Covid Snake Oil, or Universal Toxin? By Brian Simpson
Dr Brian Ardis, a Covid critic, has caused a “storm” of controversy with his claim that the Covid spike protein is related, if not derived from snake venom. And, to top it off, apparently this venom has been put in water supplies, much the way hippies in the 1960s threatened to put LSD in the water supply, until they actually went to a reservoir and saw how big these things were. Anyway, the needed material is sited below. Briefly, these is no strong evidence from a molecular biological perspective linking SASR-CoV-2 to snake venom, even though there are similar effects in some aspects. But all toxins have some effects in common, and this does not prove identity.
https://www.infowars.com/posts/venom-theory-is-covid-19-being-spread-via-drinking-water/
“In an interview Monday with Stew Peters, Brian Ardis, a doctor of chiropractic, attempted to connect SARS-CoV-2, the spike protein or simply the disease process itself known as COVID-19, to the deadly proteins in snake venom.
In the 30-minute, heavily produced conversation, Ardis did not explicitly state his opinion on whether COVID is caused by a virus or by widely dispersed toxins similar to the poisons in snake bites.
Steve Kirsch, executive director of the Vaccine Safety Research Foundation, took issue with some of Ardis’ statments.
“We agree there is evidence that the virus is similar to snake venom,” Kirsch wrote on Substack. “But as for the other assertions (such as it’s a poison spread through the water), I’m not buying it.”
In a Substack post, Dr. Meryl Nass also disagreed with Ardis, writing, “Many statements in the Bryan Ardis video are accurate, but some are definitely not.”
Nass, an internist and member of the Children’s Health Defense scientific advisory committee, reminded us that Ardis is correctly pointing out that remdesivir is a dangerous drug that has undoubtedly caused or contributed to many COVID deaths.
As early as November 2020, the World Health Organization recommended against the use of remdesivir, regardless of disease severity, because there was no evidence the drug improved outcomes.
Although the expensive drug was widely reported to be ineffective, its harmful effects were downplayed by mainstream sources.
Nevertheless, remdesivir enjoys unwavering support from our medical authorities and remains the only antiviral remedy available in most hospital formularies for the treatment of COVID.
In the interview with Peters, Ardis pointed out a concerning statement on the remdesivir label:
“Risk of reduced antiviral activity when coadministered with chloroquine phosphate or hydroxychloroquine sulfate: Coadministration of Remdesivir (VEKLURY) and chloroquine phosphate or hydroxychloroquine sulfate is not recommended based on cell culture data demonstrating an antagonistic effect of chloroquine on the intracellular metabolic activation and antiviral activity of VEKLURY.
According to Nass, “This may be another reason the system does not want patients to receive chloroquine drugs because their use would be a contraindication for use of Remdesivir.”
So what about those snakes?
Venom from poisonous snakes, such as the cobra and krait, exert their devastating and immediate effects on human physiology by attacking our central and peripheral nervous system and/or our ability to form blood clots.
Antidotes to venom are mono or polyclonal antibodies that target specific proteins delivered through a snake bite.
Ardis used this connection with monoclonal antibodies to argue that because monoclonal antibodies are an effective treatment for COVID and snake venom, COVID (whether caused by a beta coronavirus or not) is tied to the toxic agents in poisonous snakes.
Ardis told Stewart, “Monoclonal Antibodies are anti-venom.”
However, this statement is not entirely correct. Monoclonal antibodies are specific, synthesized proteins that can bind to one of a myriad of different targets, including active proteins in snake venom.
Anti-venom is a monoclonal antibody. Not all monoclonal antibodies are anti-venom.
The point here is that many proteins may have common effects on our bodies but that doesn’t necessarily mean they have a common origin.
Monoclonal antibodies can neutralize the effects of many different peptides. That doesn’t mean the targets of the antibodies are related.
Ardis also emphasized that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been critical of the use of monoclonal antibodies in the treatment of COVID.
He made this point in a larger context to allege that our authorities have consistently been blocking effective treatments to prevent recovery.
Yet since the inception of the pandemic, monoclonal antibodies have been an available mainstay of COVID treatment in the immunocompromised and those at high risk for developing severe disease.
Since the rapid emergence of the Omicron variant at the end of 2021, the FDA limited the availability of some monoclonal antibody formulations as it was shown these have a marginal effect against the new strain.
Other inaccuracies
Ardis accurately stated that snake venom can cause an elevated D-Dimer, a nonspecific finding in patients suffering from clotting disorders.
But this test is elevated not only in patients who have excessive bleeding (as in the case of snake-bite victims) but also in patients who are experiencing increased clotting (deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary emboli, strokes).
