Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine will not change your DNA

A widely shared Facebook video suggests that modern medicine cannot cure anything without surgery, and falsely claims that the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine “is designed to change your DNA”.

This is a common myth about mRNA vaccines like Moderna’s, as we have written before.

Conventional vaccines usually contain inactivated disease-causing organisms (pathogens) or proteins made by the pathogen (antigens), which mimic the infectious agent and cause an immune response in the body which means it can fight the real infection later.

RNA vaccines instead use messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules, which code for a protein specific to the pathogen’s surface. The body uses this mRNA to build its own copies of these proteins which the immune system responds to by producing antibodies providing protection if the person catches the real disease later.

This introduction of mRNA into human cells does not change the DNA of the human cells. If these cells replicate, the mRNA would not be incorporated into the new cells’ genetic information.

Earlier in the video, the speaker says: “I’ve been a healer for a long time, and you just tell me what modern medicine can cure without surgically removing something. What can it cure? Do we really think that this is going to take us any further forward?”

There is an enormous evidence base for the effectiveness of modern medicine, including treatments which do not involve surgery. Moderna’s Covid vaccine has also been proven safe and effective in clinical trials.

Evidence informing medical practice in the NHS can be found online.