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different parts of the world. I suspect that the Her recent interests have focused on the role of The long list
reason for the gross differences in susceptibility toxic chemicals and micronutrient deficiencies of identified
is the underlying toxicity burden of the popula- in health and disease, with a special emphasis
tion in each region. Most striking are the major on glyphosate and Roundup. She has authored risk factors
hot spots around the world, starting with Wu- over three dozen peer-reviewed journal papers that lead to
han itself and then branching out to include the in recent years on these topics. a worse
Lombardy region of Italy and the northeastern
part of the United States. All of these hot spots REFERENCES outcome with
share a common thread of a high rate of adop- 1. John T. Iceland lab’s testing suggests 50% of coronavirus Covid-19
tion of fuels derived from biomass. And nearly 2. cases have no symptoms. CNN, April 3, 2020. aligns very
Carrington D. Coronavirus detected on particles of air
all of the biomass sources are probably heavily pollution. The Guardian, April 24, 2020.
contaminated with glyphosate. 3. Wu X, Nethery RC, Sabath BM et al. Exposure to air well with
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Air pollution has been recognized as a a nationwide cross-sectional study. medRxiv preprint. diseases
significant factor in increasing the population’s 4. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04.05.20054502. whose rates
Sapp M. New York state’s Clean Heating Fuel Tax Credit
infection rate. Both the nitrogen oxides and the extended through 2020. Biofuels Digest, January 2, 2017.
nanoparticles are surely contributing factors, 5. Wu Z, McGoogan JM. Characteristics of and important are going up
lessons from the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
but glyphosate may be the key factor that dis- outbreak in China: Summary of a report of 72,314 cases in lockstep
tinguishes the toxic effects of biodiesel as com- from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Preven- with
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Petrilli CM, Jones SA, Yang J et al. Factors associated
needs to be verified by scientific experiments, with hospitalization and critical illness among 4,103 glyphosate

but in the meantime it behooves us to take a patients with Covid-19 disease in New York City.
medRxiv preprint. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.04 usage in the
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The long list of identified risk factors that org/10.1101/2020.03.15.20035360.
lead to a worse outcome with Covid-19 aligns 8. Garg S, Kim L, Whitaker M et al. Hospitalization rates
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up in lockstep with glyphosate usage in the 14 States, March 1-30, 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly
Rep 2020;69(15):458-64.
United States. These risk factors may have 9. Swanson NL, Leu A, Abrahamson J et al. Genetically en-
only an indirect causal link, but they can serve gineered crops, glyphosate and the deterioration of health
in the United States of America. J Org Syst 2014;9:6-37.
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proteins. J Biol Phys Chem 2016;16:9-46.
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observed progression—from lung infection to 12. Seneff S, Causton NJ, Nigh GL et al. Can glyphosate’s
hypoxia to massive systemic inflammation to disruption of the gut microbiome and induction of sulfate
disseminated intravascular coagulation and deficiency explain the epidemic in gout and associated
diseases in the industrialized world? J Biol Phys Chem
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toxicity through disruption of protein function. ergistic toxicity in combination with other factors as a
cause of chronic kidney disease of unknown origin. Int
Political action to ban glyphosate across the J Environ Res Public Health 2019;16(15):2734.
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16. Tabatabaei M, Karimi K, Horváth IS et al. Recent trends
Dr. Stephanie Seneff is a senior research sci- in biodiesel production. Biofuel Research Journal
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