The Claim:
A viral tweet claims that mRNA COVID vaccines’ spike protein is causing “turbo” testicular cancer.
The Facts:
The claim that “spike protein localizes to the testes” makes it sound like spike protein is circulating and accumulating when the spike protein is generally not free floating. Most of the mRNA stays at the injection site, but some of it travels and is taken up by other organs.
Like in every other situation, the mRNA will then direct those cells to produce spike protein, which will be anchored to those cells, and then the mRNA will degrade within a day or so. Because the mRNA cannot access the nucleus of the cell where DNA resides, it does not change your DNA, and it cannot, therefore, give you turbo cancer.
Rather, the spike proteins trigger an immune response and nothing else. They are not capable of entering another cell or replicating. They are just on display for your immune system to learn about.
Testicular cancer is the most common malignancy in men 20 to 40 and second most common in men 15-19. The tweet claims a correlation between these cancers and vaccine status but offers no evidence. Without a plausible mechanism or evidence, the claims must be rejected.
Disclaimer: Science is always evolving and our understanding of these topics may have evolved too since this was originally posted. Be sure to check out our most recent posts and browse the latest Just the Facts Topics for the latest.
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