Tuesday, May 5, 2020
Monday, May 4, 2020
Antibodies from llamas could help in fight against COVID-19, study suggests
May 1, 2020
University of Texas at Austin
Researchers linked two copies of a special kind of antibody produced by llamas to create a new antibody that binds tightly to a key protein on the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. This protein, called the spike protein, allows the virus to break into host cells. Initial tests indicate that the antibody blocks viruses that display this spike protein from infecting cells in culture.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200501184301.htm
The hunt for an effective treatment for COVID-19 has led one team of researchers to find an improbable ally for their work: a llama named Winter. The team -- from The University of Texas at Austin, the National Institutes of Health and Ghent University in Belgium -- reports their findings about a potential avenue for a coronavirus treatment involving llamas on May 5 in the journal Cell. The paper is currently available online as a "pre-proof," meaning it is peer-reviewed but undergoing final formatting.
The researchers linked two copies of a special kind of antibody produced by llamas to create a new antibody that binds tightly to a key protein on the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. This protein, called the spike protein, allows the virus to break into host cells. Initial tests indicate that the antibody blocks viruses that display this spike protein from infecting cells in culture.
"This is one of the first antibodies known to neutralize SARS-CoV-2," said Jason McLellan, associate professor of molecular biosciences at UT Austin and co-senior author, referring to the virus that causes COVID-19.
The team is now preparing to conduct preclinical studies in animals such as hamsters or nonhuman primates, with the hopes of next testing in humans. The goal is to develop a treatment that would help people soon after infection with the virus.
"Vaccines have to be given a month or two before infection to provide protection," McLellan said. "With antibody therapies, you're directly giving somebody the protective antibodies and so, immediately after treatment, they should be protected. The antibodies could also be used to treat somebody who is already sick to lessen the severity of the disease."
This would be especially helpful for vulnerable groups such as elderly people, who mount a modest response to vaccines, which means that their protection may be incomplete. Health care workers and other people at increased risk of exposure to the virus can also benefit from immediate protection.
When llamas' immune systems detect foreign invaders such as bacteria and viruses, these animals (and other camelids such as alpacas) produce two types of antibodies: one that is similar to human antibodies and another that's only about a quarter of the size. These smaller ones, called single-domain antibodies or nanobodies, can be nebulized and used in an inhaler.
"That makes them potentially really interesting as a drug for a respiratory pathogen because you're delivering it right to the site of infection," said Daniel Wrapp, a graduate student in McLellan's lab and co-first author of the paper.
Meet Winter
Winter, the llama, is 4 years old and still living on a farm in the Belgian countryside along with approximately 130 other llamas and alpacas. Her part in the experiment happened in 2016 when she was about 9 months old and the researchers were studying two earlier coronaviruses: SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV. In a process similar to humans getting shots to immunize them against a virus, she was injected with stabilized spike proteins from those viruses over the course of about six weeks.
Next, researchers collected a blood sample and isolated antibodies that bound to each version of the spike protein. One showed real promise in stopping a virus that displays spike proteins from SARS-CoV-1 from infecting cells in culture.
"That was exciting to me because I'd been working on this for years," Wrapp said. "But there wasn't a big need for a coronavirus treatment then. This was just basic research. Now, this can potentially have some translational implications, too."
The team engineered the new antibody that shows promise for treating the current SARS-CoV-2 by linking two copies of the llama antibody that worked against the earlier SARS virus. They demonstrated that the new antibody neutralizes viruses displaying spike proteins from SARS-CoV-2 in cell cultures. The scientists were able to complete this research and publish it in a top journal in a matter of weeks thanks to the years of work they'd already done on related coronaviruses.
McLellan also led the team that first mapped the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, a critical step toward a vaccine. (Wrapp also co-authored that paper along with other authors on the current Cell paper, including UT Austin's Nianshuang Wang, and Kizzmekia S. Corbett and Barney Graham of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases' Vaccine Research Center.) Besides Wrapp, the paper's other co-first author is Dorien De Vlieger, a postdoctoral scientist at Ghent University's Vlaams Institute for Biotechnology (VIB), and the other senior authors besides McLellan are Bert Schepens and Xavier Saelens, both at VIB.
