The Dark Side of mRNA: Unraveling the COVID-19 Vaccine Controversy

Jason Samir Santiago

So, let's rewind the clock for a second. Remember early 2020? The world was totally flipped upside down. COVID-19 had everyone on edge—lockdowns, masks, and then, boom! mRNA vaccines were introduced as the ultimate solution. The “only way out,” they said. It was—well, it felt like—a race against time, right?

Jason Samir Santiago

But here's what's kinda weird. As soon as these vaccines showed up, any concern or dissent was slapped with this label—“misinformation.” I mean, even if it came from, credible scientists. Seasoned experts. That was it—end of conversation. Everyone had to get in line, literally.

Jason Samir Santiago

And oh, this one's wild—a kid, yep, a school kid, totally made up the concept of six-foot social distancing. Yeah, not some global health organization, not some brilliant epidemiologist. Just, a random idea that somehow went viral. You can’t make this stuff up. Except someone actually did!

Jason Samir Santiago

Now, not everyone was on board with the “one-size-fits-all” mRNA vaccine strategy. Take Dr. Peter McCullough or Dr. Robert Malone—he was one of the inventors of the mRNA tech, by the way. And then there's Dr. Kary Mullis. He literally invented the PCR test. Mullis came out and said the the PCR test was not designed for this, and if you replicate enough times you can find anything you want to.

Jason Samir Santiago

These folks weren't just “Twitter MDs.” They raised legitimate concerns about safety and necessity, they even called out conflicts of interest. But instead of open debate? There were attempts to get them fully discredited and erased from the internet. Crazy, right?

Jason Samir Santiago

Alright, so the stage was set—COVID was the villain, and we kinda needed a superhero fast. Enter the mRNA vaccines. But wow, was it fast-tracked or what? See, the FDA has this thing, an Emergency Use Authorization—EUA. It's supposed to be used when there’s no other option, totally desperate stuff. But some experts? They think this was more than just “quick.” It was lightning-fast. Too fast. Despite already having evidence from all around the world, early on, that Ivermectin was working as a treatment. They forced the media to keep this out of the spotlight so they could get the EUA, because if people found out, an old cheap drug with extensive safety studies and is safer than aspirin, could end this madness, no one would have taken their experimental "vaccine".

Jason Samir Santiago

And here's the thing—proper safety testing? It's not just, “Oh yeah, we’ll get to that.” It’s non-negotiable. Phase 3 trials, the ones we trust for long-term effects, weren’t even done before these rolled out. I mean, seriously—how do you assess something’s long-term safety... if you’ve only tested it short-term? You can’t. It's like reviewing a movie’s ending halfway through the film.

Jason Samir Santiago

Which brings us to a sticky point—conflicts of interest. Stay with me. Big pharma loves funding their own clinical trials. And honestly, when billions of dollars are on the line, are we really expecting them to say, “Hey, we found issues, let’s pump the brakes”? Of course not. Not exactly how that works. And remember, many regulators later... take jobs in pharma. This needs to be made illegal, it should be a felony to consult for or work with a pharma company after being a regulator of that industry.

Jason Samir Santiago

Now let’s dig into what the data says—or doesn’t say. When these vaccines launched, the push was huge. Instant success stories, charts flying everywhere. But if you slowed down—you’d start asking, “Where’s the raw data? The actual numbers?” It was missing, incomplete, or just super hard to access. It was like someone giving you the book summary but refusing to hand over the book.

Jason Samir Santiago

And when real-world problems popped up, like adverse events? Reporting systems didn’t seem ready for the flood. I mean, VAERS—the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System—was, well, it’s not super user-friendly, let’s just say that. And the follow-up investigations? Slow, almost like they didn’t wanna find too much. Weird, huh?

Jason Samir Santiago

Alright, let’s step into the weeds a bit, shall we? Starting with something that's been whispered about—spike protein toxicity. The spike protein is this key feature of the virus that the mRNA vaccines teach our bodies to recognize. Amazing tech, right? But there's this growing question—what happens if that spike protein hangs around longer than it should?

Jason Samir Santiago

And some early papers suggested the spike could be toxic on its own, triggering inflammation in certain tissues. It's not definitive, of course, because science loves to argue with itself. But if we’re pointing arrows at safety signals, this one seems like it’s worth a giant red highlighter.

Jason Samir Santiago

Now, let's talk about myocarditis and blood clots for a sec. So, myocarditis—it’s inflammation of the heart muscle. Very scary topic. Young guys—teens and twenty-somethings—they saw an uptick in cases post-vaccine. Immediately. Especially after that second dose. Coincidence? Doubtful, it's hard to not notice the connection when the timing lines up like that.

Jason Samir Santiago

And then clots. Blood clots made headlines when one type of vaccine got paused for review. But guess what? Reports of clotting issues weren’t isolated to just that one. Even mRNA ones showed cases. When the word “stroke” enters the chat, it’s not a small deal anymore, right? There were even videos circulating online from coroners. These coroners were saying they had never seen clotting like this before.

Jason Samir Santiago

Alright, VAERS time—here's where things get tricky. The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System is our supposed radar for spotting issues post-rollout. But, and here’s the kicker, it’s voluntary. Yep—patients, doctors, whoever—they have to take the time to log reports. And most don’t. Studies estimate that VAERS might only capture a fraction of actual cases. Like, one percent, maybe.

