The United States collected DNA from all over the world to study the mortality rate of the elderly population
2020-04-28 Ecns.cn Editor：Gu Liping
The United States collected DNA from all over the world to study the mortality rate of the elderly population
By Tong Zeng
(About the author: Tong Zeng, Master of law, Peking University. After the outbreak of SARS in 2003, he wrote and published a book called “Last Line of Defense” (Anxiety about the Chinese gene loss). For the past 30 years Tong Zeng has been seeking compensation for the Chinese war victims of World War II, and he has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize multiple times. )
With the recent development and outbreak of COVID-19, I have noticed that elderly people in particular are very susceptible to this virus, especially those with underlying diseases, and the death rate of these elderly infected patients is very high. The joint Expert Study Group of China and the World Health Organization (WHO) recently held a press conference in Beijing, in which they stated: middle-aged and elderly people are at higher risk of being infected with COVID-19. Looking at the entire patient population it is easy to see that the death rate of people over 65 years old is higher. The average age of the deceased in Italy is over 80 years old, and some towns have lost almost all of their elderly population. The early death rate of COVID-19 in South Korea is close to 1% and 90% of those are people over 60 years old. In the United States, most of the deceased are between 70 and 90 years old. French Director General of Health Jerome Salomon has also stated that 93% of the deceased from COVID-19 in France are over 65 years old.
17 years ago the deadly SARS virus mainly attacked the respiratory system of humans, where only the lungs were affected and not the whole immune system, whereas this new COVID-19 virus is able to target the cardiovascular system, respiratory system, immune system, digestive system, as well as pre-existing medical conditions, and therefore accelerate the death of the elderly who are infected with it. This reminded me of an international project of American organizations, that started over 20 years ago. It was called “Model and Analysis of Mortality Rate of the Elderly”.
The United States has been collecting DNA globally to form a “Mortality Model for the Elderly”
In the 1990’s, when the concept of human genetic resources was not yet clear to people all over the world, the United States started massive global collections and research of human DNA in Asia, Africa and Europe. It was called the epoch-making Human Genome Project. One of the programs was “Model and Analysis of Mortality Rate of the Elderly”, in which the diseases afflicting the elderly were researched. They specifically listed hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, epilepsy and other cerebrovascular diseases, bronchitis, emphysema, asthma and pneumonia, tuberculosis, and several others, as the 18 most common diseases among the elderly. In order to research these basic diseases, it was necessary to collect their DNA by taking blood samples. This was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States. In 1996, the Duke University of the United States separately signed contracts with the Max Planck Institute of Germany and Odense University of Denmark to facilitate the collection of blood samples from the elderly populations of SouthCentral and Northern Europe. Another American organization, in cooperation with research institutions in Saudi Arabia and other countries, also collected blood samples from elderly Middle Eastern populations.
Also, at that time, a Chinese scholar who had studied in the United States signed a subcontract with the Odense University of Denmark. The scholar was tasked with collecting blood samples from about 300 elderly Chinese citizens in Beijing, Hangzhou and Chengdu, which were then to be sent on to the United States. At the end of 1997, he also reached a separate agreement with the Duke University in the United States, involving a joint project to collect blood samples of tens of thousands elderly Chinese. Excluding five provinces and regions in Northwest China with more ethnic minorities, and Tibet, Inner Mongolia, Yunnan and Hainan, the project covered 22 provinces, regions and municipalities and about 100 million elderly Chinese. In order to obtain the approval of domestic aged care offices, he changed the name of the project from “Model and Analysis of Mortality Rate of the Elderly” to “Longevity and Health Monitoring of the Elderly in China”. The Chinese translation of the English contract avoided the words DNA and claimed that the purpose of collecting blood samples from the elderly Chinese was to monitor their health. At that time, I was working at one of the aged care offices and was hoping that I could stay in Beijing and participate in this international project. But the project manager told me that Beijing, Guangdong, Hubei, Shanghai and Heilongjiang were the 5 most important locations and required more professional staff to be in charge. So, I was sent to Hebei province, the nearest project location from Beijing and was responsible for the work in that area, including collecting blood samples.
Geneticist Bent Petersen, from the Odense University of Denmark, demonstrated the blood samples. Tong Zeng is on the lower right. Picture provided by Tong Zeng
On the March 4， 1998, I attended a training meeting for Chinese investigators at the Tibet Hotel in Beijing. Geneticist Bent Petersen, from the Odense University of Denmark, shared his experience on collecting blood samples in Northern Europe and requested the Chinese investigators follow his protocol. The specific method is to soak the elderly person’s hand in hot water for a period of time, then rub the hand to heat it up even more, then insert a needle from the side (either side) of the finger. The finger will start to bleed (the first drop of blood shouldn’t be used) and starting from the second drop, the blood should be dripped onto 5 circles of filter paper. According to the tests, it takes at least 2 drops to fill up one circle. If blood from one finger is not enough, the other finger will be used. This means that at least 11 drops of blood should be taken from one person, and it takes more than one minute to accomplish. The use of iodine is strictly prohibited.
