Caution is Always Wise
Caution is Always Wise
Alcohol carnage, error of law in BC, Ukraine asks for nukes, Selecta Biosciences
Rounding the Earth
The following article serves as the show notes for the video presentation of the same name released through the Rounding the News series, presented by Rounding the Earth. It is provided to allow RTE listeners to verify my sources and conduct their own due diligence, and is intended as a supplement to the video. As such, I highly encourage readers of this Substack to watch the full episode and support Rounding the Earth, whose founder Mathew Crawford has provided me the platform and resources to conduct this important work. Thank you, Rounding the Earth!
My name is Liam Sturgess and I am your host for this weekly news roundup, presented by Rounding the Earth. Before we get started, I want to remind everyone that you can support the show by sending us a Rumble Rant, a tip on Rokfin, or LBRY tokens on Odysee. Even more importantly, I invite you to join us over on our Locals community, where I have posted the show notes for today's episode along with the links to watch the show live on Rumble, Rokfin and Odysee, as well as directly through the StreamYard platform.
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Without further ado, let’s get started!
Alcohol-related illnesses and deaths spiked after declaration of pandemic
After the World Health Organization declared a “Public Health Emergency of International Concern” (PHEIC) in March 2020, self-medication with alcohol spiked - as anyone who was paying any amount of attention could have predicted.
Spoiler alert: I wasn’t paying attention. In fact, I went the self-medication route. My relationship with alcohol has been tenuous ever since as I work my way out of the slog known as “the alcohol trap.”1
According to Statistics Canada, deaths directly attributed to alcohol broke down to:2
3,200 in 2019
3,790 in 2020
3,875 in 2021
Statistics for 2022 are not yet available. Still, these older numbers are already enough to indicate a disaster. While all age groups were affected, it was people younger than 65 years that turned most aggressively to drinking. As described in the StatsCan release:
The 18% increase from 2019 to 2020 was the largest year-over-year change in alcohol-induced deaths seen in at least the last 20 years. The effects of this increase were felt most among those aged younger than 65 years. The number of alcohol-induced deaths from 2019 to 2020 in this age group increased by 27% (from 1,955 to 2,490), compared The Daily, Thursday, January 12, 2023 2 Component of Statistics Canada catalogue no. 11-001-X with a 4% increase (from 1,245 to 1,300) among those aged 65 years and older. In 2021, the number of alcohol-induced deaths among those aged younger than 65 years (2,525) and among those aged 65 years and older (1,345) were similar to those observed in 2020.
In other words, the age group that was at no meaningful risk of being seriously harmed by COVID-19 was hurt and killed as a direct result of the sudden, intense and prolonged shattering of healthy life as they knew it.
Yesterday, the Toronto Star reported on a study out of Ontario’s Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) that found a “22 per cent jump in visits to physicians including family doctors, psychiatrists and addiction medicine specialists.”3
Lead author and Ottawa Hospital family physician Dr. Daniel Myran said the data, collected between March 2020 and May 2021, also show a six per cent increase in hospitalizations.
“These are people who are being hospitalized with alcohol dependence or withdrawal. Or seizures or problems like that,” he said. “Or they’ve drunk enough that you’ve eroded the lining of your stomach, or you’ve given yourself pancreatitis.”
For their part, the Province of Alberta seems to have had enough of it. After the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction (CCSA) announced earlier this month that it would be updating its guidance, Alberta Health Services is updating its own website to clarify the risk of serious harm from even small amounts of alcohol.4
The risk is low for someone who consumes two standard drinks or less per week, while the risk of certain types of cancer increases when consuming three to six drinks per week. Each additional drink per week “radically increases” the risk of alcohol-related consequences, including heart disease and stroke, according to the new guidelines.
“Albertans have the right to make informed decisions about their health. The new guidelines provide important information to help Albertans reduce their risk regarding alcohol use,” AHS said in a statement to Postmedia.
If only AHS applied the same reasoning to new and repurposed COVID-19 products.
“Error of law” identified in BC vaccine passport case
The Canadian Society for the Advancement of Science in Public Policy (CSASPP) provided an update on one of their several lawsuits on Tuesday this week. From the CSASPP website:5
You will recall on 12 September, 2022, in a long and largely technical ruling, Chief Justice Hinkson dismissed our petition seeking judicial review of various injection passport related public health orders of Dr. Bonnie Henry.
