In regards to your statement about J&J. Yes it is the only 1 of the 3 US vaccines that actually contains DNA and the only one that enters the cell nucleus where our DNA actually is. If any vaccine has the chance to react with our DNA, J&J would be the one.
The article you quote was a result of testing in a lab with human cells in a medium.
Since then it has been debunked.
Only certain types of virus, called retro viruses contain a special enzyme called reverse trascriptase. The aids virus is one such virus, but there are others. A retro virus carries it;s own special enzyme with it and that is what enables it to alter DNA.
It also penetrates the nucleus to do this.
mRNA vaccines cannot affect DNA. They do not carry the special enzyme and the coding to do this.
The only coding they have is to create a covid protein spike to prompt your body's immune system to create antibodies to Covid and your immune memory cells to remember the covid virus.
There is a study that came out after the one you are citing that disproved the hypothesis. Since then the study findings have been withdrawn.
Bottom line - mRNA vaccines do not enter the cell nucleus where our DNA is located. AND they do not contain the reverse transcriptase enzyme that allows RNA to insert itself into our DNA as in AIDS. 2 very good reasons why the mRNA vaccines do not affect our DNA.
Will an mRNA vaccine alter my DNA?
Some of the COVID-19 vaccines use messenger RNA to provoke an immune response. But what exactly is this genetic material, and how does it interact with the DNA in our cells?
www.gavi.org
Messenger RNA (mRNA) is found in all living cells. These strands of genetic code act as chemical intermediaries between the DNA in our chromosomes and the cellular machinery that produces the proteins we need to function: mRNA provides the instructions this machinery needs to assemble these proteins.
However, mRNA isn’t the same as DNA, and it can’t combine with our DNA to change our genetic code. It is also relatively fragile, and will only hang around inside a cell for about 72 hours, before being degraded.
VIRAL MESSAGES
The manufacturing ability of our cells extends beyond human proteins. When we are infected with a virus - including relatively harmless viruses like those that cause the common cold - these invaders inject their genetic material into our cells, resulting in pieces of mRNA encoding viral proteins being sent to our protein-making machinery. Doing so enables the virus to assemble new viral particles out of these proteins, and spread. Although mRNA vaccines are a relatively new technology, they are based on the same ancient premise: delivering mRNA into our cells, which they will use to manufacture a viral protein.
Some viruses like HIV can integrate their genetic material into the DNA of their hosts, but this isn’t true of all viruses, and HIV can only do so with the help of specialised enzymes that it carries with it. MRNA vaccines don’t carry these enzymes, so there is no risk of the genetic material they contain altering our DNA.
Have you read?
- There are four types of COVID-19 vaccines: here’s how they work
- How to measure the success of a COVID-19 vaccine?
- Could Ebola survivors hold the key to understanding long COVID?
The RNA vaccines being developed for COVID-19 all provide instructions for making the same viral protein: the coronavirus ‘spike’ protein used by the virus to gain entry to our cells. Preclinical studies indicated that it was highly immunogenic, meaning that if our immune cells encounter this protein, they will mount a strong response, which should protect recipients against future COVID-19 disease. Once our cells have manufactured the viral protein, it is displayed on their surfaces, where passing immune cells can spot it and respond.
To produce an mRNA vaccine, scientists create a synthetic version of mRNA encoding the spike protein. This is packaged inside fatty parcels, to make it easier for the mRNA to cross the outer membranes of cells, which are also made of fatty material.
Once inside the cell, the mRNA comes into contact with protein making-machinery, which is located in the jelly-like cytoplasm filling the cell. It doesn’t enter the nucleus, which is where our chromosomes are stored.
EXISTING METHOD
The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is the first mRNA vaccine to be approved for use in humans, but the technology underpinning it has been in development for the past two decades. And although people are understandably concerned about the rollout of any new medical technology, a very similar principle underpins 'viral vector vaccines’, such as the rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine used to protect people against Ebola. It was extensively used during the recent Kivu Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda, with more than 300,000 people receiving the vaccine. The vaccine was also deployed during an earlier outbreak of Ebola.
Here, a weakened version of a cattle virus called vesicular stomatitis virus is modified to carry a gene for an Ebola protein. Once inside the cell, messenger RNA for that Ebola protein is generated and fed into the cell’s protein-making machinery.
So, although mRNA vaccines are a new technology, there is no reason to think that they will have a lasting effect on our biology – besides training our immune systems to prevent COVID-19 disease, that is.
Finally in regards to your article:
Fact Check-Controversial MIT study does not show that mRNA vaccines alter DNA
A controversial study is being misrepresented on social media as evidence that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines modify your DNA.
www.reuters.com
By Reuters Fact Check
5 MIN READ
A controversial study is being misrepresented on social media as evidence that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines modify your DNA.
The claims relate to a non-peer-reviewed paper published as a pre-print in December 2020 (here). The co-authors, which included two biologists from the respected Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) here , here), claimed that the novel coronavirus could modify human DNA.
The study was heavily criticised by some experts, one of whom called the conclusions “strong, dangerous and largely unsupported” (here).
Despite this, a blog post appeared in March (here) that was reposted with the headline: “MIT & Harvard Study Suggests mRNA Vaccine Might Permanently Alter DNA After All” (here).
The blog author speculated on the paper’s implications for COVID-19 vaccines, although he acknowledged that “this study didn’t show that the RNA from the current vaccines is being integrated into our DNA”.
Rather confusingly, the penultimate paragraph reads: “I am not making the claim that an mRNA vaccine will permanently alter your genomic DNA…[but] I believe this current research validates that this is at least plausible, and most likely probable.”
The blog continues to be shared on social media, with one account writing: “Harvard and MIT have just scientifically demonstrated that mRNA messenger vaccine permanently alters DNA” (here , here). This is not what the pre-print paper said.
The completed, peer-reviewed study was published in May (here) and claimed to reveal why some patients tested positive for COVID-19 long after recovery (here).
But it still proved controversial. The findings were challenged in a study published the following month (here), while the Meedan health desk (here) reported conclusions from two experts stating there was no evidence that mRNA from COVID-19 vaccines would integrate with human DNA (here).
The clinical news outlet MedPage Today also reported concerns that the anti-vaccine community would misconstrue the results to apply to COVID-19 vaccines, even though the authors had stressed the work had no implications for the vaccines or human health (here).
The MIT biologist and study co-author Rudolf Jaenisch told Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News: “We welcome scientific discussions, not politically motivated distortions.” (here)
Ultimately, while the study’s methodology and conclusions are controversial, it never claimed that COVID-19 vaccines would alter human DNA. This is a theory that has been peddled online without evidence since the pandemic began (here , here , here).
VERDICT
Missing context. A controversial study co-authored by MIT biologists did not conclude that COVID-19 vaccines would change the recipient’s DNA.
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