The latter is more common with severe COVID. Thus, an elevated D-Dimer level does not necessarily mean COVID is caused by a snake venom-like process.
Perhaps the most provocative claim Ardis made was around the sedation and mechanical ventilation of critical COVID patients.
Because snake venom paralyzes muscles, including the diaphragm (the muscle most responsible for breathing), by blocking the conduction of signals between nerves and muscles, this, in his view, is more evidence that COVID is a snake venom-like illness.
It is true that it was recognized early on that COVID patients had low levels of blood oxygenation yet appeared to breathe comfortably and regularly.
However, this is not representative of nerve paralysis. It is suggestive of a central process, one that involves the brainstem, not diaphragmatic paralysis.
Moreover, our natural drive to breathe is much more dependent on high levels of carbon dioxide in our blood, not low levels of oxygen.
Nevertheless, Ardis accused the medical system of intentionally causing the death of COVID patients by further reducing respiratory drive by using sedative agents like benzodiazepines, narcotics and other drugs required to place patients on breathing machines (ventilators).
He is correct that these drugs are necessary to allow a person to tolerate the placement of a breathing tube in the trachea for prolonged and brief periods.
However once a person is connected to a ventilator, the machine will substitute for the person’s lack of respiratory drive.
Summary
Although there is some overlap between the effects of poisonous peptides present in some snake venom and those of SARS-COV2 spike protein, claiming COVID is ultimately derived from snake venom is a poorly substantiated hypothesis.
That said, Ardis’ description of the toxic nature of remdesivir is worthy of note and should not be dismissed.”
“My reaction
It’s an interesting narrative. I watched the Stew Peters episode and haven’t watched the Brighteon episodes yet, so with those caveats, these are my preliminary thoughts:
- It is good that Bryan is attending the call this Thursday with my colleagues. This is something that people promoting false narratives never agree to.
- My colleagues who have seen the videos believe some parts (similarity with snake venom), but not others (poison spread through the water).
- Most of us didn’t like the narrative presentation. It would have been much better to enumerate up front what the novel claims were and then methodically justify each claim with evidence. Instead it was a long mystery novel.
- My readers are split on whether Dr Ardis is credible as you’ll see from the comments below.
- Everyone agrees he’s making some observations that are worthy of discussion.
- I was amazed at the fortune cookie story at the end of the Stew Peters interview. That just seems too hard to believe. But I don’t think Bryan would lie about it either. That part was really hard to believe, but apparently true.
- He mispronounced Genentech and was unfamiliar with them. Odd.
- The Bing Liu murderis real. I’m not buying the lover’s quarrel story promoted by the police because nobody knew he had a girlfriend. More on this in another substack.
If I had heard this video a year ago, I would have totally dismissed it. But the most important lesson of the pandemic is to not be so fast as to dismiss things that don’t fit your narrative.
Do I think Dr. Ardis has “solved” it and all the pieces fit together? No, but I’m willing and open to being convinced.
Other people like Dr. Sabine Hazan have totally different theories as to what is going on and how the virus spreads. I’ll let her disclose her theory when she is ready. It’s very different from what Bryan says.
The point is that different people have different hypotheses that they believe. It’s good to hear different points of view. That’s how we learn.
My take on his key points
Here are some of the key points and my thoughts on them:
- Do I think it is a poison rather than a virus? No. You can’t get poisoned from another person through close contact like at a party. More importantly, if it is a poison, this would have been discovered by now by someone. Also, poisons don’t replicate over time so the “viral load” won’t increase over time. I’m not buying it. If it is a poison, why would a treatment like fluvoxamine be so effective?
- Do I think it is spread through the water? I doubt it. The virus has spread worldwide. It would take massive coordination to poison water supplies all over the world and not get caught. Ardis conflates CDC sponsored testing of municipal wastewater for COVID with the water we drink.
- Do I think the virus is related to snake venom? Yes, we’ve been talking about that for over a month internally. I don’t think this part is controversial. Dr. Tau Braun was discussing the similarities to snake venom in late 2020.
- Is Ardis on a hit list? Probably. What I know is that there is credible evidence that Ardis is being targeted. I heard that assertion directly from a top government official. However, there is no explicit “hit list” that anyone has seen.
Is it spread through the air almost exclusively? That’s an interesting question. That’s the current thinking. I also know that there were several people who got sick at the DTM event who all worked in the same room together. I doubt it was in the water or in the food. So I’m still a believer in the traditional explanations of viral spread, but I’m open to seeing evidence that I’m wrong.”
“Astonishingly, it is rapidly becoming apparent in the aftermath of the Dr. Bryan Ardis revelations about snake venom origins for covid-19 that many people — even some in alt media — are completely unaware that snake venom is commonly used as the starting point for pharmaceutical research.
