Associated Press: COVID-19 vaccines do not cause magnetism in bodies
UC expert says if vaccines were magnetic it would have been reported early in the research process
The Associated Press reports that in recent weeks, videos have circulated on social media falsely claiming that metal objects shown hanging on people’s bodies were the result of magnetism created by COVID-19 vaccines or microchips. A new video claims that magnetism was added to the vaccine in order to make the messenger RNA move throughout the body. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there is no truth to these claims and that the COVID-19 vaccines are free from ingredients that could produce an electromagnetic field.
Carl Fichtenbaum, MD, of the UC College of Medicine Division of Infectious Diseases/Photo/Joe Fuqua II/UC Creative + Brand
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized use of the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines and the ingredients are publicly available in agency documents and on the CDC website. None of the shots include any metals.
One of the experts the Associated Press turned to in this story was Carl Fichtenbaum, MD, of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the UC College of Medicine.
If there was any possibility that the vaccines were magnetic, it would have been reported early on, said Fichtenbaum who was the medical director of the local trial of the Moderna vaccine.
Some social media users shared videos of magnets sticking to their bodies only to later confirm it was a joke. If some videos do show metal objects stuck to a person, there could be an explanation as simple as humidity in the room or moisture.
There are other clues that the videos showing supposed magnetism are not authentic, according to Fichtenbaum. “What’s interesting to me is I haven’t seen anybody put a compass on their arm because a compass under a magnetic field gets disrupted,” said Fichtenbaum.
Lead image/Colleen Kelley/UC Creative + Brand
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