Covid-19 vaccines do not contain DNA modifying robots

Social media posts claim that Covid-19 vaccines contain robotic “nanotechnology” that can change people’s DNA. While they include tiny bubbles of fat to protect mRNA molecules – an essential component of shots – they don’t feature miniature robots, and experts say Covid-19 jabs cannot alter the genetic makeup of ‘a person.

“NANOTECHNOLOGY IS IN THAT JAB THAT WILL MODIFY DNA – STAY AWAY!” warns a Facebook post from July 5, 2021 that features images of miniature robots emerging from a syringe and interacting with DNA and cells.

But the word “nanotechnology” refers to anything that has been designed at the nanoscale, and it does not necessarily refer to mechanical or mineral elements, as the photo suggests. Nanotechnologies are used, for example, in the food and cosmetic industries.

The mRNA vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna differ from previously administered inoculations. Instead of confronting the immune system with part of a virus in a weakened or deactivated form to build antibodies, they give it a “shot” of a part of the virus that the body can then recognize and fight off when there is. is faced later.

They use small fat bubbles called lipid nanoparticles to encapsulate fragile mRNA molecules and the information they contain to protect them until they can be delivered safely into cells without being degraded by enzymes in the body. This video explains how shooting works.

Most of the 334 million doses of Covid-19 administered in the United States were mRNA injections. More than 43 million doses in total have been shot in Canada.

“Nanotechnology” misinterpreted

Catherine Klapperich, professor of biomedical engineering at Boston University, told AFP on July 12 that “there are no robots” in vaccines against Covid-19.

She lamented that the word ‘nanotechnology’, coined decades ago, has been misinterpreted over time to suggest that ‘there is some kind of active, living component that is going to enter your body and be like a body. little robot, walking and doing stuff, and that must be infamous. “

“But in reality, the word ‘nanotechnology’ just means it’s about nanoscale technologies or materials, and that’s it. It’s actually a very passive material, it’s a lipid, ”she explained.

“There is nothing mechanical, there is nothing electrical, there is nothing magnetic”, she said, adding that without the lipids very little mRNA would enter cells “and the immune response would not be very strong.”

A deluge of inaccurate vaccine claims has spread across the internet as countries around the world seek to immunize their populations against Covid-19, which has killed more than four million people worldwide.

Covid-19 vaccines cannot alter people’s DNA

Scientists have largely rejected the unsubstantiated claim that mRNA vaccines can modify human DNA, which AFP has previously debunked here and here.

Matthew Miller, associate professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biomedical Sciences at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ont., Said in a previous fact check that “mRNA is the code for proteins. It does not alter your cells’ DNA Because your cells naturally make mRNA from DNA.

Klapperich of Boston University explained that “in your body, messenger RNA is made from DNA, not the other way around … DNA is never changed, never copied, never changed.“- and she said it couldn’t be because it’s not something mRNA can do.

Barry Pakes, assistant professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, tformer AFP on April 28 that “mRNA cannot be integrated into the human genome. We (humans) do not have the enzymes to transcribe mRNA into DNA. “

The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has also refuted the claim that Covid-19 vaccines can alter the DNA of people here.

“Covid-19 vaccines do not change or interact with your DNA in any way. Covid-19 mRNA and viral vector vaccines provide instructions (genetic material) to our cells to start protecting against the virus that causes Covid-19. However, the material never enters the nucleus of the cell, where our DNA is stored, ”says the Federal Health Agency on its website.