COVID-19 Questions: Will SARS-CoV-2 mRNA Vaccines Modify The Human Genome?

COVID-19 Questions: Am interesting query that is currently on the minds of many with brains and intelligence (Less than 5 per cent of the global population and less than 0.01 of Thailand’s population) is whether or not individuals receiving an mRNA-based vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 will experience changes in their DNA in cells “infected” by the encapsulated mRNA.


 
Already a study by scientist from Harvard and MIT published in December showed that the SARS-CoV-2 RNA is able to integrate into the human host genome with vary implications including many that we do not know just yet. https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/covid-19-news-harvard-and-mit-study-alarmingly-shows-that-sars-cov-2-rna-integrates-into-human-genome-with-varying-implications
 
What is also worrying is that these new COVID-19 vaccines have not been properly tested in due processes and we do not know what are the long term health implications of these vaccines itself.
 
Like in the case of like AAV or adeno associated virus vector vaccines that were used in the past, we are only just discovering their potential ill effects. https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/breaking-covid-19-vaccine-exclusive-possible-dangers-of-using-adeno-associated-virus-aav-vectors-for-covid-19-vaccines-
 
It should be noted that some of the current COVID-19  vaccines are also using these same platform.
 
There seems to be an urgent rush by health authorities and off course by those with vested interests, thinking that the vaccines will solve the pandemic crisis. But that is again another question….will it?
 
We have learned from Dr Anthony Fauci that the mRNA vaccines might not actually confer immunity to SARS-CoV-2 in a way that prevents transmission. (I am only using Dr Anthony statements as an example as unfortunately many stupid people still see him as some sort of authoritative figure in terms of the COVID-19 , in realty he is but a #%$^@!)
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/fauci-vaccines-will-only-prevent-symptoms-not-block-the-virus-195051568.html
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/vaccine-news-wtf-now-dr-anthony-fauci-from-nih-says-that-covid-19-vaccines-might-only-prevent-symptoms,-not-the-virus
 
More data is already emerging that this is the case let alone the fact that the vaccines will not even protect you from getting infected. All the vaccines can do as now being claimed now by certain charlatan researchers is to make sure that you have reduced symptoms or do not develop severity. Honestly to audit if the vaccines really do this is difficult as already without the vaccines, we have many who are asymptomatic (Between 35% to 55%) and almost more than 87% of COVID-19 infections do not progress into moderate or severe conditions.
 
Then we also have to look into various new SARS-CoV-2 variants that are now emerging which new studies are showing will most probably not be affected by the vaccines despite fake attempts by some American vaccine manufacturers that they can. https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/vaccine-news-cambridge-study-shows-that-pfizer-biontech-vaccine-exhibits-reduced-neutralization-potential-against-sars-cov-2-b-1-1-7-variant
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/sars-cov-2-mutations-study-confirms-that-501y-v2-variant-in-south-africa-escapes-antibody-neutralization-and-vaccines-likely-ineffective
 
https://www.thailandmedical.news/news/coronavirus-news-details-emerge-regarding-impact-of-b117-variant-and-spike-mutations-on-monoclonal-antibodies-and-sera
 
Now even Dr Fauci thas openly said that the current COVID-19 vaccines might not work against the merging variants. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/21/dr-fauci-says-covid-vaccines-appear-to-be-less-effective-against-some-new-strains.html
 
Some health authorities and experts are saying that we need to rush to have more vaccinated to prevent the spread of the new variants, how that is really suppose to work is a big question mark!
 
Now coming back to our main questions as to whether or not the COVID-19 vaccines will affect the human genome and what is the probability that people who receive the mRNA vaccine will pass on those changes to some or all of their kids, is a genuine concern for some people.
 
Humans live in a risk-averse world. We want no one to die or get sick “unnecessarily” – i.e., under conditions where the risk of that death or illness could have reasonably been eliminated, or, if not eliminated, at least minimized.
 
