Dubious

Latest Episodes:

World’s Most Dubious Painting: Is Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi a Fake? Jul 21, 2022

Show notes

The Saudi Crown Prince might have bought a fake Leonardo.

Salvator Mundi, the most expensive painting in the world, has a fascinating yet murky history: is it worth $450 million? Its initial price tag was 49 British pounds and we are debating whether it is an original Leonardo or one of many similar but less valuable paintings created in the 16th century. If you like our content please become a patron to receive our premium episodes, and all of our public episodes ad-free as well.

One of many renaissance era portraits of Christ holding a celestial bauble while making the sign of the cross surfaced in a New Orleans auction house in 2005, only to be sold later for almost half a billion dollars. If its chain of ownership is true, it began in the private collection of Louis XII of France, saw the execution of Charles I, and was centuries later sold from the estate of Sir Francis Cook to Warren and Minnie Kuntz, furniture dealers from New Orleans, for 49 British pounds in 1958. Three dealers from New York bought it on a hunch from the auction of the Kuntz estate for $1175, and turned it over to Diane and Mario Modestini, experts in painting restoration. 1

Diane decided after extensive work on the painting that it was from the hand of Leonardo himself. From there the painting took on a life of its own, and each step along its journey involved the exchange of tens to hundreds of millions of dollars. 2

Sketchy Swiss shipping magnate Yves Bouvier bought it for $83 million, and immediately sold it to Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev for $127 million. When Dmitry found out about Yves' markup (and when his ex wife hit him with a 4.8 billion dollar divorce judgment...), in a rage he put the painting up for auction at Christie's, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman paid $450 million for it. When MBS tried to get the Louvre in Paris to assist in the painting's perception of authenticity by exhibiting it next to the Mona Lisa the French curators refused, so it now reportedly lives on his yacht. 3

The painting propelled British National Gallery curator Luke Syson to a glamorous career at the Met in New York and the Cambridge University museum, whose previous director is now the director of the royal family's private art collection. It also embroiled Yves Bouvier into a string of lawsuits against Rybolovlev spanning major cities around the globe, and according to the French tabloids also brought Bouvier into an arrangement with a group of escorts who were previously involved in a scandal involving French football stars, who solicited them when they were underage. 4

All of this is a deep look into the shady underworld of the high end art market, and how billionaires and their handlers carry rare antiquities on their yachts and jets to hide from banks, governments, ex-wives with divorce settlements, and tax collectors.

1. Report: How a Louisiana Family Unknowingly Owned $450M da Vinci Painting for Nearly 50 Years. The Advocate. September 2018. ⇤

2. Sarah Cascone and Eileen Kinsella. 7 Unbelievable and Contentious Takeaways From a New Documentary About ‘Salvator Mundi,’ the $450 Million ‘Lost Leonardo’. Artnet. August 2021. ⇤

3. Sam Knight. The Bouvier Affair. The New Yorker. January 2016. ⇤

4. Danielle Granger. What is the Real Story Behind Yves Bouvier’s Ties to Zahia Dehar?. The Frisky. March 2020. ⇤

Operation London Bridge: What Happens When The Queen Dies? Jul 14, 2022

Show notes

The detailed secret plan of what happens on D-Day: the day Queen Elizabeth II passes.

The Queen herself was actively involved the planning of her own funerial ceremonies. Buckingham Palace prefers to use code names for all royal deaths. The last time a British monarch died 70 years ago, the demise of George VI was communicated in code to Buckingham Palace, to prevent switchboard operators from finding out. The code was “Hyde Park Corner”. If you like our content please become a patron to get our bonus episodes, as well as our public episodes ad-free!

