Covid-19 and the medical-Industrial Complex

Public-Private Partnerships

Investing in global health organizations aimed at increasing access to vaccines created a 20-to-1 return in economic benefit, former billionaire swindler-cum-philanthropist Bill Gates told CNBC in January 2019.[1] On May 15, 2020, President Donald Trump officially announced Operation Warp Speed, a project to develop and deliver 300 million doses of a vaccine for the coronavirus disease 2019 by January 2021, recruiting a slew of biotech firms connected to the Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation, including Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, Novavax, Merck, Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline and Moderna.

Operation Warp Speed was formed as a public-private partnership to enable faster approval and production of vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic.[2] In other words, setting the stage for an impending a Global Pharmaceutical-Industrial Complex. The concept of the medical-industrial complex, a variation of Eisenhower’s famous exit speech, was first advanced by Barbara and John Ehrenreich in the November 1969 and in a subsequent book, The American Health Empire: Power, Profits, and Politics. The concept was widely discussed throughout the 1970s, further popularized in 1980, Arnold S. Relman while he served as editor of The New England Journal of Medicine, who commented, “The past decade has seen the rise of another kind of private ‘industrial complex’ with an equally great potential for influence on public policy—this time in health care...”

Operation Warp Speed, initially funded with about $10 billion from the CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) passed by Congress on March 27, was an interagency program that includes private firms and components of the Department of Health and Human Services, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), the Department of Defense, and other federal agencies, including the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. BARDA, which was created and authorized by the Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act (PAHPA) of 2006, is responsible for the procurement and development of medical countermeasures, principally against bioterrorism, including chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) threats, as well as pandemic influenza and emerging diseases.

In May 2020, as head of Operation Warp Speed, Trump appointed Moncef Slaoui, the former head of GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) vaccines department. Before Slaoui was fired over “substantial” sexual harassment allegations in March 2021, Senator Elizabeth Warren called attention to Slaoui’s overt conflict of interest, due to his  ownership of more than $10 million in stock options in the Moderna in his new role, while the federal government invested $483 million in the company to assist in coronavirus vaccine trials.[3]

Moderna, like Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson, the leading manufacturers of the COVID-19 vaccine, are all companies funded or supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the largest charitable foundation in the world, holding $46.8 billion in assets. While Bill Gates has managed to repair his reputation as a petty swindler through his enormous contributions, charitable foundations have long served as fronts for corporate agendas, since the ruse was masterminded by John D. Rockefeller, grandfather of Gates’ mentor, David Rockefeller. The Rockefeller Foundation, founded in 1913, was a notorious contributor to the birth of eugenics, acting as key funders of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Germany, which gave rise to barbarous eugenics policies of the Nazis.[4]

In 1953, Norman Paul Dodd worked as a financial advisor, and served as chief investigator for the Special Committee on Tax Exempt Foundations (commonly referred to as the Reece Committee), which was chaired by U. S. Congressman B. Carroll Reece. Dodd’s stated that many foundations were intentionally campaigning to involve the United States in such wars as World War I and that they also sought ways to warp American teaching of history through explicit control of the education system in the United States. Dodd's claims have become the cornerstone of theories implicating the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, which according to Frances Stonor Saunders’ modern-day classic, Who Paid the Piper: The CIA and the Cultural Cold War, were the chief conduits for CIA covert funding.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

The CDC, the national public health agency of the United States, evolved from the Communicable Disease Center founded July 1, 1946, as the successor to the World War II Malaria Control in War Areas program of the Office of National Defense Malaria Control Activities. Preceding its founding, organizations with global influence in malaria control were the Malaria Commission of the League of Nations and the Rockefeller Foundation. The Rockefeller Foundation greatly supported malaria control, sought to have the governments take over some of its efforts, and collaborated with the agency.[5] It became the National Communicable Disease Center (NCDC) effective in 1967, and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in 1970.

