Did vaccine mRNA enter the food supply via GMO plants or vaccinated livestock?

for A few yearsanti-vaccine activists, snake oil salesmen, anti-GMO activists, and Deep State conspiracy theorists.

One recent example came in the form of a TikTok video that concluded that Americans “must take back control of us.” murderous government”:

Broadly speaking, the prevailing argument is that the vaccine entered the food chain via plants genetically modified to carry the COVID-19 vaccine components, and the vaccine entered the food chain via meat. It means that mRNA vaccine. (mRNA vaccine It uses lab-made messenger RNA (the genetic material that tells cells how to make proteins) to trigger an immune response in the body).

The issues with these claims about vaccines are not lacking. Here Snopes explains why all these claims are unfounded.

plant mRNA

Claims about the COVID-19 Vaccine”in your salad“Due to misreading and misinterpretation of several press releases and scientific studies, they have survived and been redistributed on the Internet.

For example, on a viral TikTok, a sinister-sounding narrator explains: The narrator cites Medicago as an example of a company involved in such work.

Using Medicago as an example of an edible vaccine, like countless anti-vaccine websites, is misguided for several reasons. The confusion stems from the fact that the company manufactured its active ingredients in genetically modified plants, final product We have seen its active ingredients extracted and refined into more traditional vaccines.

Using Medicago as an example of mRNA technology is equally problematic. Medicago’s products did not utilize or contain mRNA at all.The purpose of Medicago Produce a virus-like particles (VLP) vaccines — those that introduce materials that mimic parts of viruses to train the immune system to fight the real virus.

Using Medicago as an example of “work in progress”, like the TikTok video, is also problematic. Saidto a “serious shift” in the vaccine market.

Another item that frequently influences fears about governments secretly adding mRNA to the nation’s food supply comes from a study conducted at the University of California, Riverside.A September 2021 news release Commenting on the importance of the grant recently awarded to Juan Pablo Giraldo, one of the university’s professors, he said:

one of the challenges with [mRNA vaccine] The technology is that it must be kept cool to maintain stability during transportation and storage. If this new project is successful, an edible plant-based mRNA vaccine could overcome this challenge of being able to be stored at room temperature.

During a September 2021 podcast appearance, Mike Flynn said, Referenced “Put the vaccine in your salad dressing,” explains the study.

The concept here theoretically includes edible vaccine products that contain mRNA, although salad dressings play no role. However, concept is a valid word. Research here is just beginning.

“In my lab, we are developing tools that can deliver genetically encoded information to the building blocks of plants. We can make different molecules for the pharmaceutical industry,” says Giraldo. January 2022 Podcast interview.

While the press release discusses edible plants, in a podcast Giraldo described mRNA technology that could be purified into a standardized form. His comments also show how preliminary the research was at the time.

There is a very simple technique for extracting chloroplasts from plants….like tiny microcapsules similar to the lipid capsules that mRNA vaccines use. For example, the Moderna vaccine uses mRNA encapsulated in lipid vesicles. Well, since chloroplasts are formed by lipid vesicles, we can imagine that the contents of the biopharmaceutical we want to make are already encapsulated in them.

The bottom line is that plants that can produce vaccine components are a topic of research, but that research is preliminary. is to create

meat mRNA

The TikTok video also suggests that “gene editing is now officially in our meat industry,” and that “several state ranchers and pork association lobbyists have reported that mRNA We are confirming that we will use the COVID vaccine.”

This claim stems in part from a tweet by Tom Lentz, a “lawyer and freedom fighter,” regarding a proposed bill in Missouri in April 2023.

Lentz’s claim that “several state ranchers and pork association lobbyists have confirmed the use of mRNA COVID vaccines in livestock,” says Lentz, claiming that no mRNA vaccines licensed for use in livestock in the United States are fully available. The April 2023 statement of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) is particularly questionable given the lack of Direct Lenz’s tweet claims:

There are currently no mRNA vaccines licensed for use in beef cattle in the United States. Farmers and ranchers vaccinate cattle to treat and prevent many diseases, but currently these vaccines do not contain mRNA technology.

of e-mail Marissa Perry, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, told The Associated Press that there is no mRNA vaccine licensed against COVID-19 for any animal. The idea that this would result in human exposure, even if Intolerable.

mRNA is very fragile and sensitive to heat. The idea that these precisely engineered arrays, usually coated with special lipids, would survive the slaughter of a vaccinated animal, the burning of that animal’s carcass, and the gastric ingestion of that animal’s meat, is unlikely. , is completely unrealistic.

Speaking to Agence France-Presse in January 2023, Timothy Mahoney, Professor and Research Fellow at the Center for Animal Science, Queensland Agriculture and Food Innovation Coalition, Australia, said: said mRNA could not survive such a journey. “There is no scientific basis for the claim that if someone consumes the meat or other tissue of an animal vaccinated with an mRNA vaccine, it will enter the body,” he said, noting that the digestive tract is “a large molecule in food. is broken down so that it can be absorbed.”

Conclusion

The idea of ​​using plants to create COVID-19 vaccines (including mRNA vaccines) is not new. Still, they remain largely theoretical concepts and will not involve actual consumption of plant material in practice. far from being.

The idea that mRNA is in meat, or will soon be in meat, stems from the erroneous belief that mRNA vaccines for livestock are currently in use. Claims that their use is imminent are impossible. But even if such a vaccine were to be used, it would be grounded in scientific impossibility to claim that such use could transfer effective vaccine components to consumers of that animal’s meat. I’m here.

For these reasons, I rate this set of claims as ‘false’.