Transcript for 10/21/24: GENETIC BANKRUPTCY W/ SOUTHERN JAMESON WEST

When the world faced the Y2K scare at the turn of the century, we learned that big tech has to be respected – because it keeps the trains running on time – to use an old phrase.

We went from fearing technology to that of optimism, but with warnings of technocracy to come. It was mad science to envision a world where your everyday life would be dependent on technology and new science developed in the world of genetics.

 Many of us did not understand the risks embedded in the new digital technology. 

We hadn't yet clocked how social media algorithms could radicalize users, or that targeted advertising was remaking the internet into a data-collection racket.

This was before scammers colonized social media and broke into our phone network, before Cambridge Analytica and Theranos became household names, and before ransomware and deepfakes made the news.

Then came the home DNA Test kit in 2016. High tech was able to trace your ancestry using DNA from saliva. All you had to do was spit and they would send back everything they could dig up about you and your DNA ancestry. 

Around 2018, I read that insurers in the US could ask for genetic testing results, such as the kind from 23andMe, to determine coverage.

Then, in 2020, there was a story about US police tracking down a murderer through members of his family who had done at-home genetic testing.

No one was connecting the dots as to what these horror stories meant 

Buying a DNA test online felt fun and rewarding well it was certainly marketed that way. 

They gave us plenty of good news stories about how getting those test results has helped people to connect with lost families or understand more about their health risks.

Finding out about health risks without guidance from a health professional can be scary. Learning that the person you thought was your mom or dad actually isn’t, is an outcome for as many as 1 in 20 people who’ve bought a DNA test online.

Some have learned that for years they have mistakenly worn a kilt thinking they have Sottish heritage -- only to find out they should be wearing lederhosen instead.

These are shocking stories for sure but there were those stories that got darker. 

In late 2023, hackers stole the profile and ethnicity information from millions of 23andMe users.

And now the big one -- for those who carelessly handed over their DNA to 23andMe you may want to figure out what will happen to it now that the company is filing bankruptcy.

Since it was founded nearly two decades ago, 23andMe has grown into one of the largest biotechnology companies in the world. Millions of people have used its simple genetic testing service, which involves ordering a saliva test, spitting into a tube, and sending it back to the company for a detailed DNA analysis.

But now the company is on the brink of bankruptcy. This has raised concerns about what will happen to the troves of genetic data it has in its possession.

Even after all of their selling off their information to Big Pharmaceutical companies they now say that they are not turning a profit.

The question is what are they to do with all of that DNA information?

The company’s chief executive, Anne Wojcicki, has said she is committed to customer privacy and will “maintain our current privacy policy”.

But what can you do if you are a customer of 23andMe? What can you do to make sure your highly personal genetic data is protected? And should you be concerned about other companies that also collect our DNA?

The answer is yes. 

Before the COVID-19 outbreak -- I warned people about buying DNA kits and giving them as presents. I felt uneasy about people just handing over their DNA samples, especially at a time when we were learning about the darker side of genetic research-- namely using human DNA as a commodity.

At that time, the company 23andMe had the world’s largest database of genetic code. This extensive library of DNA was acquired by offering the public a genealogy report in exchange for a fee.

Back in 2018, 23andMe was purchased by GlaxoSmithKline, for 300 million dollars. GlaxoSmithKline claimed that the purchase was made in order to gain exclusive rights to mine 23andMe’s customer data for drug targets.

It can be argued that these so-called drug targets were genotype targets for an emerging gain of function exercise.

Perhaps COVID-19 or perhaps Polio or Monkeypox.

Back then it was a conspiracy theory to say that future biological weapons could target genotypes and phenotypes undefined now it is in fact possible to do that and carry out targeted genocide in the process.

Genomic technologies are driving a vast expansion in genomic data, from gene sequences and entire genomes to data that links genes to specific functions and other types of metadata for humans, other animals, plants, and microbes.

This data is becoming increasingly digitized, and computational power is significantly changing how genomic data is analyzed. The integration of AI computation into biology opens up new possibilities for understanding how genetic differences shape the development of living organisms, including ourselves, and how these differences make us and the rest of the living world susceptible to diseases and disorders, and responsive to drugs and treatments.

Advanced pattern recognition and the abstraction of statistical relationships from data—the hallmarks of the machine and deep learning—have shown significant potential to help researchers make sense of complex genomic data sets and extract clinically relevant findings. Two prominent examples include functional genomics customized bioweapons and tailored drug discoveries.

America’s adversaries can also direct bioweapons specifically at US livestock and crops to create a food security crisis, she claimed.

One of my biggest fears has always been a biological attack on the United States as I am fully aware of how DNA and genome data is used to target certain races, and their biological makeup for death.

This explains a lot about why we are seeing fast mutating diseases, animal deaths, crops that are dying out and the manufactured plans for food scarcity.

We also need to take into account the medical industry’s role in pushing socioeconomic and political agendas that benefit the ruling elites.

It is vital to understand that the public health industry is now directly tied to global markets and operates based on the demands of those financial conglomerates. Manufactured pandemics are now mammoth investment opportunities that increase the wealth of billionaires and further consolidate their power.