This work was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (U.S.), VIB, The Research Foundation-Flanders (Belgium), Flanders Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Belgium) and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Germany).
Backstory
The first antibodies the team identified in the initial SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV tests included one called VHH-72, which bound tightly to spike proteins on SARS-CoV-1. In so doing, it prevented a pseudotyped virus -- a virus that can't make people sick and has been genetically engineered to display copies of the SARS-CoV-1 spike protein on its surface -- from infecting cells.
When SARS-CoV-2 emerged and triggered the COVID-19 pandemic, the team wondered whether the antibody they discovered for SARS-CoV-1 would also be effective against its viral cousin. They discovered that it did bind to SARS-CoV-2's spike protein too, albeit weakly. The engineering they did to make it bind more effectively involved linking two copies of VHH-72, which they then showed neutralizes a pseudotyped virus sporting spike proteins from SARS-CoV-2. This is the first known antibody that neutralizes both SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2.
Four years ago, De Vlieger was developing antivirals against influenza A when Bert Schepens and Xavier Saelens asked whether she would be interested in helping to isolate antibodies against coronaviruses from llamas.
"I thought this would be a small side project," she said. "Now the scientific impact of this project became bigger than I could ever expect. It's amazing how unpredictable viruses can be."
The paper's other authors are Gretel M. Torres, Wander Van Breedam, Kenny Roose, Loes van Schie, Markus Hoffmann, Stefan Pöhlmann, Barney S. Graham and Nico Callewaert.
Story Source:
Materials provided by University of Texas at Austin. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Journal Reference:
Daniel Wrapp, Dorien De Vlieger, Kizzmekia S. Corbett, Gretel M. Torres, Nianshuang Wang, Wandervan Breedam, Kenny Roose, Loes Van Schie, VIB-CMB COVID-19 Response Team Response Team, Markus Hoffmann, Stefan Pöhlmann, Barney S. Graham, Nico Callewaert, Bert Schepens, Xavier Saelens, Jason S. McLellan. Structural Basis for Potent Neutralization of Betacoronaviruses by Single-domain Camelid Antibodies. Cell, 2020; DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2020.04.031
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200501184301.htm
The hunt for an effective treatment for COVID-19 has led one team of researchers to find an improbable ally for their work: a llama named Winter. The team -- from The University of Texas at Austin, the National Institutes of Health and Ghent University in Belgium -- reports their findings about a potential avenue for a coronavirus treatment involving llamas on May 5 in the journal Cell. The paper is currently available online as a "pre-proof," meaning it is peer-reviewed but undergoing final formatting.
The researchers linked two copies of a special kind of antibody produced by llamas to create a new antibody that binds tightly to a key protein on the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. This protein, called the spike protein, allows the virus to break into host cells. Initial tests indicate that the antibody blocks viruses that display this spike protein from infecting cells in culture.
"This is one of the first antibodies known to neutralize SARS-CoV-2," said Jason McLellan, associate professor of molecular biosciences at UT Austin and co-senior author, referring to the virus that causes COVID-19.
The team is now preparing to conduct preclinical studies in animals such as hamsters or nonhuman primates, with the hopes of next testing in humans. The goal is to develop a treatment that would help people soon after infection with the virus.
"Vaccines have to be given a month or two before infection to provide protection," McLellan said. "With antibody therapies, you're directly giving somebody the protective antibodies and so, immediately after treatment, they should be protected. The antibodies could also be used to treat somebody who is already sick to lessen the severity of the disease."
This would be especially helpful for vulnerable groups such as elderly people, who mount a modest response to vaccines, which means that their protection may be incomplete. Health care workers and other people at increased risk of exposure to the virus can also benefit from immediate protection.
When llamas' immune systems detect foreign invaders such as bacteria and viruses, these animals (and other camelids such as alpacas) produce two types of antibodies: one that is similar to human antibodies and another that's only about a quarter of the size. These smaller ones, called single-domain antibodies or nanobodies, can be nebulized and used in an inhaler.
"That makes them potentially really interesting as a drug for a respiratory pathogen because you're delivering it right to the site of infection," said Daniel Wrapp, a graduate student in McLellan's lab and co-first author of the paper.
