News

Gene Drive Extinction Tech

May 5, 2022

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In his May 2,2022 blog, Jon Rappaport discusses the technology termed ‘Gene Drive’. Wikipedia defines gene drive as ‘a natural process and technology of genetic engineering that propagates a particular suite of genes throughout a population by altering the probability that a specific allele will be transmitted to offspring’. How a technology of genetic engineering is considered a natural process, is a question which arises, never the less, it exists and apparently both Bill Gates and the US military are highly involved in researching and promoting its use.

There is an online site called the Gene Drive Files. The following is a passage which references information on the technology –

“Gene drives are a gene-editing application that allows genetic engineers to drive a single artificial trait through an entire population by ensuring that all of an organism’s offspring carry that trait. For example, recent experiments are fitting mice with ‘daughterless’ gene drives that will cascade through mouse populations so that only male pups are born, ensuring that the population becomes extinct after a few generations.”

“Proponents have framed gene drives as a breakthrough tool for eradicating pests or invasive species. However, the Gene Drive Files reveal that these ‘conservation’ efforts are primarily supported by military funds.”

The theory is, gene drive gene-editing could be used to wipe out pests, invasive weeds or crops as a means of environmental conservation. This immediately brings to mind the phrase, ‘one man’s trash is another man’s treasure’. With Bill Gates and the military interested, what might they consider trash? If you are in a war, at what point do certain humans become pests?

The Gene Drive Files reports: “Documents received under Freedom of Information requests reveal that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation paid a private agriculture and biotechnology PR firm $1.6 million for activities on Gene Drives. This included running a covert ‘advocacy coalition’ which appears to have intended to skew the only UN expert process addressing gene drives…”

“Following global calls in December 2016 from Southern countries and over 170 organizations for a UN moratorium on gene drives, emails to gene drive advocates received under a Freedom of Information request by Prickly Research reveal that a private public affairs firm ‘Emerging Ag’ received funds from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to co-ordinate the ‘fight back against gene drive moratorium proponents.”

There are additional excerpts from the Gene Drive Files involving the military –

“A trove of emails (The Gene Drive Files) from leading U.S. gene drive researchers reveals that the U.S. Military is taking the lead in driving forward gene drive development.”

“Emails obtained through a freedom of Information request by U.S.–based Prickly Research reveal that the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has given approximately $100 million for gene drive research, $35 million more than previously reported, making them likely the largest single funder of gene drive research on the planet.

The emails also reveal that DARPA either funds or co-ordinates with almost all major players working on gene drive development as well as the key holders of patents on CRISPR gene editing technology.”

“These funds go beyond the US; DARPA is now also directly funding gene drive researchers in Australia (including monies given to an Australian government agency, CSIRO) and researchers in the UK. The files also reveal an extremely high level of interest and activity by other sections of the U.S. military and Intelligence community.”

A study published in Genome Biology, July14, 2017, titled, “CRISPR/Cas9-mediated genome editing induces exon skipping by alternative splicing or exon deletion.” An exon is “a segment of a DNA or RNA molecule containing information coding for a protein or peptide sequence.” So, you can see that exon skipping or deletion is a very bad outcome.

We may think this is not a bad thing if we are wiping out mosquitos. Gene drive technology could wipe out every mosquito on earth and no one is going to shed a tear

“…a gene drive [gene editing] can…make mosquito populations disappear. The simplest way to do that is to spread a genetic payload that leads to only male offspring. As the ‘male-only’ instructions spread with each new generation, eventually there would be no females left, says Adelman. His lab discovered the Aedes aegypti gene that determines sex only last spring. The next step will be to link it to a gene drive.”

During his Seattle keynote address at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, “We have an opportunity with the advance of tools like artificial intelligence and gene-based editing technologies to build this new generation of health solutions so that they are available to everyone on the planet. And I’m very excited about this,”.

Keep in mind – “Reducing population growth has, by Gates’ own admission, been a core mission of the Gates Foundation since its inception. Gates is not speaking of birth control but control of the population itself”. (HoweStreet.com, James Corbett)