When in Doubt, Blame It on GMOs

“Blame It on the Bossa Nova” was a 1963 hit song for Eydie Gorme’, reaching number 7 on the Hot 100 in Billboard in March 1963. The song describes a romantic relationship inaugurated by a couple dancing to the bossa nova, a Brazilian style dance in vogue in the United States in the late 1950s. “Oh it all began with just one little dance, But soon it ended up a big romance. Blame it on the bossa nova, the dance of love.”  While it is plausible that dancing a slightly erotic dance might kindle a relationship, it is totally implausible to blame the current world-wide hysteria over Ebola on GMOs. Yet, that is just what some people are doing.

There are two schools of thought on this preposterous assertion. One that says Ebola is a virus developed by the CIA using biotechnology as a biological war weapon. The other asserts that, like Ebola, GMO technology is spreading throughout the world and will ultimately destroy the world food supply and ecosystem.  Dr. Leonard Horowitz, a public health authority and author of the bestselling book Emerging Viruses: AIDS & Ebola, Nature, Accident or Intentional?, claims the viruses most people consider an act of nature were rather instigated by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). “GMOs are EVD in crop race. Ghana agriculture would bleed to death if GMOs are adopted now,” asserts Npong Baliakwu Francis, a Bio Science Fellow with Bio Science for Farming in Africa.  I cite these two references just so you realize I am not making this stuff up. Believe me, there are many more sources I could quote.

Now some of you may expect me to launch into a categorical denial of any Ebola/GMO link, but I am not. That is because there is a link between the panic-producing disease and biotechnology. It is not a cause and effect relationship, but rather that biotechnology may hold the key to stopping this currently untreatable pandemic.

The first American to be infected with the Ebola virus was a Midwestern physician who was treating  patients with the virus in Africa.  In a controversial move, he was brought back to the US for treatment. An experimental drug was used and,  guess what, he was cured.  The media focused — and continues to focus — on the disease, not on what produced a possible cure.  Antibody therapy is the same technology that is used to produce the flu shots most of us get every year. It is also the basis for many of the cures that have been found for all kinds of diseases. Basically, you inject the disease into a host organism and it produces antibodies to fight off the infection. You then collect the antibodies, inject them into the infected person and see what happens.

This is what happened when the first Ebola treatment (CNN called “secret”) was developed. In this case the Ebola virus was injected into a genetically modified tobacco plant. This plant had been specially adapted to produce tons of antibodies. These were collected and, at this point, seem to provide some help in recovering from Ebola. The is a very simple and unscientific description of what took place.  

So, not only is a GMO plant providing a key to the cure for Ebola, one of the most politically incorrect crops in the world is being used: tobacco.  No wonder you are not hearing about this in the media. The activists would go into apoplexy if there was suddenly a significant human health benefit from GMOs and tobacco.  What would happen if the public started seeing a benefit to GMO technology and if the government started allowing farmers to grow tobacco again as a pharmaceutical crop?  The irony would be delicious.

So, spread the world about the GMO/Ebola link — just make sure it is the right one!

 by Gary Truitt