Thread by @BorgerPieter

Snopes' "fact checkers" are wrong about mRNA vaccins:

snopes.com/fact-check/mrn…

Snopes, who claims to do fact checking, writes:

"No, mRNA COVID vaccines do not alter your DNA".

Snopes did not even begin to check the science facts.

The science facts are that RNA vaccins can potentially change your DNA. To understand how, we have to go a bit into genomics. Our genome contains about 50-60 thousand genes (~20 thousand protein-coding genes, the rest RNA genes). Together they make up about 25% of the genome.

In addition to that, our genome contains about 50% socalled transposable and transposed elements (TEs), including ERVs and LINEs. The latter function, among other things, as (epi)genetic switches to control when genetic programs are switched on and off.

Interestingly, ERVs and LINEs both posses genes for the enzymes "reverse transcriptase (RT)" and "integrase" (INT). The RT enzyme converts RNA into cDNA, whereas the INT enzyme can put cDNA back into the genome. They prefer doing this with viral-like RNA molecules.

Further, RNA vaccins use viruses as their genetic backbones. RNA vaccins contain viral RNAs. With thousands of copies of RT and INT genes in our genomes there is ample opportunity to put any viral RNA back into our DNA. So, RNA vaccins are potentially "genotoxic".

"Genotoxic" means that the "RNA-->cDNA-->genome integration" mechanism can lead to disturbed genetic control. In the long run, that may lead to genetic abberations and disease. It should be noted that RNA vaccins were not tested to exclude above described genotoxicy.

Taken together, SNOPES IS WRONG. It has not even been tested!

And I, a genome researcher, am not going to take a shot (or two) of the novel RNA Vaccins.

Isn't it tale telling that "Swissmedic" the drugs approval organ in Switzerland did not approve these vaccins?

@snopes

#unbiasedscience

Literature:

researchgate.net/publication/32…
-
biorxiv.org/content/10.110…
-
researchgate.net/publication/34…

Self-amplifying RNA vaccins may further increase the odds of DNA integration, because it is chemically stabilized and highly expressed in the cells.