Greening the Capital
As part of the ongoing 'Capital, a Healthy Governorate' initiative, the Capital Governorate, in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO), hosted a tree-planting event at Bu Ashira Park to celebrate World Environment Day.
The event was graced by the presence of H.E. Shaikh Rashid bin Abdulrahman Al Khalifa, Governor of the Capital, and H.E. Yusuf Lori, who both reiterated Bahrain's commitment to sustainability through impactful green actions. These include coastal clean-up drives, expanded urban greenery, and environmental awareness campaigns—all in line with the Kingdom's national green strategy.
The celebration drew support from various community organizations including the Maan programme, Annai Tamil Mandram Executives, Global Federation of Societies for Social Service (GFSS), Indian Ladies Association, and a dedicated team of volunteers, reflecting the multicultural harmony at the heart of Bahrain's environmental journey.
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Gulf Insider
7 days ago
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Early COVID-19 Vaccine Patent In China Raises New Questions For U.S. Investigators
A Chinese patent for a COVID-19 vaccine filed just weeks after the virus emerged in the United States is drawing fresh scrutiny from U.S. investigators examining the origins of the pandemic and potential efforts to conceal early information about the virus. The February 24, 2020, patent application – submitted by three Chinese entities affiliated with the People's Liberation Army – outlines a process for developing a 'COVID-19 protein vaccine.' The document, which predates the World Health Organization's declaration of a global pandemic, lists 11 inventors. Among them are two scientists affiliated with a neuroscience institute within the Chinese military – a detail that has puzzled U.S. officials, given that neurological symptoms of COVID-19 were not widely known or studied at the time. The participation of researchers from the Institute of Military Cognition and Brain Sciences – a division of the Academy of Military Sciences in Beijing – has raised particular concern among federal investigators. The institute, which has drawn attention from U.S. defense analysts in recent years, plays a role in the Chinese military's emerging focus on cognitive warfare – the strategic use of neuroscience in national defense, Just the News reports. 'Significantly, their published research provided limited, or no data of neuropathology observed in the experimental animals, or the neuroprotection afforded by the vaccine,' wrote Dr. Robert Kadlec, a former senior Health and Human Services official, in a 2023 report examining the origins of the pandemic. 'Institute of Military Cognition researchers' involvement in such studies suggest an interest in the vaccine's protection against SARS-CoV-2 early in the outbreak before evidence of its neurological effects were widely known.' Dr. Kadlec, who served in the Trump administration and played a central role in Operation Warp Speed, was among the first U.S. officials to question why neuroscientists were included in early Chinese vaccine development. His report, titled A Critical Review of COVID-19 Origins: Hidden in Plain Sight , was published last September. Other figures on Capitol Hill have voiced similar concerns. Representative Darin LaHood, Republican of Illinois and a member of the House Intelligence Committee, recently stated that the cover-up of COVID-19's early emergence in China should be understood in the context of Beijing's broader strategic ambitions. 'China has a plan to replace the United States, and they're working at it every single day,' Mr. LaHood said in a podcast interview this week. 'They want to beat us technologically, militarily, economically and diplomatically. And the sooner we wake up to that, the better.' 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'On the battlefield, attempts to undermine an adversary could include interfering with the adversary's capacity for cognition, whether through manipulation or out-right destruction, from disrupting the flow of data to exploiting ideology or emotion,' she wrote in January 2020 for U.S. National Defense University magazine, Prism, which focuses on 'emerging disruptive technologies.' -Just the News At the center of the February 2020 vaccine patent is Zhou Yusen, a senior military scientist at the State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity. Zhou, who previously collaborated with the Wuhan Institute of Virology on SARS and MERS vaccines, is among the 11 listed inventors. According to Senate researchers, Zhou died under unclear circumstances in the months following the outbreak. 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Daily Tribune
09-06-2025
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Man who let snakes bite him 200 times spurs new antivenom hope
AFP | Paris Tim Friede was feeling particularly down on the day after the September 11 attacks, so he went to his basement and let two of the world's deadliest snakes bite him. Four days later, he woke up from a coma. "I know what it feels like to die from snakebite," Friede told AFP via video call from his home in the small US town of Two Rivers, Wisconsin. This experience might put most people off snakes entirely, but Friede simply vowed to be m o r e careful next time. From 2000 to 2018, he allowed himself to be bitten by snakes more than 200 times. He also injected himself with their venom over 650 times. Friede endured this pain because he wanted to achieve total immunity to venom, a practice called mithridatism which should not be tried at home. After a couple of years, Friede started to believe he could be the basis for a better kind of antivenom. The former truck mechanic, who does not have a university degree, long struggled to be taken seriously by scientists. B u t l a s t month, a study pub - lished in the prest i g i o u s Cell journal showed that antibodies from his blood protect against a range of snake venom. The researchers now hope Friede's hyper-immunity could even lead to the development of a universal antivenom. This would fill a major need, because currently most antivenoms only cover one or a few of the world's 600 venomous snakes. Up to 138,000 people are killed by snakebites a year, while 400,000 suffer amputations or other disabilities, according to the World Health Organization. These figures are believed to be vastly underestimated because snakebite victims typically live in poorer, remote areas. 'Pain every time' Friede's first bite was from a harmless garter snake when he was five years old. "I was afraid, I cried, I ran away," said Friede, now 57. Then he started bringing snakes home and hiding them in pickle jars. His mother sought counselling, but his interest in snakes persisted. Things escalated after Friede attended a class that taught him how to "milk" snakes for their venom. How antivenom is made has changed little over the last 125 years. Small doses of snake venom are injected into animals such as horses, which produce antibodies that can be extracted and used as antivenom. However this antivenom usually only works for bites from that particular species of snake -- and it includes other antibodies from horse that can cause serious side-effects including anaphylactic shock. "I thought, well, if they make antivenom in horses, why can't I just use myself as a primate?" Friede said. He started working through the venom from all the deadly species he could get his hands on, such as cobras, taipans, black mambas and rattlesnakes. "There is pain every time," he said. 'Proud' For years, the scientists he contacted to take advantage of his immunity refused to bite. Then in 2017, immunologist Jacob Glanville, who previously worked on universal vaccines, turned his attention towards antivenom. Glanville told AFP he had been looking for "a clumsy snake researcher who'd been bit accidentally a couple times," when he came across a video of Friede taking brutal back-to-back snake bites. When they first spoke, Glanville said he told Friede: "I know this is awkward, but I would love to get my hands on some of your blood." "I've been waiting for this call for a long time," came the response, Glanville said. The antivenom described in the Cell paper includes two antibodies from Friede's blood, as well as a drug called varespladib. It offered mice full protection against 13 of the 19 snake species tested, and partial protection for the remaining six. The researchers hope a future cocktail will cover far more snakes -- particularly vipers -- with further trials planned on dogs in Australia. Timothy Jackson of the Australian Venom Research Unit praised the immunological research, but questioned whether a human needed to be involved, pointing to synthetically developed antibodies. Glanville said the ultimate goal of his US-based firm Centivax was to develop a universal antivenom administered by something like an EpiPen, potentially produced in India to keep the costs down. Friede said he was "proud" to have made a "small difference" in medical history. Now working for Centivax, Friede stopped self-inflicting himself with venom in 2018 to save the firm from liability issues. But he hopes to get bitten by snakes again in the future. "I do miss it," he said.
