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The Serpent and The Rainbow - The Frontier  Of death - 4

The Serpent and The Rainbow - The Frontier  Of death - 4The Serpent and The Rainbow - The Frontier  Of death - 4The anesthesiologist has his formulae and his preferred chemicals, but he combines them on the spot, depensing on the type of operation and the condition of the patient. Each case is unique and experimental.""And hazardous," Leham added. Kline held his empty brandy glass to the light."We cloak all un comfortable truths in euphemism," Kline said, moving back to the table toward me. " General anesthesia is essential, often unavoidable, always dangerous.

That makes everyone, especialy the physicians, uncomfortable.Hence we joke about getting knocked out, as if it were a straight- forward procedure. Well, I suppose it is. Bringing someone back undamaged , however, is not.Kline paused, " If we could find a new drug which made the patient utterly insensible to pain, and paralyzed, and another which harmlessly returned him to normal consciousness, it could revolutionize modern surgery.It was my turn to interrupt. "And make somebody a lot of money.""For the sake of medical science," Lehman insisted. "That's why it behooves us to investigate all reports of potential anesthetic agents. We must have a close look at this reputed zombie poison, if it exists."

Kline moved across the room like a man at odds with something more than himself. " Anesthesis is only the beginning. NASA once asked me to consider the possible application of psychoactive drugs in the space program. They would never admit it, but basically they were concerned with how they were going to keep the resless aastronauts occupied during extended interplanetary missions. This zombi poision could provide a fascinating model for experiments in artifical hibernation.Kline moved across the room like a man at odds with something more than himself.

" Anesthesis is only the beginning. NASA once asked me to consider the possible application of psychoactive drugs in the space program. They would never admit it, but basically they were concerned with how they were going to keep the resless aastronauts occupied during extended interplanetary missions. This zombi poision could provide a fascinating model for experiments in artifical hibernation.Lehman looked at Kline impatiently. "What we want from you, Mr. davis, is the formula of the poision."

The bluntness of his statement, however expected, pushed me back from the table, and I turned my back on them bothe, stepping toward a sliding glass door, until I felt myself caught like a fly in the cross mesh of their gaze.I turned back to them. " What about contracts?""We will be in touch with douyon. And perhaps you should call the BBc and speak with their correspondent.""That's it?" "That's all we know." "And my expenses?" "Wehave a small fund put aside, Just send us the bills."There was nothing more to ask.

They were like two major currents, Kline torrid and surging, Lehman passive and subdued; they had come together, determind to act. My assignment as outlined succinctly by Kline was to travel to Haiti, find the voodoo sorcerers responsible, and obtain samples of the poison and antidote, observing their preparation and if possible documenting their use.As I went out the apartment door, Kline handed me a sealed manila envelope, and it was then I realized that they had assumed all along that I would take the assignment.

I didin't look back, even as I heard their voices continuing behind me.KIline's daughter Marna caught up with me in the lobby. It was late, and I walked her back to her sixty-ninth Street studio. Outside on the streets a thin drizzle had turnec the pavement to pools of yellow light. The storm had passed and the city once again carried its own sounds.

Marna hadn't said anything during the meeting, and she didn't speak now. I asked her aboaut a photograph I had noticed in the apartment, of a frail white-haired man sitting at a desk, reaching a hand across a pair of ivory-handled revolvers."Francois Duvalier. Eugene Smith took it when he and my father were in Haiti.""Your father knew Papa Doc?" she nooded. "How?" "When they set up that institute where Douyon has the zombis. The one named after him.

"After Duvalier?" "No," she said with a laught, "my father. He's been going to Haiti for twenty-five years." "I know. Ever go with him?" "Yes, all the time, but...""Like it?" "Sure, it's wonderful. But listen, you ought to understand something. He really believes zombis exist." "You don't." "That's not the point."Outside her apartment house, an empty cab approached and I hailed it. We said goodnight. It was hours past the last air shuttle, so I directed the cabbie to Grand Central Station and waited for the night train to Boston.Once onboard, I open ed the envelope that Kline had given me.