At that time, I was against this kind of blood collection because most of the targeted people, aside from being elderly, were also often weak and thin and this kind of blood collection would have been harmful and torturous to them. Later, I gradually discovered that the project was doing genetic research and collecting DNA. After I made this public, dozens of domestic media immediately supported me with a large number of reports. Many foreign media, such as AFP (Agence France-Presse), Reuters and American “Science” magazine also participated in the reports. Due to the pressure of public opinion, the collected blood samples could not be sent to the United States and were seized at a university in China. The Chinese scholar who studied in the United States has since changed the name of the project and found another department. After the year 2000, he continued to cooperate with the United States. He even contacted some hospitals in China and asked them to repeatedly collect blood samples of the elderly in 22 provinces, regions and municipalities. Thousands of blood samples were then sent to US laboratories in batches. He also gave the United States data on the overall basic diseases of the elderly in China.
Whilst samples were given to the Duke University in the United States, it is quite possible that they have also provided the research results of those elderly people’s DNA to other laboratories in the United States, because the subcontract signed by Duke University and the Chinese scholar clearly stated that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) subcontract the blood collection project to a population research institute in China through Duke University. The University provides the funds to the Chinese subcontractor. The contract clearly stipulates that Duke University can require the subcontractor to change the work content an unlimited amount of times. Under the premise of non-exclusive possession, the copyright allows the U.S. government to copy, translate, publish, use and transfer it, and grant equal rights to other U.S. agencies. The contract shall be interpreted according to the laws of North Carolina.
Also, in the process of blood collection in China, a questionnaire survey was added. For example, as part of the questionnaire in the year 2000, they investigated the longitude and latitude of the towns where the elderly lived, the average temperature in January and July of each year, the number of frost free days in a year and the statistical data of average rainfall over a period of many years, as well as the land type and the main food structure of the elderly's place of residence. In another booklet, there were projects to investigate the survival rate of the elderly that had given blood in 1998, to determine which of them had died and whether they had died naturally, or from a disease, with special emphasis on the time of death. It was also required to provide proof of these facts from a third party. All of the data listed above was given to the United States without reservation.
The United States has gone through the whole research process from chemical bacteria to biological viruses to DNA
Since the sudden outbreak of COVID-19, the achievements published worldwide by many experts in the fields of science, technology, medicine, and genetics, to a certain extent prove my theory from 17 years ago. That is to say, the technology of virus gene recombination is mature. Gene sequencing the DNA of the Chinese, the people of South Central and Northern Europe, the Middle East, and other elderly people with basic diseases, has brought about the discovery that it is possible to find common genetic defects in basic diseases among different races. These older people of different races are not only susceptible to some viruses, but most importantly, some viruses can accelerate the death of the elderly on the basis of their own diseases.
When I visited the United States in 1994, two Chinese Americans accompanied me to visit the American prosecutor of the Tokyo Trial. He told me that after the end of World War II in 1945, Unit 731 of the Japanese army provided the United States with information about "Human Experiments" and the manufacturing and usage of chemical and biological weapons. Since then, the United States has been the only country in 75 years after the war to go through the whole research process, from chemical bacteria, to biological weapons, to DNA. A large number of DNA of Chinese and other ethnic groups of patients of all ages and diseases, exist in American laboratories. Nobody in the world knows exactly what is the purpose of their researches.
In my book “Last Line of Defense” I specifically mention that the Coronavirus has never been a popular research topic, but before the outbreak of SARS there had already been ten laboratories in the United States that had been researching it for more than 30 years. After the outbreak of SARS, some American organizations were very interested in blood samples of the SARS patients. Towards the end of 2003, two SARS survivors found my phone number through journalists and subsequently contacted me. They called me to say that some American organizations came to do their health checks and asked for blood samples. In 2013, ten years after the outbreak of SARS, I visited and sponsored some of the SARS survivors. Some of them told me that the Americans were taking their blood samples on a regular basis.
Tong Zeng visited a SARS survivor in Beijing in 2013, ten years after the outbreak of SARS. Picture provided by Tong Zeng
At this point, a raft of material can prove that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States has led and funded many projects in the collection of human genetic resources in the past 30 years, including the collection of blood samples from Middle Eastern and African people.
