaccine comes from San Diego but why that firm? and how did they decide to engage in that research? seems these firms are incubators; possibly cheaper to do the R&D this way? certainly most of those small San Diego outfits tend to run on a shoe-string and then close down unless they catch someone’s attention & money. Lots of politicking going on, as is unsurprising.
So are these 2 humans the actually doctors that allegedly “caught” Ebola in Africa? And how did they survive for so long. I tossed out my tv a long time ago, but I thought I heard something about CNN filming the entire entourage taking at least one of “patients” to whatever facility they went to – sort of like filming the slow-mo chase of OJ Simpson all those years ago. I realize that in this era of 24/7 nooz, it’s hard to fill up the hours, but why was this done in this way?
Thanks again. Someone bashed me on another blog for daring to question SP. Went on & on about how dedicated missionary docs are blah blah blah… Well, I don’t trust most missionaries and don’t mostly agree with what they do, no matter how “sincere” they are. The med prof is better run by disinterested parties, imo, insofar as that’s possible. But finally, I most emphatically don’t trust the Graham family. The end.
Will that Brazen Basin turn miraculously to glass?
Also, connect the magick of the Jet Propulsion Lab, Jack Parsons, Hubbard, Bush. Be attentive to code in Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut” (Kubrick’s daughter “lost” to Hubbard’s “religious” cult).
This is splendid provocative prose, Lambert. Thank you for paving the road to critical thinking on this complex issue. Surely as “Samaritan” cannot be Jewish”, but can it be “Christian Zionist” perchance? Because “Evangelical Christian” privilege by Bushie proxy largesse, in Iraq unto Africa
“Onward, Christian Soldiers!” pimps for MatrixMasters, collect your reward on earth! Do your bit to “bring it” — to bring the Georgia Guide Stones vision to earth for 1% Gain In Perpetuity.
Graham [!], continue your DNA climb up the ladder begun by your the obedient gather King Billy of the Christian Crusade to Dupe down the masses, while you profit every which way, on the sawdust trail that leads to Prosper Paradise!
Lambert, as you see, you have pulled a thread holding together the warp and weft of a Grand Tapestry shot with gold, still held in the Great Loom of the MatrixMasters, manned by abused children working themselves to early death. Imagine 99% of the People pulling on that thread.
Edit: should be “obedient father”
The Scientoligists tried to recruit me in late 1986 in Perth, Australia – suffice to say I was not up to scratch, or, lets put it another way, I was pleased to fill in all their questionnaires and see what recommendations they would make – when I told the middle aged woman who allegedly analysed my responses that she was part of a “cult” I was respectfully shown the door – funny thing was, they were after money, which I’m pleased to report I did not have then, nor do I have today – so will have to join a “cult” for the poor people or alternatively, get more involved with the Green Party.
Makes you wonder why we have a shortage of good movies at the box office when there is so much material to draw from in the real world.
I’m going to jot down a couple points that popped into my head while I’m continuing to read the entire post and try and absorb and mull all this around. Otherwise these thoughts may get pushed right out of short term memory.
On the efficacy claims from monkey trials
1) 100% efficacy administered 1 day after infection, 50% after 2 days
I’ve read symptoms show up 2-10 days after infection, so……I guess early detection counts for a lot here to.
Plus I read the survival rate is around 50%, so the sugar pill may tie the treatment efficacy.
2) The really nagging thing I read, and have no idea if it’s true, is a cured patient can be a carrier still for up to 3 months. That would be the Holy Grail of a weaponized virus, and if it doesn’t exist in fictional sci-fi already, it should.
3) They say it’s transmitted by bodily fluids, but sweat is a bodily fluid, and a sneeze is a bodily fluid. (but thankfully not an airborne transmission thing)
I think I’ve heard or read that sweat & sneezes/coughs – in the latter case, if the bodily fluid part is actually transmitted – can indeed cause Ebola infections to occur, which is why Ebola is so contagious. May not yet be strictly “air born,” but infection from exchange of bodily fluids is really easy and subtle.
I have also heard/read that, even if cured, you can still be contagious for a number of months after infection. Cause for thought.
Some believe that Ebola has been “manufactured” by the Spooky types. Some also believe the same with AIDs. I have no idea and no speculation on that score. These infectious diseases have been known to develop naturally over the centuries.
I believe Nature is a very competent assassin. But, then again, there are some people always trying to improve on His work.
