Contamination issues in COVID-19 injectable products

This is weird... I thought to jot down some notes.

In preparation for my upcoming presentation at a conference, I am making some slides concerning COVID-19 injectable product quality. I was looking around in VAERS for mentions of contamination to see if there are reports involving contaminated products.

It’s really weird what I found. There are 11 (19.6%) deaths of the 56 reports with MedDRA codes “Product contamination physical” or “Product contamination”. This is only the result of a query of MedDRA codes. That’s a really high death rate associated with contamination!

Here’s the weird thing about the report for VAERS_ID 1435925 which has since been classified as ‘invalid’. It appears as though this is a report made for 104 people. I have seen this before in VAERS so I know it’s a thing. But I am not sure about this particular report: it’s hard to interpret these free text fields sometimes - but it would explain why there is no SEX and AGE_YRS data. But the thing is that this is a report for death. If this report is for 104 different individuals, did all of these purported 104 people die?

Another interesting report of contamination in VAERS refers to the known contamination of 3 batches of Moderna products that prompted the equivalent of 1.63 million doses to be withdrawn from the Japanese market. You can click on the photo to get to an article that reports on this in NIKKEI ASIA. This was originally written and published by Yumiko Urasaki and Yuko Nomura on August 26, 2021.

https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Most-read-in-2021/1.6m-Moderna-doses-withdrawn-in-Japan-over-contamination.

This article reports on 2 deaths in men in their 30s, due to contamination of the Moderna products. A subsequent article in NIKKEI ASIA was published on August 28, 2021 on these 2 deaths, and 11 others - seemingly unrelated to contamination issues - and you can read that here.

But there are more than 2 reports of death in VAERS from Japan in the context of the Moderna shots - just in this short ‘death contamination list’. There are 6.

The first death contamination report in VAERS that caught my eye was the following report with VAERS_ID 2324970. There is a description of the contamination of a large number of doses (this represents the 3 batches that were pulled due to contamination), and a written admission that this previously healthy 38-year old man died after having received a dose of this contaminated product. The received date of the VAERS report in June 21, 2022 so was this product still being administered after it was pulled, or was this perhaps this was a delayed death? Or maybe just a delayed entry to VAERS? We will probably never know.

This next one (VAERS_ID = 2543907) is for a female. Or a male. Seriously. Not sure. Both are written in which makes me think that this report represents more than one person. On the last line of this free text report, it states that the SPLTTYPE is JP-MODERNATX, INC.-MOD-2022-690712, which matches the woman’s SPLTTYPE but following this second statement it is written :49 year Male. Is this another person who was also a victim of this batch no. 3004734?

And this one (VAERS_ID = 2425849) is for a 49-year old male. This report clarifies that three Moderna lots were contaminated with 316L stainless steel particles. I am not sure what that means but I have always wondered if this could be from cheap needles having penetrated the rubber stopper.

An email from a reader:

Jessica, 316 is "marine grade" stainless steel. 316L is a variety of 316. 316 would be perfect for those little tiny screws that hold surf board fins to the board.

He continued…

One other thing, the stainless steels are not very magnetic, so their fragments are harder to remove from the batch, using a magnetic trap. Also, since they resist corrosion, they won't rust away and disappear, so a little sliver of metal will stay forever as a little jagged thing in the body. Part of the quality control would involve detecting metal fragments. Each earplug worn by the factory workers will have a metal bead molded in to facilitate detection. The needles should be 304 stainless steel alloy, not 316. 304 will tarnish after being wet for months/years so it's fine for needles. The manufacturing equipment must have some 316 that is getting scraped in some way and it's falling into the jab-juice, I'd guess. The inside edge of the needle is dulled so a "plug" is not cut from the flesh, or rubber stopper, and injected into the body. (My dad worked for __ many years ago.)

Steve

Thanks Steve!

This person died the day after the shot so whatever it was, it did him in quickly. This is a report made for a 49-year male but I am pretty sure that this is not the same male referred to in the previous report. The SPLTTYPE references are JP-MODERNATX, INC.-MOD-2022-636030 and JP-MODERNATX, INC.-MOD-2022-636122 but weirdly enough, at the bottom again, it is written that these two SPLTTYPEs are associated with Male 30s. So which is it? 49 or 30? Are they confused about the 2 men who died in their 30s from contamination?

So it’s possible that these 3 reports are for only these 2 men. I am not sure. But take a look at this weird one.

There also seems to be a report (VAERS_ID = 2326342) for one of those 2 men in their 30s, however, with a separate reference to them in this free text, I have to wonder if this isn’t an additional report.

One more thing about the confusing free text is that it was likely translated from Japanese, so this might explain some of the strange phrasing.

I didn’t expect this so I thought to write it down.

A lot of deaths in the context of contamination and inconsistencies in the reports of death for Japanese people in the context of the Moderna products. Did more than 11 people die in association with the Moderna shot? Did they get reported to the adverse event data collection system in Japan?

Many unanswered questions. I think this the tip of yet another iceberg.

Cheers