While everyone loves the Queen and wishes Her Majesty would live forever, one has to face the facts: Queen Elizabeth is 96 years old, she is in good health for her age but she does have some mobility issues, as any human would at 96. She had COVID-19 in February 2022, she recovered but she did say that covid leaves 'one feeling very tired and exhausted'. During the Platinum Jubilee celebrations, The Queen pulled out of some of the events due to “discomfort”. 1

The day she passes was code-named D-Day, and every day after that until she is taken to her last resting place. 2, 3

The second Her Majesty The Queen draws her last breath, Prince Charles of Wales becomes King. The British prime Minister is announced of her demise, he will hear the phrase “London Bridge is down”. From the Foreign Office’s Global Response Centre, in an undisclosed location in London, the news will go out to the 15 governments outside the UK where the Queen is also the head of state, and the 36 other nations of the Commonwealth. 4

The BBC, will activate RATS the “radio alert transmission system”, a cols war system that is used only in case of national emergencies or the monarch’s death.

On D Day +1, the proclamation of King Charles will take place – that is part of operation SPRING TIDE. His coronation will most likely happen about a year later though.

The queen will lie in state at the Palace of Westminster for three days, in an operation codenamed FEATHER. D-Day +9 is the actual day of the funeral, and everything will be closed in the UK - including the stock market – as this will be a day of national mourning. The nation will be silent.

The state funeral itself will be held at Westminster Abbey.

After the state funeral at Westminster Abbey, the queen’s body will be brought home to Windsor Castle outside of London, where many members of the royal family over the centuries have been buried at St. George’s Chapel.

Once Charles is king, the line of succession will change. William will move up and take the position of heir apparent.

1. NBC News. Queen To Skip Jubilee Event After Feeling “Discomfort”. Youtube. June 2022. ⇤

2. Sam Knight. 'London Bridge is Down': The Secret Plan for the Days after the Queen’s Death. The Guardian. March 2017. ⇤

3. Alex Wickham. Britain’s Plan for When Queen Elizabeth II Dies, Politico. September 2021. ⇤

4. Inside “Operation London Bridge,” the Detailed Plan for When Queen Elizabeth II Dies. Cosmopolitan. June 2022. ⇤

Missing Royal Princesses: Where Are They? Jul 07, 2022

Show notes

Middle Eastern princesses and the abusive fathers and husbands they try to flee from.

Sheikha Latifa of Dubai was drugged and kidnapped at gunpoint at her father’s orders – twice! Her sister Shamsa was also kidnapped in London 22 years ago and nobody has seen her since. The stories in this episode are insane and include Indian special ops teams, yachts, a French American spy, the FBI, helicopters, private jets and hostage videos. If you enjoy our content, please become a patron, you’ll get all of our exclusive premium episodes as well as our public episodes ad-free!

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum is the vice president, prime minister, and minister of defense of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as well as the ruler of Dubai.

Mohammed has about 30 children with several wives, and amazingly, some of these wives managed to run away and divorce him He kidnapped and imprisoned two of his daughters and tried to pressure and intimidate Princess Haya, one of his wives who managed to escape to London, as the sheikh wanted to marry their 12 year old daughter to MBS, the Saudi Crown Prince who is 37. Princess Haya won the custody battle and is happily divorced, but not entirely safe.

Princess Latifa’s second escape is almost like a James Bond movie and it involves French-American spy Herve Jaubert, capoeira instructor and best friend Tiina Jauhiainen, jet skis, a yacht, the FBI and the MARCOS - Indian special forces. Latifa planned this escape for 7 years but it unfortunately failed. 1, 2, 3

In this episode we also discuss the case of Princess Basmah Bint Saud bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, 57, a businesswoman, rights activist and member of the Saudi royal family, went missing in March 2019 along with her adult daughter Souhoud Al Sharif in Saudi Arabia. It turn out they had been thrown in prison.

Quatar does the same thing: Aisha Al Qahtani escaped on a family holiday in Kuwait, where she snuck away to the airport on her own to catch a 3am flight to London. She was not able to flee directly from Doha because she was not 25 years old yet, she was just 22. Qatar remains the only GCC Gulf Cooperation Council country with male guardianship laws for female travel: single women under 25 require a male guardian’s consent to travel outside the country. 4

Princess Kasia Gallanio was not as “lucky”, she was found dead in her home in Marbella, Spain, after an ugly divorce and custody battle with the uncle of the Emir of Qatar, Abdelaziz bin Khalifa Al-Thani.

