GMO decision ... Appearances .. Family, friends, and professional acquaintances

.. success in life is all about relationships .. relationships

good Substack folk,

yesterday's information on Justice Rofe failing to disclose a most significant prior relationship with Pfizer has folk angry and unhappy

.. the comments left in the article clearly convey community sentiment

The People are not happy with this development

the picture colours further shades when one looks to family ties with Covid research funding, millions in grant money from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Australian science organisations scrambling for a piece of the modRNA development pie

.. now to begin, appearances are everything

and

.. appearances may very well not be as they appear, but to the guy in the street (you and me) it is where we all must begin

so a few items

Her Honour appears to have enjoyed a good relationship with her departed cousin, Sir Andrew Grimwade .. Sir Andrew was a powerhouse

.. Sir Andrew you will recall attended the 2021 Federal Court swearing-in of Justice Rofe and was mentioned more than once .. a most distinguished guest

before 2021 Justice Rofe served as the Acting Chair on the Human Research and Ethics Committee (HREC) at Bolton Clarke from December 2018 to September 2021

Bolton Clarke received research grants from the Felton Bequest which Sir Andrew was on the Board of Trustees of, until his death in early 2023

.. point being, Justice Rofe and Sir Andrew appear to have maintained close contact involving common scientific endeavours

Sir Andrew was on the Board of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute' (WEHI) for 15 years, 14 of those as President, retiring from the Board in 1993

the WEHI is Australia's largest medical research institute and has been around since 1915 .. they are very big cheese

until his death in January 2023, Sir Andrew appears to have kept up close contacts with the WEHI .. as his obituary confirms .. he appears to have run in the same circles all of his life especially after steering the WEHI .. as we all often do .. such is life

from the start of Covid the WEHI received lots of Australian government funding for Covid projects .. $13.5MM

the WEHI has also received over US$30MM in grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation since 2007

.. and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has also provided over US$180MM to Pfizer, BioNTech, and Moderna

.. and Bill we all know, made Billions off of Covid .. modRNA is one of his favourite things

and lastly .. for now

WEHI Director, Professor Doug Hilton, is part of the Scientific Advisory Group for the Victorian government initiative mRNA Victoria Research Acceleration Fund .. that has also seen money go to the WEHI for modRNA projects

.. so we can say for the WEHI .. its modRNA all the way

and let us not forget ..

Moderna has entered into a 10 year contract with the Australian government to manufacture 100 million doses of mRNA vaccines per year

and we all know Her Honour holds a Bachelor of Science with a major in genetics .. genetics are modRNA territory, like it or not

now returning to the guy in the street .. you and me

what we can see above is a cousin (Sir Andrew) with a very long and confirmed history of scientific interests, which interest he shared with Her Honour

those interests involved a multitude of funding sources, which all require that a multitude of relationships be maintained for those funding sources to continue

.. lots of functions, dinners, meetings, and cocktail parties

.. and from time to time, meetings and dinners with old friends who fly in on private jets

.. now I think it is fair to observe

.. when you come from a family with powerful and historic influences and you partake in common business initiatives, one tends to support all of those initiatives in order to preserve the common enterprise and historic family influence

.. and that often means supporting all those associated, particularly sources of great funding

.. now here we are

all of this, along with her Honour representing Pfizer on at least 4 significant court actions obligated her Honour to notify the parties of the possible conflicts, even perceived

that would ordinarily occur at the start of any court action

That did not occur ... and that's what makes this situation not pass the pub test

Finally, it is not as if we have a shortage of Federal Court judges Australia .. not that this observation is any excuse

.. in Melbourne alone, 14 Federal Court judges preside .. plenty to avoid raising the spectre of an apprehension of bias

I will leave it at that for now

.. and a hat/tip for much of the above from an intrepid reader

look forward to your comments and anything further readers can add