Big Pharma exec: COVID shots are ‘gene therapy’

Many skeptics have contended that the mRNA-based Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 shots are not “vaccines” but rather a form of gene therapy that poses untold risks by altering a recipient’s DNA.

The federal government and health-care experts have denied that claim. But the president of Bayer’s Pharmaceuticals Division is on record describing the mRNA shots as “cell and gene therapy” and acknowledging public wariness of the technology.

Bayer executive Stefan Oelrich, LifeSiteNews reported, made the statement at the World Health Summit, which took place in Berlin Oct. 24-26, drawing 6,000 people from 120 countries.

Oelrich said his company is “really taking that leap” to drive innovation “in cell and gene therapies.”

“Ultimately, the mRNA vaccines are an example for that cell and gene therapy,” he said.”I always like to say: If we had surveyed two years ago in the public – ‘would you be willing to take a gene or cell therapy and inject it into your body?’ – we probably would have had a 95% refusal rate,” Oelrich said.

In August, Reuters ran a “fact check” citing experts who contend that the technology in the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna shots are not gene therapy.

Both shots use a piece of genetic code from SARS-CoV-2 to prompt an immune response in recipients. But Dr. Adam Taylor, a virologist and researcher at Griffith University in Australia, insisted that while it’s “a genetic-based therapy,” it doesn’t alter a person’s genes.

“Gene therapy, in the classical sense, involves making deliberate changes to a patient’s DNA in order to treat or cure them,” he said. “mRNA vaccines will not enter a cell’s nucleus that houses your DNA genome. There is zero risk of these vaccines integrating into our own genome or altering our genetic makeup.”

At the Berlin summit, the Bayer executive said that his company’s “successes” over the 18 months of the pandemic “should embolden us to fully focus much more closely on access, innovation and collaboration to unleash health for all, especially as we enter, on top of everything else that is happening, a new era of science – a lot of people talk about the Bio Revolution in this context.”

LifeSiteNews noted that, according to the McKinsey Global Institute, the “Bio Revolution” is “a confluence of advances in biological science and accelerating development of computing, automation, and artificial intelligence [that] is fueling a new wave of innovation.”

“This Bio Revolution could have significant impact on economies and our lives, from health and agriculture to consumer goods, and energy and materials.”

Oelrich said Bayer also is working at reducing the populations of Third World countries, investing $400 million in “long-acting contraceptives” and partnering with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on “family planning initiatives.”