The Claim:
A non-profit that began in response to pandemic public health mitigation efforts is claiming that mRNA vaccines contain DNA that can alter your genes. They claim that people should question not only mRNA vaccines but all vaccine manufacturing, licensing, monitoring, and study.
The Facts:
DNA is an integral part of the manufacturing process for mRNA vaccines. The DNA that encodes for the antigen, or tells a cell how to make that antigen, is used as a template to create mRNA for the vaccine. This mRNA carries a copy of the antigen’s template to the cells so they can present antigens on their surface. DNA is not needed as an ingredient in the vaccine, and almost all (but trace amounts) are removed from the vaccine before it ever gets close to your arm.
The claim that the vaccine had a higher proportion of DNA to mRNA than is allowed by FDA guidelines stems from a non-peer-reviewed paper, acknowledging that one limitation of the study is the unknown origin of the (expired) vaccine vials they studied, noting that the “vials were sent to us anonymously in the mail without cold packs.”
Since mRNA degrades much faster than DNA, especially when handled incorrectly (i.e., not kept in cold storage), any proportion of trace amounts of DNA used in manufacturing would be amplified in expired vials not held at the proper temperatures.
As for the other claim that human cells could use reverse transcription of the COVID-19 mRNA in vaccines to create new DNA, the article cites this study. The study, however, didn’t see any evidence that mRNA was incorporated into the human genome at all. What they did was force transcription using cancer cells “with active DNA replication which differs from non-dividing somatic cells.”
Replication for most cells is regulated, but cancer cells are not regulated and replicate without being stopped. Their transcription of mRNA can go awry, and some mRNA fragments can be reverse transcribed into DNA sequences, meaning an enzyme is used to generate DNA. Even then, the DNA just hangs out, doing nothing, and can’t get into the nucleus where our DNA is.
Even then, the study only found pieces of replicated RNA in the cytoplasm which, like the mRNA from the vaccine, can’t enter the nucleus of a cell where our DNA is stored in order to change it.
This study did something that wouldn’t actually happen to you with the COVID vaccine, even if you had cancer. That’s what it’s all about.
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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