1. FreeLatifa. Sheikha Latifa Al Maktoum - Escape from Dubai. Youtube. March 2018. ⇤

2. OBC News. Princess Latifa's Bathroom Video Reveals ‘Hostage’ Ordeal. Youtube. February 2021. ⇤

3. Ashis Ray. French Captain to File Suit Over 2018 Capture of Dubai Princess, Case to 'Also be Against India'. The Wire. October 2021. ⇤

4. Ismaeel Naar. Women’s Activist Aisha al-Qahtani Recalls Escape from Qatar, Vows to Fight for Rights. Alarabiya News. May 2020. ⇤

Vacation Horror Story: The Spring Break Cult Murder Jun 30, 2022

Show notes

We're talking about the murder of Mark Kilroy by a black magic priest in Matamoros, Mexico in 1989.

Mark Kilroy and three of his friends were in South Padre Island, Texas for spring break in 1989, but by pure misfortune he crossed paths with Adolfo Constanzo, a palo mayombe black magic priest who doubled as a drug cartel boss, who was unhappy with his previous human sacrifice. Mark became his next one. If you like our content, please become a patron to unlock our premium episodes and get our public episodes ad-free!

The satanic panic was all over the news in the 1980s and 1990s. Everyone was convinced that satanic cultists were hiding behind every bush in America, which simply wasn't true, but as with so many other cultural trends in the US, after a certain critical mass of political debate is reached, a person comes along and makes a myth into reality.

Adolfo did exactly that when his gruesome sacrificial altar was discovered in the summer of 1989 in Matamoros, Mexico, just over the border from Brownsville, Texas. A hot party spot for spring break tourists coming over the border from Padre Island, Texas, Matamoros was also a major crossing for drug cartels. Adolfo said he needed the screams of terror to make the most powerful magic, and he grew weary of rival drug gang members who simply wouldn't scream and beg. His instructions to his followers when they went out to find Mark Kilroy was simple: "A student. Someone blonde and soft. Someone I can use. Someone who will scream." 1, 2

The Hernandez drug cartel, a small pot smuggling family in Matamoros, believed in the magic, and brothers Elio and Ovidio Hernandez-Rivera assisted in the ritual murders. They thought the magic made them invisible to the police and invincible versus bullets. Sara Aldrete-Villareal also believed, she was an American honors college student by a day and Adolfo's priestess by night. She performed at least one human sacrifice... a man who offended her was boiled alive after she cut off his nipples with scissors.

1. Gary Cartwright. The Work of The Devil. Texas Monthly. June 1989 ⇤

2. Guy Garcia. The Believers: Cult Murders in Mexico. Rolling Stone. June 1989. ⇤

The Stranger Things About LSD, Elephants And The CIA Jun 23, 2022

Show notes

Mind control, drugs, the sixties, and the CIA, oh my!

An elephant injected with a lethal dose of LSD, the Kennedy assassination, Charlie Manson, the Unabomber, Patty Hearst and the gruesome murder of a child: what’s the connection? Dr. Louis West! If you like our content, please become a patron to get our premium episodes, and our public episodes ad-free.

Most people know about MKULTRA since it's been bouncing around pop culture in print and film for decades now, from recent TV shows like Stranger Things and Wyrmwood to classic films like The Manchurian Candidate and the honorable mention, for trying hard but falling just a bit short, The Men Who Stare at Goats.

But MKULTRA was real, the CIA thought they could control our minds with drugs, and they used copious amounts of them to try and learn how, by trial and error. The most notorious figures were Sydney Gottlieb who headed the CIA's drug and assassination programs, and his loyal assistant Dr. Louis "Jolly" West. They were present for everything from the Manson family's beginnings in San Francisco drug clinics, to the rape and murder of a 3 year old girl by an Air Force enlisted man in Texas named Jimmy Shaver, to the psychotic break of Jack Ruby before Ruby was able to testify before the Warren Commission about his role in the assassinations of John Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald. 1

On the other side of this coin, far away in a non-descript building at Harvard in the 1950s, a psychology professor named Henry Murray was berating a 16 year old math undergrad to gauge his propensity for becoming an intelligence officer. That 16 year old didn't take very well to being abused by a CIA mind control doctor... he grew up to become the Unabomber, the most wanted domestic terrorist in the US over a span of almost 20 years. 2

All of this began with the Korean War in the post-WW2 years, when American pilots were forced under torture to confess to using biological weapons against the North Korean and Chinese armies. Little evidence of such weapons ever surfaced outside of claims by the KGB, North Korean, and Chinese governments, but more importantly the fiasco gave rise to the notion of "brainwashing" which was, ironically, dismissed by none other than Dr. Louis West.

