[ExI] pfizer on directed evolution

[William Flynn Wallace]

In all of these discussions of Covid there have been estimates on whether
it came from an animal or a lab.  How in Hell can you attach probabilities
to either case?  bill w

On Thu, Feb 2, 2023 at 12:12 PM Will Steinberg via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

> He was a consultant, as he noted in the video even and as can be seen in
> archived posts that direct to his LinkedIn page.  I would very much believe
> that pharma companies outsource their most unethical experiments.
>
> On Thu, Feb 2, 2023, 12:30 PM spike jones via extropy-chat <
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> Pfizer says they aren’t doing it.  They haven’t made any statement
>> regarding any employee named Jordan Tristan Walker, so I would guess the
>> video freak-out guy was likely a phony, or perhaps a lower-level employee,
>> or a contractor or something.  He looked pretty young to be a director of
>> anything.  In any case, here’s Pfizer’s response:
>>
>>
>>
>> New York, N.Y., January 27, 2023 – Allegations have recently been made
>> related to gain of function and directed evolution research at Pfizer and
>> the company would like to set the record straight.
>>
>> In the ongoing development of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine,
>> Pfizer has not conducted gain of function or directed evolution research.
>> Working with collaborators, we have conducted research where the original
>> SARS-CoV-2 virus has been used to express the spike protein from new
>> variants of concern. This work is undertaken once a new variant of concern
>> has been identified by public health authorities. This research provides a
>> way for us to rapidly assess the ability of an existing vaccine to induce
>> antibodies that neutralize a newly identified variant of concern. We then
>> make this data available through peer reviewed scientific journals and use
>> it as one of the steps to determine whether a vaccine update is required.
>>
>> In addition, to meet U.S. and global regulatory requirements for our oral
>> treatment, PAXLOVID™, Pfizer undertakes in vitro work (e.g., in a
>> laboratory culture dish) to identify potential resistance mutations to
>> nirmatrelvir, one of PAXLOVID's two components. With a naturally evolving
>> virus, it is important to routinely assess the activity of an antiviral.
>> Most of this work is conducted using computer simulations or mutations of
>> the main protease–a non-infectious part of the virus. In a limited number
>> of cases when a full virus does not contain any known gain of function
>> mutations, such virus may be engineered to enable the assessment of
>> antiviral activity in cells. In addition, in vitro resistance selection
>> experiments are undertaken in cells incubated with SARS-CoV-2 and
>> nirmatrelvir in our secure Biosafety level 3 (BSL3) laboratory to assess
>> whether the main protease can mutate to yield resistant strains of the
>> virus. It is important to note that these studies are required by U.S. and
>> global regulators for all antiviral products and are carried out by many
>> companies and academic institutions in the U.S. and around the world.
>>
>> Fact-based information rooted in sound science is vitally important to
>> overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic and Pfizer remains committed to
>> transparency and helping alleviate the devastating burden of this disease.
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> extropy-chat mailing list
>> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
>> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
>>
> _______________________________________________
> extropy-chat mailing list
> extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
> http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20230202/170ca923/attachment.htm>