mRNA vaccines are not just about COVID and threatened bans risks the future of cancer care!
Demystifying messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines and debunking the myths
This is adapted from a post that appeared on Sheena Cruickshank’s substack.
Vaccine development has had a huge impact on our health and longevity. In the last 50 years its estimated vaccines have saved over 150 million lives. Vaccine design has changed enormously since the early days of Jenner and Pasteur; becoming increasingly more sophisticated as our understanding of immunology and infections has become more advanced.
However, the pace of scientific development does not necessarily equate to wider public understanding. This mismatch can lead to confusion and even vaccine hesitancy among the public. Vaccine hesitancy and confusion about vaccines can be further fuelled by misinformation (misunderstanding) and disinformation (deliberate spreading of incorrect information). This issue of mis-and dis-information has been especially acute and severe with regards to the “messenger RNA” (mRNA) vaccines. This is perhaps because this type of vaccine uses a technology that will be unfamiliar for many people, despite having been in use for decades. To this end, we at Independent SAGE have put together a document that hopes to address common queries, demystify the technology as well as debunking common myths.
What is an mRNA vaccine?
First of all I just want to clarify what mRNA is - in simple terms mRNA is a recipe for how to make a specific protein. It is a fundamental component of all life on our planet which conveys the information (DNA) from our genes to enable us to make the specific proteins we need to survive. As such, mRNA vaccines contain the genetic “recipe” corresponding to part of the pathogen or disease they target.
What does this mean in practice? When the mRNA vaccine is administered, cells at the site of injection take up the mRNA and follow the instructions to make the target protein-this is exactly what happens when cells get infected with a pathogen. Our immune cells can detect the change in the cell and then react accordingly to start mounting a protective immune response. However, UNLIKE a pathogen the vaccine mRNA instructions to make the protein are temporary. The mRNA from the vaccine is short-lived, like all mRNA is. We have special enzymes that recognise and chop up mRNA- these enzymes are called RNAses.
Were mRNA vaccines that were used during the peak of the pandemic new technology?
Whilst mRNA vaccines may have seemed like the new kid on the block when the mRNA vaccines for COVID were rolled out in 2020 in fact that was not the case at all! The SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines for COVID were made possible by years of research and clinical development into mRNA vaccine technology as well as research into SARS and MERS (diseases caused by coronaviruses related to SARS-CoV-2).
The first human clinical trial for an mRNA vaccine was against rabies virus and took place in 2013. A trial for an influenza vaccine followed in 2015. Multiple other vaccines targeting other infections and cancers were in human clinical trials before the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. All had shown promising results and no major safety concerns. Given how flexible mRNA vaccine technology is, it was inevitable it would be investigated and of interest to address the desperate need for a global COVID-19 vaccine. In fact, compared to more traditional vaccine approaches tested (such as whole, inactivated virus), the mRNA vaccines by far outperformed the other vaccines that were used in 2020/21. This was true both for lab measurements of immunity and for real-world efficacy, i.e. stopping the majority of people developing severe COVID-19 or dying.
Why are mRNA vaccines under threat?
There has been a lot of misinformation and disinformation about vaccines and especially mRNA vaccines. This has become particularly politicised in the United States. For example, Joseph Ladapo, Florida’s surgeon general, has been an outspoken critic of vaccines. In January 2024, he called for a halt in the distribution and use of mRNA Covid boosters claiming that the vaccines could integrate into our genome. This is NOT TRUE nor is it even remotely possible. The mRNA delivered by the vaccine cannot enter the cell nucleus, where your DNA is stored, and will in fact degrade naturally within our cells within a few hours. The vaccines have NONE of the machinery that is needed to even incorporate into DNA. Ladapo has also suggested the vaccines cause cancer despite there being NO scientific evidence linking the vaccines to cancer. In fact, his misleading claims about mRNA vaccines have been regularly debunked. His actions led him to be shown to violate his university’s rules against careless, irregular, or contentious research practices. However, his is not the only prominent voice making spurious claims about mRNA vaccines.
Several (predominantly Republican) states in the US are now considering bills to limit or ban the use of messenger RNA vaccines. Bills introduced in Texas propose to ban the administration, manufacture or sale of mRNA vaccines there. Legislation in Kentucky would prevent the use of mRNA vaccines in kids under the age of 18 and in Idaho a Republican state senator has proposed a 10-year moratorium on mRNA vaccine administration. A bill introduced by Republicans in Minnesota state legislature goes several steps further calling mRNA vaccines "weapons of mass destruction" - and if this bill is passed would carry punishment of up to 20 years in prison for possessing or administering them. Whilst several of these state measures are unlikely to pass into law, the rampant disinformation that is being spread is extremely concerning as is the sentiments they express.