Earlier today, a UK company literally named “Venomtech” announced a massive venom peptide and venom fragment library to be used for drug discovery by pharmaceutical companies (as well as pesticide used for agricultural companies).
The news was widely covered in the biotech media, including at News-Medical.net, which published the announcement, “Venomtech announces new drug development collaboration with Charles River.”
From that announcement:
Venomtech is collaborating with Charles River Laboratories, International Inc. to help drug developers explore venom-derived compounds for a wide range of therapeutic targets. This newly formed collaboration will bring together Venomtech’s biology expertise and vast venom-derived peptide library, with Charles River’s drug development and screening knowhow, providing pharmaceutical manufacturers with a one-stop service to explore this unique natural resource.
Venomtech’s Targeted-Venom Discovery Array™ (T-VDA™) libraries provide researchers with a straightforward solution to rapidly screen thousands of individual venom fragments, with each array specifically designed to maximise hits for a specific target.
The announcement carries this statement from Venomtech CEO Paul Grant:
Venomtech has been at the forefront of venom research for drug discovery for more than a decade… we can now showcase our innovative technology, introducing the wider industry to the potential of venoms for the successful delivery of more leads, more quickly, for a broad range of [cellular] targets.
…we can now offer our clients access to bespoke venom libraries, potentially accelerating their [drug] discovery pipelines using this powerful natural resource.
The Venomtech company is described as follows:
Venomtech is a global leader for venom research enterprises, based out of world-class laboratories at Discovery Park in Kent, UK.
…[we are] helping our customers worldwide make pioneering advances in drug discovery, crop protection, and cosmetics. We have the largest library of naturally sourced venom-derived compounds in the UK, from a growing collection of vertebrate and invertebrate species.
Note that Venomtech’s clients include pharmaceutical companies, pesticides companies and cosmetic product manufacturers. Venom-based molecules are widely used in drug research and other areas of biotech.
So to those in the corporate media — and even in alt media — who are expressing shock and dismay at Dr. Ardis claiming that snake venom is the most likely origin for research into SARS-CoV-2 gain-of-function enhancement or even covid vaccines, you are ignorant of the state of the art in biosciences.
The use of snake venom in pharmaceuticals isn’t a “conspiracy theory.” It’s a common practice, representing what most bioscience experts would describe as the cutting edge of drug discovery.
For the record, by the way, we are not ascribing any nefarious accusations to the Venomtech company here. We mention them solely to prove to any skeptics that snake venom is, in fact, widely used as a resource for pharmaceutical development (and it has been for decades).
What Dr. Ardis has claimed is not science fiction. It is the state of bioscience in 2022.
Anyone dismissing the “snake venom” theory in relation to covid treatments or vaccines is flatly ignorant of the resources used in today’s drug discovery pipelines.
20,000 varieties of venom peptides
As VenomTech says on their own drug discovery page:
Our naturally derived peptide, protein, and small molecule compounds enable pioneering perspectives and solutions that have proven effective even on hard-to-hit targets where traditional approaches have previously failed. They affect a variety of molecular targets, such as ion channels, GPCRs and enzymes, with a high degree of selectivity and potency, reaping the benefits of millions of years of evolution rather than just over a hundred years of drug discovery.
Our customers have access to a library of 20,000 peptides, proteins, and small molecules derived from venoms – the largest library of naturally sourced compounds available in the UK – supplied as an innovative Targeted-Venom Discovery Array™ and custom arrays with a demonstrated track record of success for drug discovery applications.
We believe the Venomtech company very likely has a very bright future in its industry, by the way. “Biomimicry” means copying nature, and Big Pharma has a long history of pirating molecules from nature and turning them into multi billion-dollar profit centers. The best ideas come from nature, of course, even though the FDA and other health regulators claim natural molecules are useless and can’t be considered “medicine.” Yet Big Pharma gets most of its blockbuster drugs from natural molecules, such as lovostatin molecules found in red yeast rice (now turned into high profit statin drugs).
Never forget that the symbol for the World Health Organization is a snake and a staff that dominate the planet:
And the symbol of the American Medical Association (AMA) is a serpent encircling a staff, resembling a DNA strand while also representing the idea of the serpent’s venom:
World Economic Forum brags about drugs made from venom, admits ability to synthesize venom particles using RNA technology
If you’re looking for even more proof that snake venom is used in drug development, take a look at this article from the World Economic Forum, published as part of the WEF’s Annual Meeting of the Global Future Councils (2018):
Venomics – the scientific analysis of venom – offers some groundbreaking solutions to health problems from heart disease to diabetes, to managing chronic pain.