1. Tom O'Neill. CHAOS: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties. Little, Brown, and Company. June 2019. ⇤

2. Alston Chase. Harvard and the Making of the Unabomber. The Atlantic. June 2000. ⇤

MBS: The Saudi Prince Who Kidnapped a Foreign Prime Minister Jun 15, 2022

Show notes

The life and exploits of Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, aka MBS.

Mohammed bin Salman is the uncrowned king of Saudi Arabia, ruling the Kingdom with an iron fist. He took power by force and coercion from Muhammad bin Nayef and he consolidated that power by kidnapping, detaining and torturing members of the Saudi Royal Family and prominent businessmen like Prince Alwaleed bin Talal in the Ritz Carlton hotel in Riyadh, he even kidnapped the Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri and imprisoned his own mother. He also ordered the murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2017. If you enjoy our content, please become a patron to get our premium exclusive episodes, and our public episodes ad-free. 1

MBS also has an army of flies, tiger squads, gold cars and a lavish lifestyle, he owns the world’s most expensive home, the Serene $500M yacht and Leonardo Da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, but the painting he paid $450M for proved to be a fake. MBS has a very dual personality: he’s modern but also medieval at the same time. The Saudi state essentially treats women as permanent legal minors. But MBS is also implementing Vision 2030 to modernize Saudi Arabia, he allowed women to drive, he brought back cinemas, he reduced the power of the religious police and clerics, he wants green energy cities, and to move away from dependency on oil. 2

In the context of president Biden’s upcoming visit to Saudi Arabia and meeting with King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and MBS, “the reset”, with a gallon of oil priced $5, we think it’s important to also highlight the relations between US and Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region like Qatar, Yemen, Syria, , Bahrain, Lebanon (United Arab Emirates), as well as the Iran – Saudi Arabia proxy conflict, known as the Middle Eastern Cold War.

Saudi Arabia has a young population, 60% of Saudis are under 30 and use Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram. MBS’ army of flies – bots and hackers - created by Saud Al Qahtani ensures that no critical posts happen, and his tiger squads – hitmen – target those who dissent like Saad Al Jabri.

Women can now drive but Saudi Arabia still imprisons activists like Loujain al Hathloul. Some of the laws governing sex segregation have been relaxed, but Saudi Arabia's guardianship system ensures that men still have ultimate control over most aspects of women's lives. We also discuss the beheadings in Chop Chop Square (Deera or Al-Safaa Square), the executions of those who oppose the regime, the arrest of Ali Nimr during the Arab Spring, the lashing of blogger Raif Badawi, MBS’ war in Yemen, and we draw a parallel between Mohammed Bin Salman and Putin.

We also discuss the connection between the Wahhabi-Salafi Islam ideology in Saudi Arabia and Daesh (Isis), Al Qaida, and other terrorist groups: the ideology is so similar that the manuals used by Saudi kids in school are the same books used in terrorist indoctrination schools in the caliphate areas.

The Trump visit in Saudi Arabia and the glowing orb in the now infamous photo depicting King Salman, Trump and Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah al Sisi touching the orb is also a point of discussion. 3

1. Alexandra Ma. Lebanese Prime Minister, Who Got Kidnapped in Saudi Arabia.... Business Insider. December 2018. ⇤

2. What Women Can and Can’t Do in Saudi Arabia. The Week UK. August 2021. ⇤

3. Bill Bostock. The Sinister, Glowing Saudi Orb that Trump Touched.... Business Insider. March 2020. ⇤

Pride and Prejudice: Transgender POWs Jun 09, 2022

Show notes

Many Ukrainian transgender people fleeing the war face discrimination and humiliation at border checkpoints.

