Page 11 - Dr Stephanie Seneff - Reviewing Some Possible Unintended Consequences of the mRNA Vaccines Against COVID - 19

2021, January 19). For convenience we will abbreviate both PEG-modified lipids as PEG, and refer
to the vaccines as PEGylated according to standard nomenclature.

The lipid shell plays a triple role. First, it protects the genetic material from degradation prior to
cellular uptake. Second, the lipid shell, which also contains cholesterol, facilitates cellular uptake
through fusion with the lipid membrane of the cell and subsequent endocytosis of the lipid particle,
invoking naturally existing processes. And finally, it acts as an adjuvant (Ho et al., 2021). It is in this
latter role as immune stimulant that most concerns have been raised regarding the widespread use of
PEG in an injection therapy.

In an article published in May 2019, prior to large clinical trials involving these PEGylated vaccines,
Mohamed et. al. (2019) described a number of concerning findings regarding PEG and the
immunological activation it had been shown to produce, which includes humoral, cell-mediated, and
complement-based activation. They note that, paradoxically, large injection doses of PEG cause no
apparent allergic reaction. Small doses, though, can lead to dramatic pathological immune activation.
Vaccines employing PEGylation utilize micromolar amounts of these lipids, constituting this
potentially immunogenic low-dose exposure.

In animal studies it has been shown that complement activation is responsible for both anaphylaxis
and cardiovascular collapse, and injected PEG activates multiple complement pathways in humans
as well. The authors of one study conclude by noting that “This cascade of secondary mediators
substantially amplifies effector immune responses and may induce anaphylaxis in sensitive
individuals. Indeed, recent studies in pigs have demonstrated that systemic complement activation
(e.g., induced following intravenous injection of PEGylated liposomes) can underlie cardiac
anaphylaxis where C5a played a causal role.” (Hamad et al., 2008) It is also important to note that
anaphylactoid shock in pigs occurred not with first injected exposure, but following second injected
exposure (Kozma et al., 2019).

The presence of antibodies against PEG is widespread in the population (Zhou et al., 2020). Yang
and Lai (2015) found that around 42% of blood samples surveyed contained anti-PEG antibodies,
and they warn that these could have important consequences for any PEG-based therapeutics
introduced. Hong et. al. (2020) found anti-PEG antibodies with a prevalence up to 72% in
populations with no prior exposure to PEG-based medical therapy. Lila et. al. (2018) note that the
“existence of such anti-PEG antibodies has been intimately correlated with an impairment of
therapeutic efficacy in tandem with the development of severe adverse effects in several clinical
settings employing PEGylated-based therapeutics.”
Anaphylaxis to vaccines has previously been assumed to be rare based on the frequency of such
events reported to VAERS, a database established by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention in 1990 for reporting of adverse events related to vaccines (Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, 1990; Su et al., 2019). While rare, anaphylaxis can be life-threatening, so it is
important to monitor for the possibility in the short period following vaccination (McNeil et al.,
2016).

Sellaturay et. al., after reviewing 5 cases of anaphylaxis they link to PEG exposure, one near-fatal and
involving cardiac arrest, write, “PEG is a high-risk ’hidden’ allergen, usually unsuspected and can
cause frequent allergic reactions due to inadvertent re-exposure. Allergy investigation carries the risk
International Journal of Vaccine Theory, Practice, and Research 2(1), May 10, 2021 Page | 399