It is also necessary to recognize that the primary purpose of the medical industry is no longer the “art of healing”, but rather as a financial instrument benefiting investors.

23andMe rode the wave of popular excitement and investor interest in genetics. It wasn’t alone. By 2022 the direct-to-consumer genetic testing market was valued at $3 billion. The three largest players – 23andMe, AncestryDNA, and MyHeritage – together hold the genetic data of almost 50 million people globally.

There are dozens of smaller players too, with some focusing on emerging markets such as MapMyGenome in India and 23mofang and WeGene in China.

23andMe has had a rapid downfall after the 2021 high of its public listing.

Its value has dropped more than 97%. 

In 2023 it suffered a major data breach affecting almost seven million users, and settled a class action lawsuit for $30 million.

Last month its seven independent directors resigned amid news the original founder is planning to take the company private once more. The company has never made a profit and is reportedly on the verge of bankruptcy.

What this might mean for its vast stores of genetic data is unclear.

When people sign up for a 23andMe test the company assures them: “Your privacy comes first”. It promises it will never share people’s DNA data with employers, insurance companies, or public databases without consent. It puts choice in the hands of consumers about whether their spit sample is kept by the company, and whether their de-identified genetic and other data is used in research. Four in five people who bought a 23andMe test have agreed to their data being used in research.

This is insane -- they just sign their DNA over to a corporate business not knowing what it can be used for -- including genetic engineering that could be used for biological targeting?

If you dig a bit deeper, it’s clear that 23andMe uses people’s data in many different ways, such as sharing it with service providers. Perhaps most importantly, if the company goes bankrupt or is sold, people’s information might be “accessed, sold or transferred” as well.

With 23andMe in the spotlight, people might want to take steps to protect their genetic data.

The simplest thing is to delete your account, which opts you out of any future research and discards your saliva sample. But if your data has already been de-identified and used in research, it can’t be retrieved. And even if you delete your account, 23andMe says it will keep hold of information including your genetic data, date of birth, and sex, to comply with its own legal obligations.

Every company selling DNA tests does so with lots of legal conditions attached. People click through these without a second thought but researchers have shown it is worth taking a closer look. Consider what the company says about what it will do with your data and your sample, how long it will keep it, who else can access it, and how easy it will be to delete later.

Big pharma is laughing all the way to the bank seeing as how pharmaceutical companies can now use this DNA data to create experimental drugs. These experimental drugs can then be marketed to consumers based merely on their genetic profiles which may or may not be very accurate in the first place.

Even the FDA has pointed out that false positives or false negatives for certain genetic traits do occur. Of course, this won’t stop them from approving fast-tracked experimental drugs based on genetic data.

Tough luck for those who have willingly paid to hand over their DNA. 

Because even though you choose to delete your account there is a clause that says:

“Any research involving your data that has already been performed or published before our receipt of your request will not be reversed, undone, or withdrawn.”

People would be alarmed if their social security numbers were stolen -- but 87% allow for their DNA to be sold to the highest bidder.

The debate over genetic privacy—and when one’s DNA becomes a public commodity outside the protection of the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on warrantless searches and seizures—is really only beginning.

Certain government operatives can get a hold of our DNA, either through mandatory programs carried out in connection with law enforcement and corporate America, by warrantlessly accessing our familial DNA shared with genealogical services such as Ancestry and 23andMe, or through the collection of our “shed” or “touch” DNA.

According to research published in the journal Science, more than 60 percent of Americans who have some European ancestry can be identified using DNA databases, even if they have not submitted their own DNA.

All 50 states now maintain their own DNA databases, although the protocols for collection differ from state to state. Increasingly, much of the data from local databanks are being uploaded to the Combined DNA Index System, the FBI’s massive DNA database, which has become a de facto way to identify and track the American people from birth to death.

Even hospitals have gotten in on the game by taking and storing newborn babies’ DNA, often without their parents’ knowledge or consent. It’s part of the government’s mandatory genetic screening of newborns. In many states, the DNA is stored indefinitely.

What this means for those being born today is inclusion in a government database that contains intimate information about who they are, their ancestry, and what awaits them in the future, including their inclinations to be followers, leaders or troublemakers.

DNA technology in the hands of the government will complete our transition to a suspect society in which we are all merely waiting to be matched up with a crime.

No longer can we consider ourselves innocent until proven guilty. Now we are all suspects in a DNA lineup until circumstances and science say otherwise.

By churning through all of the details of your life—what you read, where you go, what you say—the government can predict what you will do. By mapping the synapses in your brain, scientists—and in turn, the government—will soon know what you remember.

And by accessing your DNA, the government will soon know everything else about you that they don’t already know: your family chart, your ancestry, what you look like, your health history, your inclination to follow orders or chart your own course.

Of course, none of these technologies are foolproof. Nor are they immune from tampering, hacking or user bias.

Nevertheless, they have become a convenient tool in the hands of government agents to render null and void the Constitution’s requirements of privacy and its prohibitions against unreasonable searches and seizures.