Meet Winter
Winter, the llama, is 4 years old and still living on a farm in the Belgian countryside along with approximately 130 other llamas and alpacas. Her part in the experiment happened in 2016 when she was about 9 months old and the researchers were studying two earlier coronaviruses: SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV. In a process similar to humans getting shots to immunize them against a virus, she was injected with stabilized spike proteins from those viruses over the course of about six weeks.
Next, researchers collected a blood sample and isolated antibodies that bound to each version of the spike protein. One showed real promise in stopping a virus that displays spike proteins from SARS-CoV-1 from infecting cells in culture.
"That was exciting to me because I'd been working on this for years," Wrapp said. "But there wasn't a big need for a coronavirus treatment then. This was just basic research. Now, this can potentially have some translational implications, too."
The team engineered the new antibody that shows promise for treating the current SARS-CoV-2 by linking two copies of the llama antibody that worked against the earlier SARS virus. They demonstrated that the new antibody neutralizes viruses displaying spike proteins from SARS-CoV-2 in cell cultures. The scientists were able to complete this research and publish it in a top journal in a matter of weeks thanks to the years of work they'd already done on related coronaviruses.
McLellan also led the team that first mapped the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, a critical step toward a vaccine. (Wrapp also co-authored that paper along with other authors on the current Cell paper, including UT Austin's Nianshuang Wang, and Kizzmekia S. Corbett and Barney Graham of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases' Vaccine Research Center.) Besides Wrapp, the paper's other co-first author is Dorien De Vlieger, a postdoctoral scientist at Ghent University's Vlaams Institute for Biotechnology (VIB), and the other senior authors besides McLellan are Bert Schepens and Xavier Saelens, both at VIB.
This work was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (U.S.), VIB, The Research Foundation-Flanders (Belgium), Flanders Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Belgium) and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Germany).
Backstory
The first antibodies the team identified in the initial SARS-CoV-1 and MERS-CoV tests included one called VHH-72, which bound tightly to spike proteins on SARS-CoV-1. In so doing, it prevented a pseudotyped virus -- a virus that can't make people sick and has been genetically engineered to display copies of the SARS-CoV-1 spike protein on its surface -- from infecting cells.
When SARS-CoV-2 emerged and triggered the COVID-19 pandemic, the team wondered whether the antibody they discovered for SARS-CoV-1 would also be effective against its viral cousin. They discovered that it did bind to SARS-CoV-2's spike protein too, albeit weakly. The engineering they did to make it bind more effectively involved linking two copies of VHH-72, which they then showed neutralizes a pseudotyped virus sporting spike proteins from SARS-CoV-2. This is the first known antibody that neutralizes both SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2.
Four years ago, De Vlieger was developing antivirals against influenza A when Bert Schepens and Xavier Saelens asked whether she would be interested in helping to isolate antibodies against coronaviruses from llamas.
"I thought this would be a small side project," she said. "Now the scientific impact of this project became bigger than I could ever expect. It's amazing how unpredictable viruses can be."
The paper's other authors are Gretel M. Torres, Wander Van Breedam, Kenny Roose, Loes van Schie, Markus Hoffmann, Stefan Pöhlmann, Barney S. Graham and Nico Callewaert.
Story Source:
Materials provided by University of Texas at Austin. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Journal Reference:
Daniel Wrapp, Dorien De Vlieger, Kizzmekia S. Corbett, Gretel M. Torres, Nianshuang Wang, Wandervan Breedam, Kenny Roose, Loes Van Schie, VIB-CMB COVID-19 Response Team Response Team, Markus Hoffmann, Stefan Pöhlmann, Barney S. Graham, Nico Callewaert, Bert Schepens, Xavier Saelens, Jason S. McLellan. Structural Basis for Potent Neutralization of Betacoronaviruses by Single-domain Camelid Antibodies. Cell, 2020; DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2020.04.031
Corporate media outlets spread fake news claiming North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had died.
https://thegrayzone.com/2020/05/04/fake-news-ned-north-korea-kim-dead/
Anatomy of a fake news campaign: Media spreads lie from US govt-funded Korean outlet that Kim Jong-un died
Corporate media outlets spread fake news claiming North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had died. The lie originated with a Seoul-based website funded by the US government’s regime-change arm the NED.
