The COVID-19 vaccines alter your DNA.

Question

This claim suggests that the mRNA based Covid 19 vaccines, such as those from Pfizer and Moderna, could alter a persons DNA. It raises concerns for people and their safety.

Answer 1

According to the CDC, mRNA vaccines cannot penetrate the nucleus of a cell that houses the DNA and thus it cannot alter anyone's DNA. This can be found on the COVID-19 vaccine basics facts page released by the CDC, or by looking into mRNA vaccines and how they work. They are different from vaccines that use pieces of a weakened and harmless virus to trigger an immune response and create anti-bodies case of future contact; mRNA vaccines correspond to a specific virus' protein which is picked up by cells and reproduces that protein (WITHOUT changing your DNA or infecting the individual) to which the immune system responds similarly to other more common vaccines. You can read more here on the medlineplus.gov website for more information on mRNA vaccines. 

However, it should be noted that the title of this post and the article attached are misleading, the article is not claiming that mRNA changes your DNA, but that "Claims that mRNA vaccines change human DNA are back" (title) or that rumors that mRNA can change your DNA are being spread again without implying that it is true, in fact, the article explicitly states there is no evidence backing up the rumor. 

Answer 2

Your source for this claim, a website belonging to Washington University in St. Louis, claims that this is a rumor continuing to spread and that claims relating to this idea are unsupported by science. According to WashU, 17% of people surveyed have heard of this rumor, but WashU urges people who are hesitant about vaccination to learn to fact-check health-related rumors. They also cite a CDC pdf about how mRNA vaccines work.

https://hcrl.wustl.edu/claims-that-mrna-vaccines-change-human-dna-are-back/

https://archive.cdc.gov/#/details?url=https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/vaccines/COVID-19-mRNA-infographic_G_508.pdf

Comments

I think it is also important when observing the validity of this claim is to confirm where the survey is being attained and how reliable it is. On the bottom of the article it is stated that the report is "based on 381 responses from a panel of adult residents of Baltimore, MD (n=26); St. Louis, MO (n=157); Omaha, NE (n=90); and Colorado (n=108), surveyed from Saturday, January 27, to Monday, January 29, 2024". However, beyond this it would be important to obtain how these surveys were conducted and if they were in a random, proper fashion.