It’s Tuesday, August 11. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Vinay Prasad on the bombshell Fauci text messages. John McWhorter on the Jason Arday scandal and the dehumanization of black academics. Boris Johnson talks Ukraine, Europe, and the Atlantic alliance with Aaron MacLean.
But first: Will China take over the drug industry?
Lithium ion batteries. Solar cells. Steel. Shipbuilding. Drones. These are just a few of the industries that China came to dominate as it rose to become an economic superpower. Now comes perhaps the scariest prospect of all: the potential that China will soon dominate biotech and pharmaceuticals as well. The latest developments are alarming—and have barely been noticed outside of the industry until Bethany McLean started looking into it for us.
Why does this matter? It’s not just a question of manufacturing jobs and outsourcing. Biotech companies discover new drugs, which Big Pharma then tries to turn into medicines that the Food and Drug Administration will approve. Morgan Stanley predicts that by 2040, a third of all FDA-approved drugs could originate from China. Think about the power that will give Chinese companies over what drugs to pursue and what diseases to study. And think as well about the leverage the Chinese government could one day have over the U.S. if they had that much control over the drugs Americans need.
There are, for sure, defenders of this state of affairs, who argue, as The Economist put it recently, “Diseases cross borders. So should their cures.” But as one of Bethany’s sources told her, the question isn’t if China will weaponize biotech, it’s when.
—Joe Nocera
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Vinay Prasad: Anthony Fauci’s Vaccine Deceptions |
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Recently released texts from Dr. Anthony Fauci appear to show the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) telling fellow health officials in 2021 that a second Covid-19 vaccine “could be associated with miscarriage in the 1st trimester.” But publicly, Fauci never cautioned pregnant women—or anybody, for that matter—against receiving the shot. Nor did he offer any warnings to pregnant women about the possibility of miscarriage. Vinay Prasad, who was a leading critic of the government’s Covid response and worked on vaccine approval in the Trump administration, dissects the evidence for and against the miscarriage possibility—and why Fauci’s deception was so wrongheaded. | |
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The Ghosts of Woke 1.0 |
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Does it matter what crazy things a Democratic politician might have said in 2020—that era of Woke 1.0, as River Page calls it? It sure doesn’t look that way, at least not to Democratic primary voters. The latest example: Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Francesca Wong, who called for Thanksgiving to be canceled and the police to be abolished in 2020, is the odds-on favorite to win in today’s Wisconsin primary. But will the general election voters be so forgiving? | |
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How Academia Created Jason Arday |
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Academia treats black scholars differently from their white counterparts, according to John McWhorter. But not in the way you might think. Last week, Jason Arday, a black British scholar at Cambridge University, resigned his post amid allegations of serial plagiarism. Read John on why the case is “a symptom of academia’s dehumanization of black scholars and willingness to accept intellectual mediocrity in its self-seeking pursuit of virtue.” | |
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Boris Johnson on Why Europe and America Still Need Each Other |
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Earlier this year, former UK prime minister Boris Johnson embedded with a Ukrainian army brigade on the frontlines of the Russia-Ukraine war. Today, he joins Aaron MacLean on “School of War” to discuss what he saw, and why Western Europe’s support of Ukraine remains vitally important—more than four years after Russia’s invasion. | |
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