By Ben Norton
There may be no other country on Earth lied about more than North Korea. Western corporate media outlets have absolutely zero editorial standards when reporting on the country.
Absurd lies are routinely treated as newsworthy stories, from the cartoonish claim that Kim Jong-un executed his uncle by feeding him to pack of starving dogs (fake news), to the notion that all North Koreans are drones forced to choose from state-mandated haircuts (racist-tinged fake news), to the assertion that state media swore it uncovered a unicorn lair (insanely stupid fake news based on a mistranslation).
But these lies are not just innocuous errors that come out of nowhere; they are part of an insidious pattern, and a decidedly political one. They are a form of information warfare aimed at destabilizing North Korea’s government, known officially as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), which has an independent foreign policy and geo-strategic location — and just so happens to be sitting on trillions of dollars worth of mineral wealth.
Many of these fake news stories originate with Korean opposition groups that are funded to the hilt by the US government’s National Endowment for Democracy (NED), a CIA cutout created by the Ronald Reagan administration to push regime change against foreign countries that don’t sufficiently kowtow to Washington.
The Grayzone editor Max Blumenthal published a documentary demonstrating how the NED bankrolls a global network of regime-change activists, whose unsubstantiated accusations against the DPRK, China, Russia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Iran, and other nations targeted by the US are spun into unquestionable truths. North Korean defectors are a particularly unreliable source of information, and many of their claims have been proven to be false. They are highly incentivized, however, with offers of nearly $1 million to continue cranking out the disinformation.
This April, we saw another textbook example of how NED-backed South Korean outlets notorious for spreading fake news are amplified by the international press corps to the point that their deceptions dominate the news cycle for days.
For nearly two weeks, dozens of major news networks across the globe provided a megaphone to unsubstantiated rumors that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un was dead.
The disinformation campaign kicked off on April 20, when a little-known US government-backed media publication called the Daily NK ran a report claiming North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had just undergone heart surgery and was in bad health.
This story was later expanded into a shocking claim: Kim had died, at the young age of 36.
The Daily NK followed up with an article stating that a video confirming that the supreme leader was dead had been going viral inside North Korea.
These reports unleashed a firestorm. Dozens of media outlets across the globe published story after story claiming Kim was either dead or incapacitated after a botched surgery.
The anatomy of this fake news campaign is dissected below.
The Daily NK@The_Daily_NK
A Daily NK source in North Korea reported yesterday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un recently underwent heart surgery. https://www.dailynk.com/english/source-kim-jong-un-recently-received-heart-surgery/ … #DPRK #NorthKorea
27
11:59 PM - Apr 20, 2020
Twitter Ads info and privacy
35 people are talking about this
And it all began with the Daily NK. But what exactly is this obscure publication?
US government’s NED bankrolls anti-DPRK fake news mill
The Daily NK is a South Korea-based propaganda outlet funded by Washington to conduct information warfare against the government in the north. It was founded by anti-DPRK activists who coalesced around the Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights.
This network has received millions of dollars in grants from the National Endowment for Democracy, the CIA cutout.
NED funding for the Daily NK itself goes back well over a decade, to when it was founded. A search of the NED grants database shows that the Daily NK received $400,000 in US government funding in 2019 alone, and at least $1.2 million in American tax dollars between 2016 and 2019.
US government National Endowment for Democracy (NED) funding for fake news mill the Daily NKHo Park, the head of North Korean research at Daily NK and one of the publication’s co-founders, is a grantee who has been publicly honored by the NED.
The US-backed Network for North Korean Democracy and Human Rights is also linked to another major grantee called the Unification Media Group, which was given at least $2.4 million from the NED between 2016 and 2019.
The NED notes on its website that the South-Korea based Unification Media Group consists of the Daily NK, Radio Free Chosun, and Open North Korea Radio.
In other words, the US government has over the course of several decades carefully cultivated a cadre of anti-DPRK propaganda outlets in Seoul, using them to grease the wheels of a disinformation machine that regularly spreads fake news and rumors from North Korean defectors. This media apparatus is the spearhead of the US government’s campaign of hybrid warfare against the DPRK.
Anatomy of a fake news campaign
Birthed from the belly of the US-funded disinformation network in Seoul, the global press corps enthusiastically adopted the fake news and delivered it to the Western public.
