☕️ Coffee & Courage ☙ Monday, August 29, 2022 ☙ PUNKEYMOX 🦠
Moderna sues Pfizer over its spike patent; who made Fauci?; vaccines fall from the sky; Trump's lawyers get a win; Ukraine still bombing nuke plant; Beto gets a mystery infection; and much more...
Happy Monday Morning, C&C! It’s a new week, bursting with fresh hopes and possibilities. I’m just playing with updated names this week, let me know if anything grabs you, or if you’re one of many who prefer the original. In today’s roundup: Moderna sues Pfizer over its spike patent; we learn how that retiring fraud Fauci originally got put in charge of the massive U.S. biodefense apparatus; vaccines are literally falling from the skies now; Trump’s lawyers earn their keep; Ukraine continues shelling Europe’s largest nuke plant; DC shot mandate pushed back; unjabbed Djokovic banned from U.S. Open; Beto catches a mysterious infection; and for some weird reason, carbon-friendly Beyond Burgers are failing to grip with consumers.
🗞*NEWS AND COMMENTARY* 🗞
🔥 In another perfectly predictable late-pandemic development, Moderna sued Pfizer last week. The suit alleges that Pfizer infringed Moderna’ patents related to the covid vaccine.
Specifically, Moderna claims Pfizer stole two things: First, its key innovation — the technique of replacing uridine with methylpseudouridine in order to ‘fool’ the immune system and stabilize the mRNA particles.
Some folks have suggested the technique overshoots the mark and makes the mRNA TOO stable, which is why it is loitering in the body so much longer than the developers expected. Here’s a good stack if you want to dig into the microbiology: Pseudouridine, mRNA Vaccines & Spike Protein Persistence.
Second, Moderna claims Pfizer stole the entire spike protein, which Moderna had raced to patent:
21. … the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine encoded for the exact same type of coronavirus protein (i.e., the full-length spike protein), which is the coronavirus vaccine design that Moderna had pioneered based off its earlier work on coronaviruses and which the company patented and uses in Spikevax®.
It’s a fascinating lawsuit, and if the case isn’t quickly settled and goes forward, we’re going to learn a lot of stuff that we couldn’t have found out about any other way.
My mouth was already hanging open in dazed wonderment by the seventh paragraph. The complaint was talking about how Moderna developed the pseudouridine technique for the MERS virus back in 2015, when they created their first mRNA vaccine, and then made this astounding claim:
Animal challenge studies showed that the new vaccine successfully resulted in the production of neutralizing antibodies and prevented MERS infection. Those experimental results provided proof of concept that mRNA encoding for the full-length spike protein in a lipid nanoparticle could be used successfully to prevent coronavirus infection.
I had to read it twice. Sure enough, it claims that the mRNA vaccine “prevents” covid infections. Moderna repeats the claim again later in paragraph 15, albeit qualified by limiting the efficacy to Wuhan strain:
Moderna blew away those expectations and was able to show that its vaccine was 94% effective against infection by the strain of the COVID virus then circulating.
I think Moderna’s lawyers must have been on a long trip to the Antarctic or something and are out of touch with recent events.
Later, the complaint mentions boosters, but tellingly, makes no claim at all about efficacy of SpikeVax as a booster. Even more fascinating, you can read the complaint forwards and backwards and you’ll find NO CLAIM of any protection — partial or otherwise — from “severe hospitalizations and death.” This complaint could have been written in the summer of 2020 before the vaccines came out.
Why wouldn’t Moderna just admit the stupid jabs don’t prevent infections? They could have adopted the silly replacement argument that it prevents “severe hospitalizations and death,” right? As a lawyer, the only explanation that comes to mind is that Moderna (1) never intended the shots to work that way, and/or (2) they know that the jabs DO NOT prevent serious hospitalization and death, and they don’t want to lie in a federal court filing, which is a criminal felony.
