Do COVID vaccines increase cancer risk?

An anti-vaccine tweet claims that COVID vaccination in childhood increases the risk of cancers over a person’s lifetime.

Vaccines do not change our molecular structure or DNA. Dr. Paul Offit explains that it’s virtually impossible for DNA fragments in COVID mRNA vaccines to cause harm, such as cancers or autoimmune diseases. He outlines three protective mechanisms in our cells that prevent these DNA fragments from causing harm: the cytoplasm’s immune mechanisms and enzymes destroy foreign DNA; the DNA fragments lack a necessary signal to enter the nucleus; and they also lack the integrase enzyme needed to integrate into our DNA.

There is no scientific evidence or plausible mechanism suggesting that these DNA fragments would alter our genome to cause cancer. No evidence supports the claim that COVID-19 vaccines cause so-called turbo cancer or any other form of cancer.

The idea that these turbo cancers are a result of vaccines stems, in part, from claims that doctors are seeing huge spikes in cancer rates. However, even some of the most powerful carcinogens can take years to manifest in the form of cancer. While there has been an increase in early-onset cancers (not turbo cancer), this increase started in the early 1990s, well before the introduction of COVID vaccines.

Vaccines are not shown to cause cancer, and anti-vaxxers have yet to produce credible evidence the vaccine is causing cancers, turbo or otherwise.

Read more of our posts debunking claims about COVID vaccines and cancer.