After having read reports that the deadly plague outbreak in Madagascar which has killed over 120 people with another 1,300 infected, has prompted health warnings in nine other countries due to the fear the infection could spread via flights from Madagascar, it certainly piqued my interested when a report from POTR blog showed up in my email box, asking if this latest outbreak was man made and deliberate.
According to a professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Texas, Dr Ashok Chopra, this latest large outbreak in Madagascar is more disturbing because "Most of the cases in the past have been of the bubonic plague but if you look at this particular outbreak, 70 percent of the cases are pneumonic plague, which is the most deadly form of the disease."
Pneumonic plague, often referred to as the Black Death, is far more infectious and deadly than bubonic plague because it is airborne, and it is pneumonic plague that was responsible for wiping out one third of the population in Europe in medieval times.
The nine countries and territories that have been listed as "priority countries in the African region for plague preparedness and readiness by virtue of having trade and travel links to Madagascar," are Comoros, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique, La Réunion (France), Seychelles, South Africa, and Tanzania," as shown in the map below, via The Sun.
WHO reported in early October they had delivered nearly 1.2 million doses of antibiotics and released US$1.5 million dollars in emergency funds to fight plague in Madagascar and while minor outbreaks have been seen in there before, this latest outbreak, which some have dubbed a "double plague," because it is spread two different ways, by fleas and by people, has caused a widespread panic.
BIZARRE CONNECTIONS AND TWISTS
A little after 9:00 am on October 26, POTR blog put out a tweet, a video and referenced an article on their blog, but the tweet alone was enough to have my search engines cranking, when they stated "Is it coincidence that the world's top #Plague researcher & #Fetish murderer visited #Madagascar prior to #pandemic?"
Wait.... what?? That was my first reaction, then I clicked the article, then each of the sources listed beneath the article, and there were definitely enough bizarre connections and twists to hold my attention.
Obviously the team at POTR has been digging into this for a while because back on August 5, 2017, they made the following statement "Reported captured in national #manhunt, a #Northwestern #PneumonicPlague researcher accused of murdering 1 of his gay 3some #Outbreak next??"
The manhunt referred to was Wyndham Lathem, who together with a man named Andrew Warren planned, then implemented the sick and twisted murder of Lathem's boyfriend, 26-year-old Trenton James Cornell-Duranleau. The crime was brutal as the victim had been stabbed dozens of times, and the two perpetrators went on the run at the end of July 2017 and turned themselves in on August 4th, hence the #manhunt reference.
The reference to "#Northwestern #PneumonicPlague," was the fact that Lathem was a microbiologist at Northwestern University, and his lab specifically studied "the virulent form of Yersinia pestis, the gram-negative bacterium that causes pneumonic and bubonic plague in humans." (Source)
According to that same sourced article "He had a successful career as an independent investigator, including participating in recent scientific conferences on chemical and biological terrorism defense."
Lathem had been in contact with the Pasteur Institute in France in 2016, to potentially lead a research lab there. According to a press release issued by the organization on August 9, 2017, and shared with The Scientist, a scientific committee in charge of recruitment had approved Lathem’s application to head a research unit at the end of 2016.
But “Wyndham Lathem did not receive security clearance from the French authorities (Ministry of research). This clearance is essential for positions, which involve working with dangerous pathogens. No reason was given for Lathem’s security clearance being denied. The recruitment was not pursued. The offer was withdrawn at the beginning of 2017.” The Pasteur Institute’s press office would not provide further comment to The Scientist.
The next possible connection POTR made was that Lathem had publicly stated in a lecture that was published by Recording Archaeology in January 2017, that he has "recently took a trip to Madagascar." (Video here, he states that at the 2:34 minute mark)
THE TIMELINE
The video linked above was from the 22nd Annual Meeting of the EAA, August 31 - September 4, 2016.
Obviously Lathem's reference to having been in Madagascar "recently" had to occur before August 2016, which led me to take a look at the World Health Organization's website, specifically for their news on plague in Madagascar, where in their January 9, 2017 report, they stated the following:
On 6 December 2016, the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Madagascar alerted WHO of a suspected plague outbreak in Befotaka district, Atsimo Atsinanana region in the south-eastern part of the country. The district is outside the area known to be endemic area in Madagascar. No plague cases have been reported in this area since 1950.
As of 27 December 2016, 62 cases (6 confirmed, 5 probable, 51 suspected) including 26 deaths (case fatality rate of 42%) have been reported in two adjacent districts in two neighbouring regions of the country. 28 cases, including 10 deaths have been reported from Befotaka District in Atsimo-Atsinanana Region and 34 cases including 16 deaths have been reported from Iakora district in Ihorombe Region.
Of the 11 samples tested, 5 were positive for plague on rapid diagnostic test and 6 are now confirmed at Institut Pasteur laboratory. Of the total reported cases, 5 are classified as pneumonic plague cases and the remaining as bubonic plague.
Retrospective investigations carried out in those two districts showed that it is possible that the outbreak might have started in mid-August 2016.
Hence POTR's theory that "The time frame is right for him to have seeded Pneumonic Plague in Madagascar."
Their disclaimer: None of this proves that Wyndham Lathem is behind the outbreak, but it is coincidence enough that prudent persons might make preparations for a Global outbreak much like the World Bank just did yesterday (10/24).
Source links for everything referred to in the video above can be found at the bottom of their article at POTR blog.
Historically diseases, including the plague, have been used as a biological weapon, such as when the Japanese planes dropped plague-infested fleas over Chinese cities or distributed them by means of saboteurs in rice fields and along roads during the second world war (source), and Mongol army hurled plague-infected cadavers into the Crimean city of Caffa in the 1300s (Source).
As recently as 2014 it was reported that a laptop confiscated after a raid on an ISIS held territory found they have plans to weaponise bubonic plague.
So, while there is no conclusive proof that Lathem "seeded" Madagascar to cause the "double plague" outbreak, the fact that he was a top plague researcher, denied security clearance in France for a position he was trying to obtain, did visit Madagascar directly prior to the only WHO report of plague in Madagascar in 2016, and ended up being a murdering psychopath that killed because of a supposed "sexual fantasy," I felt POTR blog's theory was well worth highlighting.