After the initial Daily NK reports first appeared on April 20, major media outlets in Hong Kong and Japan helped popularize the rumor.
The New York Post followed with a stunning headline: “North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un rumored to be dead.” (Like many other outlets, the Post later edited this headline, as it became clear that the story was unconfirmed, but the original titles of many of these false reports can be seen in their URLs or through internet archives.)
The New York Post based its claims on a report from a Hong Kong broadcast network (later identified as HKSTV – Hong Kong Satellite Television), which claimed it had a “very solid source” that Kim was dead.
The Post also amplified an article in a Japanese magazine insisting the North Korean leader was in a “vegetative state.” It even claimed that “senior Community Party sources in Beijing” had confirmed the rumor that Kim died in a botched surgery.
After the New York Post article, the fake news spread like wildfire through tabloids from TMZ to the Daily Express, to Metro, to The Sun (UK), to the Toronto Sun, to the Irish Post, and finally, The Mirror.
It was then picked up by numerous local media networks in the United States and other countries.
Next, seemingly “respectable” media groups fueled the fake news frenzy, including the National Interest, the International Business Times, Yahoo News, and Foreign Policy.
Neoconservative American politicians pounced on the rumors in predictable fashion. Republican Lindsey Graham, the most fanatically militaristic member of the Senate since the death of his friend John McCain, told Fox News with an air of confidence, “I pretty well believe he [Kim] is dead or incapacitated.”
Graham continued, “I’d be shocked if he’s not dead or in some incapacitated state, because you don’t let rumors like this go forever or go unanswered in a closed society, which is really a cult, not a country, called North Korea.”
Americans’ gut instincts that the fake news just “feels true,” after decades of consuming a steady diet of loony regime-change rumors, was taken as proof that it must be true.
On Twitter, the hashtag #KimJongunDead went viral as well, and millions of users swallowed the fake news whole.
Next, a photoshopped picture went viral on social media purporting to show Kim dead in a glass coffin. The image was reported on by Western media outlets like The Sun, a tabloid owned by the same right-wing Rupert Murdoch-owned media group that controls the New York Post.
As the fake news spread across the media ecosystem, Western journalists and professional Korea watchers began mulling the possibility that the presumably dead North Korean leader’s sister, Kim Yo-jong, was being groomed to replace him.
Without any solid evidence, dozens of outlets ran stories confidently asserting that Yo-jong was preparing to take her brother’s place. The Daily Beast even published a piece purporting to explain why she is so “feared” in the country.
The Washington Post printed an op-ed by Jung H. Pak, a former senior analyst at the CIA and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, with the title, “Why we shouldn’t rule out a woman as North Korea’s next leader.”
The Guardian, Foreign Policy, the BBC, the New Yorker, TIME, Deutsche Welle, The Australian, and Newsweek all added to the baseless speculation.
While some of these outlets amplified the phony story while feigning a tone of skepticism, VICE News threw all caution out the window. The “hipster arm of the empire” published an article trumpeting, “A Prominent North Korean Defector is ‘99% Certain’ Kim Jong Un Is Dead.” Its source was a defector trained and funded by the NED.
Days before, the US government-funded Daily NK had also praised VICE for producing a slick documentary that effectively amounts to fawning PR for the disinformation outlet, in a perfect circle of propaganda.
The Daily NK@The_Daily_NK
For more on what Daily NK does, check out a short documentary by VICE NEWS on the organization - including an interview with Editor-in-Chief Lee Sang Yong. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daTRItd7FlI …
YouTube at 🏠 @YouTube
10
9:00 PM - Apr 21, 2020
Twitter Ads info and privacy
See The Daily NK's other Tweets
Yet another “dead” foreign bogeyman shows up on TV
Then on May 1 – the same day VICE News claimed there was a 99 percent chance Kim was dead – the house of cards came crumbling down, as DPRK state media published photos of the leader cutting a ribbon at a fertilizer plant.
Max Blumenthal
✔@MaxBlumenthal
Another US regime media fail https://twitter.com/inside_nk/status/1256360997826199554 …
InsideNK@inside_nk
BREAKING | North Korea leader Kim Jong Un visiting a fertilizer plant yesterday.
