Is codon optimization in COVID vaccines dangerous?
This post exposes the disinformation in Joseph Mercola’s article entitled “Can Super-Shots and ‘Morality Pills’ End COVID?”, which can be found at [1]. Contrary to its title, the bulk of the article argues that the codon optimization present in COVID mRNA vaccines is dangerous. Mercola’s article is mainly based on another person's blog post [2]. Below, the main arguments in the article are summarized, and the inadequacy of each argument is shown. The mRNA vaccines are using codon optimization. Codon optimization may lead to proteins that may behave differently than they would have in their native form. The claimed supporting evidence is: "Biber cites a quote by Chava Kimchi Sarfaty, Ph.D., a principal investigator at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration: 'We do not believe that you can optimize codons and have the protein behave as it did in its native form.' ". The original source of the quote is in [3], and it's being taken totally out of context. The ...