The Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN) has uncovered a marketing and branding change for one of the developers of “self-spreading vaccines.” Autonomous Therapeutics previously said they develop “artificial immune systems that are inhalable and variant-proof —using a new class of RNA, known as encrypted RNA™.” The company’s website has now updated the front page summary to say they develop “precision medicines that are disease-activated and resistance-proof. We use a new class of RNA, known as encRNA.”

ICAN has been sounding the alarm about the serious potential threat these “inhalable” vaccines pose to the public who would be exposed without knowledge and consent. The organization believes the marketing slogan change is a result of increased attention from the segment that appeared on The HighWire. 

Dr. Ariel Weinberger, the CEO and founder of Autonomous Therapeutics, and Dr. Timothy Notton, the chief scientific officer, co-authored a paper in 2014 making the case for “transmissible antivirals to control population-wide infectious diseases.” They consider transmissible vaccines a way to “therapeutically target the highest-risk populations, circumvent behavioral barriers, and overcome pathogen persistence and resistance mechanisms.”

“Behavioral barriers” refer to the lack of vaccine uptake by members of the public that are deemed to be “vaccine hesitant.” In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and Operation Warp Speed, there has been a notable increase in vaccine skepticism. That is the basis for the stunning admissions of insufficient safety and efficacy studies by the Godfather of Vaccines, Stanley Plotkin, which was reported by The HighWire earlier this month.

The COVID-19 origin discussion is still in full force, as the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic has questioned public health officials about the risky gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which was a likely source for the virus that sparked the global pandemic. The Highwire interviewed Justin Goodman of the White Coat Waste Project and Biologist Dr. Bryce Nickels about the risks of this research, and they both said the only purpose of doing this laboratory research is to create bio-weapons.

Vaccine hesitancy has increased partly as a result of public health officials trying to cover up the dangerous research in Wuhan. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is responsible for developing technologies for use by the military. DARPA has been funding gain-of-function research on dangerous viruses, and they are also giving millions of dollars to Autonomous Therapeutics to study and bring “inhalable, self-spreading” vaccines to the market.

Autonomous Therapeutics also highlights Dr. Notton’s inclusion on a list of scientists named as “DARPA Risers” during the 60th anniversary of the agency. His work with “inhalable” lipid nanoparticle platforms is also mentioned on his website bio.

The website touts partnerships with DARPA, the Department of Defense, and the NIH. It also lists IQT, as a “top investor in defense and national security startups. IQT mentions its government partnerships on its website. “IQT’s unique approach pairing high-tech problem solvers with government challenges has produced countless impactful solutions for the CIA; DIA; FBI; NGA; NRO; NSA; DHS (including CBP and other DHS components); U.S. Cyber Command; and the U.K. and Australian national intelligence communities. We recently welcomed the Office of Naval Research (ONR), U.S. Central Command, and U.S. Space Force as new government partners and look forward to supporting their missions too.”

Another partnership is Blue Knight, described as “This joint initiative was created between Johnson & Johnson Innovation and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Blue Knight is a collaboration dedicated to anticipating potential health security threats, activating the global innovation community, and amplifying scientific and technological advancements with the aim of preparing for and responding to our rapidly evolving global health environment.”

Several government agencies are involved with pushing this technology forward, and Congress also passed the PREVENT Pandemics Act, which allows the “development and review of new treatments and countermeasures that use cutting-edge, adaptable platform technologies that can be incorporated or used in more than one drug or biological product.”

An ICAN press release from February states, “This Act will also be used to fund a new HHS government agency called ARPA-H (Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health), which was created in 2023 to “take big technical risks that can spark new biomedical breakthroughs” and “revolutionize the detections, diagnosis, mitigation, prevention, treatment and cure of diseases and health conditions.” Both former NIH Director Francis Collins and HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra supported the agency’s creation, and Collins described his vision for ARPA-H as “a DARPA-like culture at NIH.””

Former HHS Director Tevi Troy is on the board for Autonomous Therapeutics and wrote a “guest commentary” article for BioCentury.com arguing that “warp speed isn’t fast enough” and that there is an urgent need for variant-proof therapeutics.

VxBiosciences is the other primary company working on this technology in collaboration with the J. David Gladstone Institutes, led by Leor Weinberger, Ariel’s brother. Leor Weinberger has also conducted studies alongside his brother and “served on the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation review panel.” Weinberger is currently suing VxBiosciences for breach of contract.

VxBiosciences received $4.8 million from the HHS to develop a “new paradigm for pandemic prevention.” The project description states that the co-evolving, replicating, and self-renewing SARS-COV2 therapies are needed to “circumvent compliance issues.” The therapy will be part of a “co-evolutionary arms race, co-evolving with wild-type virus to overcome resistance.” The innovative therapy would “surmount the universal barriers to pandemic control and lower prevalence for many viruses below levels achievable by vaccination or antiviral therapy campaigns.” The therapy will “utilize superspreaders to deploy the intervention.”

The ICAN attorneys are attempting to gather more information from federal agencies. Through FOIA requests, they have requested information from DARPA, DOI, the Navy, and NIH.