There have been postings on social media claiming that only governments call the Pfizer-BioNTech and Modern COVID-19 vaccines’ vaccines’ and that the companies themselves call them ‘biological agents’ and an’ operating system designed to kill people to program ‘. This claim is untrue: both Pfizer and Moderna refer to their COVID-19 vaccines as ‘vaccines’. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reviewed safety data from clinical trials and granted emergency use authorizations for both vaccines.
“Only governments call it a vaccine. They think if they call it a vaccine long enough, people will think it is. Pfizer calls it a ‘biological agent’. They emphasize that (sic) is not a vaccine, it is in the ‘Research Stage’. They do not know what the consequences will be until the trials are completed. They hope to pass it on as a vaccine in 2022. This is all on their website. REG 174 and ‘The package’. Personally, I think it means nothing to any population. Modern has stated that they are not a vaccine, but an ‘operating system designed to program people’. They are very open about it, ”read the reports (here, here, here).
On the Pfizer website and in the fact sheets for Pfizer vaccine, the COVID-19 vaccine is referred to as a vaccine, as seen here, here and here. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla can be heard calling it a “vaccine” in this CNBC interview here and this Sky News interview here.
Reuters could not find a case where the COVID-19 vaccine was called a “biological agent” on Pfizer’s website, as reported by social media.
Moderna also refers to its COVID-19 vaccine as a ‘vaccine’ on its website here and here. Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel can also be seen firing the company’s COVID-19 vaccine in interviews with CNBC here and Yahoo Finance here.
The reports claim that Moderna the vaccine is an ‘operating system designed to program humans’. Reuters recently denied false allegations that the COVID-19 vaccine is an operating system designed to program people (here).
On its website, Moderna compares the mRNA science in its vaccine to an ‘operating system’ (here). however, the phrase is used in a metaphorical sense, not literally. It says: ‘Recognizing the wide potential of mRNA science, we have created a plan for mRNA technology that functions much like an operating system on a computer. It is designed so that it is interchangeable for different applications. In our case, the ‘app’ or ‘app’ is our mRNA – the unique mRNA sequence that encodes a protein. ‘
The social media reports also claim that the Pfizer vaccine is still in an ‘investigation phase’ and that its consequences are still unknown.
In the United States, the Pfizer and Modern COVID-19 vaccines have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for emergencies, but have not been fully approved by the FDA. At the time of publication in February 2021, there was no fully FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine (here, here, here).
In the UK, the Pfizer vaccine has been approved under Regulation 174, which social media mentions (here). Regulation 174 states that drugs may be temporarily approved by the licensing authority in response to the confirmed spread of pathogenic drugs that may cause harm to humans, as set forth herein.
However, the vaccines are not being tested and the consequences are unknown, as the posts claim.
The FDA reviewed the safety and efficacy data of 37,586 participants aged 16 years and older in the Pfizer vaccine trials and found that the known and potential benefits of the vaccine outweigh the known and potential risks (here, here). The FDA also analyzed safety data from 30,351 participants 18 years and older in the Moderna vaccine trials and identified no specific safety issues that would prevent them from reaching the EUA (here, here).
The reports claim that Pfizer says they hope the vaccine will be transmitted as a vaccine in 2022. In December, Pfizer said it plans to submit a full U.S. approval of the vaccine by April 2021 (here). Pfizer said it will continue to collect the efficacy and safety data from participants in the Phase 3 clinical trial until 2022 (here).
Pfizer spokeswoman Dervila Keane told Reuters that the Pfizer vaccine had been temporarily approved in more than 50 countries and showed a 95% vaccine efficiency rate. Moderna did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Reuters recently dismissed many other false claims related to COVID-19 vaccines (here, here).
VERDICT
Untrue. Pfizer and Moderna call their COVID-19 vaccines ‘vaccines’. After analyzing safety data from clinical trials, the FDA approved both of these vaccines for emergency use.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.