Response to interpellation 2024/25:222 on measures to minimize harm from mRNA vaccines
Translated from Swedish by AI; the translation may contain errors. The Swedish text is the original.
Summary AI, written in advance
The debate concerned measures to minimize damage from mRNA vaccines. KD considers that the mRNA vaccines are of good quality, safe, and effective against serious illness and death 1 2. KD argues that there is no scientific evidence that they can change human genetic material 1 2. KD emphasizes that vaccination is one of the most effective methods for saving lives and that the authorities are working to protect the population's health 1 3. KD argues that it would be irresponsible to stop the vaccines as it would risk people becoming seriously ill 2 3. KD emphasizes the importance of standing up for science 4.
Written by AI in advance and may contain errors. The numbers lead to the speech a statement builds on; check against the text below.
Socialministern Jakob Forssmed (KD)
Madam Speaker! Elsa Widding has asked me if I will appoint an independent and transparent investigation regarding strong suspicions that the mRNA vaccines against covid-19 affect the human genetic material and if I will stop all use of products based on mRNA technology until the above investigation is complete. She has also asked me if I will take full responsibility for the consequences if I choose not to stop the use of mRNA technology.
The process for controlling vaccines is rigorous and comprehensive, from research and production through to use. The Medical Products Agency shall continuously monitor the safety of medicines and vaccines. In addition, the Medical Products Agency has been tasked by the government to conduct continuous, in-depth safety follow-up of vaccines against the disease covid-19, that is, sars-cov-2. All medicines and vaccines, including vaccines against covid-19, undergo a thorough scientific testing process before they are approved. The process is governed by national and international regulations aimed at protecting the health and safety of the population.
Vaccination coverage and safety are also followed up and monitored continuously. The vaccine recommended for risk groups in Sweden during the autumn of 2024 is the mRNA vaccine Comirnaty. The vaccine has been updated to work against the viruses that are spreading, and it protects against serious illness. Let me also be very clear that there is no scientific evidence that mRNA vaccines can alter human genetic material.
I would like to conclude by emphasizing that vaccination is one of the most effective methods for preventing deadly diseases and for saving lives. Vaccines against covid-19 have significantly reduced the risk of serious illness, hospitalization, and death, especially among the elderly and people in risk groups. Globally, the vaccine has prevented millions of deaths. Even in Sweden, vaccines against covid-19 have played a significant role both in reducing the burden on healthcare and in protecting the population against serious illness and death.
I have a good confidence in the process that exists related to the control and monitoring of medicines and vaccines, and I consider it important that those who are assessed to be at risk of serious illness in covid-19 can also continue to receive the protection that the vaccine entails.
Elsa Widding (-)
Madam Speaker! One does not, of course, have to agree on everything, but I fear that the Minister for Social Affairs may have misunderstood some parts. The question, therefore, is not whether the contaminating foreign DNA is integrated into human cells' DNA, but the question is how often this occurs and how serious the effects become.
The genetic risks for people and their offspring are unknown. That is why it is so urgent to have further scientific investigations to determine these risks. In the same way, the government should, for example, investigate excess mortality, which remains very high in the Western world. If one looks at the years 2020, 2021, and 2022, one sees that it was highest in 2021, when vaccination began, and remained very high in 2022. Why is that not being investigated? Is there any connection to the vaccines or not?
Health Canada first said that Pfizer's vaccine does not contain any DNA contamination in the form of SV40 virus. Then they changed their mind and said that it does, but that it is so little that there is no risk of inheritance to the next generation. Then they requested information from Pfizer, and when they had received the information, they classified the material. It could then not be made available for public inspection, and we can wonder why.
Doctor Joseph Ladapo, a general practitioner in Florida, demanded in January 2024 a total halt to the use of mRNA vaccines until safety has been proven. This occurred after the FDA, that is, the Food and Drug Administration in the USA, failed to provide a satisfactory explanation for the DNA contamination in this vaccine.
The Government has received the references to all my assertions here today.