In this episode we discuss the personal stories of several trans people in Eastern Europe, two who struggled to get out of Ukraine after Putin's invasion due to discrimination by border guards who refuse to let them leave the war zone, and one teen in Moldova who tragically took her own life after years of harassment by kids at school and the parents of those kids, school administrators, and teachers. If you like our content please become a patron to get our premium episodes, and our public episodes ad-free!

We discuss the stories of Edward Reese, Zi Faámelu, and trans woman named Judis. Edward was able to flee his home city of Kyiv to Denmark, but Zi, Judis, and Judis' friend Alice were not so lucky. They were all stopped at the Ukrainian border by border guards who attempted to forcibly enlist them into the army after the border guards declared them to be men. Ukraine is currently under martial law, and restricts all men between the ages of 18 and 60 from leaving the country. Zi managed to swim a narrow part of the Danube river... in February, and make it to Romania and then on to Germany. Judis and Alice didn't get out of the country, as far as we know they're still in Ukraine. 1, 2

Rainbow Europe lists Ukraine as the 39th of 49 countries in Europe in terms of the favorability of LGBTQIA (lesbian, gay, trans, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual) rights. Prior to 2017, people were forced to self-commit to a mental institution for a month, sterilize themselves, divorce if they were married, and undergo gender affirmation surgery to appease the state rules in getting their gender changed on official documents. Since then the WHO has removed the "disorder" classification from transgender medical diagnoses and required all member nations to follow suit, the deadline is this year. In fairness, not all western European countries are much better off. The case that got the EU human rights court to outlaw forced sterilization was a ruling on homophobia. It was originally aimed at three gay men in France. 3

We next discuss the tragic story of Felis Joy, a trans teenager from Chișinău, Moldova who took her own life after harassment by teachers, school administrators, classmates, and the parents of those classmates. One of the teachers who failed to protect her from physical abuse even spoke in favor of transphobia and belittled Felis at her own funeral.

Most of the primarily Catholic or Orthodox European countries are heavily biased against LGBTQIA people in their laws. Poland has even declared "LGBT free zones" which is funny considering how many priests there are in that country... 5

1. Julia Lee. 'Danger everywhere': War and Transphobia Create Perfect Storm for Trans Ukrainians. NBC. April 2022. ⇤

2. Lorenzo Tondo. ‘I Will Not Be Held Prisoner’: The Trans Women Turned Back at Ukraine’s Borders. The Guardian. March 2022. ⇤

3. Europe: LGBTQIA Country Rankings. Rainbow Europe. 2022 ⇤

4. Felis Joy. Translivesmatter.info. April 2022. ⇤

5. Polish Region Wants to Remain an 'LGBT-Free' Zone Despite Risking Millions in EU Funds. Euronews. August 2021. ⇤

NRA: Nobody Remains Alive Jun 02, 2022

Show notes

The people behind the NRA are as evil and cruel as you imagined.

In this episode we share some lesser known stories about some of NRA’s “iconic” leaders like Oliver North, and their bloodstained resumes. We also discuss the Uvalde school massacre timeline and the anemic, shameful, and cowardly police response. If you like our content, please support us by becoming a patron.

As Adam Serwer pointed out in 2018, "The Cruelty is the Point." That's why, for example, the right wingers like people like Oliver North leading the NRA, and people like Felix Rodriguez training their torturers and assassins. We discuss the El Mozote massacre orchestrated by death squads in the El Salvador military during the Reagan administration, and how people like North and Rodriguez trained them. They also orchestrated the killing of Archbishop Oscar Romero, 40 of his funeral attendees, and the four Maryknoll nuns raped, murdered, and bured in a roadside Salvadoran mass grave. The right loves their sadists... 1, 2, 3, 4

