COVID-19 Vaccines in Lettuce and Spinach?

The US National Science Foundation has given University of California Riverside scientists $500,000 of taxpayer money to try to turn edible plants like lettuce or spinach into mRNA vaccine factories. But it’s highly unlikely that the technology will work as intended – and it poses serious contamination risks.

While UC Riverside does not directly claim that the researchers are trying to develop COVID-19 vaccines in the target plants, it is seemingly trying to exploit public fear of the pandemic to gain acceptance for these genetically modified (GM) pharmaceutical crops, pointing out in its press release that “messenger RNA or mRNA technology” is “used in COVID-19 vaccines” (with those produced and marketed by Pfizer and Moderna being of this type). UC Riverside’s hope is apparently that no one who cares about combating the SARS-CoV-2 virus could possibly complain about vaccines in their lettuce.