Cancer genomics expert raises alarm re: Pfizer's mRNA Covid vaccine and DNA fragments

The following is from The Vaccine Reaction.

Phillip Buckhaults, a cancer genomics expert and professor at the University of South Carolina, has testified before a South Carolina Senate Medical Affairs Ad-Hoc Committee saying that Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine is contaminated with billions of tiny DNA fragments.

Buckhaults, who has a PhD in biochemistry and molecular biology, said “there is a very real hazard” that these fragments of foreign DNA can insert themselves into a person’s own genome and become a “permanent fixture of the cell.”

He said it’s a plausible mechanism for what might be “causing some of the rare but serious side effects like death from cardiac arrest” in people following mRNA vaccination.

Buckhaults is not an alarmist and has been reluctant to go public with his findings for fear of frightening people.

He himself was vaccinated three times with Pfizer’s Covid vaccine and recommended it to family and friends. He described the mRNA platform technology as “revolutionary” and said the vaccine has saved many lives.

“I’m a real fan of this platform,” Buckhaults told the Senate. “I think it has the potential to treat cancers, I really believe that this platform is revolutionary. In your lifetime, there will be mRNA vaccines against antigens in your unique cancer. But they’ve got to get this problem fixed.”

Buckhaults is most concerned about the “very real theoretical risk of future cancer in some people, depending on where this foreign piece of DNA lands in the genome, it can interrupt a tumour suppressor gene or activate an oncogene.”

“I’m kind of alarmed about this DNA being in the vaccine… DNA is a long-lived information storage device. It’s what you were born with, you’re going to die with and pass on to your kids. … So alterations to the DNA… well, they stick around,” he said.

Buckhaults believes the vaccines were deployed in good faith, but given the panic and urgency of the crisis, “there were a lot of shortcuts taken.”

How Did the Vials End Up Contaminated With DNA?

Buckhaults explained how two different manufacturing processes were used to make Pfizer’s vaccine.

The initial production of Pfizer’s Covid vaccine used a method called Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) to amplify the DNA template that was then used for production of the mRNA. This method, called PROCESS 1, can be used to make a highly pure mRNA product.

However, in order to upscale the process for large-scale distribution of the vaccine to the population for its “emergency authorisation” supply, Pfizer switched to a different method—PROCESS 2—to amplify the mRNA.

PROCESS 2 used bacteria to make large quantities of “DNA plasmid” (circular DNA instructions), which would be used to make the mRNA. Hence, the final product contained both plasmid DNA and mRNA.

The switch from PROCESS 1 to PROCESS 2, ultimately resulted in the contamination of the vaccine

Pfizer tried to deal with the problem by adding an enzyme (DNAse) to chop up the plasmid into millions of tiny fragments.

But Buckhaults said it made the situation worse because the more fragments you have, the greater the chance that one of the fragments inserts itself into the genome and disrupts a vital gene.

“[Pfizer] chopped them up to try to make them go away, but they actually increased the hazard of genome modification in the process,” explained Buckhaults.

“I don’t think there was anything nefarious here, I just think it was kind of a dumb oversight,” he added. “They just didn’t think about the hazard of genome modification… it’s not all that expensive to add another process to get it out.”

A BMJ investigation found that batches of vaccine derived from PROCESS 2, were shown to have substantially lower mRNA integrity, and some say these vaccines have been associated with greater adverse events.

Buckhault’s research is not an outlier. Genomics expert Kevin McKernan has also reported plasmid DNA contamination in both Pfizer and Moderna bivalent COVID-19 vaccines, in amounts that far exceeded the safety limit set by the FDA. (Continued….)

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