The Minister says that the control of vaccines is rigorous and comprehensive, but that is not true when it comes to the modified mRNA vaccine against covid-19. During the covid pandemic, many rules and good practices for clinical trials were broken. This is very unusual and extremely risky. Someone—the manufacturer—has been negligent in the manufacturing process of the modified mRNA vaccine, and the authorities have let them get away with it. I would therefore like to say that a very dark shadow hangs over the same authorities that the Minister defends. Safe and effective vaccines cannot be produced as long as the supervisory authorities do not act in the public interest.
I note that the Medical Products Agency, for example in 2023, was financed by the pharmaceutical industry to 73 percent. I am not saying that there is any connection.
The Council of State has received 38 references to my claims as well as the letter that was sent out on Monday to all prime ministers, health ministers and social ministers in the Nordic countries, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, UK and Greenland. Behind the letter stands a long line of qualified doctors and medical researchers, and they all demand a stop to the use of modified mRNA vaccines against covid-19 until a thorough investigation of the DNA contamination has been conducted. Approximately half of the 432 who have signed are doctors and medical researchers, and several of them are professors. The other representatives I believe are politicians and lawyers.
Why then does this concern exist? Well, it is because in careful investigations that have recently been conducted, it was found that all the vaccine vials tested contained measurable levels of DNA. The statutory limit, which among others WHO stands behind, is at 10 nanograms per dose, and that value has been between 7.8 and 145 times higher. The DNA contamination that has been identified in the vials should naturally have been broken down and removed from the mRNA component before the purified mRNA was encapsulated in the lipid nanoparticle. Now, instead, the contaminated DNA residues risk being integrated into human cells.
Socialministern Jakob Forssmed (KD)
Madam Speaker! I want to be very clear that I am confident that the vaccines used against covid-19 are of good quality and that they are safe and effective against serious illness and death.
As I understand it, Elsa Widding wants to stop all use of mRNA technology and the vaccines that are described as a triumph and milestone for science. If we were to do that, people would naturally risk becoming seriously ill and dying from covid-19, and therefore it is simply not an option to stop the use of these vaccines.
Vaccines must be safe, effective, and maintain good quality to be approved. The monitoring of vaccines also continues after the vaccine is approved, and suspected side effects can be reported by both healthcare providers and patients. We have today no scientific evidence from preclinical studies, clinical trials, or the monitoring system that mRNA would damage our genetic material.
Let me also remind you that at the beginning of the covid-19 pandemic, there was no vaccine. It was a very uncertain situation. We shut down our societies in an attempt to protect people from severe illness and death. Very many were affected very severely during this time. Many died from a disease that spread rapidly across the world.
Since then, we have received this vaccine, which has led to us being able to open our societies. The scientific community has seen these enormous opportunities. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2023 was awarded to the discovery of mRNA technology, which led to us being able to develop this vaccine. The vaccine has saved millions of lives and made it possible for us to return to a normal life.
These vaccines have, as I have said several times, undergone a rigorous multi-step evaluation process. Once the vaccine is approved, any side effects are continuously monitored by both Swedish authorities and their EU counterparts. New vaccines are approved centrally within the EU, which means that every approved vaccine is reviewed by experts from all member states.
This is based on scientific facts and evidence. I trust the studies and the thorough regulatory control that all vaccines must undergo before they are approved. To claim without scientific support that DNA residues in the mRNA vaccine would be hazardous to health spreads fear and mistrust which, in the worst case—if the fear causes people to opt out of important vaccines—can lead to increased death rates and serious illness.
This type of questioning, for which there is no scientific evidence, has emerged during many medical breakthroughs throughout history. It concerned the smallpox vaccine. It concerned when vaccines for measles, mumps, and rubella were introduced. It also concerns the HPV vaccine today – even here, various conspiracy theories are spread that it would lead to a long series of problems for those who take it, for example sterility and autoimmune diseases. Thanks to the HPV vaccine, we now have a chance to eradicate cervical cancer.
Vaccines save lives and are incredibly important for our world. Vaccines have represented some of the greatest breakthroughs that have saved the most lives ever. This also applies to mRNA technology and the vaccines that we have now gained access to. They have saved millions of lives in the world - 1.4 million lives in Europe alone, the World Health Organization estimates.
