The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) did not rely on any documents for its claims that the COVID-19 vaccines do not alter or integrate into people’s genetic material, according to an advocacy group for vaccine and pharmaceutical safety and the right to informed consent.
The Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) against the CDC on April 28, 2021, for “all documents relied upon” by the federal agency to make the following claims on its websites regarding the COVID-19 vaccines:
1. “The genetic material delivered by the viral vector does not integrate into a person’s DNA,”
2. “They [viral vector vaccines] do not affect or interact with our DNA in any way,”
3. “The “mRNA never enters the nucleus of the cell where our DNA (genetic material) is located, so it cannot change or influence our genes,” and,
4. “They [mRNA vaccines] do not affect or interact with our DNA in any way.”
The three COVID-19 vaccines administered in the United States contain genetic material in the form of RNA (Pfizer and Moderna) or DNA (Johnson & Johnson) to tell our body to produce the virus’s spike protein.
Nearly a year after the nonprofit filed its FOIA request, the CDC responded, saying it could not provide the necessary documents that ICAN had asked for.
“A search of our records failed to reveal any documents pertaining to your request,” the CDC wrote in its response letter (pdf), adding that the federal agency “saves lives and protects people from health threats.”
The CDC goes on to say that additional information about the vaccines should be directed at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as it is the “sole agency responsible for the safety, efficacy, and security of human and veterinary drugs.”
Posting the statements online without supporting documents seems to be enough for the CDC, according to ICAN.
“All we are asking of the CDC is to back up the claims on its own website—claims it states are ‘facts,’” ICAN said in a press release on April 13. “Apparently, that’s too much to ask.”
“Instead, the CDC is basically saying: we posted the statements on our website and the justification for that is, well it’s on our website. Translation: ‘because we said so,’” the nonprofit added.
ICAN says the CDC should remove the statements.
By Meiling Lee
