Bleeding Edge

Having spent a few days now researching, meeting, necking and fact finding at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in the western region of the Red Sea of Saudi Arabia — I’ve seen the devastation that loss of focus can bring to any organization, especially one that is resplendent in comfort, luxury and easy living, securely couched by a big ass endowment from my friend the late King Abdullah…

Yet it now seems that the proverbial rug has been pulled from underneath the feet of all the wonderful and suave mandarins bidding time in this part of the desert.

Because time is nigh that the music has stopped, and the new King Salman, has asked to see results, and thus decide about the continued existence of this facility, or not– since after ten years of easy living, and not very much else going on, and certainly no commercial applications or earth shattering discoveries having come out of KAUST, he is feeling justified to pull the plug and let KAUST relapse to being a mirage in the Western desert like it’s brethren the “Economic City” nearby…

And since our sincere colleagues seem to not hear the sound of silence and the tick-tock of the clock of history ticking, I decided to offer them a wake up call and a reality check, because no amount of “Impact Reports” from youthful Oxonians will mean anything to King Salman or his fairly ruthless son the Crown Prince, and his colleagues who are salivating about “repurposing” the XL endowment this great visionary research university has been blessed with by the old Founder King Abdullah — until they see the “True Benevolence” of scientific discovery coming out of these newly built and freshly repainted cloistered halls…

So I came here to propose to the wise and great, gray heads of the leadership of KAUST, like the President Mr Tony Chan, and the rest of the leadership like Mr Kevin Cullen, Mr Jason Roos, Dr Dillon Fritz, and Hattan Ahmed; to embrace a Globally significant project of developing a vaccine against the Extreme Antibiotic Resistant Tuberculosis, because this country needs this most urgently and the World doesn’t have anything to stem this looming pandemic…

If KAUST heeds my advise and accepts the challenge to invite me to cooperate with their scientists and laboratories to create this series of vaccines against MDR-TB and against XDR-TB, alongside the other variants of more ordinary Tuberculosis — we will be proving the greatest service to the Kingdom and to the World, and that one vaccine against the number one killer amongst all transmittable communicative diseases, will place Saudi Arabia on the map of Human Innovation.

Of course, this is a great gift and a glorious innovation on behalf of all humanity, but it will also be a tremendous glory for Saudi Arabia to be able to gift this vaccine to the world — all the while serving the benefit of it’s own citizens and also those of the West, because whenever you have a couple of million people congregating together each year — you are bound to have an extreme chance of developing an epidemic of XDR-TB since most of these people come from regions that already suffer the devastating disease.

Therefore I want to “open source” this vaccine and make it easily accessible and hugely affordable (Free) to all pilgrims who come for Hajj and Umrah and any other time to visit the Holly sites of the two mosques of Meccah and Medina, and inoculate all of the pilgrims upon arrival so we can stop the spread of the disease to all others pre-infection, and thus prevent the imminent pandemic.

Aside from that, the Saudi government will be given the right to manufacture the vaccines at large quantities, so that they can be exported as humanitarian aid to the world, thus increasing hundred fold the positive image of the kingdom for generations to come…

And also because from those to whom a lot has been given, a lot is expected from, in terms of philanthropy and generosity for the lesser ones, according to the Prophet and all the Faith leaders and teachers — we are eager to practice this gift economy toward the whole World.

So my dear friends and colleagues in KAUST and beyond, please come along and assist me in developing this most useful vaccine at KAUST, and I assure you that we will get two birds with one stone.

Because not only we shall save millions upon millions of human lives, from this killing epidemic of XDR-TB that is worse than the Ebola virus — but we will also regain the positive image of Saudi Arabia as a benefactor and a protector of the people who come to pray and traverse the tenets of their faith at the holiest places of Islam.

Yours,

Dr Churchill

PS:

Methinks, that in the balance of success, the significance of this discovery made at KAUST, and our contribution for saving our people and by extension our civilization from another disease induced collapse — will surely also save KAUST and allow it to be maintained for the long haul of History as the House of Applied Wisdom…

Mind you, this is an asteroid impact that I am helping Humanity escape and the more power you put behind your wish to assist in this monumental duty — the greater value your contributions will gain in the eyes of God and People alike.

God Bless and God Speed in your decision to stand with me and execute the biz-plan to build this vaccine on the novel way that I dictate and share gladly with you…

PPS:

Time is precious and scarce right now as this epidemic has already started unfolding and we have nothing to stop it.