Geert Vanden Bossche received his DVM from the University of Ghent, Belgium, and his PhD degree in Virology from the University of Hohenheim, Germany. He held adjunct faculty appointments. After his career in Academia, Geert joined several vaccine companies (GSK Biologicals, Novartis Vaccines, Solvay Biologicals) to serve various roles in vaccine R&D as well as in late vaccine development.¹⁾

He worked for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Health Discovery team in Seattle (USA) as Senior Program Officer; he then worked with the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) in Geneva as Senior Ebola Program Manager. At GAVI he tracked efforts to develop an Ebola vaccine. In 2015, he questioned the efficacy of the Ebola vaccine. His report of the data was published in the Lancet in 2015. ²⁾

At the onset of the pandemic, he sent an open letter to WHO warning them of his concerns of what a mass vaccination campaign might cause. He was concerned that administering a prophylactic vaccine during a viral pandemic would be highly dangerous due to viral immune escape. He also drafted a manuscript of his theory.

He explains that antibodies produced by the immune system create, ‘natural’ antibodies (abs), which are not germ specific versus pathogen specific (resulting in so-called ‘acquired’ Abs). Immune response is trained, meaning regular exposure to a myriad of agents, allows it to continue defense. With aging, the immune system is not strong enough to halt pathogens at entry. Thus, the immune system must rely on more specialized effectors of our immune system (i.e., antigen-specific Abs and T cells) to fight the pathogen. It is this type of highly specific, high affinity Abs that current Covid-19 vaccines are inducing.

He states that we need the antibodies to be tailored to the pathogen and present long enough to prevent survival. When extreme pressure exerted by the population’s immune defense starts to threaten viral replication and transmission, the virus will take on another appearance to no longer be recognized, to escape immunity (“immune escape”).

The virus can only rely on this strategy if it has room to replicate; they require a host to do so, which is very plausible during a global pandemic.

The increase in S (spike)-specific Abs in asymptomatically infected people is rather limited and only short-lived; the Abs have not achieved full maturity. Suboptimal concentration and Ab maturity allows the virus to select mutations that allow immune-escape. The selection of those mutations preferably occurs in the S protein as this is the viral protein that is responsible for viral infectiousness.

Now the virus can more easily spread severe disease. The more people with symptomatic disease, the more the virus can secure its propagation and perpetuation.

The number of subjects who get infected while experiencing a momentary increase in S-specific Abs will steadily increase, which means they are experiencing a decrease in their innate immunity. As a result, a steadily increasing number of subjects will become more susceptible to getting severe disease instead mild symptoms.

Suppression of innate immunity, especially in the younger age groups, can become very problematic. Due to containment measures implemented, they have not been exposure to other pathogens thus training their immunity rendering them more vulnerable. However, by also vaccinating the entire elderly population, the more the virus is forced to continue causing disease in younger age groups.

The more variants become infectious (i.e., as a result of blocking access of the virus to the vaccinated segment of the population), the less vaccinal Abs will protect. The lack of protection leads to viral shedding and transmission in vaccine recipients who are exposed to these more infectious strains.

This is how we are currently turning vaccines into asymptomatic carriers shedding infectious variants. People will have lost both their acquired and innate immune defense against Covid-19.

If the process continues, we could become confronted with a super-infectious virus that completely resists our most precious defense mechanism: The human immune system.

There is risk that vaccine-mediated immune escape could allow the virus to jump to other animal species, especially industrial livestock.

He advocates for vaccines ‘prime’ NK cells in ways for them to recognize and kill Coronaviruses at large (at an early stage of infection.) NK cells have increasingly been described to be endowed with the capacity to acquire immunological memory. As NK cell-based immune defense provides sterilizing immunity and allows for broad-spectrum and fast protection. ^{3) 4)}

The Children's Health Defense, news blog, “Defender” wrote about their two interviews with Bossche in attempting to understand where his concerns were warranted and where his claims may not be accurate.⁵⁾

In a Merogenomics blog, there is a article reviewing Bossche's open letter dissecting each point to it's potential truth or irrelevance to the developments in the actual pandemic. ⁶⁾

Further arguments point to flaws in his theories: 1. vaccines will cut transmission even if they don't stop it; 2. new variants can come from an unvaccinated population as well; 3. exposure to pathogens can be found in homes not just outside; 4. a new vaccine approach would have led to massive deaths and long term health consequence; 5. urgency of his message and suggestions that he is antivaccination as language is parallel. ⁷⁾

Hooman Noorchashm disagrees with Bossche's perspective to stop all vaccination; he argues that without vaccination, the virus would mutate, spread and cause more harm. However, his nuance is that vaccination should be given to all who have not been naturally infected because there is more potential for adverse effects when administering a vaccine in short duration after infection. ⁸⁾

Bret Weinstein conducted an interview with Geert Vanden Bossche on his take on the pandemic and mass vaccination. ⁹⁾