Social media users claim the presence of lipid nanoparticles in a COVID-19 vaccine, meaning it may contain small robots or computers. This is false – these nanoparticles are small lipid droplets that transport and protect the vaccine component.
The claim was shared in a video that can be seen (here, here).
The imagery contains the list of ingredients for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, which shows that it contains lipid nanoparticles.
In the video, the man who filmed says, “We do not know what’s in those nanoparticles, but it’s so nano that you can definitely have few computers.”
However, the term “nano” is simply a unit of size.
Nanotechnology can refer to science done on the nanoscale of about 1 to 100 nanometers (here).
Similarly, the general definition of ‘nanoparticle’ is a small particle that is between 1 and 100 nanometers in size.
And in this case, the term “nanoparticle” refers to a small lipid droplet that contains the vaccine component. Lipids are substances that are not soluble in water, such as fats.
The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine uses messenger RNA (mRNA) technology (here).
It uses a chemical messenger to instruct cells to make proteins that mimic the outer surface of the new coronavirus, thus creating immunity.
The lipid nanoparticles are essentially ‘delivery vehicles’ that protect the mRNA when the vaccine is injected and transport it to the right place in cells (here).
VERDICT
Untrue. The lipid nanoparticles in the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine protect and transport the vaccine component. It does not contain few computers or robots.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work to actually check social media posts.