What this amounts to is a scenario in which we have little to no defense of against charges of wrongdoing, especially when “convicted” by technology, and even less protection against the government sweeping up our DNA in much the same way it sweeps up our phone calls, emails and text messages.

With the entire governmental system shifting into a pre-crime mode aimed at detecting and pursuing those who “might” commit a crime before they have an inkling, let alone an opportunity, to do so, it’s not so far-fetched to imagine a scenario in which government agents (FBI, local police, etc.) target potential criminals based on their genetic disposition to be a “troublemaker” or their relationship to past dissenters.

Equally, disconcerting: if scientists can, using DNA, track salmon across hundreds of square miles of streams and rivers, how easy will it be for government agents to not only know everywhere we’ve been and how long we were at each place but also collect our easily shed DNA and add it to the government’s already burgeoning database?

Not to be overlooked, DNA evidence is not infallible: it can be wrong, either through human error, tampering, or even outright fabrication, and it happens more often than we are told.

Now if you happen to be the kind of person who trusts the government implicitly and refuses to believe it would ever do anything illegal or immoral, then the prospect of government officials—police, especially—using fake DNA samples to influence the outcome of a case might seem outlandish.

Yet as history shows, the probability of our government acting in a way that is not only illegal but immoral becomes less a question of “if” and more a question of “when.”

With technology, the courts, the corporations and Congress conspiring to invade our privacy on a cellular level, suddenly the landscape becomes that much more dystopian.

It is very suspicious that 23andMe is now filing for bankruptcy as there are records that show how lucrative sharing DNA is for them.

They were offered money to even encourage people of color to participate in something called bio-harvesting. Black Americans were very cautious of buying these spit kits because they are used to being part of harvesting and genetic experimentation.

Bio harvesting and bioprospecting are two terms. I never would have even guessed would be used in my lifetime.

Harvesting DNA from people in other countries sounds like some precursor to depopulation or "The Final Solution."

It can be easy to remove the carbon footprints of 50 million in a genetic database. 

New and emerging diseases seem to generate some underlying panic brought on by political and economic design. The plagues, pandemics and even the proposed mass inoculations are connected to money-generating operations. These plagues seem to be self-induced. 

Reported for the fear factor, and resolved by the government by creating more laws, and more provisions that will take away your freedoms.

We the people‘ must also recognize that the Medical Industry has now been fully weaponized as a punitive system designed to process, dehumanize, and control every single person in the system. 

Before our very eyes, we have seen up close how mere biological existence is criminalized by that system. We have seen bio harvesting before like taking cancer cells from Henrietta Lax without permission -- or willingly giving syphilis to black men during the Tuskegee experiment.

Today, humanity is dominated by a cult of egocentricity, of a seemingly unquenchable thirst for power, for control of resources, and for enslavement of fellow human beings by a financial elite. It is precisely this “Cult Elite”, also called the Deep State; the power over life and death of “lower” humanity – meaning all those who do not belong to the elite.

And the elite is defined by their material wealth. Literally. Because over the past 100 years or so, this small elite has made it their life objective to dominate Mother Earth with all its resources and sentient beings. 

They – and their generations to come – want to live forever with the limited resources our planet has to offer. 

The so-called “Antichrist” is usurping Mother Nature – against the very origins of Nature.

To dominate with pure force, “they” must eliminate, so they conclude, about 90% of the current population. We are currently about eight billion people populating Earth. That would leave about 800 million.

They also must lie – flooding and engulfing the world with lies. Isn’t that what is happening today, and has been happening for most, if not all, of the last century?

We are now in the midst of a DNA arms race -- and it appears that our adversaries also have your DNA in order to target populations for death.

China's "Fire Eye" labs are under scrutiny because they picked up a lot of DNA during the pandemic. DNA samples were either donated or sold to foreign countries-- China benefitted.

Some analysts perceive China’s accumulation of Data as part of a global attempt to tap into new sources of highly valuable human DNA data in countries around the world.

That collection effort, underway for more than a decade, has included the acquisition of U.S. genetics companies as well as sophisticated hacking operations, U.S. and Western intelligence officials say.

This created opportunities for Chinese companies and institutes to distribute gene-sequencing machines and build partnerships for genetic research in places where Beijing previously had little or no access.

Fire-Eye labs grew exponentially during the pandemic, spreading to four continents and more than 20 countries, from Canada and Latvia to Saudi Arabia, and from Ethiopia and South Africa to Australia. Several, like the one in Belgrade, now function as permanent genetic testing centers owned by the BGI group.

The BGI group owns Fire-eye labs

The U.S. government blacklisted Chinese subsidiaries of BGI group for allegedly helping analyze genetic material gathered inside China to assist government crackdowns on the country’s ethnic and religious minorities.

There now you can see the real reasons they use DNA --they say that they use it to help those with cancer and dementia but if course they have other plans that include eliminating those that don’t agree with them.

The rise and fall of 23andMe is a story for our age — a time of the tech backlash, when many are reassessing their formerly relaxed and trusting relationship with big tech.