The CDC Foundation, which operates independently from CDC as a private, nonprofit organization, was authorized by section 399F of the Public Health Service Act to support the mission of CDC in partnership with the private sector, including organizations, foundations, businesses, educational groups, and individuals. Despite the CDC’s claim that these donations does not represent a conflict of interest, according to Jeanne Lenzer, associate editor of The British Medical Journal, writing in 2015, “the agency does receive millions of dollars in industry gifts and funding, both directly and indirectly, and several recent CDC actions and recommendations have raised questions about the science it cites, the clinical guidelines it promotes, and the money it is taking.”[6]

Tom Frieden, the CDC’s director from 2009 to 2017, explained to the BMJ, “Public-private partnerships allow CDC to do more, faster. The agency’s core values of accountability, respect, and integrity guide the way CDC spends the funds entrusted to it. When possible conflicts of interests arise, we take a hard, close look to ensure that proper policies and guidelines are followed before accepting outside donations.”[7] In June 2019, Frieden pled guilty to disorderly conduct in New York City. In 2018 he faced misdemeanor charges of forcible touching, third-degree sexual abuse and second-degree harassment, which were dropped. Frieden issued a statement shortly after his arrest, stating the allegation "does not reflect" his "public or private behavior or his values."[8]

Moderna Inc.

Moderna, an American pharmaceutical and biotechnology company based in Cambridge, is the most valuable private biotech company in the US.[9] Moderna focuses on drug discovery, drug development, and vaccine technologies based on messenger RNA (mRNA). Moderna's technology platform inserts synthetic nucleoside-modified mRNA (modRNA) into human cells using a coating of lipid nanoparticles. This mRNA then reprograms the cells to prompt immune responses. It is a novel technique, abandoned by other manufacturers due to concerns about the toxicity of lipid nanoparticles at high or frequent doses.[10]

In 2010, ModeRNA Therapeutics was formed to commercialize the research of stem cell biologist Derrick Rossi. Rossi had developed a method of modifying mRNA by first transfecting it into human cells, then dedifferentiating it into bone marrow stem cells which could then be further differentiated into desired target cell types. Rossi approached fellow Harvard University faculty member Tim Springer, who solicited co-investment from Kenneth R. Chien, Robert Langer, and venture capital firm Flagship Ventures.

In March 2013, Moderna’s fate was transformed when it signed a five-year exclusive option agreement with AstraZeneca to discover, develop, and commercialize mRNA for treatments in the therapeutic areas of cardiovascular, metabolic, and renal diseases, and selected targets for cancer. The agreement included a $240 million upfront payment to Moderna, a payment which was "one of the largest ever initial payments in a pharmaceutical industry licensing deal that does not involve a drug already being tested in clinical trials," and an eight percent share in Moderna.[11]

A 2016 STAT investigation found that the Moderna’s toxic work environment had for years driven away top talent due to the ego of its CEO, Stéphane Bancel, who had risen through the ranks of pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly, eventually leading the company’s Belgian operation, before becoming CEO of the French diagnostics firm bioMérieux. At least a dozen highly placed executives had quit in the four years prior, including heads of finance, technology, manufacturing, and science. One example was big-name hire Joseph Bolen, who came aboard in 2013 to lead Moderna’s R&D efforts, but stepped down abruptly in 2016. “No scientist in his right mind would leave that job unless there was something wrong with the science or the personnel,” said a person close to the company at the time.[12]

The company has published no data supporting its vaunted technology, and it’s so secretive that some job candidates have to sign nondisclosure agreements before they come in to interview. When Moderna moved its first two potential vaccines into human trials in 2016, executives wouldn’t reveal which diseases the vaccines targetted, and they did not list the studies on the public federal registry, ClinicalTrials.gov. “We think that when the world does get to see Moderna, they’re going to see something far larger in its scope than anybody’s seen before,” said Peter Kolchinsky, whose RA Capital Management owns a stake in the company.[13]

In February 2016, a Nature editorial criticized Moderna for not publishing any peer-reviewed papers on its technology, unlike most other emerging and established biotech companies, and compared its approach to that of the controversially failed Theranos.[14] In September 2018, Thrillist published an article titled, "Why This Secretive Tech Start-Up Could Be The Next Theranos”[15] criticizing its reputation for secrecy and the absence of scientific validation or independent peer-review of its research, though having the highest valuation of any U.S. private biotech company at more than $5 billion.[11][33] A former Moderna scientist told Stat: "It's a case of the emperor's new clothes. They're running an investment firm, and then hopefully it also develops a drug that's successful."[16]

In 2018, the company rebranded as Moderna Inc. and further increased its portfolio of vaccine development. In December 2018, Moderna became the largest biotech initial public offering in history, raising $621 million on NASDAQ, and implying an overall valuation of $7.5 billion for the entire company.[17] The year-end 2019 SEC filings showed that Moderna had accumulated losses of $1.5 billion since inception, with a loss of $514 million in 2019 alone, and had raised $3.2 billion in equity since 2010.[18] 

