n the darkly satiric Cold War film “Dr. Strangelove,” the renegade general Jack D. Ripper ignites a chain of events leading to the world’s thermonuclear destruction.
The movie exposes the insanity of placing humanity’s fate in the hands of a few scientists and generals, where even world leaders cannot prevent an apocalypse.
Sixty years have passed since Stanley Kubrick’s film was made, yet it seems nothing has been learned.
Today, a scientist performing research that enhances a potential pandemic pathogen, with the full approval of the government and scientific establishment, has emerged as an existential threat to humanity.
In a Congressional hearing earlier this month, former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield testified that today, “Biosafety is the greatest security threat faced by the United States.”
For decades, the US, alongside Chinese and European science funders, has supported virus discovery and virus enhancement research as a way to purportedly prevent pandemics.
In 2012, Anthony Fauci and Francis Collins wrote in the American Society for Microbiology that the benefits of such work were worth it, even if a laboratory accident launched a pandemic.
What exactly do these scientists want to do?
They trek out to the wild places and bring back dangerous germs to experiment on in their laboratories, often located in city centers.
Sometimes, these experiments make the germs more infectious and hazardous to humans (so-called “gain-of-function” experiments). Scientists say this research is essential to identify biological threats in nature and prepare for a possible emergence.
Ironically, there is a high chance that this misguided reasoning caused the COVID pandemic.
While the laboratories that do this kind of research are billed as “safe,” it’s impossible to guarantee that lab workers will not accidentally infect themselves or that biological waste is disposed of safely every single time.
All it takes is one accident to launch a pandemic like the one the world just went through. --->READ MORE HERE
While hospitals tightly restricted visitors during the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 14,300 patient deaths involved them being placed in restraint or seclusion, a USA TODAY Network investigation found.
The newly reported details of patient deaths associated with restraint or seclusion spanned from 2020 through 2023. The deaths happened at hospitals in every state except Alaska, with some individual hospitals reporting hundreds of patient deaths during that period.
Nearly 1,000 patient deaths involved drugs, including powerful opioid painkillers as well as sedatives and antipsychotics used as chemical restraints, our investigation found.
Several thousand patients died while in seclusion or restraints, while more than 10,000 deaths occurred within 24 hours of removal from restraint or seclusion.
Prior to their deaths, thousands of patients spent multiple days in restraints, with some of the highest restraint episodes lasting more than 20 days.
But state authorities only conducted mortality reviews for about one in three of those deaths across the country. Regulators also deemed a more thorough independent investigation was unnecessary for most cases, relying instead upon their review of the limited details hospitals must report about the use of restraints or seclusion on patients.
Put differently, thousands of restraint-related patient deaths received limited independent oversight during an historically dark era of hospital care, according to documents and data obtained through public-records requests.
Have you or a family member had an adverse experience with a restraint in a hospital setting in New York? Have you known someone who has died in connection to a restraint in a medical facility setting? If you'd like to share your experience with us, fill out our online form or scan the QR code included with this story in print.
The USA TODAY Network uncovered the deaths as part of its years-long exploration of the lack of transparency and accountability involved in patient restraint and seclusion.
The number of deaths and length of time patients spent in restraints raise myriad questions about pandemic-era care, including potential overuse — and misuse — of physical and chemical restraints by an American health system stretched to its breaking point.
“If your hospital is underwater during the pandemic, restraint may become an extra pair of hands, so to speak,” said Vincent Staggs, an IDDI senior scientist and medical restraint-use researcher.
“Parking patients in hallways becomes easier,” he added, “because either mechanical restraints like a net bed or chemical restraints like sedatives can keep patients immobile.” --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
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