Covid-19 mRNA Vaccines Are Not ‘Gene Therapy,’ As Some Are Claiming
The Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines are not designed to alter your genes. (Photo by: … [+]
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The Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines are not genes in a bottle.
Yet, some on social media are now suggesting that such mRNA vaccines are actually gene therapy. For example, Alex Berenson, who has described himself as a former reporter for The New York Times and a current thriller novel author, mentioned the words “gene therapy” in a recent tweet. And presumably he wasn’t referring to Gene Simmons therapy:
As you can see, Berenson’s tweet prompted a response and a correction from Seth Trueger, MD, MPH, an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Northwestern University.
Then there’s the “It’s Gene Therapy, Not a Vaccine with Dr. David Martin” podcast on the Weston A. Price Foundation website. This is the Foundation that once issued a press release entitled “FDA and CDC Bias Against Raw Milk.” Yes, the CDC has warned about the possibility of getting dangerous infections from raw milk, otherwise known as unpasteurized milk, as I covered previously from Forbes.
The Foundation website doesn’t really describe Martin’s scientific background, simply saying that “he received his Undergrad degree from Goshen College, Master’s of Science from Ball State University and Doctorate from the University of Virginia,” without specifying the actual subject matters of his degrees. So it isn’t clear why they chose him to talk about Covid-19 versus someone else who happened to go to college and some kind of graduate school.
On the podcast, Martin said the following: “The problem is that in the case of Moderna and Pfizer, this is not a vaccine. This is gene therapy. It’s a chemotherapy agent that is gene therapy. It is not a vaccine.” Chemotherapy? How did that word get in there? The National Cancer Institute (NCI) defines chemotherapy as “treatment that uses drugs to stop the growth of cancer cells, either by killing the cells or by stopping them from dividing.” Isn’t mentioning “chemotherapy” when you are talking about a vaccine against a virus like mentioning spaghetti and hot dogs when talking about building a bear in a Build A Bear Workshop? It’s mixing different things that don’t seem to be related.
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Martin then tried to explain, “What is this doing? It’s sending a strand of synthetic RNA into the human being and is invoking within the human being, the creation of the S1 spike protein, which is a pathogen. It’s a toxin inside of human beings. This is not only not keeping you from getting sick, it’s making your body produce the thing that makes you sick.”
No, no, no. Spike proteins line the surface of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV2), which looks like a spiky massage ball but shouldn’t be used as one. The spike protein helps the virus enter your cells. But the spike protein itself is not supposed to make you sick. Claiming that the spike protein alone is responsible for illness would be like claiming that a bleached blonde wig with frosted tips alone can cook like celebrity chef Guy Fieri.
The rest of the podcast didn’t exactly scream science. It included the statement by Martin that “Covid 19 is not a disease. It is a series of clinical symptoms. It is a giant umbrella of things associated with what used to be associated with influenza and with other febrile diseases.” No. Covid-19 is not a giant umbrella. Where the ella, ella, eh, eh did that come from? Covid-19 is not the flu either. Repeat, having Covid-19 is not the same as having influenza.
Oh, and holy conspiracy theories, Batman, Martin asserted that Anthony Fauci, MD, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) is “manipulating this situation to force a vaccine on a population.”
How much real evidence did Martin offer to support his claims? Well, the answer rhymes with “not much.” It’s easy to say anything when the interviewer doesn’t ask you to provide real concrete evidence behind what you are saying.
The Covid-19 mRNA vaccines are not gene therapy because they are not designed to alter or change your genes in any way. The U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) describes gene therapy as a technique that “may allow doctors to treat a disorder by inserting a gene into a patient’s cells instead of using drugs or surgery.” For example, doctors may be able to either inactivate or replace a mutated gene that isn’t functioning properly or place a new gene in your body that will do something to combat a disease.
A gene consists of DNA and serves as the “basic physical and functional unit of heredity,” according to the NLM. Messenger RNA, known as mRNA for short, is different from DNA. RNA stands for ribonucleic acid. DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid. DNA serves as the library for instructions to produce different proteins. When a cell wants to produce a protein, it uses the DNA to produce a copy of mRNA. That mRNA then serves as a blueprint for the protein that is built by the ribosomes in your cells. The DNA is in the nucleus of the cell. The ribosomes are not. Thus, the mRNA from a Covid-19 vaccine will not go into the nucleus but instead will simply go to the ribosomes, which in turn will manufacture the spike protein.
This PBS News Hour video shows this process and emphasizes that mRNA should not alter your DNA:
The Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines are not gene therapy. Repeat, these vaccines are not gene therapy. In fact, they don’t really involve your genes, unless Gene Simmons or Gene Hackman happen to be getting the vaccines. Or you accidentally drops the vaccines on your jeans and then misspell the word jeans.
