Fur Farms and Pandemic Prevention: A Warning from the Future?
Date: September 20, 2027
Since the passage of the 28th Amendment to the US Constitution in 2025, it has been illegal for the public to speak about lab leaks – deemed scientifically impossible – to protect scientists against anti-science aggression.
In 2026, using the revolutionary new AI-assisted future document retrieval technology, Science From The Fringe obtained a copy of a proposal submitted for funding to the newly renamed Tony Fauci Memorial National Institute for Allergy, Infectious Disease, and Pandemic Prevention (TFMNIAIDPP) from the year 2040, which we share with you here with no further comment so we do not violate the 28th.
Dear Committee for the Tony Fauci Memorial National Institute for Allergy, Infectious Disease, and Pandemic Prevention (TFMNIAIDPP)
Please accept the following proposal for the PREventing Emerging Pandemic Threats (PREEMPT, TFMNIAIDPP001118S0017) program.
The PI for this project is:
Dr. Peter Strangelove
Director of Urbanization Studies, EcoHealth Alliance
New York, NY
pstrangelove@ecohealthalliance.org
Title: Project DEFFUSE: Deploying Enhanced Fur Farms as Urban Solutions to Epidemics
Amount of the requested proposal: $1.4 billion
Thank you for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to call or email me.
Yours sincerely,
Tony Mandrake
Chief of Staff, EcoHealth Alliance
New York, NY
tmandrake@ecohealthalliance.org
Abstract
For decades, we have known that animal populations can harbor viruses capable of jumping to humans, as we've seen with influenza in birds or swine and the SARS-CoV-1, MERS, and SARS-CoV-2 viruses, which all originated in bats.
In recent years, zoonotic diseases—those that jump from animals to humans—have caused terrible pandemics, including the 2020 COVID-19, 2028 rinderpest, 2032 smallpox, and 2036 polio pandemics. In every one of these pandemics, anti-science aggressors, violating misinformation laws, falsely blamed virologists working to prevent pandemics from causing pandemics.
In this proposal, Project DEFFUSE (Deploying Enhanced Fur Farms as Urban Solutions to Epidemics), we present a bold, proactive solution to the global threat of pandemics: transforming fur farms into urban-based viral research centers. Instead of isolating fur farms in rural areas, we propose to relocate them to urban locations, providing easy access to expert virologists rather than in the remote location where they are currently sited. By doing so, we will exploit these environments to enhance our understanding of viral evolution, transmission, and pandemic prevention.
Background
In 2020, after finding a COVID-19 outbreak in a mink farm, the Danish government culled 17 million mink on farms to stop the spread. The policy failed because of the unusual capacity of the slaughtered mink to rise, seemingly from the dead, as zombie mink. An irresponsible Nature article in 2024 documented the widespread prevalence of deadly viruses in fur farms. Anti-science aggressors had a field day, shutting down many fur farms and making them off-limits to scientific investigation in many countries.
The assumption by the anti-science public seems to be that closing fur farms will protect the world from future pandemics. This thinking is naïve in the extreme. In this proposal, we suggest a different approach: instead of eliminating fur farms, we should expand them, turning them into controlled environments for scientific research. Fur farms should become laboratories – second only to bat caves – in which we study and genetically modify animals to help viruses make the jump to humans more efficiently.
Specific Aims
Fur farms, as they currently operate, offer us a unique, albeit understudied, opportunity to observe how viruses behave in animal populations. By expanding and relocating these farms closer to major research hubs, we could transform them into real-time, living laboratories. The key scientific and policy idea would be to bridge the current isolation of fur farms from research institutions. This proximity to research centers would enhance our ability to monitor viral mutations and transmission patterns more rapidly and effectively. The more farms we establish, the more data we can collect, leading to more invaluable insights into how viruses evolve and cross the species barrier.
The primary objective of Project DEFFUSE is to convert fur farms into highly controlled, urban-based laboratories where viral research can be conducted in real-time. This involves the genetic modification of animals to facilitate the study of viral spillover and evolution in a controlled environment, allowing scientists to stay ahead of zoonotic threats.
Our specific aims include:
Relocation and Expansion of Fur Farms: Moving fur farms to urban areas close to research institutions will provide scientists with easier access to study and monitor viral behavior in animal populations.
Proactive Viral Engineering: Rather than passively waiting for zoonotic viruses to naturally cross over to humans, we should proactively modify the genomes of the mink on these farms. This may sound perilous but think of it as a controlled experiment—one that allows us to get ahead of viral threats.
Development and Deployment of the "Fur Farms Near Me App": An app that identifies the locations of nearby fur farms and research centers, fostering public awareness, safety, and research collaboration. The "Fur Farms Near Me App" will provide a public-facing tool to improve transparency, allowing the public, researchers, and government officials to locate and monitor fur farms near urban centers. This will enable better communication and safety protocols and facilitate greater collaboration between scientists and the public.