Should the theory hold that SARS-CoV-2 had entered the human species before 2019, it certainly had not gone global,it might have caused a local pocket of pneumonia-related deaths not attributed to anything in particular. In fact, it may have done this many times over the past two or three decades. Because it was deadly, it could not survive long. When the species jump did take hold, sometime in 2019, the virus that made the leap was more transmissible, and perhaps a little less deadly.
 
The SARS-CoV-2 creates disease in humans in a nefarious way.
 
Researchers predicted non-respiratory illness effects in April 2020, when studies like one introducing the concept of pathogenic priming. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589909020300186?via%3Dihub
 
Alarmingly many of the tissue and organ sites other than lung, including parts of our immune system, seem to be impacted by the virus, and our bodies’ immune responses to the virus, likely via the development of autoantibodies to proteins either found in specific organs, or in some cases, ubiquitously found in all cells. Autommunity in so many tissues occur given repeated exposures to the viral proteins in expected given the high level of similarity of the viral proteins to our own proteins – which is why many other experts are arguing that the parts of the proteins should not be included in any vaccine.
 
This comes back to the same question…Can we expect that the virus’ RNA genome, or any part of the viral genome, be copied into the human genome as DNA?
 
An expert in insertational mutagenesis, Dr Teresa Deisher studies the process by which foreign DNAs can enter the nucleus of the cell and become inserted into a person, or animal’s genome.
 
In april 2020 she was asked about what was the likelihood that the mRNA in an mRNA vaccine, such as Moderna’s vaccine, might by copied into the human genome. Her answer was an educated guess: about the same rate as that of the virus.
 
It has been shown in a study that when individuals get naturally infected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the viral genome can evidently be reverse-translated into DNA, a process that requires a special enzyme called reverse transcriptse. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.12.12.422516v1.full.pdf
 
The study suggests that the resultant DNA (complementary to the viral RNA) can be copied in the human genome in two way: if human cells are infected with HIV virus, the reverse transcriptase enzyme can also act on the SARS-CoV-2 RNA. The SARS-CoV-2 genome was found to be transcribed into some humans cells not infected with a virus providing the reverse transcriptase protein, and the authors of the study speculated that the virus activates a dormant reverse transcriptase enzyme found in our genome in otherwise silenced ancient viruses that long ago called LINES embedded themselves in our ancestors’ genomes.
 
Hence the movement of the RNA from the virus to the human genome may be expected to become incorporated in the human genome. What does that mean for the mRNA vaccine, which encodes a stabilized spike protein?
 
If the same Harvard study results are replicated, then the following must be kept in mind: The SARS-CoV-2 stabilized Spike protein mRNA molecule is an RNA molecule and as such, it, too could reasonably be expected to picked up by any reverse transcriptase proteins. There are no data ruling out genomic incorporation of the mRNA from mRNA vaccines into the genome of cells in vaccinated people because the issue has not been addressed.
 
Interestingly this very question came up during the U.S.FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee meeting considering the Pfizer vaccine (which according to Pfizer contains RNA that encodes (as communicated by Pfizer), a “full mutated spike protein” by two separate attendee (Dr Moore and Dr Meissner). Dr Meissner specifically asked whether fetuses might be at risk of having its DNA changed via reverse transcriptase if the mother-to-be had been vaccinated. https://www.fda.gov/advisory-committees/vaccines-and-related-biological-products-advisory-committee/2020-meeting-materials-vaccines-and-related-biological-products-advisory-committee
 
All the vaccines makers including Pfizer have not directly addressed these questions.
 
Taking into considerations the discovery of the Harvard study, which showed it was possible for viral RNAs to modify the human genome, it seems reasonable that is might also occur with mRNA from mRNA vaccines. How frequently this might happen is unknown.
 