Besides money and an airplane ticket there was one polaroid p0hotograph, a dull image of a poor black peasant, whom a note identified as Clairvius Narc isse. I found myself cradling his face in my hand, astonished how a mere photograph could make the exotic seem intimate.I still held it as the train pulled out, and then finally I glanced at the airline ticked. I had one week to try and piece together a biologica\l explanation that would fit the limited data.

Reference: The Serpent And The Rainbow: Wade Davis

Whistleblowers reveal chaotic and ‘dangerous’ working conditions at lab behind Covid testing fiasco

Whistleblowers from a Covid lab that sent out thousands of incorrect test results across England have shed new light on the site’s chaotic working conditions, revealing how machines were poorly maintained, concerns over quality control dismissed and untrained staff regularly “left to their own devices”.

Samples at the privately run Wolverhampton lab, owned by Immensa Health Clinic, were wrongly processed or cross-contaminated, leading to incorrect test results, while faulty air conditioning and fluctuating humidity levels within the site also led to spoiled tests, one source said.

Another said that focus was placed on “quantity over quality”, with staff – many who had never worked in a lab before – under pressure from senior management officials to process as many tests as possible each day.

Under these conditions, small mistakes went unnoticed and were allowed to “add up”, one of the whistleblowers said, adding that “human error” is likely to be responsible for the majority of the 43,000 incorrect false negative tests that were processed for NHS Test and Trace between 8 September and 12 October.

Sources from both Dante Labs, the parent company of Immensa, and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) similarly told The Independent that human error – rather than technical failings – were to blame.

All operations at the lab have been suspended as UKHSA continues its investigation into the facilities at the University of Wolverhampton Science Park. However, it emerged this week that private travel tests are still being processed by Immensa and Dante Labs at their laboratory in Charnwood, Loughborough.

Dr Mark Atkins, from Micropathology Ltd, a leading UK laboratory serving more than 200 hospitals across the country, said the Wolverhampton lab was “dangerous” and, in non-Covid times, would have been shut down. “The government needs to take responsibility for this; it’s been handing out millions in contracts,” he added.

© Getty Images Immensa wolverhampton lab

Immensa, which was only established in May 2020, has been awarded almost £170m of taxpayer’s money for Covid testing contracts throughout the pandemic. Other testing companies handed lucrative deals by the government have been hit by similar scandals over the past 18 months.

Dr Simon Clarke, an associate professor in cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, said the claim that untrained staff were “left to their own devices” when preparing and processing samples was particularly concerning.

“I’ve done this technique, I’ve taught it to people,” he said. “It’s a very temperamental technique. It’s easy to get it wrong and get into a situation where it doesn’t work very well. You need proper guidance at first.”

One of the whistleblowers, who worked at the lab during the summer but has since left, said new recruits “weren’t really told what to do” and never given a training manual or programme to help them learn the techniques involved in processing tests.

Typically, samples are drawn from swabs that are sent to the lab and placed in tubes containing a solution of chemicals which will make multiple copies of the virus’ genetic material, if there is any present. The process requires tubes to be placed on a heating block that is the main part of the PCR machine. After that, the solution is tested for any genetic material.

The source said that 96 samples were processed during each “run”. Over one hour, employees were expected to carry out six runs, or almost 600 tests. “That’s quite a high throughput,” said Dr Clarke. “To do it accurately, I’d want 20 to 30 minutes for each run, with no distractions at all.” 

Reference: Independent: Samuel Lovett

Hospital worker admits murdering two women and sexually assaulting nearly 80 corpses

A hospital worker who thought he had got away with the murders of two women 34 years ago is facing the rest of his life in jail after new DNA techniques identified him.

David Fuller, 67, pleaded guilty to murdering Wendy Knell, 25, and Caroline Pierce, 20, in two separate attacks in Tunbridge Wells in 1987.

Fuller changed his pleas on Thursday, four days into his trial at Maidstone Crown Court which heard he had sexually assaulted the women after killing them.

And in a shocking discovery after his arrest in December, police found Fuller had for years been sexually assaulting dozens of female corpses in the morgue of the hospital where he worked as an electrician and maintenance engineer.

