New Study Shows There's a Lot of DNA in the Pfizer/Moderna Vials — There Shouldn't Be
This is now on the U.S. Congressional Record thanks to Senator Ron Johnson.
This article originally appeared on Jessica Rose’s Substack and was republished with permission.
Guest post by Dr. Jessica Rose
I promised a “Jess write-up” of our newest paper that was published on 06 Sep 2025 in the journal Autoimmunity after many years of preprintage, peer-review and attacks. It is entitled: “Quantification of residual plasmid DNA and SV40 promoter-enhancer sequences in Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna modRNA COVID-19 vaccines from Ontario, Canada” and it was submitted as evidence on the congressional record by the honorable Senator Ron Johnson as part of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that took place on Sept. 9, 2025.1
You want it simple? Well, here’s simple.
You know the vials that were operation warp speeded into commercialization by Pfizer and Moderna during the COVID era? The ones that represented brand new technologies (LNPs + spike coding material) that were going to save the world? You remember how we were told by the recommenders CDC, FDA and HHS that they are safe and effective and that the stuff in the vials:
stays in the arm
does not pose a problem in terms of DNA/integration?
Well, in fact, if you head to the CDC website as of today (September 15, 2025), you will see that the CDC are STILL claiming no biodistribution (that the stuff stays in the muscle cells of the arm (or leg, if baby)):
and STILL claiming no DNA integration issues. In bold, in fact, as if to make a point.
The first claim is a lie and they knew that. Biodistribution of LNPs is the bread-and-butter-modus-operandi of LNPs. In fact, they are often studded with specific proteins to enable location-specific trafficking in the body, like to the liver to deliver pro-drugs, for example.
The second statement is categorically false and you know how I know that? Because they have no scientific evidence to make this claim, and in light of the fact that multiple studies from multiple labs (reproduced finding from non-conflicted labs) have identified DNA in the Pfizer and Moderna vials, it is a false statement.
If there’s DNA in the vials with appropriate mammalian promoters, then host cell genomic damage is a concern. In fact, Moderna acknowledge in their own patent from 2018 that foreign DNA introduction is a no-no because of potential for “alterations and/or damage to host cell genomic DNA”.
Here’s the punchline. Because of all of the ignorance, deception and lies, we now KNOW that there is DNA in the vials. Moderna’s patent’s danger prediction came true.
Here’s how we know.
We tested 32 vials of Pfizer and Moderna COVID products that included 16 unique lots. We measured the amount of DNA in the vials using 2 methods: one involves measuring specific DNA fragments by amplification of DNA from samples (qPCR), and one involved measuring DNA using fluorescent dyes that bind to DNA and emit light when excited called fluorometry. So exciting!
We found DNA using both methods which is more than can be said for what the manufacturers/regulators did. They cherry-picked one or the other to measure DNA (or RNA) and that’s no good because there’s something called cross-reactivity/non-specific binding that can mess up your measurement. For example, if RNA is present in your sample (which it is), the fluorescence signal can overestimate the DNA concentration, especially in crude extracts or samples because the dyes can bind both DNA and RNA. What we did to resolve this issue is use something called RNAse (chews up RNA) to get rid of the RNA to yield a clean, beautiful and accurate DNA reading.
We did not only find DNA, we found it in ALL lots tested and most importantly, the DNA levels were all above pre-designated EMA thresholds of 10 ng/dose. This isn’t even the worst of it because these thresholds are way too high to begin with. They are way too high because they were determined in the context of naked DNA, not lipid nanoparticle-encapsulated DNA, so they absolutely need to be re-determined to appropriately match the for-use case.
This isn’t the worst of it.
We found SV40 promoter/enhancers in the Pfizer vials. We did not find them in the Moderna vials. This is likely because they didn’t grab the gene therapy plasmid off the shelf when they went to up-scale production for commercial use. This SV40 is NOT the simian virus as a complete virus. It’s a component of SV40, and is a gene therapy tool used in biotech/on the bench to get stuff to the nucleus of cells. Read David Dean’s work.2
We do not know why it’s in the vials but we suspect that it’s there because Pfizer grabbed a plasmid from the shelf that contained it and just thought ‘meh, this won’t be a problem, and if it is, who cares’. That seems to be the attitude from many regulators at least.
Before I go further, there’s something else of importance that I need to explain. I keep using the word plasmid and you need to know more about that. I recommend reading Retsef Levi and Josh Guetzkow’s BMJ rapid response article about Process 1 and Process 2.
Process 1 involves amplifying DNA using PCR to produce the material for subsequent production of nucleoside modified RNA - the infamous coding material for spike used in the Pifzer and Moderna shots. This is the process they used for production in the case of the clinical trials. But hold up. Did they use this production method for the commercial products: the shots that went into billions of people? Nope.