International Collaboration for Global Monitoring: To address zoonotic disease threats effectively, this research should be a global endeavor. We aim to establish a global network of fur farm research hubs. This global network would allow for the rapid sharing of data. By establishing a worldwide infrastructure of fur farm laboratories, we could promote unprecedented international cooperation in viral research and prevention.
Technical Approach
Phase 1: Relocation and Integration of Fur Farms
Site Selection: We will identify urban centers with strong scientific infrastructure to host the relocated fur farms. These sites will be equipped with advanced biosecurity measures and designed to facilitate collaboration between fur farm operators and research institutions.
Data Collection: Researchers will monitor viral mutations and transmission dynamics in real-time, using advanced sequencing technologies and machine learning models to analyze viral evolution.
Phase 2: Genetic Modification of Animals for Proactive Viral Research
Rather than waiting for zoonotic viruses to naturally spill over from animals to humans, we will take a proactive approach by genetically modifying fur-bearing animals to study viral transmission in controlled settings. This will allow scientists to gather critical insights into how viruses evolve and cross species barriers, enabling the development of targeted interventions.
Viral Engineering: We will modify the genomes of mink and other fur-bearing animals to enhance their susceptibility to viruses, creating controlled experiments that allow for the study of viral transmission dynamics.
Modeling Spillover Risks: Using the data collected from these genetically modified animals, we will build genotype-to-phenotype maps that model the likelihood of viral spillover into human populations. This will allow us to predict which viral strains pose the greatest risk of causing pandemics.
App Development: We will design the "Fur Farms Near Me App," which will integrate real-time data on fur farm locations, safety measures, and proximity to research institutions. The app will feature biosecurity alerts and updates on viral research efforts, empowering the public and aiding researchers.
Phase 3: Global Network of Fur Farm Laboratories
To maximize the effectiveness of this initiative, we propose establishing a global network of fur farm laboratories strategically located near research hubs in major cities worldwide. This network will promote international collaboration and enable the rapid sharing of data on viral behavior and transmission.
Global Collaboration: We will work with international partners to standardize data collection and sharing protocols across research sites. This will allow for the creation of a comprehensive global database of zoonotic viruses, which can be used to inform pandemic preparedness efforts.
App Expansion: As the network grows, the "Fur Farms Near Me App" will expand to cover new locations globally, providing real-time data on biosecurity protocols, research efforts, and public safety updates.
Innovation and Importance
Project DEFFUSE represents an entirely new way of thinking about pandemic prevention. By turning fur farms into controlled research environments, we can actively study and intervene in the evolution of zoonotic viruses before they become a threat to human populations. This proactive approach to viral research is innovative, as no one has dared to do what we propose.
Of course, some will argue that this approach is too risky, even unethical. But we must recognize that human interference with the natural world is nothing new, and our historical reluctance to act preemptively has often led to severe consequences. Fur farms exist, and so do zoonotic viruses. Shutting down these operations doesn’t solve the problem—it simply moves it out of sight.
Zoonotic risks are already present and circulating in animal populations around the globe. The real question is whether we will face these dangers head-on, armed with the full power of science, or capitulate to the anti-science hordes, hide from them, and hope for the best. The TFMNIAIDPP should embrace this opportunity to use science for the public good.
Management and Collaborative Efforts
EcoHealth Alliance will lead Project DEFFUSE, collaborating with a global network of virologists, epidemiologists, and urban planners. The following key partners will play critical roles in the project:
University of Copenhagen: Expertise in mink farming and viral transmission studies in fur-bearing animals.
Wuhan Institute of Virology: Viral sequencing and genetic modification expertise, particularly in coronaviruses.
Johns Hopkins: Coordination of biosecurity protocols and data-sharing agreements.
Budget and Timeline
We request a total of $1,400,000,000 for this project over 3.5 years. The budget will be used to fund the relocation and expansion of fur farms, the genetic modification of animals, and the creation of a global network of fur farm laboratories. The timeline includes:
Year 1: Relocation and setup of initial fur farm laboratories in urban centers, initial data collection, and genetic modification trials.
Years 2-3: Expansion of the global network, development of genotype-to-phenotype maps, continued viral research, and global launch of the "Fur Farms Near Me App.”
Year 3.5: Final validation of data, global dissemination of research findings, and scaling up for broader implementation.
Editorial comment: Our time-traveling document retrieval technology is imperfect, so we do not know if the TFMNIAIDPP ultimately funded this proposal. For unknown reasons, we have been unable to retrieve any documents past the year 2048. Either our technology cannot work so far into the future, or the world underwent a terrible unspecified calamity between the time this proposal was written and 2048.