He admitted assaulting nearly 80 dead bodies, many of which he filmed, but detectives believe there may have been hundreds more in the three decades he worked at the hospital. 

The victims ranged from a girl aged nine to a 100-year-old woman.

Fuller was described in court as a "controlled sexual deviant who preyed on young women and derived sexual gratification from the violation of their dead bodies".

After a judge lifted a reporting ban. Fuller - who is married with a son - can now be revealed as one of Britain's most prolific sex offenders.

A police source said: "The extent and scale of his offending is likely to be unprecedented in this country."

© Other Fuller is facing the rest of his life in jail

Police have spent £2m marshalling 317 family liaison officers, drawn from 27 UK forces to track down the relatives of his hospital victims and break the news.

Fuller's second wife Mala, who was a nurse at the hospital, was in court last month with his son and brother and others when the full details of his crimes were revealed.

One woman was shaking and in tears, another left the courtroom and appeared visibly distressed.

In that hearing, he admitted 32 charges of sexually assaulting dead bodies, taking indecent photographs of a child, possessing extreme pornographic images and voyeurism.

Initially, he had denied killing the two young women but later told his lawyers he admitted it but with diminished responsibility.

On Thursday he changed his murder pleas to guilty.

His first victim was Wendy Knell, the manager of Supa Snaps where Fuller took his photographs to be developed in Tunbridge Wells, Kent.

Her boyfriend found her naked body in a bedsit in the town in June 1987. It was her father Bill's birthday. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled.

Her widowed mother, Pam Knell, 84, told Sky News: "I remember the phone call from the police. And then I had to tell my husband to go over, to sort it out. It was mad. I don't know."

She added: "I didn't remember for a long time. I used to find myself at the bottom of the garden in the middle of the night, by myself, crying my eyes out.

"Wendy was a lovely, spirited girl and a good daughter. She had just started a new life, living away from us, but she didn't have much of one, did she?

"I never thought they would catch him and I was frightened of any man coming close to me. I hope he is locked up for a long time. At least he won't be able to do it again if he's in prison, will he?"

In a statement after Fuller's guilty plea, Ms Knell's family said: "Although the guilty plea won't change anything deep down as the pain and loss will always be there, it's good knowing he will not be in a position to hurt or cause any more pain."

© Other Fuller had a swipe-card for the hospital mortuary which he used to gain access when staff went home

Five months after killing Wendy, Fuller abducted Ms Pierce outside her bedsit home. She was a waitress at Buster Brown's restaurant which he had visited.

Her body, naked apart from a pair of tights, was discovered by a farm worker in a flooded drain 40 miles away in Romney, an area Fuller knew from cycling trips.

Kent detectives investigated for many weeks, but forensic samples were poor and with no established DNA database to help identify the killer, the operation was scaled back.

What became known as "the bedsit murders" remained unsolved, even though a DNA sample from Wendy's body was enhanced by forensic scientists in 1999.

In 2019, a re-investigation was boosted by an enhanced DNA sample from Caroline's tights, though the breakthrough came from the sample from Wendy's body.

Checks on the national DNA database, set up in 1995, showed a close match to 90 people and gradually detectives whittled down the numbers and identified a relative of Fuller - and then Fuller himself.

When police called at his home in Heathfield, East Sussex, he denied knowing the two women, but he was arrested and his DNA matched the killer's. His fingerprint matched one in blood on a plastic bag found in Wendy's bedsit.

In a search of Fuller's house, detectives discovered hidden computer hard drives, 1,300 videos and CDs, 34,000 photographs and hundreds of hard and floppy discs, containing what they described as distressing images of sex offences. 

In all, there were 14 million images.

They included footage of Fuller sexually assaulting dead bodies in the morgue at the now-closed Kent and Sussex Hospital and the new Tunbridge Wells hospital, which replaced it in 2011.

Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust has launched an independent investigation to discover why he wasn't detected.

His job gave him access to all areas of the buildings and he had a swipe-card for entry to the mortuary, where staff clocked off three hours before his own regular shift ended.

