All of Clara Collier's Comments + Replies
My understanding is that #1 is false – PEPFAR funding is authorized by congress, the executive can't (legally) unilaterally cut it off. However, their funding is currently paused as part of a broader pause on all US foreign aid. Organizing people to call their senators and representatives (especially if these are Republicans) is a great thing to do right now – the ask is to exempt PEPFAR from the foreign aid pause. You might also tell them to say that PEPFAR is a program initiated by a Republican president which has enjoyed widespread bipartisan support for 25 years.
Okay, I think it would be helpful to clarify some definitions.
I read your use of "separate organization" to mean a fully independent organization not operating under the legal entity of Nonlinear at all. That's because you talk about Alice using Nonlinear's bank account, ops support, etc. as evidence that she does not have a separate org, while these things would all be perfectly normal for an incubated or fiscally sponsored org. Ben never claims, and never claims that Alice claimed, that she had a fully independent entity of this type. When he says ...
One of the big disputes here is over whether Alice was running her own incubated organization (which she could reasonably expect to spin out) or just another project under Nonlinear. Since Kat cites this as significant evidence for Alice's unreliability, I wanted to do a spot-check.
(Because many of the claims in this response are loosely paraphrased from Ben's original post, I've included a lot of quotes and screenshots to be clear about exactly who said what. Sorry for the length in advance.)
Let's start with claims in Ben's original post:
...Alice joine
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This is something I've been thinking a lot about, and I've consulted several people working in biosecurity at different organizations. I (edit: currently) think it's quite plausible to thread the needle of discussing what natural pandemics it's important to prepare for without giving actionable ideas to bad actors, but I agree it's something that would have to be treated with caution.
It would not be legal for USAID to cancel funding for PEPFAR after the reverse! Their funding comes from congress, executive agencies don't have the power to do that. It still might happen – such are the times – but it would be definitely flagrantly illegal.