Jason Samir Santiago

And even when the reports do roll in? Meh, they just kinda sit there, waiting to be parsed. And look, parsing matters. When you’ve got noises of adverse effects but the systems to track 'em are stuck in the slow lane... it’s kinda like covering your ears and humming when someone’s screaming "fire."

Jason Samir Santiago

Okay, so let’s talk mandates, the government kind. Those “get the jab or else” kinda rules that came from everywhere, right? It’s hard not to wonder if this was the first time we saw the words “public health” twisted into public pressure on a massive scale.

Jason Samir Santiago

Now, the big question that keeps bubbling up—was safety really the priority here, or was compliance the endgame? I mean, when public spaces, jobs, travel—you name it—started becoming off-limits without proof of vaccination, it stopped being a choice. It became this very thinly veiled coercion. And coercion? It has never been a great tool for trust-building.

Jason Samir Santiago

And then there’s the issue of informed consent, which, at its core, sounds simple, right? It’s like, “Hey, here’s all the info you need to decide what’s best for you.” But in practice? Woof. It was more like, “You’re fine! Totally fine! No questions, just trust us.” Super transparent.

Jason Samir Santiago

I mean, can we take a second to think about how many people probably didn’t even get enough detailed risk breakdowns to make a real choice? Short-term side effects were acknowledged—hey, maybe a sore arm or feeling a little off. But what about the long-term? When patients asked about that, it was a lot of shrugging. You know, “We’ll see.” And that, my friends, is not what informed consent looks like.

Jason Samir Santiago

Who remembers all the people passing out on live television after getting the shots? I Do. Those videos were everywhere too.

Jason Samir Santiago

And then whistleblowers. Oh boy. This is where things get real spicy. Over the past few years, we’ve heard from insiders—doctors, nurses, even data analysts—who said, Wait a minute, something’s not adding up here. Some were stonewalled when reporting adverse effects or pressured to stay quiet. Quiet about things that were harming lives. That’s... not a good look, right?

Jason Samir Santiago

One whistleblower even alleged that clinical trial data wasn’t exactly rock solid. Like, errors were ignored, or—this one blows my mind—some data just disappeared. Poof. Gone. If that’s true? Yikes. That should immediately be taken out of circulation. Where is the data that disappeared and what was it pertaining to. Any medication that has information disappear from its trials should be immediately red-flagged and not allowed to be sold or distributed for any reason. Then an investigation needs to be done on that company, to uncover how often they are covering things up in other ways as well. Because, let's face it, we know they are.

Jason Samir Santiago

Alright, so where do we go from here? I mean, we’ve talked about mandates, adverse effects, and even some eyebrow-raising marketing tactics, but the next chapter in this story might just be about accountability—or the lack of it, honestly.

Jason Samir Santiago

Let’s start with the legal stuff. A whole bunch of lawsuits have popped up, targeting everyone from vaccine manufacturers to government agencies. Some claim that critical safety data was either ignored or buried. Others argue the mandates trampled personal freedoms, which, let’s face it, they did. And get this—there’s chatter about potential criminal investigations, looking into whether fast-tracking the vaccine rollout skipped any must-do steps. These cases are still shaking out, but you can bet they’ll set some pretty important precedents.

Jason Samir Santiago

And here’s the kicker—compensation for injuries, for those rare but serious adverse effects I mentioned before? In the U.S., there’s this special program called the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program. Sounds fancy, right? Yeah, except it’s been criticized for being pretty tough to navigate. If you’ve been affected, good luck getting any help there. It’s not exactly winning “User-Friendly System of the Year” or anything.

Jason Samir Santiago

Now, let’s pivot to what's on the horizon—say hello to the next wave of mRNA vaccines. Researchers are now looking into using this tech for way more than just COVID. Think flu shots, cancer therapies, even vaccines for diseases like HIV. It’s ambitious, for sure. Ludicrous, probably. It kinda raises this awkward question—if we didn’t nail the safety for the first experimental "vaccine", can we really trust that the lessons learned will stick? Or are we just charging ahead because the tech is, let’s be real, insanely lucrative?

Jason Samir Santiago

And let’s not forget the public trust angle. If people already feel burned by the whole mRNA vaccine rollout, what’s that gonna do to uptake for future vaccines? Like, is the skepticism gonna overshadow the potential breakthroughs? That’s the looming challenge, bigger than maybe any single innovation. Science only works if people trust it enough to open their arms—literally.

Jason Samir Santiago

So here we are at the end of this whirlwind of a conversation. And man, I feel like we’ve barely scratched the surface. The question is, can we move forward without repeating the same mistakes? Or are we stuck on this hamster wheel of hype, haste, and hindsight?

Jason Samir Santiago

RFK Jr. was appointed as the head of HHS today. Maybe this administration can make the changes needed to our system of medicine, to make it not only more effective for those who've had severe side effects, but for everyone. One more thing we can only judge from a time in the future.

Jason Samir Santiago

On that note, we’ll leave it there for today. Thanks for hanging out and unpacking all this with me.

Jason Samir Santiago

As always, we encourage our listeners to stay informed, ask questions, and engage with healthcare professionals when making vaccination decisions. Medical science evolves, and ongoing research will help ensure that medicines remain both effective and safe. Thank you for joining us for this episode of Effects on the Side. Until next time, stay curious and stay informed. If you enjoyed this information-packed episode, please subscribe, share, and rate us 5 stars.