Either way, it’s a remarkable omission. You might be wondering why they even mentioned the jab’s effect at all. In a patent case, you have to show what the invention is FOR. In other words, what it is intended to do. It can be something silly, like traveling through time, but there has to be a PURPOSE for the invention.
Out of all the options, Moderna picked “preventing infection.” Think about that.
For legal beagles, here’s the complaint.
🔥 UnHerd ran an equally fascinating article this weekend titled “How Dick Cheney Created Anthony Fauci.”
The article describes how the Bush Administration responded to the post-9/11 anthrax attacks by creating a new biodefense organization, knitting it together out of a long list of pre-existing departments and agencies, and by 2003, promoted the obscure NIAID’s AIDS-veteran and biodefense “expert” Anthony Fauci to its head. Worst of all, they let Fauci design his own position, which ended up with him being impossible to fire, being nearly unaccountable, and being the best-paid employee in the entire federal government, even over the President.
UnHeard explained, “Fauci now had..carte blanche to not merely approve but design and run the kind of research projects he sought—and could do so with no oversight..Biodefence projects that formerly would have fallen under..authority of military or intel..agencies were now under his..supervision.”
Fauci’s promotion was not just another bureaucratic reshuffling. It was a tectonic event, a shifting of political mountains and the plates underneath the entire U.S. health and biodefense infrastructure. Its budget ballooned into a multiple of all research into cancer, heart disease, and obesity combined. According to UnHerd, Fauci “went from being the director of one the NIH’s constituent 27 institutes to being the only one who really mattered.”
It explains a lot. Hopefully, he’s starting to pack up his office.
💉 I know you guys. You are going to think I’m making this up, so here’s a screen-grab of the headline so you can read it for yourself.
Welcome to 2022, when literally ANYTHING is possible. The USDA says it is vaccinating WILD RACCOONS for rabies. Because it is a TRAGEDY how many wild raccoons suffer from the completely preventable disease. How can we, as moral beings, stand by and allow our furry forest friends to suffer, when we have planes, fish flavoring, and cutting-edge oral vaccine technology?
The USDA allowed that domestic animals like cats and dogs might also gobble up the loaded snacks, but don’t worry, the medico-bites are SAFE and EFFECTIVE. They definitely WON’T wind up making it MORE LIKELY your cats and dogs will catch rabies. That would be ridiculous. Why would you even think that?
So. It’s not mind-control powder in the contrails, you silly conspiracy theorists. It’s VACCINES. So just calm down already.
🔥 Trump’s lawyers scored a major win on Friday when a Miami federal judge set a hearing on their motion to appoint a special judge to oversee the FBI’s raid. Initially, the judge seemed skeptical, asking Trump’s lawyers why the case shouldn’t just stick with Magistrate Reinhart, where it started. But after they explained that magistrates can’t legally appoint ‘special masters,’ because only real Article III judges can, the judge agreed and set a hearing for this Thursday to make a final decision. She even indicated in her order that she was leaning toward approving the request.
This is a huge development because Trump’s first priority in having any realistic ability to enforce his rights was to somehow get the case re-assigned to a full federal judge, and away from the magistrate who’d criticized Trump on Facebook and already recused himself from another Trump case.
Trump’s lawyers seem to have done it. Nice work, gentlemen (and ladies).
🚀 AFP ran a short story this weekend headlined “Fresh Shelling At Ukraine Nuclear Plant Sparks Radiation Fears.” It’s a little hard to discern from the terse two-sentence report, but basically they’re saying that Ukraine continued to lob explosive mortar rounds at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant over the weekend.
Zaporizhzhia is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe. The Russians have controlled it without incident since the beginning of the war.
If you can believe anything coming out of the war, the Russian ministry of defense said Ukrainian shells have landed near areas storing fresh nuclear fuel and radioactive waste.
Ukraine’s puppet president Zelensky admitted that the situation around Ukraine nuclear plant was “very risky and dangerous.”