Changes in law are not the only way that access to mRNA vaccines in the States may be curbed. The new head of the NIH Bhattacharya said he would support pulling the regulatory authorization for the marketing of the Covid mRNA vaccines in a post on X in June 2024. Furthermore, the lead for health policy in the US - Robert Kennedy Jr is a known long-standing vaccine sceptic who has previously criticized the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. Since the new administration has come into power it is notable that contracts with Moderna for mRNA vaccines are being reviewed for example for bird flu and flu. Research grants researching the technology are amongst the vast swathes of grants that are being paused whilst the NIH, NHF and DOGE re-assesses them and scientists warned to avoid submitting research using mRNA vaccine technology.
Why does it matter if research and access to mRNA vaccines is reduced?
mRNA vaccines have several advantages over other vaccine platforms including their flexibility in the targets they are developed to. This means that the list of applications for mRNA vaccines are growing and include not just infectious disease but also cancers. This not to say other vaccine platforms are not important- they very much are and there is a place for a variety of vaccine platform types especially in the context of infectious disease.
However for cancer, mRNA vaccines have the potential to change the landscape for treatment of some types of cancer that been so resistant to standard immunotherapies such as pancreatic cancer. The fact that the mRNA vaccine platform is so flexible means that it can be tailored to enable the development of personalised cancer vaccines. These vaccines train the immune system to recognise and attack a patient’s own cancer cells, thereby helping to prevent the disease from coming back. Here the goal is to use mRNA vaccines to teach the immune system to fight cancer by targeting proteins called “neoantigens”, which are unique to a person’s cancer cells. This has the potential to revolutionise cancer care, especially with cancers that are difficult to target with targeted chemotherapies, radiotherapy, or immunotherapy. Trials for several cancer vaccines are well under way. Measures that hinder research and or access to mRNA vaccines therefore has grave implications for the future of cancer treatment - something that is not being made clear by those attacking the vaccines.
We believe it’s important and timely to provide some clarity about mRNA vaccines. To this end, we have assembled some reliable information about how vaccines work and specifically what mRNA vaccines are. We hope that this will help people to understand these products better and so make informed decisions about vaccination.
Whether you choose to receive a vaccine, or to access one for your children, is a personal choice, but we want to make it easier for that decision to be an informed one.
Ain't convinced vaccine has done so.
https://bailiwicknews.substack.com/p/are-vaccines-biological-and-chemical
Charles Richet (Anaphylaxis, 1913) demonstrated that anaphylaxis is anything from mild rash to shock. And it has the same underlying mechanism. Now, later on the science has demonstrated, well, there are different antibodies and different things that happen with mild versus not mild, but the outcome is the same. The body gets sensitized by injection to whatever was injected and the injection specifically of proteins. It does not have to be toxic at all or considered toxic.
As long as you inject protein directly into the bloodstream, bypassing the digestive tract, that sets up the state of anaphylaxis. By ingesting proteins [through the digestive tract], we can ingest almost anything....Our digestive tract deals with proteins extremely well. It disassembles them and then we reassemble our own.
Now, when you inject foreign protein, our entire system is designed in such a way that we reject non-self proteins. And so anything, even what you think is benign, like milk, will become poisonous and can kill somebody...
What [Richet] found...working on these early attempts at vaccinations [is] that it's unpredictable which — so not 100% of the population injected will react that way. This makes it even more sinister. It's unpredictable which people or animals when injected will go into the state of anaphylaxis.
Nothing in this persons propaganda piece is true. But lets start with disinformation causing “vaccine hesitancy”. The mRNA vaccine is currently the subject of thousands of studies globally. There is more research on mRNA right now than there has been for any other medicine or vaccine in history, and hundreds of studies have been completed, many being peer reviewed or repeated. So why do you hear about none of these studies in the mainstream media? Why are these studies downranked in search engines? Because it isn’t misinformation that is causing people to avoid the jab, it’s science. Virtually all of the current research shows that mRNA sickens and kills the vaccinees.
Lie #1
However, UNLIKE a pathogen the vaccine mRNA instructions to make the protein are temporary. The mRNA from the vaccine is short-lived, like all mRNA is.
Bullshit,
“According to the CDC, both Pfizer and Moderna COVID‐19 vaccines contain nucleoside‐modified messenger RNA (mRNA) encoding the viral spike glycoprotein of severe acute respiratory syndrome caused by corona virus (SARS‐CoV‐2), administered via intramuscular injections. Despite their worldwide use, very little is known about how nucleoside modifications in mRNA sequences affect their breakdown, transcription and protein synthesis. It was hoped that resident and circulating immune cells attracted to the injection site make copies of the spike protein while the injected mRNA degrades within a few days. It was also originally estimated that recombinant spike proteins generated by mRNA vaccines would persist in the body for a few weeks. In reality, clinical studies now report that modified SARS‐CoV‐2 mRNA routinely persist up to a month from injection and can be detected in cardiac and skeletal muscle at sites of inflammation and fibrosis, while the recombinant spike protein may persist a little over half a year in blood
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11169277/
Yonker et al. (2022) A notable finding was that markedly elevated levels of full-length spike protein (33.9±22.4 pg/mL), unbound by antibodies, were detected in the plasma of individuals with postvaccine myocarditis
Fertig et al. (2021): Detected mRNA in blood up to 15 days post-vaccination.