MIT

Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT

Moderna founder Bobert Langer has been working closely with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Langer holds over 1,400 granted or pending patents and is the most cited engineer in history, and is also a prolific entrepreneur, having participated in the founding of over 40 biotechnology companies including Moderna. Moderna’s latest stock surge, due to worldwide sales of their Covid-19 vaccine, has made Langer a billionaire, the third Moderna shareholder to pass the $1 billion threshold in 2020.[19]

Langer's research laboratory at MIT is the largest biomedical engineering lab in the world, maintaining over $10 million in annual grants and over 100 researchers. Langer is also a faculty member of the Harvard–MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology and the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. The Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research is a cancer research center affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The Institute was launched in October 2007 with a $100 million grant from David H. Koch and the 180,000 square feet (17,000 m2) research facility opened in December 2010, replacing the MIT Center for Cancer Research (CCR).[20]

In August 2019, Langer was one of the signatories of an online letter in defense of MIT Media Lab director Joi Ito, who resigned from his roles at MIT, Harvard, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Knight Foundation, PureTech Health and the New York Times Company, following allegations of financial ties to Epstein. Evgeny Morozov proposed that John Brockman was the “intellectual enabler” who made it possible for so prominent academics to become associated with Epstein, like Ito and Marvin Minsky, who in the 1950s Minsky founded the AI Project at MIT, a forebearer of the school’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).[21] The Media Lab was founded in 1985 by Nicholas Negroponte and former MIT President Jerome Wiesner, the founder of Cybernetics. The Lab gained popularity since 1988, when Brockman’s long-time associate Stewart Brand published The Media Lab: Inventing the Future at M.I.T.  “To me, the tremendously good things he’s done for MIT and for the world — so far outweigh the bad things,” Langer said.[22]

Bill Gates also began a regular friendship with Epstein after he had been convicted of sex crimes. Employees of Gates’s foundation also paid multiple visits to Epstein’s mansion. Around 2011, Epstein spoke with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and JPMorgan Chase about creating the Global Health Investment Fund, a proposed multibillion-dollar charitable fund to provide “individual and institutional investors the opportunity to finance late-stage global health technologies that have the potential to save millions of lives in low-income countries.”[23] Also in that same year, attendees spotted Gates and Epstein engaged in private conversation at a TED conference in Long Beach, California. In 2013, Gates flew on Epstein’s “Lolita Express” from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey to Palm Beach, Fla., according to a flight manifest. As late as October 2014, Gates donated $2 million to the Media Lab.[24]

CEPI

A major study published in 2016 by the independent Global Policy Forum, which monitors the work of UN bodies and global policymaking, warned that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation and others are exercising increasing influence on political decision-making and are dictating the global health and agriculture agenda in developing countries. By far the largest donor, according to the study, is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which in 2012 gave $2.6 billion, compared with $1.2 billion from the next nine largest US trusts. The study claims many foundations enable rich countries and their corporations to achieve their own ends in developing countries, from setting up public-private partnerships with pharmaceutical companies to promoting certain sorts of corporate farming and the use of biotechnology for health and agriculture.[25]

In 2017, during the Davos World Economic Forum (WEF), Gates initiated CEPI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, together with the governments of Norway, India, Japan, and Germany, along with the Wellcome Trust of the UK, the fourth wealthiest charitable foundation in the world. CEPI, which is focused on the WHO’s “blueprint priority diseases,” was identified as a "key player in the race to develop a vaccine" for the Coronavirus disease 2019.[26] On January 30, 2020, Tedros Adhanom, Director-General of the WHO declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern or PHIEC. This came two days after Tedros met with China President Xi Jinping in Beijing to discuss the dramatic rise in severe cases of a novel coronavirus in Wuhan and surrounding areas that had reached dramatic proportions. Adhanom became head of WHO in 2017. Tedros, who was also Ethiopia Minister of Foreign Affairs until 2016, met Bill Gates when he was Ethiopian Health Minister and became Board Chair of the Gates-linked Global Fund Against HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria. In April 2017, Richard J. Hatchett, former director of BARDA—and a member of the Homeland Security Council under George W. Bush, and the United States National Security Council, under Obama—became the full-time CEO.  

