President Biden signed a sweeping 6,100-word executive order (EO) that would take a ‘whole-of-government’ approach to use the power of biology as a massive problem solver, not just in health care but on a variety of other fronts. “For biotechnology and biomanufacturing to help us achieve our societal goals, the United States needs to invest in foundational scientific capabilities,” states the EO.
The EO numbered 14081 and signed September 12, refers to this activity as “the bioeconomy” and states how most recently, the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated how it could be accomplished. “Although the power of these technologies is most vivid at the moment in the context of human health, biotechnology and biomanufacturing can also be used to achieve our climate and energy goals, improve food security and sustainability, secure our supply chains, and grow the economy across all of America.”
Digging Deeper
Some of what is stated in the EO aligns with traditional initiatives such as promoting biosecurity, securing strategic supply chains, and protecting the nation from foreign adversaries. But other sections of the document ring alarm bells with people knowledgeable about the dangers of mixing government and the ‘power of biology.’
The fourth paragraph states, “We need to develop genetic engineering technologies and techniques to be able to write circuitry for cells and predictably program biology in the same way in which we write software and program computers; unlock the power of biological data, including through computing tools and artificial intelligence; and advance the science of scale up production while reducing the obstacles for commercialization so that innovative technologies and products can reach markets faster.”
“Who wrote this?” asked Matt Dean, the senior health care policy outreach fellow at the Heartland Institute which co-publishes Health Care News.
“Are they too young to remember the end of the movie Jurassic Park? Set aside all the immediate data security nightmares associated with this. This proposal seeks to redress societal inequities by rewriting biology, using AI with fewer roadblocks to speed solutions to market.”
“This is astonishing hubris–I suspect that the World Economic Forum wrote it or collaborated,” Jane Orient, M.D.the executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, president of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness, and policy advisor to the Heartland Institute, which co-publishes Health Care News.
“Who is Joe Biden or any other president to define our ‘societal goals,’ to transform and direct the economy, to “unlock” biological data–such as your genome, possibly from samples you gave without permission to be stored by government,” asks Orient.
“In pursuit of intruding in American lives at the cellular and genomic level, President Biden pushes a program that will almost certainly lead to the violation of basic human rights, constitutional protections, genetic privacy, and national security,” said Twila Brase, the president, and co-founder of Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom and author of Big Brother in the Exam Room.
“This program does not match our ‘societal goals.’ Americans were not asked. This executive order matches his goals and the goals of those who are pushing for federal permission to exploit and intrude at the deepest level.
‘Power of Biology’ Push Not New
Since 1986, the U.S. has had a framework to guide the development of biotech and each administration from Presidents Obama and Trump worked to update and modernize it. But Biden’s EO is the first to take detailed steps on advancing biotech into manufacturing and economic development.
“The initiatives and federal actions announced in EO 14081 constitute the most comprehensive, coordinated, and committed action plan ever devised by a U.S. administration to promote the development of the U.S. biotech economy and manufacturing base. Of particular importance will be the development of new regulatory policies that will facilitate agricultural biotech and chemicals manufacturing,” write Keith A. Matthews, J.D., and Nur Ibrahim, attorneys with Wiley.
A three-hour White House summit on September 14 featured some of the companies that might be “partnering” with the government in the initiative, a response described as addressing the nation’s “greatest societal challenges.” For example, the founder of a company called LucasPye Bio, a “contract development organization,” described how the organization’s “C-Suite” is comprised of 85-95 percent of people who are African American.
Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Jewel Bronahugh discussed the USDA’s involvement, including multi-million-dollar partnerships to develop “biobased” products, sustainable American fertilizer, and alternative foods.
Humility, not Hubris
“President Biden’s Executive Order on Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Innovation for a Sustainable, Safe, and Secure American Bioeconomy (September 12, 2022) represents a great leap forward in hubris when humility is called for,” said Dean
“One might think that this is merely a way to promote Biden’s key initiatives on climate change and equity, and that’s where he starts off, but as is the case with so many of his initiatives, it quickly blows by that.
Dean says it is important to recall how Admiral Rachel Levine, the Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services, introduced the Office of Climate Change and Health Equity. “This clearly aims to replace health care spending with climate change initiatives.”
COVID-19 has been a test run for what’s next, say Brase and Orient.
“The President who doesn’t care a wit about the safety of Covid shots, the lives of the vaccine-injured, or actual scientific facts about the vaccine or early treatment for Covid, has issued an executive order to advance broadscale genetic manipulation, deep-dive dissection at the cellular and genomic level, and nationwide biosurveillance,” said Brase.
“What the pandemic should have proved is the extreme danger of the technology our government was funding without accountability and oversight, and the disastrous results of their emergency measures, which are only beginning to manifest. This agenda must be exposed and stopped,” said Orient.
AnneMarie Schieber (amschieber@heartland.org) is the managing editor of Health Care News.
Internet info:
“Executive Order on Advancing Biotechnology and Biomanufacturing Innovation for a Sustainable, Safe, and Secure American Bioeconomy,” The White House, September 12, 2022.
For more great content from Health Care News.