1,739
6:20 PM - May 1, 2020
Twitter Ads info and privacy
488 people are talking about this
Now that it is indisputable that the rumors they amplified were totally unfounded, some of the aforementioned news outlets have scrambled to edit their headlines and leads to soften the language, noting there was still confusion at the time. But archived links do not lie.
And the fact of the matter is it was apparent from the beginning, to anyone with a brain, and the capacity to think critically outside of the corporate media bubble, that the rumors should not be trusted.
Actual experts, or even just expats in Korea who tweet in English, could tell from the get-go that this campaign was bogus.
King Baeksu@KingBaeksu
In 2019 alone, Unification Media Group and its Daily NK affiliate took in $1,000,000 from US taxpayers via @NEDemocracy.
To stay on the gravy train, they must deliver sensational "scoops" for the Empire. When their sources are compromised, we Americans have a hand in their fate. https://twitter.com/shen_shiwei/status/1252439441269874695 …
Shen Shiwei沈诗伟
✔@shen_shiwei
Fake News on the health condition of #DPRK leader #KimJongUn. Everything in #Pyongyang is fine and someone will pay the price for marking fake news originated from an anti-DPRK agency. Source said.
47
9:02 AM - Apr 24, 2020
Twitter Ads info and privacy
32 people are talking about this
Critics also pointed out out that “Hyangsan Hospital – the hospital where Daily NK said Kim had undergone heart surgery – ‘is similar to a community clinic and isn’t a facility where operations or surgeries can be performed.'”
King Baeksu@KingBaeksu
Why I was right about Kim Jong-un:
1. Daily NK isn't a reliable source.
2. Kim was seen walking in Wonsan between April 15th and 20th.
3. There was no buildup of PRC troops along the DPRK border.
4. Hyangsan Hospital is unequipped for surgical operations.
5. I'm unowned.
Easy. https://twitter.com/KingBaeksu/status/1254665843713232903 …
King Baeksu@KingBaeksu
Me:
1. Predicted in August 2016 that Trump would win.
2. Proved in 2017 that "Russiagate" was BS.
3. Swiftly debunked Smollett and Covington hoaxes.
4. Proved @adrianhong is a @CIA asset.
5. Proved Michael Kovrig was operating illegally in China.
Shill harder, anti-DPRK shills.
125
12:07 AM - May 2, 2020
Twitter Ads info and privacy
34 people are talking about this
But one didn’t need to be a Korea specialist to recognize the pattern of disinformation. Anyone who is even mildly familiar with the practically non-existent standards of media reporting on North Korea knows how these fake news cycles work, and knew not to jump to conclusions.
In a refreshing albeit rare example of cautious skepticism, the media watchdog Fairness In Accuracy and Reporting (FAIR) called out corporate media outlets for spreading these rumors without any solid evidence, even before Kim appeared on state TV.
And while impressionable Western journalists were heavily circulating the fake news, South Korea’s government made it clear, “Kim Jong Un is alive and well. He has been staying in the Wonsan area since April 13. No suspicious movements have so far been detected.”
Chinese media outlets also emphasized from the beginning of the disinformation campaign that it was clearly false. But their insistence was dismissed as “Chinese propaganda.”
This was not even the first time that rumors went viral claiming Kim Jong-un had died. Back in 2012, a strikingly similar similar fake news frenzy erupted when social media posts alleging Kim had passed away were momentarily amplified by mainstream outlets.
The latest paroxysm of propaganda was hardly the only regime-change disinformation campaign blown out of the water in recent weeks. In April, The Grayzone documented the wave of bogus corporate media stories claiming Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega was dead – before he, too, appeared on TV very much alive.
Indeed, the deployment of fake news is of a part with a larger strategy of information warfare aimed at nations that refuse to bow to US domination.
From the waves of dubiously sourced reports about China’s supposed “concentration camps” full of millions of Uighur Muslims, to unhinged warnings of Russia’s supposed plans to hack the US electrical grid in the dead of winter, to lurid stories of $750 condoms in Venezuela, to breathless presentations of Iranian nuclear weapons files, the program is always the same: lie without shame and shrink away after the deception is revealed for what it is.
Because by then, the damage has already been done.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)