We also discuss the recent developments in the investigation into the timeline of the Uvalde, Texas mass shooting and the failure of a police response to the incident. Why did 19 children die while cops waited in the hallway? Those cops get 40% of the town's budget, and yet didn't have the equipment they say they needed, and had to wait on a tactical unit from a federal agency to come end the shooting incident for them. The response of Uvalde law enforcement commanders has been less than reassuring, considering the person who wrote the FBI's training guide on mass shooting response says the local cops did it all wrong. 5

Oh, and a pastor at an Arlington, Texas city council meeting wants to execute the gays (again). See? Like we said, they love their sadists. 6

1. Adam Serwer. The Cruelty Is the Point. The Atlantic. October 2018. ⇤

2. Raymond Bonner. Massacre of Hundreds Reported in Salvador Village. The New York Times. January 1982. ⇤

3. Tom Gibb. The Killing of Archbishop Oscar Romero.... The Guardian. March 2000. ⇤

4. Larry Rohter. Four Salvadorans Say They Killed U.S. Nuns on Orders of Military. The New York Times. April 1998. ⇤

5. Katherine Schweit. I Created the F.B.I.’s Active Shooter Program.... The New York Times. May 2022. ⇤

6. Reddit: In Arlington TX citizens voiced support for executing LGBT+ people. /r/denton subreddit. May 2022. ⇤

American Gun Fetish: The Texas School Massacre May 28, 2022

Show notes

We are discussing gun control and the Uvalde school shooting.

Americans have a sick fascination with their guns, it’s pathological, almost sexual. May 24 2022, Robb Elementary School, Uvalde Texas – 19 children slaughtered, two teachers gunned down as they tried to shield the students with their bodies. On this black day, yet another avoidable school mass shooting shocks the world. Yet another AR-15 rifle is used to massacre babies. The nation is in shock, but the republican politicians are still refusing to ban assault rifles and pass gun control laws. The gunman bought his two AR-15s and 375 rounds of ammo legally, the day after his 18th birthday. In the United States one cannot buy a beer if they’re younger than 21, but buying an Armalite military weapon created for war is legal. If you like our content, please become a patron and get our extra premium episodes.

Just as the funerals of the victims of the Buffalo mass shooting are starting, America is faced with another slaughter of innocents. 19 little bodies, so destroyed they had to be matched to their parents by DNA tests, some were unrecognizable. 4 victims are still alive, in critical condition at a San Antonio hospital. The police took more than 1 hour to neutralize the gunman, it appears they arrested a parent, tackled another, and pepper sprayed a third, as these people were trying to get in the school to save the children while police were outside, while the gunman was still shooting inside the school. An 11 year old girl had to cover herself in blood to appear dead, and she stayed still for 1 hour until the police got there. This year we’ve had more mass shootings in the US than days. We have more guns in the US than we have people. The American academy of pediatrics just said that the leading cause of death of American children and adolescents is no longer car accidents, it is FIREARMS. In the last 26 YEARS, since they banned semi-automatic rifles after the Port Arthur massacre, Australia had 20 people dying in mass shootings. We have 19 children and 2 teachers in one day, on May 24. This comes right after the Buffalo racist shooting on May 14, where 10 people were gunned down in a supermarket. So we have 31 fatalities in 10 days. AMERICA, WE HAVE MORE PEOPLE GUNNED DOWN IN 10 DAYS THAN AUSTRALIA HAS IN 26 YEARS. An AR-15 was used in all these gun massacres:

Uvalde: AR-15

Buffalo: AR-15

Boulder: AR-15

Orlando: AR-15

Parkland: AR-15

Las Vegas: AR-15

Aurora, CO: AR-15

Sandy Hook: AR-15

Waffle House: AR-15

San Bernardino: AR-15

Midland/Odessa: AR-15

Poway synagogue: AR-15

Sutherland Springs: AR-15

Tree of Life Synagogue: AR-15

We explain why arming teachers is insanity, why metal detectors and transforming our schools in prisons won’t work, and why the only solution is a ban on assault guns, on all semi automatic guns and common sense gun laws, strict gun control, and universal background checks. Also other measures like red flag laws too, but no: this is not about evil and mental illness, all countries have that: what they don’t have is guns. And therefore, mass shootings.

