Viewed tens of thousands of times, a video claims Bill Gates got caught “admitting vaccine will change our DNA forever”. The video features authentic footage of Gates but misrepresents his remarks: he was explaining how vaccines developed with messenger RNA (mRNA) technology work. The claim that an mRNA vaccine will modify a person’s DNA is also false.
The video is visible on YouTube here , Bitchute here , here and Parler here .
The video features a segment of footage visible on Gates’ own YouTube channel here and blog here , posted on April 30, 2020. In the 2:29-minute video, Gates explains how vaccines work and different methods for producing them.
A spokesperson for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation confirmed to Reuters via email that the original video shows Bill Gates discussing COVID-19 vaccines. They confirmed: “mRNA vaccines do not change a person’s DNA. Bill Gates did not make such a claim.”
The clip in question youtu.be/u1AQ5EXcJYc?t=97 shows Gates explaining how vaccines developed with mRNA technology work. Full footage provides additional context to his remarks. He said:
“What’s typically done is you take either a piece of the virus or just the spike, that thing on the surface, and you put it on something else. So there’s no risk at all of causing the disease. One final way that’s new and is promising is called the RNA vaccine. With RNA and DNA, instead of putting that shape in, you put instructions in the code to make that shape. ” The video in this claim then repeats the sentence “you put the instructions in the code to make that shape. “
Gates is saying that RNA vaccines “put instructions in the code to make that shape”, referring to the “genetic code needed” to produce a pathogen’s antigen, as explained in his blog on the subject here , which is used by the immune system to fight the disease ( here ).
RNA VACCINES
As explained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) here , the mRNA in the COVID-19 vaccine “is not able to alter or modify a person’s genetic makeup (DNA)” and it “does not affect or interact with our DNA in any way”.
Reuters previously debunked similar claims on social media, visible here and here .
Mark Lynas, a visiting fellow at Cornell University’s Alliance for Science group ( here ), debunked the idea that such a vaccine could genetically modify an organism. Lynas told Reuters that no vaccine can genetically modify human DNA.
“That’s just a myth,” he said. “Genetic modification would involve the deliberate insertion of foreign DNA into the nucleus of a human cell, and vaccines simply don’t do that.”
Dr. Paul McCray, Professor of Pediatrics, Microbiology, and Internal Medicine at the University of Iowa ( here ), previously explained to Reuters via email how a COVID-19 vaccine using a DNA or RNA vector would work:
As is the case with a vaccine that uses an inactivated (dead) virus, “the only modification to the host is to stimulate them to make antibodies and T cells that will prevent infection with the virus or kill any infected cells to prevent or reduce disease severity. This is what happens if you get a virus infection naturally, but the vaccine takes the risk of serious disease out of the equation.”
OTHER VIDEO
Some iterations of this claim include segments from another video visible youtu.be/M-3ggR1ueqQ?t=90 , which features additional claims about quantum dot dye technology, a specialized dye delivered by a microneedle patch that could enable the storage of a patient’s vaccination history under his or her skin ( here , here ).
As reported here , the technology “consists of copper-based quantum dots embedded in biocompatible, micron-scale capsules”. By administering the dots with microneedles, it delivers a “near-infrared dye” pattern that is invisible to the naked eye that can be read and interpreted by a customized smartphone”.
This technology, however, does not exist to track people for the New World Order agenda as these videos claim ( here ).
The quantum dot dye technology project indeed received funding by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as reported here , but this video misleadingly presents this technology and inaccurately describes it.
The video falsely claims that the dye is a “chip” and a “tracking system that will alter your DNA”.
Reuters previously debunked the claim that this technology is a microchip, here .
At the time, Kevin McHugh, one of the lead authors of the “quantum dot dye” research paper, told Reuters via email that the technology “is not a microchip or human-implantable capsule”.
Recently contacted by Reuters, McHugh confirmed that the quantum dot dye is “not a tracking system and does not encode any personal information”. He also confirmed “it will not alter your DNA.”
The video also alleges that the dye uses the Luciferase enzyme — explained by Science Direct here as a natural “light-producing enzyme” that is found in fireflies and other microorganisms — which would provoke a person’s hand to “glow with luminescence” ( youtu.be/ksEVaO806Oo?t=70 ).
McHugh told Reuters that this technology “does not use luciferase, or any enzyme for that matter, or even bioluminescence”. McHugh also dismissed the idea that the dye would be administered in the hand, as the video claims, “That is not a site anyone I know has ever considered,” he added.
McHugh confirmed that to his knowledge “there are no plans” to use the quantum dot eye technology during the new coronavirus pandemic and its vaccine roll-out.
At least two candidates of the COVID-19 vaccine were made with mRNA ( here ), including the immunizations by front-runners Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech.
VERDICT
False. An mRNA vaccine will not genetically modify humans. Video shows Gates explaining how mRNA vaccines work. It also features false claims about the quantum dot dye technology. There are no plans to use this technology during the coronavirus pandemic.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work to fact-check social media posts www.reuters.com/fact-check/about .