Operation Warp Speed

In January 2020, CEPI announced it would fund the manufacture of mRNA vaccine by Moderna.[27] In March 2020, in a White House meeting between the Trump administration and pharmaceutical executives, Stéphane Bancel and CEO of Moderna told Trump the company could have a COVID-19 vaccine ready in a few months. The next day, the FDA approved clinical trials for the Moderna vaccine candidate, with Moderna later receiving investment of $483 million from Operation Warp Speed. In April 2020, with the Moderna share price rising on news of imminent phase 2 human trials for its potential COVID-19 vaccine, Bancel's stake of about 9% became worth over $1 billion.[28]

As of August 2020, eight companies were chosen for funding of some $11 billion to expedite development and preparation for manufacturing their respective vaccine candidates. The vaccine developers, different vaccine technologies, and treatments receiving government research funding were Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, Moderna, Novavax, Merck, Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline. In 2015, Novavax received $89 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support the development of a vaccine against human respiratory syncytial virus for infants via maternal immunization. By May 2020, Novarax had received $388 million in funding from CEPI.[29] In June 2020, CEPI announced it would invest a total of up to $383m in a partnership with AstraZeneca to produce 300 million doses of its vaccine.[30]

Moderna signed small-volume supply contracts with governments, pricing a two-dose regimen at as much as $74. Johnson & Johnson it agreed to provide the US with 100 million doses of its vaccine for more than $1 billion from the federal government, implying a per-dose price of about $10. Under a deal announced last month, the U.S. agreed to pay Pfizer Inc. and Germany’s BioNTech $1.95 billion for 100 million doses, which suggests a price of $19.50 a dose and $39 for two doses. AstraZeneca, meanwhile, agreed to provide 300 million doses to the US for $1.2 billion, implying a cost of $4 a dose.

As efforts to expedite Covid-19 vaccine approval, such as Operation Warp Speed, were met with concerns about safety, the largest vaccine developers pledged on September 8, 2020 to submit their vaccine candidates for approval only after passing Phase 3 trials showed a vaccine’s effectiveness. The group of nine companies includes Moderna, AstraZeneca, and the ongoing collaboration between Pfizer and BioNTech. Top executives at Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Sanofi, and Novavax also signed the pledge. However, after early results of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine candidate trial were announced, the developers reneged on their assurances and claimed they would forge ahead for emergency use authorization from the FDA, relying only on preliminary results before the completion of the Phase 3 trial.[31]

Around the same time, top U.S. health officials had charged the FDA’s reputation for making independent, science-based decisions. In August 2020, FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn misrepresented data about the ability of blood plasma from recovered Covid-19 patients to treat the disease after Trump falsely touted the treatment as a breakthrough. Though Hahn issued a partial apology, he did not fully correct his misleading remarks. Likewise, Health secretary Alex Azar, who made a nearly identical false claim that blood plasma could reduce Covid-19 deaths by 35%, did not recant his remarks.[32]

On September 23, 2020, William A. Haseltine, a professor at Harvard Medical School, wrote in Forbes that Moderna, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson—all companies funded or supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation—are leading candidates for the completion of a Covid-19 vaccine likely to be released in the coming months. These companies have published their vaccine trial protocols. This unusually transparent action during a major drug trial deserves praise, close inspection of the protocols raises surprising concerns. These trials seem designed to prove their vaccines work, even if the measured effects are minimal.[33]

As of December 2020, no mRNA vaccine had completed Phase III clinical trials or had been licensed for prophylactic use against COVID-19, although the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines had been approved for marketing under emergency use authorizations from the FDA and regulatory agencies in other countries.[34]

Vaccine Industry

Pfizer expects to make $15 billion Covid-19 vaccine revenue in 2021, with a profit margin of 20%, which it will share with BioNTech. Moderna expects to make $18.4 billion and has not revealed the profit margin. Analysts predict Covid-19 vaccine market will reach $10 billion a year. Analysts predict that vaccine sales in 2021 from Moderna and Novavax will outpace those from three of the biggest vaccine producers who dominated the market before Covid-19: Merck, GSK, and Sanofi, who all three have yet to bring a Covid-19 vaccine to market.[35]

As summarized by Bill Gates, “Vaccines probably saved more lives than any other tool. If we can take vaccines and apply them more in the area of cancer, then that just changes the numbers completely because the cancer market is, it's over 10 times the R&D, over 10 times the spend, potential for growth.” [36]

[1] Matthew J. Belvedere. “Bill Gates: My ‘best investment’ turned $10 billion into $200 billion worth of economic benefit.” CNBC (January 23, 2019). Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/23/bill-gates-turns-10-billion-into-200-billion-worth-of-economic-benefit.html

[2] "Fact Sheet: Explaining Operation Warp Speed". US Department of Health and Human Services. November 10, 2020. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20201219231756/https://www.hhs.gov/coronavirus/explaining-operation-warp-speed/index.html

[3] Corcoran, Kieran (May 16, 2020). "The ex-pharma exec leading Trump's COVID-19 vaccine program has $10 million in stock options for a company getting federal funding". Business Insider. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20201116154258/https://www.businessinsider.com/moncef-slaoui-leading-trump-vaccine-push-10m-holding-moderna-conflict-2020-5?r=US&IR=T

[4] Schmuhl, Hans Walter (2008). Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics, 1927–1945. [Dordrecht, Netherlands]: Springer. p. 87.

