“AIDS US-Patent 5676977”
This patent number does exist,
though it is not an effective cure for AIDS, or a patent on the virus
(HIV) which causes AIDS. The patent is for “tetrasilver tetroxide
molecular crystal devices” which the inventors wanted to develop as a
cure for AIDS.
Filing a patent is not the same as creating an effective cure for
something, as none of the same testing needs to take place to file a
patent. The patent has now expired.
“H1N1 US-Patent 8835624”
US Patent number 8835624 is for something called an aptamer,
which is a tiny strand of DNA or RNA which can bind to certain target
molecules on the surface of a pathogen. This patent number applies to an
aptamer that binds to H1N1 Influenza A, also known as swine flu. The
scientists applying for the patent wanted to use the aptamer to detect
the presence of the virus. The patent is not for the swine flu virus itself.
“Ebola US-Patent 20120251502”
US patent application publication number 2012/0251502 A1 is for a strain of human Ebola virus called EboBun and was applied for by the US Department of Health.
This does not mean the US government invented the virus. It applied
for the patent for the new virus, not to make money from its use, but so
it can allow companies to use the virus to create potential vaccines, and stop companies from restricting research around it.
According to the US Patent and Trademark Office, the status of the patent application is “abandoned”.
“Swine Flu US-Patent CA2741523”
This number is a patent application
number made by the US Centres of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
for the Ebola virus EboBun, not swine flu. This application was made to
the Canadian Intellectual Property Office. Again, the existence of this application does not mean the CDC invented the virus. The patent has not been granted.
“BSE US-Patent 0070031450 A1”
We couldn’t find a US patent or patent application with exactly this number. However, there is a now-abandoned patent, with an application number
only one digit away from this. This wasn’t a patent for BSE (Bovine
spongiform encephalopathy, commonly known as mad cow disease) itself,
but for a type of animal vaccine that included a protein resistant to
changes caused by BSE.
“ZIKA ATTC VR-84 (Rockefeller Foundation)”
This sequence of letters and numbers is not a patent or an application number—it’s just the name of a particular strain of the Zika virus. ATCC stands for the American Type Culture Collection,
which is an organisation that amongst other things, collects samples of
different pathogens. VR-84 is the name of the Zika strain that was
first isolated by scientists.
The Rockefeller Foundation did not patent the virus. The virus was
originally deposited into the ATCC by Dr Jordi Casals of the Rockefeller
Foundation Virus Laboratory in 1953. The original source was isolated from the blood of a rhesus monkey in 1947. According to the Rockefeller Foundation, other viruses were also identified at that laboratory, located in Uganda.
“SARS US-Patent 7897744 & 8506968”
The first number is a US patent for the genomic sequences for the SARS virus, applied for by the Canadian Public Health Agency.
This particular patent application was made in 2004, after the first
SARS outbreak in 2002. This does not mean the Canadian Public Health
Agency invented the SARS virus. The CDC also applied for a patent on
SARS, to keep information on it in the public domain. There was some concern
at the time that if private companies had patents to the genetic data
of the virus, it might hinder efforts to create vaccines or cures.
The second number is a now expired patent for “SARS vaccine compositions and methods of making and using them”.
“CORONAVIRUS US-Patent 10130701”
A patent application from 2015 does exist for one type of coronavirus, but not the same one as the new one identified in Wuhan, which has now been named Covid-19.
Coronavirus is a broad category of viruses that includes the common cold, SARS, and Covid-19.
The patent number mentioned here refers to a “live attenuated”
version of the avian infectious bronchitis virus (IBV). Live attenuated
IBV is essentially a weakened version of the virus, patented with the
aim of eventually developing it into a vaccine against the disease for birds and other animals. IBV is in the same family as the new Wuhan coronavirus (which is now known as Covid-19).
