Last Updated on May 8, 2020
According to a report, the blood of “recovered COVID-19 patients” is commanding a fair price on the darknet as several people around the world suffer and panic amid the global coronavirus pandemic.
Vice News reported on the what has been promised to prospective buyers as being “a life immunity against coronavirus,” with 19 such products available fetching up to $21,600 AUD–approximately $14,000–per litre of blood.
The products, sourced from a range of doctors from around the world, were distributed from Sweden.
International buyers are seeking to inject the product as a means to immunize themselves from the deadly COVID-19, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives around the globe.
According the report extract from the Australian Institute of Criminology:
Twenty Tor darknet markets were surveyed on 3 April 2020 to conduct a census of COVID-19 related medical products and supplies. There were 645 listings, including 222 unique listings, of COVID-19 related products across 12 markets. Three markets accounted for 85 percent of all unique listings identified.
Of the 110 vendors identified, eight were active in multiple markets. A small proportion of vendors accounted for most listings. The estimated value of all unique listings was A$369,000.
Personal protective equipment accounted for nearly half of all unique listings, and one third of products were antiviral or repurposed medicines. Supposed vaccines, tests and diagnostic instruments each accounted for nearly 10 percent of listings.
Speaking with ABC, Rod Broadhurst, the leader of the Australia National University (ANU) research, referring to the bizarre practice emerging, he said “The word I think is passive vaccination, where the blood plasma of a recovered COVID-19 patient is harvested for the antibodies and that is then used to inject into someone who may be at risk of COVID-19.”
He added, “The idea of any kind of black market is that there will be some people who may be prepared to be jumping ahead of the queue if you like and taking a punt on a vaccine that’s undergoing trial.”
Of the 20 sites under investigation, three account for 90% of the products on sale.
The recent coronavirus crisis has led to rumors of organ harvesting of political and religious dissidents in China to resurface following a statistically improbable double lung transplant of a Covid-19 patient.
Before the coronavirus global pandemic, National File revealed how selling blood became a way of life for many disaffected Americas.
Via National File:
America is one of the leading first world countries to export their citizen’s blood: around 70% of global plasma comes from the US, 16.3% ($1.4 billion) of all blood exported in 2018 came from the US, placing them second in the global ranking–with Ireland at number one boasting a shocking 37.8%–and between 2014-2018 the US posted an increase of 165.4%, according to World’s Top Exports.
Perhaps, most shockingly, comes the revelation that the total dollar worth of all American blood extracted at the source is around 2% of the country’s total exports.