We are still awaiting the scheduling of a hearing date for the appeal. However, our factum has just been published.
The Chief Justice made a number of mistakes and I will leave the factum to speak for itself. But I will discuss a major one that I am surprised he made.
As a reminder, Dr. Bonnie Henry is the Provincial Health Officer for the Province of British Columbia.
Kip Warner, Executive Director of CSASPP, explains that Judge Hinkson ignored a key fact of law under Section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In short, his decision to dismiss the case was based on the belief that there was no threat of arrest in regards to the “vaccine passport” policies being challenged, therefore bypassing the requirement to conduct an analysis of the constitutionality of the policies.
However, Warner notes that both Judge Hinkson and Bonnie Henry were likely not aware that there was, indeed, threat of imprisonment included in one of Henry’s public health orders.
In Dr. Henry’s public health order of 10 March, 2022, Gatherings and Events, buried down in her list of named definitions on p. 7, she defined an “event” to mean, among other things, “a gathering of participants” for a “symphony performance”. She defined a “participant” to include “an audience member or a spectator”. Under s B(2) on p. 11, a “participant must be vaccinated”. Under s G on p. 15, she warned that “failure to comply with this Order is an offence under section 99(1)(k)) of the Public Health Act.”
Under s 99(1)(k) of the Public Health Act it says that a person commits an offence under s 42 if they fail “to comply with an order of a health officer”. Under s 42, Duty to comply with orders, “A person named or described in an order made under this Part must comply with the order.”
What happens if you don’t comply with an order made under the Public Health Act? The answer is buried in s 108(1)(a) which says that you are liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding $25,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 months, or to both.
Describing the prior decision as an “error of law,” Warner speculates that this will require the court to “remit the petition back to the Supreme Court for fresh consideration.” The updated factum has been published for all to review.
You can follow CSASPP’s efforts at their website, where you can also choose to support their “legal war chest.”
Ukraine asks for nuclear weapons
Everyone knew this was coming. It was just a matter of time. But this came way faster than anticipated - about a month ahead of schedule, depending on who you ask!
Over the last several months, there has been a steady and bountiful stream of weapons making their way from Western Nations to Ukraine. The situation has evolved nearly from day-to-day as of late, with countries insisting one day that they will not send certain things, then completely changing their mind the following day. The United States is preparing to send a fresh batch of missiles as part of “a new $2 billion US package of military aid”;6 Spain is considering sending 4-6 "Leopard" tanks;7 and France made the country positively giddy by offering an anti-missile radar system, with Ukraine's Minister of Defense Oleksii Rezniko describing it as the "cherry on the cake."8
But what is even better than missiles, tanks and radar systems? What could be even better than fighter jets?!
Why, nukes, of course! Alex Christoforou explains below.
Sure, nukes are scary and all, but I think the following Tweet accurately sums up the true extent of outside help Ukraine needs at this point.
Because it came up in my feed as I was hunting down the above video, let’s get Donald Trump’s take on the matter. He is running for President, after all.9
Project Veritas’ PfizerGate story deserves a thoughtful response
…and not the kneejerk reaction that some people have actually applauded on the side of the “resistance.”
There’s plenty of reason for this, not the least of which is the fact that it deals with subject matter that demands nuance and a certain amount of background knowledge to properly interpret. Nothing about the COVID-19 event has been as simple as it looks, and this is not the first time a large swath of people have grabbed hold of something without taking a moment to breathe.
So… let’s breathe.
…
Okay.
On January 25, Project Veritas published a video appearing to show a representative of Pfizer admitting that the pharma giant is planning to manipulate the SARS-CoV-2 virus in order to get ahead of new variants before they outcompete their “vaccines.”10
This was followed up the next day with a second video in which Veritas’ James O’Keefe confronts the man, whose name is given as Jordon Trishton Walker. Walker appears to be in disbelief, quickly becoming agitated and eventually physically lashing out at O’Keefe and his crew.
I can’t remember off the top of my head who I heard say it, but I’ll repeat it: “nobody came out of this looking good.” At least as far as the physical confrontation goes.
There are definitely questions being asked. For example:
Who is Jordon Trishton Walker?
What did Walker actually say?
What has the response been from all concerned parties?