It is problematic that this type of non-scientific claims are being spread, and it is naturally not relevant to stop vaccinations with safe, effective and approved vaccines.
Elsa Widding (-)
Madam Speaker! I do not believe the Minister heard a single word of what I said.
Has the Minister taken note of the references he has received? Did the Minister hear what I said about Health Canada? It is not that one denies contamination of the mRNA vaccine; that is not what this is about.
Even more people died, moreover, when they started vaccinating in 2021. What I am talking about is that one should stop it until one knows more. The Minister is engaging in very risky business here, I would like to say.
In an article in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, Kathrin Jansen, recently retired head of vaccine research and development at Pfizer, says the following regarding the rapid development that took place: We flew the plane while we were still building it. Think about that a bit - here perhaps we have the explanation.
Speaking of the authorities' credibility, I hope that the Minister has included the following three points in the analysis he presents here.
Firstly: The Covid-19 vaccines have never even been tested for their ability to block virus transmission and therefore do not protect against the spread of infection. European regulatory authorities, as well as governments and state agencies, therefore misled people to get them to accept these products. Has this not affected the authorities' credibility? Here, I would like to remind the Minister of the text in the Nuremberg Code, that is, the prohibition against subjecting people to experiments and against forcing, pressuring, or persuading people to participate in medical experiments against their will.
Secondly: The Covid-19 vaccines resulted in an unprecedented level of reported side effects, including deaths. Analyses of public data also show, Jakob Forssmed, that it was completely random which vaccine batch a person received and thus also random which side effects the person suffered from after the injection. The one who had the misfortune of receiving an injection from a really bad batch of modified mRNA vaccine ran a risk of 1 in 20 of becoming very seriously ill or dying. Others, who received their vaccine from the most favorable vaccine batch, instead ran a minimal risk of becoming ill or dying.
For the third: Analyses carried out by several independent researchers now show that Pfizer's and Moderna's products were contaminated with varying and uniquely high levels of residual DNA. It is this contamination that today's debate is about.
I would like to remind the Minister that all three of these points are well-documented in the scientific literature. Lipid nanoparticles, i.e., the small fat droplet that carries the mRNA and gets it into the cell, can be taken up by all organs in the body, including the brain, the heart, the liver, the ovaries and the testicles, and distributed to the cells there. The Minister knows this, as he took part of Pfizer's side-effect data, which he received from me at the end of our debate last spring. The injected material is therefore not only active at the injection site, as many unserious charlatans have claimed in the Swedish media.
How can a vaccine be considered safe and effective when hardly anyone even knows what it contains? Ask EMA!
The Dutch Minister of Health said in parliament that the measures taken in the Netherlands during the pandemic were guided by Nato. What does she mean?
Safe and effective vaccines are of the utmost importance. Therefore, all the doctors, politicians, and lawyers who have signed the letter to prime ministers, health ministers, and social ministers in the Nordic countries, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and the UK, as well as in Greenland, on behalf of the public, demand that the mRNA vaccines be immediately stopped and recalled, that an independent and transparent investigation examines the approval and use of the vaccines, and that scientific evidence is presented showing that there is no risk of damage to human DNA due to these products.
To simply wave away evidence of this contamination shows an immense ignorance and indifference toward people's health.
Socialministern Jakob Forssmed (KD)
Madam Speaker! It is difficult to address everything that Elsa Widding says, but I will nevertheless make a small attempt in some respects.
Elsa Widding claims, for example, that authorities do not act in the public interest. That is, of course, not true. The authorities have a clear mandate to protect the population's life and health, and it is under these conditions and with this mandate that they work. I also dare to claim that they do so well. Furthermore, they have the backing of the entire scientific community when it comes to the importance of vaccines and that the vaccines are safe, as well as when it comes to the fact that the benefits clearly outweigh the risks that exist with vaccines.
That is, of course, also the case in this instance. We should be glad that this process went very quickly, because it led to us being able to save more lives and being able to open our societies faster. After that, the vaccines received full approvals. The process has proceeded – one has moved from a conditional approval to a full approval. After that, the monitoring of the mRNA vaccines continues. One continues, therefore, to follow them.
