RIP Kary Mullis, five years on
Winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for his invention of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method”
Dear Church Leaders (and everyone else)
Five years ago today saw the death of Kary Mullis, winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for his invention of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method”.
While Mullis’ death was reported in some UK mainstream media outlets, the news passed me by in 2019. It was hardly a big story at the time — at least in the UK — and a segment on The Last Word was the top result when I searched for articles on the BBC website.
Mullis was no ordinary scientist. Here is the publisher’s synopsis from his 2000 autobiography, Dancing Naked in the Mind Field:
From cloning to HIV, global warming to astrology, and the O.J. Simpson trial to turning on a light bulb with one’s mind, this work challenges us to question scientific dogma. Awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, Kary Mullis has frequently been at odds with the scientific establishment.
That summary is certainly consistent with the rest of the book, which I found an entertaining read.
This four-minute video provides a useful overview:
Thanks in part to Mullis’ contribution, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) — a laboratory technique for rapidly producing (amplifying) millions to billions of copies of a specific segment of DNA — is now a fundamental tool for biology and biomedical research. And in 2020, PCR came to prominence in the context of covid testing.
But as with any scientific testing, it is important to think, and to ask questions — such as this one:
Of all the links in the above article, among the most important is the answer to a question in Parliament in October 2020, where it was disclosed that “the United Kingdom operational false positive rate [for covid PCR testing] is unknown”. For without an operational false positive rate — which is not difficult to determine — this sort of thing can happen (pdf version of full article here):
Another key part of the picture comes from the 1993 clip of Kary Mullis stating that “with PCR… you can find almost anything in anybody”. That clip was circulating widely during the covid era, and it featured in this BBC “fact-check” which stated, with no scientific discussion, that Mullis’ words have “been used to discredit PCR testing for Covid, but these criticisms are unfounded.”
As ever, it is important to follow the money. Especially in the context of a “Test and Trace” programme allocated £37 billion over two years. There has been — and still is — a lot of money in testing. For context, £37 billion amounts to around a third of the total public spending on education in the UK.
As to the scientific issues, we will never know quite how Mullis would have responded. For he did not live to see the covid era. At the age of 74 he had died at home, “unexpectedly of heart and respiratory failure” according to his wife.
That was on 7th August 2019. Just two weeks before this announcement:
Which came from the same John Hopkins University that produced the Covid-19 Dashboard as discussed in this article:
As to the criticisms of the use of PCR testing for covid, here is a report on the verdict of a Portuguese court in 2020 (which was recently upheld):
And here is a short article by Prof Norman Fenton, who is among the best people I have seen at explaining the key issues:
If you prefer something to watch, I recommend this 7-minute video (which is featured in the above article):
As it happens, Fenton, who retired as Full Professor in December 2022, is based at Queen Mary University in London, just a few miles from BBC Broadcasting House. But I wouldn’t advise holding your breath while waiting to see him on the BBC (which openly takes a lot of money from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation).
Some of Fenton’s other PCR-related articles can be found here.
And more information on Mullis and the PCR test can be found in this article from US doctor James Roguski that inspired me to write this post.
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