Texas Governor Gregg Abbott, senator Ted Cruz and the mayor of Uvalde Don McLaughlin yelled at Beto O’Rourke when he interrupted their shameful press conference in which they were blaming the “evil”, not the guns. Beto was escorted out by Uvalde police officers. Texas chose Cruz over Beto in the senate race in 2018. Now Texas has a chance to replace Abbott with Beto in the gubernatorial race.

Just 2 hours after the massacre, TX governor Gregg Abbott attended a fundraising event: he was counting money while the Uvalde parents were counting bodies.

The NRA convention in Houston just days after the tragedy in Uvalde was not cancelled, with Cruz and Trump still attending, while Abbott decided to make a video appearance only.

Monkeypox: Natural Emergence or Bioweapon? May 26, 2022

Show notes

What is monkeypox and how did it get here?

We're talking about the monkeypox virus: its incubation period, symptoms, transmission, how contagious it is, treatment and mortality rate. It's similar to smallpox, which only two countries are officially in possession of WHO authorized smallpox repositories of. Iraq, North Korea and France are also believed to possess “illegal” stockpiles. If you enjoy our content, become a patron and unlock our premium episodes. 1

We discuss how Russia produced tons of biological weapons using similar plagues. As Pulitzer Prize winner Ed Yong of The Atlantic said, “The US has spent decades thinking about how to handle smallpox bioterrorism. The two cases of monkeypox in 2021 provided handy test runs for those plans.” The State Centre for Research on Virology and Biotechnology in Novosibirsk called Vector is in possession of smallpox and anthrax, as well as more recent pathogens like Ebola. 2

Smallpox had a 30% fatality rate at its peak. Monkeypox is between 1-10% depending on the strain and care available. The COVID SARS 2 R0 is 8. Monkeypox’s R naught is less than 1 (average) so far. R0 is the average number of people who will contract a disease from one person with that disease. Although it's rare, if you have swollen lymph nodes, fever, headaches, pustules, puss filled blisters, or lesions on your hands and feet, extremities, and face you should probably head to the ER...

Monkeypox is transmitted by bodily fluids. It is not an airborne virus like COVID, monkeypox is also a DNA virus so it doesn’t mutate easily. The virus is mostly carried by rodents. In 2003 USA had a monkeypox outbreak in Illinois after an import of rodents from Ghana. What’s different now is so many cases without a clear prime source. Rarely, monkeypox makes away from it's endemic areas in Nigeria, Ghana, and Congo. When it does,outbreaks are usually in the single digits, not this time.

On May 20th confirmed cases were in the US, UK, Spain, and Portugal. As we record on May 24, monkeypox is in all NATO countries plus a few. Those first affected were men who have sex with men. It is important to not stigmatize any group of people. Early narratives about a disease can become lore. And narratives turned stigma can stop people from reporting symptoms. Stigma and disinformation is exactly what evangelical Republicans and the Russian orthodox church will likely do, though.

We discuss Russian experiments with Marburg, Ebola, bubonic plague, anthrax, HIV, and camelpox. Catherine the Great was the first Russian vaccinated for smallpox, and all these years later this outbreak has the stocks of companies with an interest in vaccines like TPOXX and TEMBEXA such as Siga, Tonix Pharmaceuticals, Emergent BioSolutions, and Bavarian Nordic soaring.

We discuss Vektor Labs in Koltsovo, Siberia (as well as its predecessor, Biopreparat) where Putin's doctors work on the latest vaccines... they say... maybe also bioweapons. Ilya Drozdov was in charge of Vector, but he's now the world's most famous missing scientist, either accidentally or on purpose. If there is still a Russian bioweapons program they're in volation of the Biological Weapons Convention. Vector is the second largest such facility in the world behind the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. Our Russian bioweapons history knowledge mostly comes from defector Ken Alibek who testified about his time in Russian bioweapons research before Congress.

1. Mary G. Reynolds et al. ...Risk Factors for Human Monkeypox.... Emerging Infectious Diseases. Vol 13, November 2007. ⇤

2. Ed Yong. So Have You Heard About Monkeypox?. The Atlantic. May 2022. ⇤

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