08/October/21

 

The European Commission is asking for your opinion on new GMOs produced with gene-editing techniques like CRISPR. We've told them to apply existing GMO regulations to all GMOs and to stop trying to sneak GM food onto our fields and plates untested and unlabelled. Send your own message to the Commission here. It's quick and easy and you can participate wherever you are in the world (non-EU citizens should choose "Other" for their country). GMWatch

 

 

Scientists have called for Peter Daszak, the president of US-based research organisation EcoHealth Alliance (EHA) to quit, accusing him of concealing conflicts of interest, withholding critical information, and misleading public opinion during the COVID pandemic. EHA has been thrust into the public eye during the pandemic because of its work studying bat coronaviruses with the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), which is located in the city Chinese city that was the first epicentre of the COVID outbreak. Newsweek

 

 

A progress report detailing controversial US-funded research into bat coronaviruses in China was filed more than two years after it was due and long after the corresponding grant had concluded. The US-based nonprofit EcoHealth Alliance submitted the report to its funder, the National Institutes of Health, in September 2020, while the group was engulfed in controversy surrounding its work with partners in China. The annual report described the group’s work from June 2017 to May 2018, which involved creating new viruses using different parts of existing bat coronaviruses and inserting them into humanized mice in a lab in Wuhan, China. The work was overseen by the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, headed by Anthony Fauci. Scientists described the late date as highly unusual and said it merited an explanation. The Intercept

 

 

Every year, approximately 5,000 people in the US are diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease. The malady extinguishes firing nerve cells, severing the highways between our brain and muscles. People progressively lose their ability to walk, talk, eat, and finally, breathe within two to five years. A recent study sheds light on a potential contributor to the disease: pesticide exposure. An analysis found that patients diagnosed with ALS were 1.25 times more likely to have estimated exposure to pesticides and herbicides including 2,4-D, glyphosate, carbaryl, and chlorpyrifos. [GMW: 2,4-D and glyphosate are used on herbicide-tolerant GM crops.] EHN