Proof Robert Malone Did Not Invent The mRNA Vaccine Or The Technology Upon Which It Is Based
A careful look at his 1989 paper
Robert W. Malone, MD claims he invented the mRNA vaccine. That claim has been accepted around the world and repeated innumerable times in thousands of publications, podcasts, on social media, cable and network TV. But did he really?
The NY Times published a devastating article on April 3, 2022 calling out Dr. Robert Malone over false claims that he invented the mRNA COVID vaccine. Quoting his own colleagues who said his claims are “totally false”, the NY Times described Malone as “extraordinarily dishonest and morally bankrupt.”
Robert Malone Spreads Falsehoods About Vaccines. He Also Says He Invented Some. - The New York Times (nytimes.com)
But the article did not actually contain any smoking gun evidence that proves conclusively Malone has exaggerated and embellished his claim of invention. He has at times claimed to be “the inventor” and at other times said he “invented the technology” on which the vaccine is based. What is that technology? It’s a cationic liposome called lipofectin (DOTMA) that is used to transfect RNA in a process called lipofection.
Well, there IS a smoking gun, irrefutable proof Malone did not “invent” the vaccine or lipofection, the technology on which it based. What is this smoking gun evidence? His OWN WORDS in black and white. Its right there in his 1989 paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
All you have to do is read this paper VERY carefully. In the discussion section of the paper, he states “We have developed…”. Who is the “we”? It’s Malone, Felgner and Verma. Malone was in his 20’s at the time, a young graduate student having just graduated college. Dr. Felgner was his superior, a PhD supervisor at VICAL, the Director of Research where Malone worked very briefly. Dr. Verma was Malone’s PhD Adviser at the Salk Institute and was a well known molecular biology researcher - a “giant” of genetic research in his day. Malone had a mysterious“falling out” with Verma and left Salk to go VICAL to work for Felgner who had just come down to San Diego from Palo Alto where he worked at Syntex and where he developed lipofectin. From Malone’s 1989 paper…
In his 1989 article Malone cites Reference # 10. A paper by Felgner, et al (NOT Malone) published in 1987 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in which Felgner describes the development of lipofectin (DOTMA) and the lipofection method to transfect DNA, the same method Malone later used to transfect RNA.
Malone then goes on to acknowledge several other parties including Syntex for their “generous gift” of lipofectin (DOTMA).
Reference # 10 is crucial. This is the 1987 paper by Felgner et al at Syntex in Palo Alto in which he describes the development of lipofectin (DOTMA) and successfully used it to transfect DNA.
But wait, there’s more! Not only does Felgner describe synthesizing lipofectin (DOTMA) and using it to transfect DNA, he also suggests this method could be used to transfect RNA years before Malone conducted those experiments under Felgner’s supervision in his lab at VICAL.
And finally, this letter from Dr. Malone to Dr. Felgner in which Malone refers to “your DOTMA RNA transfer research.” Is there anything about the words “YOUR RESEARCH” that is unclear? Malone states it unequivically in the letter. The research was Felgner’s, not Malone’s.
So there you have it. Proof. Lipofectin and the process for using it to transfect DNA was invented by Felgner at Syntex prior to 1987, two years before Malone wrote the paper he now points to as proof he invented it. Malone cites Felgner and acknowledges Syntex for their gift of lipofectin in his paper. He even refers to it as “your DOTMA RNA transfer research”. How much more clear can it be?
Felgner also suggested in his 1987 paper that lipofectin could be used to transfect oligonucleotides and RNAs. Clearly, this was Felgner’s invention.
What Malone did is becoming very clear. After graduating UC Davis with a BS in Biochemistry in 1984, he enrolled in graduate school at UCSD in Biology in an MD-PhD program under the supervision of Dr. Verma. Something happened there to sour that relationship. Malone has alleged Verma and the other grad students there were “abusive” and that’s why he dropped out of the PhD program. Indeed Verma had to resign many years later after allegations of abuse. But exactly what went on between Malone and Verma is unclear. The explanation Malone provides doesn’t pass the sniff test. A few years later Malone begged to get back into the PhD program at UCSD and was rebuffed.
Malone left Salk and went to work at VICAL where he worked on transfecting RNA using the materials and methods developed by Felgner at Syntex. The research Malone did at VICAL was suggested in Felgner’s 1987 paper. Felgner was his supervisor at VICAL. The evidence is crystal clear. Felgner developed lipofectin (DOTMA) and the process of lipofection using DNA. He also suggested it would work with RNA. That was not Malone’s idea, it was obviously Felgner’s. Malone did not invent the vaccine or the the technology on which it is based. He carried out the research suggested by Felgner under his supervision. He may well have tweaked the process but the idea underlying it was not his.
But then something very untoward happened at VICAL. Malone wrote several patent applications about lipofection and listed himself as the primary inventor! Felgner apparently did not appreciate a grad student, his employee, taking credit for his invention and wrote his name over Malone’s on the applications. Malone essentially tried to take credit for his supervisors research. He got caught and that was then end of his relationship with Dr. Felgner.
Malone then resigned from VICAL after only 9 months citing an inability to work with Felgner, impugning him and with the threat of litigation from the law firm representing VICAL. He then went on to finish medical school.
Suffice it to say, this puts the last nail in the coffin of Malone’s claims that he invented the mRNA vaccine or the technology on which it is based. He did work with lipofectin and used it transfect RNA as was suggested by Felgner, his supervisor at VICAL. But this was clearly not his idea as the historical record proves. He tried to take credit for it listing himself as the primary inventor on the patent application and he got caught. And that is most likely why he left VICAL. Malone clearly did not invent any of this.