The Medical Products Agency in Sweden has been tasked by the government to conduct a continuous, in-depth safety follow-up of vaccines against the disease covid-19. To stop the vaccines in this situation would be deeply irresponsible and completely anti-scientific.
Elsa Widding claimed, if I understood her post correctly, that the entire scientific community would consist of fraudsters and that people have been given vaccines against their will. They have not; it has been voluntary to take the vaccine.
Vaccines save lives, and mRNA technology has received the Nobel Prize for the breakthrough this has entailed. It has great potential to continue saving lives, just as other medical breakthroughs in the vaccine field have had over the last centuries. They have been some of the greatest successes in human history.
I am grateful to the researchers and the scientific community who have developed vaccines to protect people's lives and health. I am also glad that we have very rigorous and well-functioning processes before we approve a vaccine. This guarantees that vaccines are safe and that the population can have great confidence in vaccines and the processes that lead to the approval of a vaccine. I believe that is the reason why very many in Sweden take vaccines, not least within the childhood vaccination program. The children sitting in the stands today are growing up in a safer and better world and no longer risk being affected by diseases that could lead to their death, as previous generations have risked.
Now we have the chance to eradicate cervical cancer in the coming years if enough people take the vaccine. I truly hope so, because even that would be a fantastic success for humanity.
Elsa Widding (-)
Madam Speaker! I do not really know why the Minister is talking about other vaccines. I am talking about modified mRNA vaccines and nothing else.
Voluntary? The pressure was enormous. People were deceived into believing that if they took these vaccines, the spread of infection would be hindered. Does the Minister not remember that?
Furthermore, these mRNA vaccines are already stopped in, for example, certain parts of Australia for exactly the reason we are talking about.
Modified mRNA vaccines against covid-19 entail health risks that were not sufficiently studied before the vaccines received their emergency approval and were immediately thereafter injected into the world's population. The lipid nanoparticles do not stay at the injection site but reach the bloodstream and thereby several organs. If cells in the blood vessels take up these particles, they will cause vascular damage and blood clots, which leads to an increased risk of stroke, heart attack, and other acute vascular diseases. The minister should know this if he has read the data from Pfizer. All these conditions are well documented in the medical literature and in national systems for reporting side effects. Period. In the same way, the lipid nanoparticles can affect organs such as the brain, heart, lungs, kidneys, etc.
Even though the mentioned risks concern the entire mRNA vaccine technology, the potentially serious health risks due to the contamination with bacterial DNA that we are talking about today must also be investigated. The development of safe and effective vaccines depends on an open and reliable oversight of the vaccine manufacturers. A positive change begins with an acknowledgment of mistakes, and this process must be initiated immediately before more lives risk being lost in a careless and unnecessary way. A very great responsibility rests here on the shoulders of the government.
Socialministern Jakob Forssmed (KD)
Madam Speaker! The reason I also bring up other vaccines is that similar criticism and questioning on unscientific grounds have occurred during other vaccine breakthroughs. What is serious is that this type of disinformation can spread quickly across the world, which can result in people not taking approved, safe vaccines that have undergone a number of clinical phases and are furthermore continuing to be monitored.
I also bring up other vaccines because, just like the mRNA vaccines, they have represented major breakthroughs for humanity and for people's lives and health. According to the World Health Organization, the mRNA vaccines have saved 1.4 million lives in Europe alone. These people, instead of passing away, have been able to continue living together with loved ones and have had a better life. That is important.
It is also very important that these processes are safe, and they are. It is important that we continue to stand up for the science and the thousands of researchers who say that this is good and important and protects against severe illness and death. Almost everyone understands that it would therefore be very serious to stop this. It is claimed that these vaccines would have been stopped in parts of Australia, but I do not believe that is correct.
We need to continue vaccinating. Today, for example, too few people with home care receive a vaccine against covid-19. However, it is important that people in risk groups receive a vaccine, as it continues to protect against serious illness and death.
Source: The Swedish Parliament. The speeches come from the open data of the Riksdag, translated into English by AI, which may contain errors.