Social media users shared articles claiming Tal Zaks, Moderna’s chief medical officer, said mRNA vaccines – such as the Moderna vaccine for COVID-19 – alter DNA. This statement is false. It is based on comments misinterpreted by Zaks, and Reuters has found no evidence that he makes such comments elsewhere.
The posts (here, here, here) show a link or a screenshot from an article that has been copied here, here and here, verbatim on various websites. Each site leads with the same headline: “Bombshell: Modern Chief Medical Officer Admits mRNA modifies DNA.”
According to the article, evidence of the claim in the headline can be traced back to Zaks who gave a TedTalk in 2017 (here). It specifically refers to Zaks’ expressions such as: “We’re actually hacking the software of life” and: “We think of it as an operating system. So if you could change it … if you could set a code or change a code, it would appear to have profound implications for everything. ‘
After quoting Zaks (here), the article then draws its own conclusion: When a code code is changed or a code is entered (refer to DNA), the ‘code’ or DNA is then changed, which individual or ‘subject’ has now had their genome changed to what the ‘scientists’ coded. The individual or subject is no longer a creation of God, but a creation of man, which means that the individual or subject can be the object of a ‘patent’. ”
It is not true. This is a conclusion based on a misrepresentation of quotes by Zaks, who at no point in his TedTalk says that mRNA vaccines will alter a person’s DNA. In fact, his outline and diagram of a vaccine against mRNA flu at work show the opposite.
“So this is all the biology you need to know in 30 seconds,” Zaks said at the beginning of his explanation. ‘Our body is made up of organs, our organs are made up of cells, and in every cell there is something called’ messenger RNA ‘, or in short mRNA, which carries the critical information from the DNA, our genes, to the protein convey, what are really the things we are all made of. This is the critical information that determines what a cell is actually going to do. ”
While Zaks is talking, he presents a diagram showing the cell. DNA is located inside the nucleus, which sends mRNA to the broader cell to a “protein-making unit” to give the unit to make a protein.
“So many of us get a vaccine,” Zaks continues as he starts talking about the flu. ‘What is a vaccine? It is an injection into our arm where we get bits of the virus, the proteins, and which teaches our immune system to recognize the virus – so if we become infected, we are not sick.
‘Now imagine that instead of the protein we would give the instructions on how to make the protein, how the body can make its own vaccine. It is an mRNA vaccine. ”
Zaks then returns to his diagram to show how the mRNA enters the cell and travels straight to the “protein-making unit” to create the specific protein. It does not vary with the nucleus – and therefore not with the DNA (here). Zaks adds: ‘The traditional approach has proteins floating in your cells. An MRNA vaccine approach has the cells in your own body that make the vaccine. ‘
This is how Moderna’s mRNA vaccine for COVID-19 works (here, here), as well as the recording created by Pfizer / BioNTech (here, here). Both inject a small piece of genetic code from SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 disease, to instruct human cells to create the virus’ unique ear protein. The goal is for the immune system to recognize and eliminate the ear protein, so that it is trained to target this structure if it ever comes in contact with the right SARS-CoV-2. After this process, the mRNA is broken down and does not stay in the body (here). The Moderna website explains the mRNA technology in more detail here
The complementary context of Zaks’ speech shows that the Moderna boss used terms such as’ operating system ‘and’ software of life ‘metaphorically. Earlier, Reuters also dropped claims related to the use of the former phrase on Moderna’s website (here), as well as other false allegations that COVID-19 vaccines could alter a person’s DNA here, here, here and here .
VERDICT
Untrue. mRNA vaccines do not alter the recipients’ DNA and the Modern CMO, Tal Zaks, did not say they did.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.