Aha. Made it to Lambert’s comment on defense funding:
“Well, that does tie up one loose end: I’ve been wondering why prevention (like a vaccine) as opposed to cure, but the answer is the defense spending: If the requirement is to defend against weaponized Ebola, then “post-exposure efficacy” is exactly what you want.”
Taking the optimistic view, it would be nice to cut off the transmission trail right at healthcare worker in Africa, not to mention they get to stay alive. But say the virus does escape the barn, I’d wish for a vaccine as well.
On to the rest of the post….
Oh yeah. Africa has been designated as the New World to “develop”. So we get oil, gold, diamonds, copper, and diseases wrapped up in one big package. Not to mention many more transmission vectors back to the “developed” world (including China) than “just” a few hundred healthcare workers. The TSA airport detectors aren’t set up for this either.
not part of the resource-grab, but a fringe benefit for the corporate powers, I think, is that the oft-headline big-story misery & suffering of the African peoples serves to keep Americans satisfied-enough (“Aren’t we blessed not to be them” sort of thing).
I know that corporations always advise their business travel troops to keep their vaccines up to date when travelling to medically dangerous places. They also happily pay deductibles and any out of pocket costs. So the industry types that have to travel to Africa and do the “development” on the front lines are probably wishing for the vaccine right now.
Plus I just remembered it was Wolfowitz after his appointment to head the World Bank that he announced that Africa is an awesome development opportunity.
Can’t help thinking how beneficial it could have been if they applied the Neo-Con mantra “‘We’ll fight the [ ] there so we don’t need to fight the [ ] here!”
Then, upon allocating huge resources to develop the Freedom Vaccine, we take the battle to the enemy and wipe Ebola off the face of Africa. The natives cheer, wave the American flag, and live happily ever after because jobs.
To late for that I guess, but I still may try selling the idea to Marvell Comics.
Well, heck. Nobody sweats in Liberia. Oh, wait…
Asked and not answered on CNBC this morning, of some sort of “expert”: How could Dr. Brantley have contracted the disease when he took all recommended precautions like wearing a state-of-the-art haz-met suit at all times when treating patients?
Paraphrased non-“answer”: Ebola is NOT very contagious, but where Brantley was working there was a lot of Ebola around what with all the sick patients lying in their beds in the hospital. He didn’t get it with the suit on. We don’t know how he got it but it’s not very contagious. A lot of locals don’t want to go to the hospital, so they care for their sick relatives at home. Because they love their relatives very much. And people take care of the ones they love. Because they love them and love is a powerful human emotion.
This comment is not a joke. It’s not very reassuring either.
Which of course means here in the US we may get it if we go to the grocery store without our hazmat suit on, even tho Ebola is not very contagious, and we refrain from hugging strangers at the grocery store as a normal precaution.
Tons of african doctors have gotten ebola too. Protective gear isn’t 100% protective in a dynamic environment.
Exhausted people break protocol. What would be interesting to know is if the protocols contain requirements to record when protocol is broken. If any physicians are reading this, perhaps they can answer.
(And that “cured in an hour” thing really is goofy.)
Hypoothesis: SP acts as cover for agents of the CIA (or some covert US bioweapons agency), much the same way as USAID does?
Highly likely; not confirmed.
Agreed, and probably only certain teams in certain locales. No doubt Graham is clued in.
http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/lab-bio/res/psds-ftss/ebola-eng.php
COMMUNICABILITY: Communicable as long as blood, secretions, organs, or semen contain the virus. Ebola virus has been isolated from semen 61 days after the onset of illness, and transmission through semen has occurred 7 weeks after clinical recovery.
Yes, well, of course. But I’ve been having occasional nightmares where I’m having sex in a scuba suit. I can never remember the end of the nightmare either. I’m beginning to think maybe the next nightmare I have is just a continuation of the last nightmare?
I’ll report back once I get it figured out.
To say Ebola is not easily caught is a misnomer – SARS was not easily caught, and yet on one housing estate here in Hong Kong, as a result of poor sanitation – a leaking pipe to a toilet – scores of people got infected. Further, one of those involved here in Hong Kong with the epidemiology of the disease, still contends that rats played an important part in the transmission of SARS – now, the per on in Charge of SARS in HK is now high-up in the WHO, and she discounted this method of transmission – all I can say, is thank God its not airborne yet or spread by mosquitoes, for we really would be in trouble if that were the case.