In 2017, another U.S. Agency collected biological samples, including blood samples of Russian people, after which they were severely warned by Russian President Vladimir Putin. I was deeply shocked by one thing that an American Chinese scholar told me through a domestic reporter. He said that in the 1990s, some departments of the U.S. government were very unhappy about the Hispanic Latinos, because Mexican and other Latino immigrants were having children soon after migrating to the United States and enjoying the social benefits that reward families with many children, so that the parents didn’t even have to work. The U.S. authorities proposed to collect the blood samples of these people and, through gene sequencing and editing, produce products that can inhibit the reproductive capacity of these Latin Americans. This project was also funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Later the project was criticized after being exposed by the media, but whether the research is still secretly being held is not clear to the outside world.
Appeals for the future security of mankind
1. We should seriously reflect and summarize the positive and negative effects of the Human Genome Project. In 1990, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States officially started the Human Genome Project. Later, scientists from many other countries officially joined in. At that time, this project was known as one of three major projects in the history of human science, along with The Manhattan Project and the Apollo Program. In fact, the project is a study of human genetic resources, but its names are often very high sounding. Looking at today's research results, on the one hand it promotes the cognition of human beings, and on the other hand, it brings confusion and threat to mankind. For example, research based on genetic defects can lead to the spread and reproduction of some viruses in humans; some people develop vaccines while making viruses for their own interests. There is no transparency in the field of transgenesis; there has even been unethical behavior such as gene editing and human cloning. For the above reasons, I call the Human Genome Project the “Modern Human Experiments”. We should always be alert and prepared to deal with more unexpected disasters that this “Project” could bring to mankind.
2. It is therefore of great urgency to form an “International Convention on the Protection and Utilization of Human Genetics”. On the July 1, 2019, Human Genetic Resources Regulations of the People’s Republic of China were officially implemented. In my interview with the press, I said: “Chinese society is progressing and the legal system is improving”. On July 6, 2019, I submitted a proposal to the Secretary General of the United Nationson speeding up the formulation of the “International Convention on the Protection and Utilization of Human Genetics”. Special emphasis should be placed on drawing lessons from the history that Einstein, and others, failed to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons, which have posed a huge threat to humanity today. The main reason is that there were no international rules at that time. Today we must formulate international conventions to constrain the non-peaceful use and development of human genetic resources. It is my great hope that in this regard, the international community will be more open, transparent and constrained for the sake of the security of all mankind and use human genetic resources only for peace and human health, whilst prohibiting the use of human genetic resources for military warfare, and any other anti-human behavior.
Proposal on the International Convention on the Protection and Utilization of Human Genetic Resources submitted to the United Nations by Tong Zeng.
3. All biological, viral and genetic laboratories in the world should be independently inspected. During the pandemic of COVID-19, I have sent several emails to the United Nations Secretary General and the World Health Organization (WHO), hoping that for the sake of the security of mankind the United Nations will lead thorough inspections of biological, viral and genetic laboratories all over the world after the pandemic has subsided. Since the launch of the Human Genome Project in 1990, we have seen many strange phenomena, particularly now in the 21st century. A variety of novel viral vectors based on the expression of coronaviruses have constantly attacked humans. For example, in 2003, most people who died from SARS were Chinese; most people who died from MERS in 2012 were Middle Eastern; most people who died from EBOLA in 2014 were African; and most people who have died and are still dying from COVID-19 are the elderly with underlying diseases from all over the world. I believe that the United States are very advanced in research and development of biological virus genes, with the largest achievements and the largest number of patent applications in the world. If the United States take the lead in opening their own laboratories for inspections, especially the Fort Detrick laboratory in Maryland, which was shut down in August last year, and allow a team of United Nation’s experts to inspect it publicly, it will be a major contribution to the inspections of laboratories around the world and for the future security of mankind.
Today, I still adhere to the views and warnings I put forward 17 years ago. World War I made people strongly condemn chemical weapons. World War II made mankind fear atomic bombs. In the future, we must beware of “super wars” with biological weapons, wars where enemies can’t even be seen. In order to prevent this kind of human destruction, I strongly urge the United Nations to form an “International Convention on the Protection and Utilization of Human Genetics” and inspect all biological, viral and genetic laboratories that exist in the world. I think that every country has an international obligation in this regard, to help create a secure and peaceful world.
Today, I want to bring up another warning: we should seriously reflect on the three major projects in the history of human science. Since there were no international rules to regulate The Manhattan Project at that time, the existing nuclear weapons around the world are now enough to destroy mankind. In regards to The Apollo program, international conventions should be formulated to restrict the proliferation of space development, or all kinds of space forces will destroy our earth in the future. And finally, the Human Genome Project needs to be regulated by an “International Convention on the Protection and Utilization of Human Genetics”, or we will be facing a huge risk of mass genocide at some point in our future.
The author's views don't necessarily reflect those of Ecns.cn.
