Scientist Working on Gov’t Ebola Drug Joked about Culling Population with GMO Virus

This is definitely not the guy you want joking around about mass culling the population with genetically engineered viruses.

Media coverage is now focusing on the experimental Ebola treatments being given to two American Ebola patients who contracted it while caring for victims in Africa — the site of the world’s deadliest outbreak.

But that Ebola treatment was developed by a leading bioengineering scientist from the University of Arizona who was caught on camera “joking” about wiping out humanity. Dr. Charles Arntzen suggested the use of a “better” genetically engineered virus during a post-lecture Q&A focused on over-population issues, citing the 2011 Hollywood film ‘Contagion.’

As Truthstream Media previously reported, on February 2, 2012, Dr. Charles Arntzen, head of The Biodesign Institute for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology, responded to a question pertaining to whether feeding some eight billion people in the world was worth it, or whether population reduction should be pursued.

In response, Dr. Arntzen quipped:

“Has anybody seen ‘Contagion’? That’s the answer! Go out and use genetic engineering to create a better virus… 25 percent of the population is supposed to go in Contagion.”

While this comment was made prior to the current Ebola outbreak fears, it is unsettling given the fact that Dr. Arntzen was already working a biotech vaccine for Ebola.

Among the many high level projects Dr. Arntzen has worked on for DARPA, as well as private biotech industry include an edible vaccine with genetically engineered medicine/vitamins grown into foods like bananas and even work on bioterrorism vaccine antigens for U.S. Biowarfare Defense alongside Mitch Hein, the founder of Epicyte – the biotech firm that created spermicidal anti-bodies grown in corn to slow human reproduction.

A great deal of related research into other bioweapon treatments is directly based upon Dr. Charles Arntzen’s pioneering research.

Among these experimental treatments are a storable genetically engineered Anthrax vaccine for use during a biological attack, as well as research into biopharmaceutical treatments for the plague, cholera and other infectious diseases that could create a pandemic.

In light of this background, statements like the one made by Arntzen hardly convey trust in a process that is already less than transparent and prone to speculation, various states of unrest and panic on the part of the public. The Daily Mail reported that much of the local population in Sierra Leone have been distrustful of medical workers there and blamed the deaths on a ‘government conspiracy’.

Someone casually remarking on culling some 25% of the population with a bioweapon is THE LAST PERSON you’d want to trust with creating an already dangerous countermeasure to Ebola, which carries a death rate as high as 90%.

And yet, that is exactly who has been leading this biowarfare research for decades now…

Sources include:

Edible Vaccine Inventor Jokes about Culling Population with GMO Virus

Ebola treatment pioneered at ASU

U.S. BIOWARFARE DEFENSE: A Cost-Effective Strategy to Create Highly Efficacious Strategic Reserves of Therapeutics and Vaccines

Banana Vaccines: A Conversation with Dr. Charles Arntzen

Harvest of Fear: PBS Interviews Dr. Charles Arntzen

Charles Arntzen Regents’ Professor; Co-Dir., Center for Infectious Diseases & Vaccinology

Journal of Environmental Health Perspectives: PLANT vs. PATHOGEN: Enlisting Tobacco in the Fight Against Anthrax

GM corn set to stop man spreading his seed

‘What’s shocking is how Ebola patients look before they die’: British doctor working in Sierra Leone describes the horror of deadly disease

Vaccines in Your Vegetables : Genetic gardeners are trying to grow crops that could save millions of lives. Their discoveries might make immunizing a child against hepatitis as easy as eating a banana