The Secret Group of Scientists and Billionaires Pushing a Manhattan Project for Covid-19

[MelissaB]

The Secret Group of Scientists and Billionaires Pushing a Manhattan Project for Covid-19

They are working to cull the world’s most promising research on the pandemic, passing on their findings to policy makers and the White House


A dozen of America’s top scientists and a collection of billionaires and industry titans say they have the answer to the coronavirus pandemic, and they found a backdoor to deliver their plan to the White House.

The eclectic group is led by a 33-year-old physician-turned-venture capitalist, Tom Cahill, who lives far from the public eye in a one-bedroom rental near Boston’s Fenway Park. He owns just one suit, but he has enough lofty connections to influence government decisions in the war against Covid-19.

These scientists and their backers describe their work as a lockdown-era Manhattan Project, a nod to the World War II group of scientists who helped develop the atomic bomb. This time around, the scientists are marshaling brains and money to distill unorthodox ideas gleaned from around the globe.

They call themselves Scientists to Stop Covid-19, and they include chemical biologists, an immunobiologist, a neurobiologist, a chronobiologist, an oncologist, a gastroenterologist, an epidemiologist and a nuclear scientist. Of the scientists at the center of the project, biologist Michael Rosbash, a 2017 Nobel Prize winner, said, “There’s no question that I’m the least qualified.”

This group, whose work hasn’t been previously reported, has acted as the go-between for pharmaceutical companies looking for a reputable link to Trump administration decision makers. They are working remotely as an ad hoc review board for the flood of research on the coronavirus, weeding out flawed studies before they reach policy makers.

More: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-secret-group-of-scientists-and-billionaires-pushing-trump-on-a-covid-19-plan-11587998993

Link to tweet

[applegrove]

1. Right. Science for them when they are in trouble but not for the public

when they lead precarious lives in normal times. I'm not saying this should stop. Just that it is hypocritical for any republican voting business person to participate.

[Blue Owl]

2. So are they going to travel back in time

And prevent Donald Trump from being elected?

[GopherGal]

9. Donnie is continuing to be evidence against time travel

Events just continue to prove that it must not be possible for scientists to come back from the future and stop the Fanta Menace.

The original thought was that this reflected some fundamental rule of physics that prevents time travel.

Though I'm beginning to form another theory I hadn't entertained pre-COVID-19: Scum-bucket is gonna get all of human civilization killed off before time travel can be invented.

[MelissaB]

3. Another snip with a lot of famous/infamous names

Dr. Cahill’s primary asset is a young lifetime of connections through his investment firm. They include such billionaires as Peter Thiel, Jim Palotta and Michael Milken—financiers who afforded him the legitimacy to reach officials in the middle of the crisis. Dr. Cahill and his group have frequently advised Nick Ayers, Mr. Pence’s longtime aide, and agency heads through phone calls over the past month.

No one involved with the group stands to gain financially. They say they are motivated by the chance to add their own connections and levelheaded science to a coronavirus battle effort that has, on both state and federal levels, been strained.

“We may fail,” said Stuart Schreiber, a Harvard University chemist and a member of the group. “But if it succeeds, it could change the world.”

Steve Pagliuca, co-owner of the Boston Celtics and the co-chairman of Bain Capital—as well as one of Dr. Cahill’s investors—helped copy edit drafts of their report, and he passed a version to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Chief Executive David Solomon. Mr. Solomon got it to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

Ugh... Peter Thiel

[mr_lebowski]

5. I got a tale to tell, and listening don't cost a dime ...

And if you believe that, we're gonna get along just fine ...

[appalachiablue]

6. Peter Thiel, the German-born libertarian Trump supporter

who doesn't think women should have got the vote, among other noxious far rt positions.

And the rest of them..

[SunSeeker]

8. Wow. A Who's Who of scum and villainy. Thiel, Ayers, Bain Capital...

"No one involved with the group stands to gain financially."


What bullshit.


None of these vultures do ANYTHING unless it involves them reaping big bucks, usually by screwing over widows and orphans.

[scarletwoman]

11. Oh great, Michael Milken, too. In case anyone doesn't remember who he is, see below.

Pardon Closes the Book on Michael Milken’s Case but Can’t Rewrite It

By pardoning Michael R. Milken, a potent symbol of the “greed is good” 1980s and arguably the most significant white-collar criminal of his generation, President Trump has sent two powerful messages: When it comes to justice, money counts. And white-collar crime doesn’t really matter.

So much for the rule of law, already under siege by the Trump administration, and the notion that no one, no matter how rich or powerful, is above it.

Lest history be entirely rewritten, it’s worth considering what Judge Kimba M. Wood told Mr. Milken at his sentencing on Nov. 21, 1990, on charges including conspiracy and fraud:

“When a man of your power in the financial world, at the head of the most important department of one of the most important investment banking houses in this country, repeatedly conspires to violate, and violates, securities and tax laws in order to achieve more power and wealth for himself and his wealthy clients, and commits financial crimes that are particularly hard to detect, a significant prison term is required in order to deter others.”

(more at link)

[gordianot]

4. Sounds like a PR scam to me.

Someone does the work then can be handed to shit for brains for credit. On the other hand if he is told ahead of time it will be leaked as quickly as critical national intelligence is given to Vladimir Putin.

[rocktivity]

7. Better they should spend their efforts getting everyone in America tested ASAP

Detecting and isolating the infected is what will stop the spread.
https://yourhhrsnews.com/nj-mass-covid-test/


rocktivity

[benld74]

10. Fork Them!!

[BadgerMom]

12. This pack of villains sounds like a group only the WSJ editorial board would promote.

They can go pound sand. With the pasts of this group, I have no faith they are in it for anyone’s good but their own.