They used Process 2. Process 2 involved making tons of DNA for nucleoside modified RNA production using something called a plasmid/E. coli system. It’s an extremely cost-efficient and rapid way to use the doubling-power of E. coli bacteria to make tons of DNA, and in this case, spike DNA. The problem with this is that if you don’t purify your end-product - in this case, nucleoside-modified RNA - you might end up with DNA impurities and even lipopolysaccharide (LPS) contamination. LPS is a component part of the E. coli outer membrane of the cell wall. You should know that if you accidentally inject LPS into a person, they will likely go into anaphylactic shock. There are currently 10,911 reports of anaphylaxis in VAERS.3 Well, it seems that the only explanation for the DNA in the vials is that this last step failed.
They needed a super fast and cheap way to make this stuff, so they up-scaled production by switching to this process. You should know, that they did NOT do any safety testing worth mentioning on the products of the Process 2 materials - they looked at safety signals in a few hundred people from one lot. That’s it. Does that sound ok to you?
New manufacturing procedure; new trials!
Back to SV40. SV40 is a gene therapy tool. It’s used to traffic stuff to the nucleus of cells. If a cell is dividing, its nuclear membrane breaks down and any old foreign DNA can hypothetically gain access to become integrated. It’s possible. So there’s that. But foreign DNA like SV40 and the other junk only needs to find its way to the juicy interior of a cell to wreak havoc in terms of activating cancer pathways (see: cGas-STING pathway).
There’s also the fact that the SV40 promoter/enhancer sequences are known to interact with the quintessential p53 protein. You know, that tumor suppressor thingy often called the guardian of the genome? What effect is that having? Is it impairing the tumor suppressor effects of p53? Is this why we’re seeing cancers on the rise? There’s more that SV40 can do to mess things up, but I will leave it at this.
By the way Kevin (I know you’re reading this), look what happened when I prompted Grok with the following:
Why is it restricted? That’s so messed up. Well, I don’t need you anyway Grok.
So I will finish with the conclusion statement of the paper:
Conclusion
These data demonstrate the presence of billions to hundreds of billions of DNA molecules per dose in the modRNA COVID-19 products tested. Using fluorometry coupled with RNase A digestion, all products tested exceeded the guidelines for residual DNA set by the FDA and WHO of 10 ng/dose by 36–627-fold. qPCR testing showed that all Moderna vials were within the regulatory limit and that 3 Pfizer vials exceeded the regulatory limit for the SV40 promoter-enhancer-ori and showed much greater intra- and inter-lot variability. qPCR underestimates the total DNA with results varying greatly by genomic target emphasizing the importance of using more than one assay to accurately determine the DNA load. It is important that regulators produce clear and consistent guidelines on how to quantify mRNA and plasmid DNA in modRNA vaccines. The PCR results for the most recent XBB.1.5 Moderna and Pfizer vaccines suggest that DNA residues have not been reduced from previous vaccine versions.
Our findings extend existing concerns about vaccine safety and call into question the relevance of guidelines conceived before the introduction of efficient transfection using LNPs. With several obvious limitations, we urge that our work is replicated under forensic conditions and that guidelines be revised to account for highly efficient DNA transfection and cumulative dosing.
This work highlights the need for regulators and industry to adhere to the precautionary principle and provide sufficient and transparent evidence that products are safe and effective, and disclose the details of their composition and method of manufacture.
I couldn’t agree more.
So, for the layman:
there’s not meant to be DNA in the vials: there is
there’s not meant to be a nuclear localization sequence (SV40 promoter/enhancer) as part of the DNA found: there is in the Pfizer vials
VAERS data does not mis-align with the DNA levels: perhaps with more vials tested we can finally create a proper dose-response curve?
once these findings were brought to regulators’/manufacturers’ eyes, they should have jumped on it as if it was an existential crisis: they buried it and publicly claimed “no problem”
they will try to retract our work
Download the paper from here, share the be-jeezus out of it, and explain to others what I explained here.
It is officially on the congressional record thanks to Senator Ron Johnson.
I love you all and I hope this helps!
Speicher, D. J., Rose, J., & McKernan, K. (2025). Quantification of residual plasmid DNA and SV40 promoter-enhancer sequences in Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna modRNA COVID-19 vaccines from Ontario, Canada. Autoimmunity, 58(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/08916934.2025.2551517
Vacik J, Dean BS, Zimmer WE, Dean DA. Cell-specific nuclear import of plasmid DNA. Gene Ther. 1999 Jun;6(6):1006-14. doi: 10.1038/sj.gt.3300924. PMID: 10455402; PMCID: PMC4408932
Query: MedDra code ‘Anaphylaxis’/’anaphylaxis’ in domestic and foreign data sets from SYMPTOMS only.
Copyright 2025 Dr. Jessica Rose
