False claim Moderna admitted mRNA vaccines cause 'turbo-cancer' | Fact check
The claim: Moderna admitted mRNA vaccines cause cancer
A Dec. 2 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows a screenshot of a news story.
"Moderna Admits mRNA Jabs Cause Turbo-Cancer; Investigators Find Billions of DNA Fragments in Vials," reads the headline.
The post was liked more than 1,700 times in two weeks. The claim was also shared on X, formerly Twitter.
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There are no credible reports that Moderna "admitted" mRNA vaccines cause cancer, as the post claims. There is also no evidence that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines cause cancer.
Cancer claim 'turbo nonsense,' medical expert says
There are no credible reports that Moderna has released any statements that say mRNA vaccines cause any type of cancer. Medical experts also balked at the assertion.
"I don't believe Moderna has made any such admission," Peter Hotez, dean for the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine and developer of coronavirus vaccines, said in an email.
Further, the website cited in the Instagram post does not provide evidence that Moderna admitted mRNA vaccines cause cancer.
Instead, it claims testimony by Dr. Robert Malone – who researched mRNA technology but has been skeptical of its use in COVID-19 vaccines – revealed that a Moderna patent proves its COVID-19 vaccine contains DNA fragments and other contaminants linked to cancer. At a Nov. 13 event held by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Malone referenced a section of a Moderna patent application explaining how DNA vaccines – not RNA ones – come with potential problems, including insertional mutagenesis.
Insertional mutagenesis, according to researchers, happens when a foreign DNA sequence integrates with a host organism's genome. The Moderna patent application said the phenomenon could lead to the activation of oncogenes, mutated genes that have the potential to cause cancer, or the inhibition of tumor suppression genes.
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Malone said researchers in the U.S. and Canada recently found DNA fragments in COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, an apparent reference to an October preprint published in Open Science Framework.
But the Food and Drug Administration said the concept of DNA in vaccines causing harm is nonsense.
In a Dec. 14 letter addressing concerns over DNA contamination from the Florida surgeon general, the FDA noted that minute amounts of DNA can remain in mRNA vaccines as remnants of the manufacturing process. But there's no record of those causing any health problems, much less cancer.
"With over a billion doses of the mRNA vaccines administered, no safety concerns related to residual DNA have been identified," wrote Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. "Studies have been conducted in animals using the modified mRNA and lipid nanoparticle together that constitute the vaccine, including the minute quantities of residual DNA fragments left over after DNAse treatment during manufacturing, and demonstrate no evidence for genotoxicity from the vaccine."
Hotez, the vaccine expert, also dismissed such concerns.
"The plausibility of DNA contaminants – if there are actually any, which I'm not sure is the case – causing cancer in vaccine recipients seems to be implausible or preposterous, or at best highly unlikely," he said.
There is no evidence COVID-19 vaccines cause cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute. The organization also said COVID-19 vaccines do not alter people's DNA.
"There is mRNA in the vaccine, not DNA," said Dean Blumberg, chief of the pediatric diseases division at the University of California, Davis. "'Turbo cancer' is 'turbo nonsense.'"
The Instagram user who shared the screenshot did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Moderna also did not respond to requests for comment.
FactCheck.org also debunked the claim.
Our fact-check sources:
Peter Hotez, Dec. 8, Email exchange with USA TODAY
Dean Blumberg, Dec. 6-7, Email exchange with USA TODAY
Peter Marks, Dec. 14, letter to Joseph Ladapo concerning mRNA COVID-19 vaccine safety
National Cancer Institute, accessed Dec. 15, COVID-19 Vaccines and People with Cancer
Newsweek, Dec. 11-12, Florida Official Raises Alarms About DNA in COVID-19 Vaccines
Open Science Framework, Oct. 19, DNA fragments detected in monovalent and bivalent Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna modRNA COVID-19 vaccines from Ontario, Canada: Exploratory dose response relationship with serious adverse events
Moderna, Aug. 8, 2019, Patent application
U.S. Food and Drug Administration, accessed Dec. 15, Moderna Spikevax COVID-19 mRNA vaccine package insert
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: False claim Moderna admitted mRNA vaccines cause cancer | Fact check