One CCTV image showed him in part of the morgue looking at refrigerators where bodies were stored.

The room where post-mortems were carried out did not have a security camera, to maintain the dignity of the bodies.

The stored images only go back to 2008, but as Fuller worked at the hospital since 1989 detectives believe there could be hundreds more victims.

Fuller, who had a previous conviction for burglary, will learn his fate at a later date.

He faces a mandatory life sentence, but because he killed two victims, sexually attacked them and tried to conceal his crimes, he could be jailed for the rest of his life without chance of parole.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the NHS had written to all health trusts asking for mortuary access and post-mortem activities to be reviewed.

The Human Tissue Authority has also been asked for advice on whether rules need to be changed.

Home Secretary Priti Patel: "This is a shocking case and my heartfelt sympathies go out to the families of all those who may have been affected.

"The sickening nature of the crimes committed will understandably cause public revulsion and concern.

"As Kent Police have made clear, anyone potentially impacted has been contacted directly by specialist officers."

Libby Clark, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "David Fuller's deeply distressing crimes are unlike any other I have encountered in my career and unprecedented in British legal history.

"This highly dangerous man has inflicted unimaginable suffering on countless families and he has only admitted his long-held secrets when confronted with overwhelming evidence."

She added: "No British court has ever seen abuse on this scale against the dead before and I have no doubt he would still be offending to this day had it not been for this painstaking investigation and prosecution."

Reference: Sky News: Martin Brunt, crime correspondent

Risk of debilitating nerve syndrome almost four times higher from Covid than vaccine

Guillain-Barré syndrome has been reported as a possible side effect of the Oxford/AstraZeneca jab as well as a rare symptom of Covid infection. In serious cases, the condition – which affects the nerves and can manifest as numbness and pain in the hands and feet – can lead to hospitalisation. 

A team of Oxford academics – not connected with the team that created the AstraZeneca jab – found that, for every 10 million doses administered, there have been 38 more cases of Guillain–Barré syndrome than compared to a non-Covid, non-vaccine baseline.

However, analysis also showed that there were 145 excess cases per 10 million people after testing positive for Covid  – almost four times more than following a jab.

Data from more than 30 million people in England was used to assess how the vaccine and virus impacted on a person's chance of developing adverse neurological complications post-vaccination and post-infection.

The analysis found that a person who had the AstraZeneca jab was almost three times more likely to develop Guillain-Barré syndrome two to three weeks after their inoculation compared to if they did not get the jab. 

However, the risk was significantly higher if they caught Covid, making them more than five times as likely to develop the condition within a month of testing positive.

© Christopher Pledger/for the Telegraph Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine - Christopher Pledger/for the Telegraph

The researchers also investigated Bell's palsy, another potentially serious side-effect which can lead to short-term weakness of the facial muscles.

Data show that, 15 to 21 days after getting the AstraZeneca jab, a person was 29 per cent more at risk of the condition than normally. In contrast, a person who caught Covid was 34 per cent more likely to develop Bell's palsy within a month of testing positive.

Prof Aziz Sheikh, professor of primary care research and development at the University of Edinburgh and a co-author of the study, said: "The risks are orders of magnitude higher if people get infected.

"But ultimately these are people's decisions and they need to make decisions for themselves. What we are trying to do is provide the best data possible and frame this so people are informed of the risks – there are risks clearly associated with the vaccine, but there are more substantial risks associated with infection.

"We are not seeing a higher risk for any of these adverse events associated with vaccines that associate with the infection."

The researchers also found there was a very small increased risk of "haemorrhagic stroke" within 28 days of getting the Pfizer vaccine, estimated as only 60 extra cases per 10 million people.

But Prof David Werring of UCL, who was not involved with the research, said this finding should be treated with caution.

"Importantly, following a positive SARS-CoV-2 test, the authors found a substantially higher risk of all the neurological diseases studied, emphasising that the benefits of ongoing vaccination efforts worldwide outweigh these potential risks," he said.  

Reference: The Telegraph: Joe Pinkstone