In fact, there are already six drugs approved for use by the Food and Drug Administration in the United States that are derived from venom.
But with 15% of the world’s animals producing venom of some kind, we have really only just begun to scratch the surface of their potential contribution to medicine.
Captopril is an angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor, a type of drug used to treat high blood pressure and improve survival and reduce the risk of heart failure after a heart attack. Its main compound is derived from a species of pit viper found in Brazil.
Prialt, derived from the venom of cone snails, is used by some of the estimated 22 million adults in the US who suffer from severe and chronic pain.
Byetta is part of a new wave of drugs designed to lower blood glucose in patients with type 2 diabetes. Its key ingredient, exendin-4, is found in the saliva of the Gila monster, a large lizard species native to the southwestern US and northwestern Mexico.
Synthesizing snake venom for mass production, using RNA technology
Also from that WEF article:
One reason for the growing interest in this field is that advances in DNA and RNA technology allow research to be carried out much faster.
For instance, traditionally, live venom would be extracted from the animal, then injected into an unsuspecting live rodent or fish to study its impact.
Nowadays, the DNA and RNA of the venom have already been identified, which allows researchers to synthesize its components and test out their theories.
Nanocarriers can stabilize snake venom peptides for delivery via water
In response to Dr. Ardis’ revelations about the possibility of snake venom peptide delivery via water systems, there has been almost derision from certain influencers who claim that snake venom wouldn’t be stable in municipal water systems. In effect, they are absurdly claiming that tap water is anti-venom.
If that were true, all snake bites could simply be treated by drinking tap water.
In truth, the National Library of Medicine has published a study that reveals the existence of “nanocarriers” which can stabilize snake venom peptides in order to achieve delivery via water systems.
Entitled, “Nanoparticles Functionalized with Venom-Derived Peptides and Toxins for Pharmaceutical Applications,” the study abstract explains the mechanism by which snake venom peptides are stabilized in water and other solutions: (emphasis added)
Venom-derived peptides display diverse biological and pharmacological activities, making them useful in drug discovery platforms and for a wide range of applications in medicine and pharmaceutical biotechnology. Due to their target specificities, venom peptides have the potential to be developed into biopharmaceuticals to treat various health conditions such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and chronic pain. Despite the high potential for drug development, several limitations preclude the direct use of peptides as therapeutics and hamper the process of converting venom peptides into pharmaceuticals. These limitations include, for instance, chemical instability, poor oral absorption, short halflife, and off-target cytotoxicity. One strategy to overcome these disadvantages relies on the formulation of bioactive peptides with nanocarriers. A range of biocompatible materials are now available that can serve as nanocarriers and can improve the bioavailability of therapeutic and venom-derived peptides for clinical and diagnostic application. Examples of isolated venom peptides and crude animal venoms that have been encapsulated and formulated with different types of nanomaterials with promising results are increasingly reported.
So for anyone who thinks that snake venom can’t be stabilized for delivery in water systems, they clearly don’t know the state of the science. Nanocarriers accomplish the task quite simply.
Once you become aware of Big Pharma’s technology, Dr. Ardis’ claims don’t seem outlandish at all
The bottom line in all this is rather clear: The only people lashing out against Dr. Ardis’ claims about snake venom in covid-19 vaccine formulations or snake venom peptide exposure through various environmental vectors (water, air, contact surfaces) are people who are uninformed about the widespread use of snake venom peptides in medical research and drug delivery systems.
The “shock” that many people experience when first hearing about snake venom used in drug development is an artifact of their lack of knowledge about modern medicine. The widespread use of venom from snakes, lizards, frogs, cone fish, stingrays and other creatures is well known in pharmaceutical research circles. It isn’t a “fringe” theory, nor a conspiracy theory.
It is a biological fact.
Millions of Americans swallow reptile venom every single day and call it “medicine”
Remember the WEF article linked above? It states, “Prialt, derived from the venom of cone snails, is used by some of the estimated 22 million adults in the US who suffer from severe and chronic pain.”
Millions more take Captopril, and there are several other venom-derived, FDA-approved drugs that are routinely prescribed by doctors.
The irrefutable fact is that millions of Americans swallow reptile venom every single day. They just call it “meds.”
The fact that most of them are completely ignorant of the origins of these substances doesn’t excuse those in the corporate media or indy media for also being ignorant. Those who are going to comment on Dr. Ardis and the snake venom theory should at least familiarize themselves with the state of the art in biosciences. If they fail to do that, they are just flinging nonsense much like Jen Psaki at the White House.
And haven’t we had enough of all the lies and ignorance in our world? Isn’t it time we listened to people whose words actually have a basis in fact rather than those who are pushing narratives to protect Big Pharma’s dishonest narratives?”
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