When drug companies say mRNA vaccines won’t alter our DNA, they are lying.

mRNA-based vaccines cannot change our DNA.

Since pharmaceutical companies and healthcare researchers started developing COVID-19 vaccines, there has been a considerable amount of misinformation and disinformation circulating. In a video published on November 18, Carrie Madej, an osteopath, claims that all drug companies using messenger RNA (mRNA) to develop their vaccines are lying about these vaccines altering our DNA. Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are based on mRNA technologies. However, the claim that these drug companies are lying about mRNA technologies changing our DNA is false.

As the Vaccine Alliance reports, "mRNA is not the same as DNA, and it can’t combine with our DNA to change our genetic code." mRNA vaccines give the body instructions on how to make the proteins on the surface of the virus. The body uses this mRNA to build its own copies of these proteins that the immune system responds to by producing antibodies and providing protection if the person catches the virus.

"This introduction of mRNA into human cells does not change the DNA of the human cells," the BBC reports, "and if these cells replicate, the mRNA would not be incorporated into the new cells’ genetic information."

The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to a lot of potentially dangerous misinformation. For reliable advice on COVID-19 including symptoms, prevention and available treatment, please refer to the World Health Organisation or your national healthcare authority.