[5] Stapleton DH (2004). "Lessons of history? Anti-malaria strategies of the International Health Board and the Rockefeller Foundation from the 1920s to the era of DDT". Public Health Rep. 119 (2): 206–15. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1497608

[6] Jeanne Lenzer. “Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: protecting the private good?” British Medical Journal (May 15, 2015). Retrieved from https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58d417c8c534a598c8c22474/t/59df91238dd0414a334e1ecf/1507823909521/BMJ+Lenzer+CDC+private+good.pdf

[7] Jeanne Lenzer. “Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: protecting the private good?” British Medical Journal (May 15, 2015). Retrieved from https://static1.squarespace.com/static/58d417c8c534a598c8c22474/t/59df91238dd0414a334e1ecf/1507823909521/BMJ+Lenzer+CDC+private+good.pdf

[8] "The Latest: Ex-CDC boss denies woman's groping allegation". Associated Press. From https://apnews.com/d31be1b949ad471687c67e98e1e17645

[9] Andrew Zaleski. “Bill and Melinda Gates are placing bets on this biotech in the race to develop a Zika vaccine.” CNBC (May 19, 2017) Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/18/bill-and-melinda-gates-bet-on-this-biotech-to-develop-zika-vaccine.html

[10] Garde, Damien (September 13, 2016). "Ego, ambition, and turmoil: Inside one of biotech's most secretive startups". Stat. Damien Garde. “Ego, ambition, and turmoil: Inside one of biotech’s most secretive startups.” STAT (September 13, 2016). Retrieved from https://www.statnews.com/2016/09/13/moderna-therapeutics-biotech-mrna/; Garde, Damien (January 10, 2017). "Lavishly funded Moderna hits safety problems in bold bid to revolutionize medicine". Stat. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved May 19, 2020. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20201116154151/https://www.statnews.com/2017/01/10/moderna-trouble-mrna/]

[11] Andrew Pollack (March 21, 2013). "AstraZeneca Makes a Bet on an Untested Technique". The New York Times. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved December 11, 2013. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20201116154310/https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/21/business/astrazeneca-to-pay-240-million-to-moderna-therapeutics.html

[12] Garde, Damien (September 13, 2016). "Ego, ambition, and turmoil: Inside one of biotech's most secretive startups". Stat. Damien Garde. “Ego, ambition, and turmoil: Inside one of biotech’s most secretive startups.” STAT (September 13, 2016). Retrieved from https://www.statnews.com/2016/09/13/moderna-therapeutics-biotech-mrna/

[13] Garde, Damien (September 13, 2016). "Ego, ambition, and turmoil: Inside one of biotech's most secretive startups". Stat. Damien Garde. “Ego, ambition, and turmoil: Inside one of biotech’s most secretive startups.” STAT (September 13, 2016). Retrieved from https://www.statnews.com/2016/09/13/moderna-therapeutics-biotech-mrna/

[14] "Research not fit to print". Nature. 34 (115). February 5, 2016. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved May 19, 2020.  Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20201116154214/https://www.nature.com/articles/nbt.3488]

[15] McGauley, Joe (September 23, 2018). "Why This Secretive Tech Start-Up Could Be The Next Theranos". Thrillist. Retrieved from https://www.thrillist.com/tech/nation/what-does-moderna-therapeutics-do-why-is-it-a-silicon-valley-secret

[16] Garade, Damien (September 13, 2016). "Ego, ambition, and turmoil: Inside one of biotech's most secretive startups". Stat. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved May 18, 2020. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20201116154313/https://www.statnews.com/2016/09/13/moderna-therapeutics-biotech-mrna/

[17] Mukherjee, Sy (December 8, 2018). "Moderna Had the Biggest Biotech IPO Ever. Here's What That Says About the Industry's Future". Fortune. Archived from the original on November 16, 2020. Retrieved May 18, 2020.  Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20201116154242/https://fortune.com/2018/12/08/moderna-ipo-biotech-future/

[18] Elizabeth Cohen (November 30, 2020). "Moderna applies for FDA authorization for its Covid-19 vaccine". CNN. Retrieved from https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/30/health/moderna-vaccine-fda-eua-application/index.html

[19] “Moderna’s Stock Rally Makes Bob Langer a Billionaire.” CEO Today (Nov 13, 2020).

