Some offspring of Moderna mRNA vaccine test rats born with skeletal deformities: Judicial Watch

Pharmaceutical company Moderna informed the Food and Drug Administration that a "statistically significant" number of rats whose mothers received the company's mRNA COVID-19 vaccine were born with skeletal deformities, according to data from the Department of Health and Human Services that a watchdog group obtained.

Judicial Watch announced on Tuesday that HHS had handed over 699 pages of records pertaining to data Moderna sent the FDA. Said handover followed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit the group filed to obtain the records after the relevant agencies failed to respond to the initial FOIA request.

A "nonclinical overview" included in the records the group obtained noted that "mRNA-1273 [Moderna vaccine]-related variations in skeletal examination included statistically significant increases in the number of F1 rats with 1 or more wavy ribs and 1 or more rib nodules. Wavy ribs appeared in 6 fetuses and 4 litters with a fetal prevalence of 4.03% and a litter prevalence of 18.2%. Rib nodules appeared in 5 of those 6 fetuses."

"Skeletal variations are structural changes that do not impact development or function of a developing embryo, are considered reversible, and often correlate with maternal toxicity and/or lack of other indicators of developmental toxicity (Carney and Kimmel 2007)," it continued. "Maternal toxicity in the form of clinical observations was observed for 5 days following the last dose (GD 13), correlating with the most sensitive period for rib development in rats (GDs 14 to 17)."

"Furthermore, there were no other indicators of mRNA-1273-related developmental toxicity observed, including delayed ossification; therefore, these common skeletal variations were not considered adverse," the records read.

The watchdog then contrasted the overview's dismissal of the abnormalities as non "adverse" with a separate article espousing that a comparable abnormality "may give rise to a different and more severe outcome."

An advisory committee for the FDA voted in June to recommend that children as young as 6 months old receive the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.

The Moderna vaccine received full FDA approval on Jan. 31 of this year. It was previously available under an emergency use authorization.