[rendaw]

The second part of the quote yes, but

> serious side effects, including deaths, caused by other gene therapies

That sounds like they were informed of risks for other therapies, not this one.

And TBH that framing is still suspect: if someone told me that the greatest risk was immune response and we have a way to minimize it, I'd take that to mean it's safe. That's not the right conclusion, but that's what most people would get from the phrasing. This is "how to lie with statistics". Maybe they were told something else though.