Maryanne Demasi "is an investigative medical reporter with a PhD in rheumatology, who writes for online media and top tiered medical journals." (source)
"MIT professor Retsef Levi has been an outspoken voice on the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee (ACIP) since its dramatic overhaul in June...
He has been appointed chair of the CDC’s new Covid-19 vaccine working group, and with today’s release of its Terms of Reference, the scale of his task has come into sharp focus...
For the first time, federal advisers will investigate the unresolved issues that have dogged the vaccines since their rushed rollout in late 2020...
Levi and his team are now tasked with probing long-term outcomes, mapping vaccine policies around the world, and assessing, to what extent, years of official reassurances about safety and efficacy hold up against emerging data...
The stakes could not be higher.
Following the publication of the Terms of Reference, I sat down with Levi to hear his view on what this new chapter means for vaccine policy, scientific integrity, and public trust...
Demasi: I looked at the terms of reference – there’s an extraordinary range of issues, from DNA contamination to pregnancy safety to immune imprinting. What do you see as the most pressing issues?
Levi: Yes, this is a comprehensive and ambitious agenda...
This is new technology, so it raises new questions. For example, unlike traditional vaccines, when a Covid vaccine is administered, we don’t know the actual dose. The vaccine introduces into the body’s cells the mRNA code that is wrapped in nano lipids, and as a result the cells are instructed to produce the spike protein. However, everyone could produce a different amount of spike protein. The initial safety paradigm was that the vaccine contents would only stay in the arm and be cleared after a short duration. Now we know that’s not true – so we need to understand the biodistribution and persistence of the mRNA, the spike protein, and the lipid nanoparticles, and what their respective risks are...
Demasi: So, would you consider these 'gene therapies' or not?
Levi: I think that this is something very valid to argue because the Covid vaccine delivers genetic material to cells so they make the spike protein. Also, as you know, there is an issue with DNA contamination – high levels of plasmid DNA found in the vaccines – which is not supposed to be there, and the question is, what is that doing to the body? There is evidence that some people may still be producing spike protein more than 700 days after the last vaccination. That’s a very concerning finding.
Demasi: So are you saying that if someone is still making spike protein 700 days after being vaccinated, then some of the contaminating plasmid DNA – which is not supposed to be there – may have integrated into their genome and they are now a spike factory?
Levi: Well, I think that’s definitely one of the plausible mechanisms that could explain this finding. Yes. There might be others, and this is an example of a major gap in our current knowledge that requires further research, promptly...
Demasi: At the last meeting, the CDC only admitted to myocarditis as the only real signal. Do you expect that your investigations will uncover more safety signals?
Levi: When you read through the literature, the statement that the only harm the Covid-19 vaccines cause is myocarditis—seems to me very detached from reality. We need a far more nuanced approach that does not just look narrowly at short-term specific diagnoses but instead looks more broadly at what we know about potential harms. This is the only way we can rebuild and sustain trust in vaccines."
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