Kent et al. (2022): Found mRNA circulating in blood for 14–28 days.
Castruita et al. (2022): Confirmed mRNA in plasma for up to 28 days.
Krauson et al. (2022): Detected spike protein in myocardium (heart tissue) for up to 30 days.
Röltgen et al. (2022): Found mRNA and spike protein persisting in lymph nodes for up to 60 days.
Bansai et al. (2021): Showed spike protein circulating in exosomes for up to 120 days.
Brogna et al. (2023): Detected spike protein in blood plasma at 185 days post-vaccination.
Patterson et al. (2024): Found spike protein in CD16 monocytes for 245 days, suggesting ongoing immune activation.
Bhattacharjee et al. (2025): Found vaccine-derived spike still present in blood serum 709 days later—nearly two years post-injection.
Lie #2-
“When the mRNA vaccine is administered, cells at the site of injection take up the mRNA and follow the instructions to make the target protein”
mRNA does not remain at the injection site and Pfizer’s own clinical trial documentation.
From BNT162b2 Module 2.4 Nonclinical overview-
“ALC-0315 and ALC-0159[ these are the two lipid nanoparticles that contain the mRNA], distribute from the plasma to the liver. . .Biodistribution was assessed using luciferase . . .luciferase protein expression was demonstrated at the site of injection 6 hours post dose. . .Luciferase was detected to a lesser extent in the liver; expression was present at 6 hours after injection. . . IM administration of a radiolabeled LNP-mRNA formulation containing ALC-0315 and ALC-0159 to rats, the percent of administered dose was also greatest at the injection site. Outside of the injection site, total recovery of radioactivity was greatest in the liver and much lower in the spleen, with very little recovery in the adrenal glands and ovaries.”
Luo et al. (2025) demonstrated that mRNA vaccine biodistribution extends beyond the injection site, including heart tissue, underscoring the systemic nature of these genetic interventions.
Gonzalez et al. (2021): Found spike protein in placental tissue 10 days post-vaccination.
Zhong et al. (2024): Confirmed maternal-fetal transmission risks, with mRNA detected in breast milk and potential placental exposure.
Lipid nanoparticles were developed to be able to pass in and through all tissues in the body. They have never been used in any other medical products, they are not registered, and the MSDS sheets are not accurate. In other words, they had not been medically evaluated at all before use and none of the regulatory agencies knew anything about them.
Of particular concern is the presence in the formulation of the two functional excipients, ALC-0315 and ALC-0159, never used before in a medicinal product, nor registered in the European Pharmacopoeia, nor in the European C&L inventory. The current Safety Data Sheets of the manufacturer are omissive and non-compliant, especially with regard to the provisions of current European regulation on the registration, evaluation, authorization and restriction of nanomaterials.
https://www.ijvtpr.com/index.php/IJVTPR/article/view/68
However, we know that they, and the mRNA they deliver, circulate throughout the entire body
“The SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines for COVID were made possible by years of research and clinical development”
This statement is actually true. The covid virus and the covid mRNA vaccine were developed concurrently by Moderna and the NIH. Under contract with the NIH, the Wuhan institute of virology first successfully weaponized the covid virus in 2008-
Ren et. al. (2008)
the chimeric S covering the previously defined receptor-binding domain gained its ability to enter cells via human ACE2, albeit with different efficiencies for different constructs. Fourth, a minimal insert region (amino acids 310 to 518) was found to be sufficient to convert the SL-CoV S from non-ACE2 binding to human ACE2 binding, indicating that the SL-CoV S is largely compatible with SARS-CoV S protein both in structure and in function
“The first human clinical trial for an mRNA vaccine was against rabies virus and took place in 2018”
She’s referring to Alberer et. al. (2017). 78% of the vaccinated cohort in that trial had systemic adverse reactions, ten of which were grade 3. A grade 3 adverse event is defined as
“Severe or medically significant but not immediately life-threatening; hospitalization or prolongation of hospitalization indicated; disabling; limiting self care activities of daily living.”
10 cases was 10% of the trial subjects. And what does this liar say about this and the two other trials?
“All had shown promising results and no major safety concerns.”
10% of the trial subjects had sever, life changing adverse reactions and this shitbag is claiming there were no major safety concerns.
That’s all I can fit in this post so I’ll stop here. Everything that scumbag said in her propaganda piece was provably a lie. Every last word had multiple studies confirming it to be bullshit