mRNA does not stay in a person’s body after vaccination

In the United States, there are 4 accepted or licensed COVID-19 vaccines available: Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Novavax and Johnson & Johnson. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines — the primary two COVID-19 vaccines accepted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) — are each messenger ribonucleic acid, or mRNA, vaccines.

Since the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines had been first licensed in the U.S., a lot of misinformation has spread online about mRNA technology. Some people claim mRNA can stay in the body for an prolonged time period after vaccination. VERIFY viewer Scott requested our crew if these claims are true.

Does mRNA stay in a person’s body for an prolonged time period after vaccination?

No, mRNA doesn’t stay in a person’s body for an prolonged time period after vaccination. 

Messenger RNA, or mRNA, is genetic materials that tells your body tips on how to make proteins. In an e mail, Stuart Ray, M.D., a professor at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, advised VERIFY that “mRNA is a normal molecule in each of our cells, from the moment of conception to the day we die. Every protein that our body makes is encoded by mRNA, and each of us has different mRNA sequences.”

“Every organism that lives in or on our bodies, from viruses to bacteria and fungi, as well as parasites, all contain mRNA. It’s a fundamental part of life,” Ray stated. 

The mRNA used in the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines does not stay in a person’s body for an prolonged time period after vaccination. Instead, mRNA vaccines train a person’s body how to answer a risk like COVID-19, then the mRNA is damaged down inside a few hours to a few days after vaccination and discarded from the body, in keeping with Ray, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Nebraska Medicine.

“We know from many decades of work that mRNA is short-lived, among the least persistent of the macromolecules in our body,” Ray stated. “In no instance have we found mRNA that lasts for a long time in living tissue. There’s no reason to think that the mRNA of our COVID-19 vaccines lasts much longer than mRNA generally (a matter of hours to days at most).”

Many vaccines previous to mRNA know-how put a weakened or inactivated germ into our our bodies to set off an immune response, however that’s not the case for mRNA vaccines, in keeping with the CDC and MedlinePlus.

On its website, University of Missouri Health Care explains that mRNA delivers a message to your immune system. This message tells your cells to create a innocent piece of a particular spike protein that mimics the proteins discovered on the floor of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19.

Once your body acknowledges that the spike protein does not belong, it begins creating antibodies to take away it. In doing so, your body’s immune system turns into ready to struggle the virus in case you encounter it, in keeping with University of Missouri Health Care. 

“After the mRNA does its job, it breaks down and is flushed out of your system within hours,” University of Missouri Health Care stated.