What of This mRNA Injection?

BILLINGS, MT | Pharmaceutical companies and our government have made a huge blunder by not providing clear, factual, and concise information to the public about messenger ribonucleic acid or mRNA, and by not allowing the public adequate time to consider factual information and to ask questions. As a result, the question of whether mRNA injections are safe for livestock and humans is one of today’s hottest issues.

Now this is a complicated issue, steeped in biological and genetic theory and understanding. But we have to get to the bottom of this so R-CALF USA is working with a team of medical doctors, a biological researcher, and veterinarian Dr. Robert Thornsberry from Missouri to learn four basic things about mRNA.

Here’s what we’re trying to learn:

1. What is mRNA?

2. What does it do?

3. What are the potential risks to humans and livestock?

4. What should people be doing about it?

And here is our understanding to date:

So, what is mRNA? First, it’s not a vaccine as we typically understand vaccines. So, for the rest of this discussion, I’ll refer to it as an injection. It’s an injection of a laboratory-produced substance into humans or livestock that is coded with a particular virus, such as COVID-19, that produces an immune response against the particular virus.

And what does mRNA do? Well, it hijacks living cells, tricking them into producing some level of immunity against human viruses like COVID-19 and livestock viruses such as foot-and-mouth disease or lumpy skin disease. It does this by rewriting the instructions from the body’s DNA.

And what are the potential risks to humans and livestock? The truthful answer is we don’t yet know the long-term effects of mRNA injections in either humans or livestock. It is being used in humans as a means of controlling COVID-19. It is also being used under limited conditions for swine. But it has not yet been approved in the United States for cattle.

There is great concern that living cells excrete the mRNA over time and the mRNA can then be transferred to animals and humans that have never received the mRNA injection. It is believed, for example, that humans can contact mRNA by eating meat from livestock that have received the injection.

The reason mRNA is an issue today is that pharmaceutical firms have found that it takes very little of it to hijack a cell, and it can be produced cheaper than typical virus vaccines.

We understand that mRNA is in use or about to be in use in cattle in foreign countries, Australia, New Zealand, and China have been mentioned. We understand that China is injecting mRNA coded for the spike protein in the COVID-19 virus into dairy cows for the purpose of exposing consumers of dairy products to the mRNA. And we’re concerned that people who eat meat from an mRNA-injected animal may become exposed to the mRNA that may be coded for foot-and-mouth disease or lumpy skin disease as it is believed to be absorbed in the intestinal tract of those consuming the meat.

Again, the most important takeaway is that we don’t yet know precisely what mRNA does to livestock or humans, particularly the long-term impact of the injections.

So, what should people be doing about it? Well, first and foremost, people should be given a choice as to whether to purchase food from animals or even plants that have been injected with mRNA. There is a bill in the Missouri legislature, HB 1169, that would require any food product from an animal injected with mRNA to be labeled as such. A total of five states are reported to be considering similar legislation.

Even though the United States has not approved mRNA injections in cattle, if we import beef from countries where such injections are allowed, then it’s possible that the meat from those animals are making their way into U.S. grocery stores. But people have no way of knowing where the meat was produced because Congress repealed the law that once required country of origin labels on all beef sold in grocery stores.

This is why people should contact their congressional delegations to urge them to enact mandatory country of origin labeling or MCOOL so they can begin choosing whether to purchase beef from a foreign country where mRNA injections are being given to cattle and other livestock. Only with mandatory country of origin labeling can consumers distinguish from which country their beef was produced.

A bill has been introduced in Congress to do just that. It’s the American Beef Labeling Act, S.52, and it would require beef sold in U.S. grocery stores to be labeled as to where the animal from which the beef was derived was born, raised, and slaughtered.

Please call your members of Congress and urge them to enact the American Beef Labeling Act so you know from which country your beef is from.

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R-CALF USA’s weekly opinion/commentary educates and informs both consumers and producers about timely issues important to the U.S. cattle industry and rural America.

R-CALF USA (Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America) is the largest producer-only trade association in the United States. It is a national, nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring the continued profitability and viability of the U.S. cattle industry. Visit www.r-calfusa.com or call 406-252-2516 for more information.