Amid global search for virus cure, former Jackson pastor eyes bees

A retired Cape Girardeau County pastor contends bee venom may hold promise for fighting COVID-19.

The Rev. Grant Gillard, who retired as pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Jackson in September 2018, kept bees locally for 25 years.

Gillard takes hope from a recent article in “Bee Culture,” a trade publication for U.S. beekeepers, suggesting people stung by bees may build up a tolerance that effectively keeps the coronavirus away.

The article quotes a survey done in China of 5,115 beekeepers between Feb. 23 and March 8, with 723 from Wuhan, the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic.

None, according to the article, developed symptoms consistent with COVID-19.

Grant Gillard checks on his beehives in May 2015 in Cape Girardeau County.Southeast Missourian file

“Apparently, bee venom is working on the COVID virus,” said Gillard, who himself kept 200 bee hives during his quarter-century in Jackson.

The survey noted many beekeepers live in rural areas of China but some hail from densely populated Wuhan.

Living in the city or the country doesn’t seem to matter.

“These people have one thing in common,” according to the article. “They develop a tolerance to bee sting.”

Months into a global pandemic caused by coronavirus, many around the world are searching for a cure — some are looking for a magic bullet, or insect.

Gillard acknowledged the promise of scientifically investigating bee sting with an eye toward a COVID-19 vaccine but believes few will take up the effort.

Gillard noted a significant drawback to a potential serious study of the effect of bee venom on the coronavirus.

“Harvesting venom is tedious (work),” he said, “(and) getting stung hurts.

“If you can handle the pain and the possible allergic aftereffect of a sting,” Gillard added, “there could be a breakthrough here.”

Gillard recalled a Cape Girardeau County woman, afflicted with multiple sclerosis, who convinced the beekeeper to sell her some bees.

“I sold her bees in a wire cage and she took them home and allowed them to sting her,” he said.

“She would bring me the cage back and I’d fill it with more bees,” Gillard remembered.

“The lady was convinced getting stung helped alleviate her MS,” he said.

Bees sting, the ex-Jackson clergyman said, to protect the colony.

“(A bee) literally gives its life because the stinger stays in a person’s skin, and without it, [the bee] can’t survive long,” Gillard said.

Gillard, who now lives in Holden, Missouri, and raises a much smaller colony of bees these days, said the life and death of bees perfectly illustrate the meaning behind a well-known New Testament passage about self-sacrifice.

“Greater love has no one than this,” John 15:13 reads, “that he who gives up his life for his friends.”