I’m just spitballing here. But one idea to lower the risk and danger might be to stop bombing a gigantic nuclear power plant. On the other hand, what do I know? I’m just a lawyer, not a nuclear physicist.
💉 The Post Millennial ran a story this weekend headlined, “DC ‘No Shots, No School’ Vaccine Mandate Enforcement Pushed Back To 2023.”
In other words, now that they’ve coerced a bunch more kids into taking the jabs, they shifted the onerous childhood jab mandate back until after the midterms, when it will ostensibly spring back into place for the Spring term. I suppose we’ll see.
Either way, it gives them another three months to wear down some more anxious parents.
In related news, on Thursday a DC Superior Judge ruled that Mayor Bowser’s covid vaccine mandate for all DC employees, including teachers, was unlawful. So in other words, as students return to school in the Spring, vaccine mandates will apply to kids, but not to the adults teaching them.
Makes perfect sense.
💉 Even though the CDC dropped disparate treatment for unvaccinated people, the Moderna-sponsored U.S. Open refused to allow unjabbed Serbian tennis champion Novak Djokovic to travel to the U.S. to play in the championship.
Science! Shut up!
💉 Wish well the jabbed and boosted Texas gubernatorial candidate “Beto” O-Rourke, or whatever his name is, who is struggling this week. The Hill ran a story this weekend headlined, “Beto O’Rourke Pauses Campaign After Being Hospitalized With Bacterial Infection.” I know what you’re thinking. It is definitely NOT VAIDS. People, PLEASE.
But, what kind of bacterial infection is it? How’d he catch it? What kind of symptoms is he having?
Who knows! Beto isn’t saying, and the Hill is completely silent about all those perfectly normal questions. Inquiring minds may want to know, but they aren’t going to find out.
If you’re a Beto fan, don’t worry. I predict he’ll be right as rain in five to seven days. Don’t make me say it, but I think his mysterious infection might rhyme with punkeymox.
Andrew Gillum could not be reached for comment.
🔥 I’m sorry to report this bad news, but you need to know. The Daily Mail UK ran a story earlier this month headlined, “Fake meat fail? Beyond Meat reels as sales slow and stock plummets, with an analyst saying it’s ‘burning through cash’ and may go bankrupt as partnerships with McDonald’s and Taco Bell don’t pan out.”
Uh-oh! That can’t be good for business.
Wall Street darling Beyond Meat’s stock prices peaked in July of 2019 at over $234 per share. But the price began steadily slipping last year, and is now trading at around $32. The stock disappointed investors by falling 74% in the last twelve months. Worse yet, Market Watch recently cited an independent analysis listing Beyond Meat as a ‘zombie stock’ that could soon hit $0 a share.
Zero. Nada. Bupkis.
So weird! But why? For some baffling reason, the carbon-friendly meat-alternative’s test locations just aren’t performing too well. Many of Beyond Meat’s fast-food partners are either not expanding their plant-based options to any more restaurants, or are deleting the veggie-based items off the menu entirely. For instance, McDonald’s “McPlant” products have reportedly seen disappointing sales, and some locations have stopped serving the faux-meat burgers altogether.
Help! Beyond Burgers needs a mandate!
Seriously though, I’m as grossed out and skeptical of “Beyond Meat Burgers” as anybody, but we should probably have some sympathy for the innovative firm. It’s not like Beyond Burgers grow on trees or anything.
Have a marvelous Monday! I’ll see you all back here tomorrow for more.
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I distinctly remember when Djokovic got on the plane to Australia for a big tennis event last year - he tweeted something about his unvaccinated self heading to Down Under. Had a feeling then that he would be made an example, and he was. The tennis powers-that-be coalesced and decided to deny him entry whenever possible. It’s truly shameful, especially now. I also suspect that - had he stayed quiet - he would have been allowed entry into various countries that have special exceptions (and those exemptions are out there though not widely publicized). I have to admire his courage and willingness to speak out.
Coffee and Courage... new “next” name.... brilliant! Love it!