The story reads a bit like V is for Vendetta, the protagonist carries the antibodies of a deadly disease and a huge pharmaceutical company deliberately proceeds to profit from it. I’m guessing the missionaries now belong to the pharmaceutical company for lifetime testing and follow up.
From the moment the news announced an airlift, it was clear that the DOD was involved somewhere in the background. AFRICOMM and all that.
The only question that I have is what happened to the second sister plane? Why was it not available?
I believe the sibling plane is parked somewhere near the Black Sea, but I forget where I read that; FoxTrot Alpha perhaps. Good question!
‘The Serum: Mystery, Miracle’
Just to bring up a few more things that could be in this serum. In addition to antibodies they are developing treatments that go directly after the viral RNA replication and transcription.
siRNA
antisense
Don’t discount that Graham enterprises(Samaritan’s Purse) is corporate religion and is as well connected as corporate finance or corporate enterprise. Does anyone think that, Blankfein, Immelt, or Dimon could not have reached out and pulled off the same thing? Heck they got themselves a multi trillion dollar bailout from the taxpayers.This comes to you from a dedicated Bible thumper who finally saw Billy Graham for what he really was when he endorsed Romney after teaching that Mormonism is a cult. So, helping the corporate rich party (Republicans) was more important to him than what he supposedly believed or maybe he didn’t really believe what he told us he did.
It’s money folks, SP doesn’t have to go to West Africa to find people who would benefit from free health care. The reason they do is it garners bigger headlines and bigger headlines brings in more money as evidenced by their nearly half a billion dollar income. Removing some cracker’s appendix in eastern Kentucky just doesn’t make the 6 o’clock news like treating Ebola in Western Africa does. I believe the reason they pulled strings to get Brantly and Writebol the secret serum and a trip back to the good old USA is they heavily depend on donated labor to make the profit they do from this corporation. If SP had left Brantly and Writebol in Africa to die a terrible death who would work for SP for free? if SP had to pay it’s doctors and nurses the corporation’s margin would be greatly reduced. Don’t forget that nearly half a billion dollar income SP has is tax free.
For what it’s worth
http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=4423
I believe 90 percent on programs would be considered good for any non-profit. That said, there has been some controversy about Graham’s compensation (now less than it was).
Lambert, did you see the piece by John Hagopian just up?
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-ebola-virus-pandemic-a-weapon-of-mass-destruction/5394976
To be read in entirety. Will fill in a few blanks. The monopoly patent on the most lethal strain brings the beloved twofer, if not threefer, profit paradigm preferred by the MatrixMasterCaste. Chilling @ below zero. The ruthless efficiency of Agency mindset in the films “The Boys From Brazil” and “Marathon Man” comes to mind.
the US patented the previous Ebola strain, including
“a method for propagating the hEbola virus in host cells comprising infecting the host cells with the inventive isolated hEbola virus described above, culturing the host cells to allow the virus to multiply, and harvesting the resulting virions.”
http://www.google.com/patents/CA2741523A1?cl=en
I’m sure we patent these things so the Soviets and Terrorists can’t work on them.
Good one.
“virions” — sounds a lot like “prions” winning another day for the Power, for “prions” yielded incurable “Mad cow disease” and Jacob-Creutzfeld disease, characterized by “holes in the brain” from “prions” whose origin must not be mentioned. “Deadly Feast” by Richard Rhodes was suppressed for cause, a “forgotten book”, in which Rhodes cautioned against smelling the roses that had been fed bone meal. “Scary” for cause, just like the films “Psycho” and “American Psycho”, just like the movie “Ebola! being embedded in our brains. Pay up!
Here is some other information that talks about the US and WHO involvement that is interesting….
http://www.prophecynewswatch.com/2014/August05/052.html
In a discussion of the “evolutionary creation” movement, the Economist states;
“A prime mover, Francis Collins, is an atheist-turned-Christian who directs the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the American government’s biomedical research agency. Biologos, an evolutionary creation group that Mr Collins set up in 2007, calls this a moment to match Galileo’s trial for insisting that the Earth circles the sun.”
This may explain the NIH’s actions.
I’m wondering what price The World Bank is extracting from the countries getting the money.
Lambert, please see theories expressed in piece about walls “crumbling down around the official 911 story” and why at Global Research.