I thought I would approach this with my skeptical eye and see if I could identify which questions aren’t being asked.
Jordon Trishton Walker
For a man so abruptly thrust into the spotlight, it seems it’s been rather hard to actually discover some basic details about Jordon Trishton Walker. Part of that is likely thanks to Google’s deployment of their new favourite tool for “combatting disinformation”: utterly breaking their own search engine.
Walker introduced in the PV video as “Pfizer Director of Research and Development - Strategic Operations and mRNA Scientific Planning”. A series of followup Tweets provide several screenshots with further details, including a variant title: “Director Scientific & Operational Initiatives”.
We also learn that he reports to Shuang Sarah Wu, listed as Senior Director of Pipeline Planning and Scientific Information.11
For the record, I object to PV's characterization of these quick smartphone pictures as "internal documents". This is certainly a website, which can be converted into a format that would be much easier to verify than they are now. As is, until someone either finds a public version of these same (or comparable) profiles online, or a more concrete leak occurs from within Pfizer, I consider this hearsay, personally. Nonetheless, the additional information contained within may still lead us to firmer ground.
Wu, Walker’s ostensive supervisor/senior, is someone whose employment at Pfizer was much easier for me to substantiate. She was listed as co-author of a study titled Achieving end-to-end success in the clinic: Pfizer’s learnings on R&D productivity, published in December 2021.12
Now, in fairness, I consider the research for what follows to be preliminary. The two sources I've thus far found to suggest what I’m about to share are not what I would consider reliable or verifiable, and more work is required to try to bypass what looks to be a scrubbing of information all around Jordon Walker's contacts. RocketReach, for example, is a site that I usually find to host accurate information about current and former positions held by any given person of high enough profile. This is what Wu’s profile looks like now:13
However, others appear to have captured screenshots of various such profiles before the scrubbing. Let’s see what they said.
One final disclaimer: there are multiple — possibly even many — people named Shuang Wu on the internet. It is possible that the Shuang Wu who works at Pfizer with Jordon Walker is different that the person whose work history I detail starting in the next sentence.
Her previous employer looks to have been a company called Selecta Biosciences.14 15
This is where things get really interesting. Bear with me.
Selecta Biosciences is in the business of developing something they call the “ImmTOR® platform”. According to the company’s website, ImmTOR allows for the development of “antigen-specific tolerogenic therapies that may selectively mitigate unwanted immune responses.”16
Isn’t that serendipitous! Autoimmune diseases are specifically noted as an adverse event of concern following injection with COVID-19 gene therapy “vaccines”. Borrowing from a paper published by a Chinese research group in December 2021, we have a fun list of such diseases for easy visualization.17
Can anyone think of a more lucrative set of back-to-back positions for someone like Shuang Sarah Wu, if it does indeed turn out to be the same person?
It gets even weirder. Selecta is a portfolio company of Flagship Pioneering — the venture capital firm that incubated and launched Moderna.18 And this is not a passing connection - the founder and CEO of Flagship, Noubar Afeyan, is also a co-founder of Moderna itself.19 In fact, one of the earliest investors to join onto Selecta (after Flagship) was Timothy Springer20 — a Harvard professor who became a billionaire in 2020 because of his founding investment in Moderna.21
On the company’s Portfolio page, they elaborate on the specific use cases of their technology. One section explains that it “has the potential to induce adeno-associated virus (AAV) vector-specific immune tolerance, reducing the severity of the body’s response to AAV gene therapy and enabling repeat administrations.”22
Janssen, developer of one of the two adenovirus vector COVID-19 gene therapies in North America, Ad26.CoV2.S, entered into a development deal to work with AAV for gene therapy in 2019.23 I found a paper published in 2017 titled Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV) as a Vector for Gene Therapy, written by researchers at Janssen.24
I don't know whether the adenovirus used in their COVID shot is at all related to AAV, but even if that's not the case, others certainly tried it out. Take this Chinese group of researchers and their paper titled Development of an Adeno-Associated Virus-Vectored SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine and Its Immunogenicity in Mice.25 Hey, Jay, they even mention transfection!