[20] Trafton, Anne (October 9, 2007). "David H. Koch gives $100 million to MIT for cancer research". MIT News Office. Retrieved from http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2007/koch-institute-1009.html

[21] Evgeny Morozov. “Jeffrey Epstein’s Intellectual Enabler.” The New Republic (August 22, 2019). Retrieved from https://newrepublic.com/article/154826/jeffrey-epsteins-intellectual-enabler

[22] Max Larkin. “Embattled After Epstein, Media Lab Director Joi Ito Gets Public Support.” Wbur (August 28, 2019). Retrieved from https://www.wbur.org/edify/2019/08/28/media-lab-director-epstein-gets-public-support

[23] Emily Flitter & James B. Stewart. “Bill Gates Met With Jeffrey Epstein Many Times, Despite His Past.” New York Times (October 12, 2019).

[24] Ibid.

[25]  John Vidal. “Are Gates and Rockefeller using their influence to set agenda in poor states?” The Guadian (Janunary 15, 2016). Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/jan/15/bill-gates-rockefeller-influence-agenda-poor-nations-big-pharma-gm-hunger

[26] Peter Coy. "The Road to a Coronavirus Vaccine Runs Through Oslo." Bloomberg News (February 13, 2020).

[27] “Moderna Announces Funding Award from CEPI to Accelerate Development of Messenger RNA (mRNA) Vaccine Against Novel Coronavirus.” Press Release (January 23, 2020). Retrieved from https://investors.modernatx.com/news-releases/news-release-details/moderna-announces-funding-award-cepi-accelerate-development

[28] Tognini, Giacomo (3 April 2020). "Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel Becomes A Billionaire As Stock Jumps On Coronavirus Vaccine News". Forbes. Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20200403145433/https://www.forbes.com/sites/giacomotognini/2020/04/03/moderna-ceo-stphane-bancel-becomes-a-billionaire-as-stock-jumps-on-coronavirus-vaccine-news/#1ff51f865bf3

[29] “Novavax Jumps on $388 Million Funding From Vaccine Coalition (1).” Bloomberg Law (May 11, 2020). Retrieved from https://news.bloomberglaw.com/pharma-and-life-sciences/novavax-gets-388-million-in-funding-from-vaccine-coalition

[30] “CEPI partners with AstraZeneca to manufacture 300 million globally accessible doses of COVID-19 vaccine.” CEPI (June 4, 2020). Retrieved from https://cepi.net/news_cepi/cepi-partners-with-astrazeneca-to-manufacture-300-million-globally-accessible-doses-of-covid-19-vaccine/

[31] Safura Abdool Karim (December 18, 2020). "Emergency use authorization of Covid-19 vaccines could hinder global access to them". STAT. Retrieved from https://www.statnews.com/2020/12/18/emergency-use-authorization-covid-19-vaccine-hinders-global-access/

[32] Lev Facher. “Amid broad mistrust of FDA and Trump administration, drug companies seek to reassure public about Covid-19 vaccine safety.” Stat (September 8, 2020). Retrieved from https://www.statnews.com/2020/09/08/pharma-pledge-reassure-covid-19-safety/

[33] William A. Haseltine “Covid-19 Vaccine Protocols Reveal That Trials Are Designed To Succeed.” Forbes (September 23, 2020).

[34] Singh, Jerome Amir; Upshur, Ross E G (2020). "The granting of emergency use designation to COVID-19 candidate vaccines: implications for COVID-19 vaccine trials". The Lancet Infectious Diseases. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7832518; Safura Abdool Karim (December 18, 2020). "Emergency use authorization of Covid-19 vaccines could hinder global access to them". STAT. Retrieved from https://www.statnews.com/2020/12/18/emergency-use-authorization-covid-19-vaccine-hinders-global-access/

[35] “Coronavirus and the money behind vaccines.” Financial Times (March 10, 2021). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BuCt2vtVjc

[36] “Coronavirus and the money behind vaccines.” Financial Times (March 10, 2021). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BuCt2vtVjc