It’s a safe bet that the “American” 9-11 expozay will be a red herring, as proposed. If the .01%DNA Principals get their way by the machinations of their .99%Agency, the scapegoats will get their comeuppance (in facsimile, unless their time is up), and There Will Be A Circus of distraction. Is not this likely to be followed (at the appropriate time) by a death-virus pandemic in the Homeland, and the Dogs of Chaos unleashed by this DisasterCap “massive casualty” Event? With wholesale incarceration of the People, the “property” left behind them will be confiscated by the “Winners” serving the New Order (same as the Old Order). If not a pandemic, then a “depression” will yield the same result: confiscation of “property” from gold to real estate, to the “spoils of war” seized by the Dogs of Chaos and War.
Just as FDR in 1933 was obliged to confiscate the gold that had been purchased by Americans @ retail, and see it bound for delivery into the vaults of “unknown” Masters (a *LondonGoldsmith*Bullioneer’s private vault in The City, or directly into Switzerland as property of the Principals of the BIS), is not Obama meant to comply with orders to confiscate and deliver gold bullion+mint coins to his Masters, while the “petty” wealth will be available as “spoils” to the Dogs of Chaos/War wreaking havoc on the ground (in a repeat of the spoils-taking by /thug agents of TheCityNY during the “Bolshevik Revolution” in Russia). These may even be “released prisoners” that characterize the revenge unleashed in every “revolution+ terror” for riches that has been planned and executed according to the “project”.
Imagine this possibility:
The American People were seduced largely into “enriching” themselves with worldly goods purchased @ retail, SO THAT these “goods” later could become the property of the Masters and Agents through confiscation, through “market” transactions yielding pennies on the dollar to the seller, and/or through looting/theft at a time of “Bust”. Americans have been subject to dispossession of their “goods”(including their investments in the hyped “free market” and the FIRE sector, including their pension funds and retirement accounts for decades) for a while now, especially through their calculated impoverishment on the heels of their “acquisition phase” during “full employment”. The frank “gold confiscation” and hired thug looting-for-spoils phase has not yet started in earnest. The Pattern: The People buy goods @ retail during the Boom, and are forced to sell @ pennies on the dollar during the Bust; finally they are robbed and killed outright during the War by pandemic disease, or by brute force of arms/techweapon annihilation. Americans were set up for this with the “win” of WWII. Now the mantle has been draped over “Chinese” shoulders. They will follow suit. And at the “right time” in the future, their time of dispossession will come. Why China? Cue the “paper gold” control fraud coupled with the movement of actual gold from West to East (v. Paul Craig Roberts).
We see the pattern of planned “Booms&Busts” for .01%DNA Gain throughout “history”. The financial “Panics” and “The Great Depression” are instructive of a now well-known pattern for Gainful Destruction. Juri Lina’s documentary film “In the Shadow of Hermes” shows How It Works in meticulous detail, when it comes to “revolutionary enrichment” of the “winners” through dispossessing and killing of People inimical to their “order” (local aristocracy and intelligentsia are targeted first, their possessions “transferred” to “winners, their lives most often lost through violent acts). History shows that a Bust by viral pandemic is quite effective for turning the property of the People into the spoils of 1%War for Resources and Lebensraum. And monopoly patent-ownership of “the vaccine” is more “efficient” for financial gain than majority ownership of “weapons”.
It’s “like clockwork.” More efficient than the “Clockwork Orange” invented for them and extolled in book and film, in a campaign of “shock and awe” in the minds of the People. Who’s to stop them, Lambert?
This subject rates an ongoing watch just like Big Brother Is Watching You Watch and Obamacare Watch and so forth. I don’t know if time and energy will permit that.
Ebola Watch.
Why did they use the same airplane for both patients? Added days to the woman’s return to U.S.
I hadn’t been following this closely and have to thank Lambert and some commentators for some very interesting and potentially explosive information.
There was a epidemiological study about 2 years back (can’t find a link) that caught my eye. In a restaurant someone eating at a front table puked (they had a norovirus I believe), it was quickly cleaned up by the staff. They tracked down everybody in the restaurant and found that even at the farthest table, 29 feet away, 25% of the table (1 of 4 guest?) caught the bug. The entire front third of the restaurant caught the bug.
The definition of a non-airborne disease is one that can’t spread when it’s a solitary naked virus, no liquid. In liquid drops there are limits, but it’s highly variable and dependent on the virus. A sneeze in ANY enclosed place = possible exposure to a “non” airborne disease.
Feel better now?
” (For William Gibson fans: I can’t resist free associating Mapp Biopharmaceutical with Maas Biolabs.) ”
At first, I thought you were referring to Henry Gibson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Occg29DsI7k