Busted again. Sorry you don't recognize junk scien
Post# of 123729
No, COVID-19 vaccines aren’t gene therapy
CLAIM: The COVID-19 vaccines “are a gene therapy, NOT a vaccine.”
https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-covid-v...6280914802
AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The COVID-19 vaccines do not change a person’s genes, as gene therapy does, experts say. The shots from Pfizer and Moderna use messenger RNA, or mRNA, to instruct the body to create a protein from the coronavirus. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine, meanwhile, uses a modified adenovirus to trigger an immune response.
THE FACTS: False claims that the vaccines alter humans’ DNA have circulated since before their debut in late 2020.
In recent days, social media posts have shared a claim that the vaccines are “gene therapy” — which involves modifying a person’s genes to treat or cure a disease, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The posts point to a clip of Dr. Robert Malone — a vocal critic of the COVID-19 vaccines who did early research on mRNA technology — speaking about the shots during a roundtable event hosted by Republican Sen. Ron Johnson in early December. In the clip, Malone is asked whether the vaccines are actually a form of gene therapy.
“As I’ve said repeatedly, it came out of a gene therapy research program,” Malone responds. “These and the adenoviral vectors are absolutely gene therapy technology applied for the purpose of eliciting an immune response.”
A tweet sharing the clip, which was also posted on Instagram, claimed: “The shots are a gene therapy, NOT a vaccine.”
Experts say that’s false.
“It’s just a very different process,” said Dr. Louis Picker, a professor and associate director of the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute at Oregon Health & Science University. “The point of gene therapy is to go in and change the actual coding in the DNA of a person’s cells.”
For example, federal officials in November approved the first gene therapy for the blood-clotting disorder hemophilia.
Picker said gene therapy is “a multi-step process that’s very deliberate, it’s very different than just injecting RNA in a carrier that is designed to be picked up, expressed and elicit an immune response,” as the vaccines do.
The COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna use mRNA to instruct cells to make a protein from the coronavirus and trigger an immune response. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine uses a modified adenovirus, a cold virus, to elicit an immune response.
But none of the vaccines can alter humans’ DNA, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains.
Michael Barry, a Mayo Clinic researcher who studies gene therapy and vaccines, said in an email that tools used for those vaccines have a relationship to gene therapy technology — but that does not mean the vaccines are actually gene therapy.
“The vectors for mRNA vaccines (lipid nanoparticles) are descendants of non-viral vectors called liposomes that were originally developed for gene therapy,” Barry said, referring to the nanoparticles that are used to transport the mRNA to cells.
He said adenovirus vectors — used by the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine — were also previously researched for gene therapy.
Still, there are major differences between the COVID-19 vaccines and gene therapy.
“Gene therapy intends to provide long-lasting protein expression to fix a broken gene and its broken protein,” Barry added. “Vaccines intend a short burst of protein expression to stimulate the immune system.”
Malone did not return a request for comment.