CLAIM
The mRNA vaccine is an “operating system that takes over the machinery of your cells”; “… By the time you get your fourth shot, your body will be making all four proteins that make up the COVID-19 virus.”
DETAILS
Virtually inaccurate: First, the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are vaccines that protect vaccinated individuals against the disease and are not operating systems. Current mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are administered in two doses, not four, and both doses contain the same mRNA encoding the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.
KEY WAY
The COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are substances that stimulate the immune systems of vaccines to recognize and respond to infections with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are not computer operating systems. mRNA vaccines are unable to stimulate the production of the virus that causes COVID-19, as it only contains information to produce the peak protein, which occurs on the surface of SARS-CoV-2.
FULL CLAIM: The mRNA vaccine is an operating system that takes over the machinery from your cells, […] so that your body starts producing the same viral proteins that made you sick. ”; ‘The vaccine they are now giving causes the body to produce the S protein, the peak protein. That is why people test HIV positively. ‘ ; “You will literally become a viral manufacturing plant” after vaccination; ‘Why the CDC has [sic] an emergency program for the upcoming zombie readiness? […] Where are you going to get all these zombies from? This is called the mRNA vaccine. ”
REVIEW
On March 30, 2021, rapper Damon Jones, who will be handling @youngkhanthadon on Instagram, posted a video on Instagram, which was shared on a Facebook page called Vintage King on March 31, 2021 and has more than 63,000 views to date received. In the video, Abdul Alim Muhammad, a member of the Nation of Islam, designated as an extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, claims that the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are not real vaccines, but operating systems that transform the human body into a virus factory during the course of four doses. He also claims that the mRNA vaccines turn people into zombies.
However, for the reasons set out below, Alim’s allegations about the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are inaccurate and misinterpret pages on the Moderna and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) websites.
Claim 1 (Inaccurate):
The mRNA vaccine is ‘not even a vaccine’, it is ‘an operating system that takes over the machinery of your cells’
On a page outlining their mRNA technology platform, the pharmaceutical company Moderna compared it to an operating system on a computer because it can work with different “programs”, where each program represents a unique mRNA sequence that for a encodes desired protein. Moderna and Pfizer are the two companies that manufacture mRNA COVID-19 vaccines that have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency use.
All vaccines train the immune systems of vaccines to identify and respond to future pathogens. Traditionally, vaccines have done this by presenting a dead or attenuated version of a bacterium or a virus into a person’s immune system. For example, the yellow fever vaccine uses an attenuated version of the yellow fever virus, while the whooping cough vaccine uses an inactivated (dead) form of the bacteria that causes whooping cough. In addition, some vaccines, such as protein subunit vaccines, work by presenting only a portion of the pathogen to a person, usually a portion of the outside of the pathogen that elicits an immune response.
Just like vaccines for protein subunits, mRNA vaccines work by presenting one part of the pathogen to humans, so if they come in contact with the actual pathogen, their immune system can react quickly. However, MRNA vaccines have some unique properties that include a new vaccine approach. In these vaccines, the mRNA serves as a recipe to produce a specific protein from the pathogen. When the vaccine enters human cells, the cells produce copies of the protein, which stimulates the immune response against the protein of the pathogen.
In the case of COVID-19, the mRNA vaccines contain the code for the ear protein found on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. When individuals receive mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, their immune systems detect this protein, identify it as an interoperator, and learn how to respond quickly to the actual pathogen in the future.
Therefore, the claim that mRNA vaccines are “not even real vaccines” is inaccurate.
In addition, the claim that it is an ‘operating system’ is also incorrect, as it is a misinterpretation of the Moderna page that uses computer operating systems as an analogy to explain how their mRNA vaccine platform works.
Claim 2 (Inaccurate):
‘The vaccine they are now giving causes the body to produce the S protein, the peak protein. That is why people test HIV positively. ‘ ; “By the time you get a fourth shot, your body is making all four proteins that make up the COVID-19 virus.”
The Moderna and Pfizer mRNA COVID-19 vaccines encode the vein protein present on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Both vaccines require two doses to be effective against the disease. In an article for The conversation, medical scientist William Petri of the University of Virginia, explained that “the first dose stimulates the immune system and interests the body in the germ. This enables the immune system to prepare its defenses. “The second dose arrives three to four weeks later and is a stimulant that” provides the immune system with the opportunity to increase the quality and quantity of the antibodies used to fight the virus, “Petri wrote.
The two doses of the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines encode the same vein protein. Vein proteins are a common feature of coronaviruses that help them attach to and enter cells. Ear proteins are a typical feature of coronaviruses, and this is what gives this group of viruses their name: when viewed under an electron microscope, they look like a crown or corona.
Alim said that individuals who produced the protein also tested positive for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). It is unclear on what evidence this claim is based, but it may have originated in an Australian candidate for the COVID-19 vaccination that caused participants in clinical trials to give false positive results in HIV tests. That vaccine used molecular clamping technology, where the clamp ‘holds’ the protein of interest, in this case the peak protein, in a conformation that produces the greatest immune response.
For the Australian vaccine candidate, part of the emphasis was generated by generating segments from an HIV protein called gp41, and some of the participants in the trial generated a partial antibody response to gp41. As a result, these participants tested positive for HIV screening tests, even though they did not have an HIV infection. However, the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines approved for use by the FDA do not use the molecular clamping technology or carry segments of HIV proteins. Therefore, the claim that they would have recipients tested positive for HIV is inaccurate.
Additional inaccurate claims were made in the video about the Moderna and Pfizer mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, including that there are four doses, each encoding a different SARS-CoV-2 protein: S, M, N and P. The video is also available claiming that after the fourth shot a body will make all four proteins that make up the COVID-19 virus. ‘
The SARS-CoV-2 virus encodes 29 proteins: four structural proteins (S, M, N and E) and 25 non-structural and complementary proteins that the virus uses to replicate and hide the human immune system. As such, the claim has three factual inaccuracies. First, there is no “P” protein. Second, the available mRNA vaccines are not administered in four doses, but in two. And, thirdly, four proteins do not consist of the COVID-19 virus, which contains 29 proteins, and therefore the mRNA vaccines will not cause recipients to start making SARS-CoV-2.
Claim 3 (misleading):
‘Why the CDC has [sic] an emergency program for the upcoming zombie readiness? […] Where are you going to get all these zombies from? This is called the mRNA vaccine. ”
There is a page about zombie preparedness on the website of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The page explains that the guide to zombie preparations started as a ‘tongue-in-cheek campaign to engage new audiences with preparedness messages’. By explaining how people can prepare for a fictional zombie apocalypse, the CDC has given readers advice on how to prepare for emergencies, such as hurricanes, earthquakes and floods. One of the CDC’s recommendations was to prepare an emergency package with some necessities, including one liter of water per person per day and non-perishable food.
The CDC maintains the “zombie preparation” page due to the success of the campaign. To suggest that the CDC keeps the zombie preparation page because it expects a future zombie apocalypse is a misinterpretation of the CDC’s website. In addition, the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines will not turn humans into zombies.
Closure
While the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are a new approach to making vaccines, they function like all other vaccines that train people’s immune systems to recognize and respond to future pathogens. Furthermore, the mRNA vaccines contain a ‘recipe’ for the production of only one protein, the SARS-CoV-2 ear protein, and both doses of the vaccine contain the same recipe. The allegations Alim makes in the video about the mRNA vaccines are virtually inaccurate and viewers have been misinformed about how these vaccines work.