As a physician, I always try to learn from my mistakes. And you can be sure that if I do make a medical mistake, I do my best not to repeat it.
Unfortunately, our government doesn’t do the same. In the 1950s, when the polio vaccine was developed, tens of millions of Americans lined up for it. They were told by the powers that be that the vaccine was safe and effective against the polio virus. And there was a huge propaganda campaign from the U.S. government, even showing pictures of children in iron lungs or with braces on their body. Soon, Americans were united in the belief that the vaccine could prevent the scourge of polio.
The CDC reports that a conservative estimate of 10 percent to 30 percent of the polio vaccines administered in the U.S. were contaminated with the simian virus 40 (SV40). The contamination was found in both the oral and injectable vaccines, but higher amounts were in the injectable vaccines.
A study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) estimated that nearly 100 million Americans were exposed to polio vaccines that were contaminated with SV40 virus.
After 1963, the U.S. government mandated vaccines be tested for SV40, and that all new lots be free of the virus. SV40 is a DNA tumor virus that has become a human pathogen since the introduction of polio vaccines.
The Institute of Medicine — the health arm of The National Academies — has concluded that “the biological evidence is strong that SV40 is a transforming virus,” and that SV40 exposure “could lead to cancer in humans under natural conditions.”
These conclusions have been verified by other scientists. Brain cancers, malignant mesotheliomas, bone tumors, and systemic lymphomas have all been induced by SV40 in animal models.
We don’t really know the extent of the problem with SV40 because today, most people with cancer are not being screened for it.
As noted, polio vaccines are now tested for SV40. But scientists have reported finding DNA and SV40 promoters in both Moderna and Pfizer’s mRNA COVID vaccines.
The SV40 promoter was used to upregulate the synthesis of the genetic code. There was no reason for SV40 to have contaminated polio vaccines. Even then, scientists knew the virus was in monkey kidneys, and the kidneys were being used to manufacture the polio vaccine.
Seventy years later, there is absolutely no excuse for SV40, in any form, to be in any vaccine. But here we are.