The Secret Group of Scientists and Billionaires Pushing a Manhattan Project for Covid-19

[babylonsister]

The Secret Group of Scientists and Billionaires Pushing a Manhattan Project for Covid-19
They are working to cull the world’s most promising research on the pandemic, passing on their findings to policy makers and the White House
By Rob Copeland
April 27, 2020 10:49 am ET


A dozen of America’s top scientists and a collection of billionaires and industry titans say they have the answer to the coronavirus pandemic, and they found a backdoor to deliver their plan to the White House.

The eclectic group is led by a 33-year-old physician-turned-venture capitalist, Tom Cahill, who lives far from the public eye in a one-bedroom rental near Boston’s Fenway Park. He owns just one suit, but he has enough lofty connections to influence government decisions in the war against Covid-19.

These scientists and their backers describe their work as a lockdown-era Manhattan Project, a nod to the World War II group of scientists who helped develop the atomic bomb. This time around, the scientists are marshaling brains and money to distill unorthodox ideas gleaned from around the globe.

They call themselves Scientists to Stop Covid-19, and they include chemical biologists, an immunobiologist, a neurobiologist, a chronobiologist, an oncologist, a gastroenterologist, an epidemiologist and a nuclear scientist. Of the scientists at the center of the project, biologist Michael Rosbash, a 2017 Nobel Prize winner, said, “There’s no question that I’m the least qualified.”

This group, whose work hasn’t been previously reported, has acted as the go-between for pharmaceutical companies looking for a reputable link to Trump administration decision makers. They are working remotely as an ad hoc review board for the flood of research on the coronavirus, weeding out flawed studies before they reach policy makers.

more...

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-secret-group-of-scientists-and-billionaires-pushing-trump-on-a-covid-19-plan-11587998993?mod=hp_lead_pos5

[blitzen]

1. The Fed Gov should have spearheaded this from the very start. n/t

[rzemanfl]

3. There is no Federal Government, just a bunch of grifters lording it over

the rank and file while the rob the country blind.

[Midnight Writer]

6. Absolutely. I fear having capitalists and industry titans controlling Covid treatments and vaccines.

This guy may have pure motives, but there are a lot of Martin Skrellis out there.

[Dream Girl]

2. Trump will take credit if they are successful

[scarletwoman]

14. Right. That's another reason this kind of smells bad. (nt)

[scarletwoman]

4. Not so secret now, I guess.

I only skimmed the article - my initial thoughts are, billionaires, pharmaceutical companies, hedge fund guys, Trump administration - what could possibly go wrong?

I wish they would be offering their research to the whole world, not to just the White House.

[Merlot]

10. My first thought: maybe they suggested the hydrocloriquine (sp)?

Venture capitalists, pharmaceutical companies, billionaires, hedge funds guys all with a back door to trumpft, and we somehow get presented with the idea that a drug that has not been tested for use against covid91 is somehow the answer?

[scarletwoman]

13. One has to wonder, right? Although I think it's more likely he got the idea from a Fox personality.

I remembering seeing articles about it being tried in China even before trump started pushing it. But who knows?

[DBoon]

5. "looking for a reputable link to Trump administration decision makers."

They will find a cure for this illness long before they will find anyone reputable in the Trump administration

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. "To cull research"? WTF? "Cull" means "kill a proportion of"

What the hell is the Wall Street Journal trying to say?

[babylonsister]

8. Cull also means 'select from a large quantity'...

cull
/kəl/
Learn to pronounce
See definitions in:
all
ecology
farming
verb
verb: cull; 3rd person present: culls; past tense: culled; past participle: culled; gerund or present participle: culling

select from a large quantity; obtain from a variety of sources.

[Talitha]

9. Makes me wonder if this is where Jared's been lately.

[Crunchy Frog]

11. I don't want a world run by billionaires and industry titans.

[Hortensis]

12. :) Good for them, but what's so secret if we know about them?

They're hardly the only group among many, many, many, many around the planet, in fact most, who wouldn't see drawing and dealing with big public spotlights as helpful to what they're doing.

[Xolodno]

15. Doesn't surprise me. The billionaires are getting hit hard by this...

...how can they buy that yacht if everyone who can build can't come to work. And longer the economy stays shut down...the less money they get....as gasp, they may just become millionaires.

They have a vested financial interest in getting things back to normal because; Back to normal > developing a vaccine and giving it away.

Plus revolts have started this way...and the first people shot are the wealthy.