Selecta is specifically developing products with:26
Gingko Bioworks
Astellas
Genovis
Takeda
Cyrus Biotechnology
Sarepta Therapeutics
Sobi
AskBio (a Bayer subsidiary)
Apart from Flagship Pioneering, companies with significant stakes in Selecta include BlackRock, Vanguard, and JPMorgan Chase, along with a lesser known venture capital firm called Mangrove Partners.27 Interestingly, Mangrove appears to have recently acquired a significant amount of stock in Twitter.28
More questions than answers
And that’s what we’re left with. One question is, can we further confirm or refute the assertion that Shuang Sarah Wu did, indeed, work at Selecta Biosciences before moving to Pfizer? This is where I hope to be a role model for caution. Yes, I chose to report this preliminary research, in large part because it led to my discovery of Selecta Biosciences and their very convenient technology, as it is exactly what one would predict would be the next phase of gene therapy after dysregulating the immune systems of millions of people around the world. No matter how we got there, this is the biggest piece of new information.
If Wu is the connecting thread between Selecta and Pfizer, that makes the Project Veritas story infinitely more interesting. But I will wait until I can confidently substantiate this before presenting this as 100% true fact.
Others with different areas of expertise and interest will continue to tackle the issues related to “directed evolution” and whether gain-of-function really is the existential threat the mass of dissidents perceives it to be.
Caution is always wise — impatience is always foolish. But most of the time, it’s your gut that you’ve gotta follow.
And my gut is telling me that Mathew Crawford and Jonathan Couey are about to make very good use of this new Selecta-shaped twist in the plot.
My advice to you now is to head over to Gigaohm Biological on Twitch, and Rounding the Earth on Substack. They may very well pick up on this story from here. Even if they don’t, follow them if you haven’t already. You will not be led astray.
If you’ve enjoyed the show, please drop us a Rumble Rant or a tip on Rokfin/Odysee, and before you leave, go sign up as a member of our Locals community at www.RoundingtheEarth.locals.com. You can even snag yourself a free month of premium support using the promo code included on the pinned comment, after which you can keep us going and gain access to behind-the-main-scenes discussions that we’re keeping within our more intimate community.
I have been Liam Sturgess, and you can find me at www.LiamSturgess.com, or on Twitter @TheLiamSturgess!
Carr, A. (2009). Easy Way to Control Alcohol. Arcturus Publishing. https://amzn.to/3HtHXgj
This is an Amazon Affiliate link, through which we may earn a commission should you choose to buy something.
Provisional death counts and excess mortality, January 2020 to October 2022. (2023, January 12). Statistics Canada. https://web.archive.org/web/20230202202958/https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/en/daily-quotidien/230112/dq230112c-eng.pdf?st=jaP1x6A1
Bains, C. (2023, February 2). Alcohol-related health care visits spiked during pandemic in Ontario: study. Toronto Star. https://archive.ph/pcJxj
Babych, S. (2023, February 1). “Acceptable risk”: AHS to update website reflecting new federal alcohol guidelines. Calgary Herald. https://web.archive.org/web/20230202210359/https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/ahs-federal-alcohol-guidelines-risk
Warner, K. (2023, January 31). Status Updates. CSASPP. https://web.archive.org/web/20230202174313/https://www.covidconstitutionalchallengebc.ca/status-updates
Thomson Reuters. (2023, February 1). New weapons, more troops: Ukraine, Russia both seek advantage as next major offensive looms. CBC News. https://web.archive.org/web/20230202222243/https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/russia-ukraine-1.6732939
González, M. (2023, February 1). Spain planning to send four to six Leopard tanks to Ukraine. EL PAÍS English Edition. https://archive.ph/ZU3gg
Ukraine lauds French gift of radar system as “cherry on the cake.” (2023, February 1). France 24. https://archive.ph/iVa6Y
Inskeep, S., & Kurtzleben, D. (2022, November 16). Donald Trump is officially running for president in 2024. NPR. https://archive.ph/9ZpmE
