IN SHORT: We've seen many false and misleading claims about Covid-19 and the vaccines to prevent it since the start of 2020. The latest rumour about a vaccine ingredient, spreading in
A Twitter user with over 26,200 followers has shared a link with a worrying headline. It's been viewed nearly 300,000 times.
It reads: "FDA confirms Graphene Oxide is in the mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines after being forced to publish Confidential Pfizer Documents by order of the US Federal Court."
The link is to an article published on The Exposé on
The Exposé also tweeted the link. It was also shared on Twitter here, here, here, here and here, and by these Twitter accounts with large numbers of followers.
Another tweet makes an almost identical claim: "The FDA has confirmed that blood clot causing, Graphene Oxide, is in the mRNA Covid vaccines, according to recently published confidential
But did the US
We checked.
Covid-19 mRNA vaccines help your body recognise and fight the virus by instructing your cells to mimic a SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus spike protein.
The other ingredients in mRNA vaccines are fats, to protect the mRNA, salts and a small amount of sugar.
Claim comes from misunderstanding of a
The Exposé article speaks about a document of "a study carried out by
This is a real study, titled Structural and Biophysical Characterization of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Glycoprotein (P2 S) as a Vaccine Antigen, and published by
The
The Exposé article includes a screenshot of a paragraph on page 7 of the study, with the words "overlaid with graphene oxide" highlighted. It claims this is proof that the chemical compound is an ingredient in the vaccine.
But this has been taken out of context.
The graphene oxide mentioned in the study was used during a microscopic process to help examine the structure of the protein in the vaccine.
In an email to
The lab study was done to see whether the spike protein authentically mimicked the actual spike protein of the coronavirus, Laurens told
FDA confirms on Twitter that graphene oxide is not a Covid-19 vaccine ingredient
The FDA responded to one of the tweets making this claim on Twitter and confirmed that graphene oxide is not an ingredient in Covid-19 vaccines.
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The federal agency also confirmed that graphene oxide was used as a material to aid in the imaging of the protein in the mRNA vaccines.
"
"In short, that document doesn't say what you think it does," the FDA tweeted.
As so often before, since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, a small piece of information has been taken out of context to make an outlandish - and untrue - claim.
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