China's gene giant harvests data from millions of pregnant women

[Nevilledog]

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Eric Garland
@ericgarland
The murderous Chinese Communist regime has been collecting DNA from pregnant women around the world.

The Intelligence Community is warning us about this for a reason.

China’s gene giant harvests data from millions of pregnant women
A prenatal test used worldwide sends gene data of pregnant women to the company that developed it with China's military. The U.S. sees a security risk.
reuters.com
2:34 PM · Jul 7, 2021

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/health-china-bgi-dna/

A Chinese gene company selling prenatal tests around the world developed them in collaboration with the country's military and is using them to collect genetic data from millions of women for sweeping research on the traits of populations, a Reuters review of scientific papers and company statements found.

U.S. government advisors warned in March that a vast bank of genomic data that the company, BGI Group, is amassing and analyzing with artificial intelligence could give China a path to economic and military advantage. As science pinpoints new links between genes and human traits, access to the biggest, most diverse set of human genomes is a strategic edge. The technology could propel China to dominate global pharmaceuticals, and also potentially lead to genetically enhanced soldiers, or engineered pathogens to target the U.S. population or food supply, the advisors said.

Reuters has found that BGI’s prenatal test, one of the most popular in the world, is a source of genetic data for the company, which has worked with the Chinese military to improve “population quality” and on genetic research to combat hearing loss and altitude sickness in soldiers.

BGI says it stores and re-analyzes left-over blood samples and genetic data from the prenatal tests, sold in at least 52 countries to detect abnormalities such as Down syndrome in the fetus. The tests – branded NIFTY for “Non-Invasive Fetal TrisomY” – also capture genetic information about the mother, as well as personal details such as her country, height and weight, but not her name, BGI computer code viewed by Reuters shows.

*snip*

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Oh, that's just ducky!

I can sure see them doing something evil with these data.

[ansible]

2. China today has more in common with Nazi Germany

Gonna be interesting to see how a society without any moral qualms for genetic engineering is gonna turn out.

[mia]

3. A fascinating article.

Thank you for sharing it.

...In the future..... it may be possible to reconstruct what a person looks like from an NIPT test.

...In the Cell paper, BGI researchers said they had performed the largest study of Chinese population genetics ever – which they undertook with 141,000 re-used prenatal tests. The tests, they said, “provide an untapped resource” to understand how people’s genes relate to their characteristics, and to their susceptibility to viruses.

This, they said, could offer “considerable mapping power.”

...BGI is one of about half a dozen major providers of the tests, more generally known as non-invasive prenatal tests (NIPT), which women take about 10 weeks into a pregnancy to capture DNA from the placenta in the woman’s bloodstream. Its tests are marketed in at least 13 European Union countries, including Germany, Spain and Denmark, as well as in Britain, Canada, Australia, Thailand, India and Pakistan. They are not sold in the United States.

However, the company is a pivotal player in a genomics race between China and the United States. In its latest annual report, it said it “has been working hard to promote Chinese technology, Chinese experience and Chinese standards to ‘go global.’”

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/health-china-bgi-dna/

[crickets]

4. Long, frightening read. Well worth the time, though it is disturbing that

the word 'ethics' did not appear once in the article.

[Hekate]

5. KnR. Downloading for my files.