CLAIM: The COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are “gene-altering” and cause “your body to continue cloning the virus inside of you forever.”
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The vaccines do not edit humans’ DNA and they do not contain the live coronavirus.
THE FACTS: Long-circulating misconceptions about the COVID-19 vaccines are being rehashed in an Instagram video purporting to offer alarming information about the shots.
“Let me explain the gene-altering aspects of the vaccine,” says the woman in the video, making an erroneous claim about the Moderna shot.
She goes on to say that the mRNA in the vaccine causes cells to create the spike protein from the coronavirus, but then falsely claims: “This causes your body to continue cloning the virus inside of you forever.”
The COVID-19 mRNA vaccines from Moderna and rival Pfizer do not alter humans’ DNA, experts have told The Associated Press. The mRNA trains the body to recognize the spike protein from the coronavirus to trigger an immune response; it degrades after being taken up by cells.
The video’s claim that the vaccines prompt “cloning the virus inside of you forever” is also wrong. The shots do not contain any live virus.
“The COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are not gene-altering, nor can they replicate like the actual virus,” said Deepta Bhattacharya, a professor of immunobiology at the University of Arizona.
“The SARS-CoV-2 virus has a long RNA genome from which it makes a bunch of different proteins, which together allow the virus to make more...
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