More importantly to many people, the key question might be whether the vaccine could lead to permanent, heritable changes to the human genome adding new variation that is passed on from generation to generation, i.e., alteration of the germ cells. Germ cells give rise in sperm an egg, and any alteration of cells that give rise to those cells at any stage of development – including, but not especially early fetal development, could lead to the insertion of new DNA into the human genome.
 
A past study that partly addresses the question is the biodistribution study of mRNAs from vaccines. https://www.cell.com/molecular-therapy-family/molecular-therapy/fulltext/S1525-0016(17)30156-9
 
It was actually a Moderna study designed to ask the question: where in the body does the encapsulated mRNA from and mRNA vaccine end up? https://www.cell.com/molecular-therapy-family/molecular-therapy/fulltext/S1525-0016(17)30156-9
 
If the tissues where the technology localizes the RNA includes the reproductive organs, it is conceivable that some instances of germline alteration might be possible.
 
The study used mRNAs encoding proteins from influenza viruses, but nevertheless, the principle is demonstrated: the commercial mRNA product was found in the testes.


 
However there were no data on the localization of the mRNA to the ovaries, nor to any fetal pups in pregnant mice.
 
Hence the answer to the question of whether the mRNA vaccines might change the human germ line introducing heritable variation is “likely”  but again, the frequency which  such an event or to whom it might be more likely is unknown.
 
Most recently neuroscientist Chris Shaw recently discussed this study with Del Bigtree on The Highwire, focusing primarily on the issue that the viral protein was found in the brain, and can be expected to induce the innate immune response in the brain, potentially contributed to microglial activation, immune cells in the brain that are stimulated to respond to viral infections or other foreign substances. https://thehighwire.com/videos/neuroscientists-concerns-about-covid-vaccines/
 
The key question of whether you should be concerned or not is a personal one: if your creed, or religion, or personal desire to not have your own genetic lineage forever altered, you might favor approaches to addressing COVID19 infection that keeps viremia to a minimum, such as treatments.
 
But should you believe that evolution makes sense of variation wherever its source, and are comfortable with the idea that your descendants might express COVID19 spike proteins, then either the infection or the injection might be your favored route. (You might have children who grow up with fetishes for other people’s noses or nasal pathways!..lol!)
 
In crazy times like this, individuals must search deeply in their own constitutions and moral compass and determine for themselves which of two or more unwelcome paths they might prefer.
 
Interestingly we now know that COVID19 viral infection likely confers immunity at least as long as the vaccine meaning a willful injection with vaccine following prior COVID19 diagnosis might only serve to double the risk of genome and germline alteration.
 
Similarly, initial exposure to a vaccine might cause vaccine induced enhanced viral infection, as described by this paper in the journal Vaccines from 2009. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19022319/
 
The COVID-19 pandemic is fast becoming worse and as scientist are scrambling to find solutions, we  also have politicians using vaccines as a tool to pacify and give false hopes to the masses to prevent potential social unrest as the public starts panicking and also we have unscrupulous individuals and entities trying to capitalize on the situation. The COVID-19 vaccine market is now worth trillions of dollars and vaccine manufacturers have American social media platforms, media and journalists, search engine, researchers and even research institutions and universities under their payroll besides the greedy politicians.
 
Individuals have to do their own due diligence and not listen to anyone. It is your own bodies and the future of your coming generations that are at stake.
 
We at Thailand Medical news support vaccines but only if we have proper evidence and proof of their safety and efficacy. In the case of the COVID-19 vaccines, too many questions are still not answered. It does not mean if one receives a vaccine today and they had no after effects the case rests. There is more at stake as whether future infections with other newer variants might trigger ADE or antibody dependent enhancement and make condition more severe. There are questions as to whether platforms like the AAV vector platforms will make us have issues in the future when we are receiving therapeutics using the same platforms. There is the issue of whether the mRNA getting ‘tangled’ with our own DNAs leading to possible medical and health conditions in the future or to the next generations.
 
For more COVID-19 Questions, keep on logging to Thailand Medical News.