Week No 10 | 11/03/2021

Edited genes and misleading testing in schools

Just as the deadline of one UK government consultation passes (digital IDs), there’s a new one (on gene-edited foods and farm animals; see below) that needs a response before midnight next Wednesday. You could say you don’t trust the government any longer and they don’t take any notice of what the public say anyway. And you’d be right.

Or you might be concerned that they’ll harvest your data and match that to your opinion, marking you as a dissenter who needs careful surveillance. And you might be right. But it’s very hard to not be identified when you speak out. More to the point, if you speak out anonymously, you dilute your impact massively. So shouldn’t we at this critical time for democracy speak out, and align with others who’re also prepared to speak out?

That’s what we’re doing with the UK gene editing consultation. We’ve aligned with GM Freeze and Beyond GM who are both doing amazing work in the GM/GE awareness area. They’ve also done a lot of work to help make submitting a consultation response by next Wednesday night much easier. We’re raising awareness as well and we’ve made a short film to help get the word out about the importance of the consultation. Please respond to it and share as widely as you can. Thank you.

Our second piece looks at the fate of kids - and apologies for a bit more UK-centricity. But the fact that 57 million lateral flow kits have been sent to schools and the kids are being told to take their own swab samples is something of a concern, especially when they’re doing it a couple of times a week. Then there’s a big question mark over reliability – the government often quote that the tests can reliably detect around 70% of infections. But once you take into account the low prevalence of the virus, the reliability of accurately detecting the virus could be way lower – as we show in our analysis.

Our weekly news roundup brings you, as we’ve seen all too often over the last year, some shockers. From the premature deaths among Americans, covid risks among the obese, pauses in the delivery of AstraZeneca vaccines in 6 European countries, Australian freedom of speech bans for healthcare professionals questioning vaccine safety, and the disturbing re-emergence of mink carcasses from shallow graves following the traumatic Danish cull.

In health, naturally

Rob Verkerk PhD

Founder, executive & scientific director

Close the back door to unregulated gene-edited foods

11/03/2021

Why you should respond to the UK gene editing consultation before midnight 17 March 2021