Project Veritas [@Project_Veritas]. (2023, January 25). “BREAKING: @Pfizer Exploring ‘Mutating’ COVID-19 Virus For New Vaccines ‘Don’t tell anyone this...There is a risk...have to be very controlled to make sure this virus you mutate doesn’t create something...the way that the virus started in Wuhan, to be honest.’ #DirectedEvolution” [Tweet]. Twitter. https://archive.ph/68Oji
Project Veritas [@Project_Veritas]. (2023, January 25). “Additional document from inside @pfizer” [Tweet]. Twitter. https://web.archive.org/web/20230202235307/
Fernando, K., Menon, S., Jansen, K., Naik, P., Nucci, G., Roberts, J., Wu, S. S., & Dolsten, M. (2022). Achieving end-to-end success in the clinic: Pfizer’s learnings on R&D productivity. Drug Discovery Today, 27(3), 697–704. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drudis.2021.12.010
Page Not Found (404). RocketReach. Retrieved February 3, 2023, from https://web.archive.org/web/20230203180425/https://rocketreach.co/shuang-sarah-wu-email_1497875
NOSTUPID3. (2023, January 31). 微博. Weibo. https://archive.ph/WPywO
SHUANG (SARAH) WU, Gerente Senior, Estrategia y Desarrollo de Negocios, Selecta Biosciences. GetEmail.io. Retrieved February 3, 2023, from https://web.archive.org/web/20230203004058/https://b2b.getemail.io/shuang-sarah-wu-pfizer-person-company-21927493-3411511.html
Pioneering Precision Immune Tolerance. Selecta Biosciences. Retrieved February 3, 2023, from https://web.archive.org/web/20230203004153/https://selectabio.com/#:~:text=Selecta%20Biosciences%20is%20a%20clinical,®%20precision%20immune%20tolerance%20platform.
Chen, Y., Xu, Z., Wang, P., Li, X., Shuai, Z., Ye, D., & Pan, H. (2022). New‐onset autoimmune phenomena post‐COVID‐19 vaccination. Immunology. https://doi.org/10.1111/imm.13443
Companies. Flagship Pioneering. Retrieved January 15, 2023, from https://web.archive.org/web/20230115044601/https://www.flagshippioneering.com/companies
Moderna. Flagship Pioneering. Retrieved September 15, 2022, from https://archive.ph/HNhye
Bratzler, R. (2009, February 25). Selecta Biosciences, Inc. Closes $15.1M Series B Financing. Flagship Pioneering. http://archive.today/2023.02.03-174945/https://www.flagshippioneering.com/press/selecta-biosciences-inc-closes-151m-series-b-financing
Tognini, G. (2020, May 16). Exclusive: Meet The Harvard Professor Who Became A Billionaire Thanks To Coronavirus. Forbes. https://web.archive.org/web/20230203175707/https://www.forbes.com/sites/giacomotognini/2020/05/16/exclusive-harvard-professor-who-became-a-billionaire-thanks-to-moderna-talks-about-his-investing/?sh=5ac096b6b8d7
Portfolio. Selecta Biosciences. Retrieved January 12, 2023, from https://web.archive.org/web/20230112064408/https://selectabio.com/portfolio/
Chan, C. (2019, January 31). Janssen Enters Worldwide Collaboration and License Agreement with MeiraGTx to Develop Gene Therapy Programs for Inherited Retinal Diseases. Johnson & Johnson. https://archive.ph/7M3cH
Naso, M. F., Tomkowicz, B., Perry, W. L., & Strohl, W. R. (2017). Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV) as a Vector for Gene Therapy. BioDrugs, 31(4), 317–334. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40259-017-0234-5
Qin, X., Li, S., Li, X., Pei, D., Liu, Y., Ding, Y., Liu, L., Bi, H., Shi, X., Guo, Y., Fang, E., Huang, F., Yu, L., Zhu, L., An, Y., Valencia, C. A., Li, Y., Dong, B., & Zhou, Y. (2022). Development of an Adeno-Associated Virus-Vectored SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine and Its Immunogenicity in Mice. Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2022.802147
Partnerships. Selecta Biosciences. Retrieved October 13, 2022, from https://web.archive.org/web/20221013150325/https://selectabio.com/partnerships/
Selecta Biosciences, Inc. (SELB) Stock Major Holders. Yahoo Finance. Retrieved February 3, 2023, from https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/SELB/holders?p=SELB
MANGROVE PARTNERS Top 13F Holdings. Whale Wisdom. Retrieved February 3, 2023, from https://whalewisdom.com/filer/mangrove-partners#tabholdings_tab_link
"And my gut is telling me that Mathew Crawford and Jonathan Couey are about to make very good use of this new Selecta-shaped twist in the plot."
Always thrilled to see favorites promoted & definitely fab heads up for the real action!